McMahon Fall 2014 English 1A Syllabus
Office H121P; Work Phone: 5673; email:jmcmahon@elcamino.edu
Office Hours M and W: 2:00-3:00; T and TH: 12:30-1, 3:30-4:15
Course Catalog Description:
This course is designed to strengthen the students’ ability to read with understanding and discernment, to discuss assigned readings intelligently, and to write clearly. Emphasis will be on writing essays in which each paragraph relates to a controlling idea, has an introduction and a conclusion, and contains primary and secondary support. College-level reading material will be assigned to provide the stimulus for class discussion and writing assignments, including a required research paper.
Course Objectives:
1. Recognize and revise sentence-level grammar and usage errors.
2. Read and apply critical-thinking skills to numerous published articles and to college-level, book-length works for the purpose of writing and discussion.
3. Apply appropriate strategies in the writing process including prewriting, composing, revising, and editing techniques.
4. Compose multi-paragraph, thesis-driven essays with logical and appropriate supporting ideas, and with unity and coherence.
5. Demonstrate ability to locate and utilize a variety of academic databases, peer-reviewed journals, and scholarly websites.
6. Utilize MLA guidelines to format essays, cite sources in the texts of essays, and compile Works Cited lists.
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this course, students will:
1. Complete a research-based essay that has been written out of class and undergone revision. It should demonstrate the student’s ability to thoughtfully support a single thesis using analysis and synthesis.
2. Integrate multiple sources, including a book-length work and a variety of academic databases, peer-reviewed journals, and scholarly websites. Citations must be in MLA format and include a Works Cited page.
3. Demonstrate logical paragraph composition and sentence structure. The essay should have correct grammar, spelling, and word use.
Students with Disabilities:
It is the policy of the El Camino Community College District to encourage full inclusion of people with disabilities in all programs and services. Students with disabilities who believe they may need accommodations in this class should contact the campus Special Resource Center (310) 660-3295, as soon as possible. This will ensure that students are able to fully participate.
Academic Honesty and Plagiarism:
El Camino College places a high value on the integrity of its student scholars. When an instructor determines that there is evidence of dishonesty in any academic work (including, but not limited to cheating, plagiarism, or theft of exam materials), disciplinary action appropriate to the misconduct as defined in BP 5500 may be taken. A failing grade on an assignment in which academic dishonesty has occurred and suspension from class are among the disciplinary actions for academic dishonesty (AP 5520). Students with any questions about the Academic Honesty or discipline policies are encouraged to speak with their instructor in advance.
Attendance Policy: Students are expected to attend their classes regularly. Students who miss the first class meeting or who are not in regular attendance during the add period for the class may be dropped by the instructor. Students whose absences from a class exceed 10% of the scheduled class meeting times may be dropped by the instructor. However, students are responsible for dropping a class within the deadlines published in the class schedule. Students who stop attending but do not drop may receive a failing grade.
Important Dates:
Last day to add a class 9/5/2014; Last day to drop with no notation 9/5/2014; Last day to drop with a “W” 11/14/2014
Student Resources:
· Reading Success Center (East Library Basement E-36)
Software and tutors are available for vocabulary development & reading comprehension.
· Library Media Technology Center - LMTC (East Library Basement)
Computers are available for free use. Bring your student ID # & flash drive. There’s a charge for printing.
· Writing Center (H122)
Computers are available for free use. Free tutoring is available for writing assignments, grammar, and vocabulary. Bring your student ID & flash drive to save work. Printing is NOT available.
· Learning Resource Center - LRC (West Wing of the Library, 2nd floor)
The LRC Tutorial Program offers free drop-in tutoring. For the tutoring schedule, go to www.elcamino.edu/library/lrc/tutoring .The LRC also offers individualized computer adaptive programs to help build your reading comprehension skills.
· Student Health Center (Next to the Pool)
The Health Center offers free medical and psychological services as well as free workshops on topics like “test anxiety.” Low cost medical testing is also available.
· Special Resource Center – SRC (Southwest Wing of Student Services Building)
The SRC provides free disability services, including interpreters, testing accommodations, counseling, and adaptive computer technology.
Grading:
Four in-class 300-word quizzes, including one given on the final day of class: 50, 200
Attendance based on absences (no more than 2) tardies (no more than 2), participation, reading preparedness, staying off smartphones, not doing homework from other classes: 50
Typed draft of final paper for peer edit review: 20 points deducted if not brought to class
First Three 1,200-word essays: 150, 450
Final 1,500 word essay: 400
Extra Credit (see assignment and due date below) 50 points
Grand Point Total: 1,100
990-1,100 is an A
880-989 is a B
770-879 is a C
660-769 is a D
Paper 4 is a “Final” in that it tests your ability to adhere to grading rubric, so you cannot, like the first 3 essays, do a rewrite.
Papers 1 through 3 cannot be rewritten for a higher grade. However, you can earn extra credit, up to 50 points, by writing a 3-page essay with 2 sources in which you explain the pessimism in Tobias Wolff's "Deep Kiss." The extra credit essay must be submitted to turnitin by December 1.
Late papers reduced a full grade. No late papers accepted a week past due date.
You Must Use turnitin to submit essay and bring hard copy on due date
Each essay must be submitted to www.turnitin.com where it will be checked for illegal copying/plagiarism. I cannot give credit for an essay that is not submitted to this site by the deadline.
The process is very simple; if you need help, detailed instructions are available at http://turnitin.com/en_us/training/student-training/student-quickstart-guide
You will need two pieces of information to use the site:
Class ID and Enrollment Password, which I will give you first week of class
Classroom Decorum: No smart phones can be used in class. If you’re on your smart phone and I catch you, you get a warning the first time. Second time, you must leave the class and lose 25 points. Third time, you must leave the class and lose 50 points. The above also applies to talking and doing homework from other classes.
Books You Need to Buy for This Class, Writing Assignments and Grading
Essay 1: Cooked by Jeff Henderson, 150 points
A wise man once said that when we think we're rising in life, we're really falling and when we think we're falling, we're really rising. In a 5-page essay, apply this wisdom, in all of its psychological complexity, to Jeff Henderson's journey and compare to someone from a personal interview. Use blog, book, and personal interview for your sixth page, your Works Cited page.
Essay 2: A Good Fall by Ha Jin, 150 points
In a 5-page essay, contrast learned helplessness and its resulting recurring cycle of futility with the Third Eye and its resulting effective action in at least 2 of the stories. Use personal interviews to give further depth to your contrast of helplessness and the Third Eye. Your sixth page, your Works Cited page, should have my blog, the book, and your personal interview.
Essay 3, Our Story Begins by Tobias Wolff, 150 points
Option One
We read in Judith Shulvit's Slate book review of Our Story Begins the following:
To read a collection of Wolff's work that spans the years is to realize that he is obsessed with the act of lying. Asked in an interview why so many of his characters lie, Wolff replied, "The world is not enough, maybe? … To lie is to say the thing that is not, so there's obviously an unhappiness with what is, a discontent." A recent outbreak of faked memoirs has set off a storm of outraged pontification about why people pass off false histories as their own, so it's satisfying to read about liars who lie for interesting reasons rather than the usual despicable ones. Wolff is, in fact, a genius at locating the truths revealed by lies—the ancient and holy tongues, you might say, the otherwise inexpressible inner realities that lies give voice to.
In a 5-page paper, typed and double-spaced, develop a thesis that analyzes the characters' need to lie in Tobias Wolff's collection Our Story Begins. Address at least 4 stories in your essay. For your Works Cited, use Wolff's collection, my blog, and a book review.
Option 2
In one of his darker moods, our instructor McMahon said this about the human race:
"We are a lost and sorry lot, hopelessly imprisoned by self-deception: false narratives we rely on to define our identities; tantalizing chimeras that assuage the boredom of our banal existence, and willed ignorance that prevents us from seeing the grotesqueries roiling just underneath the facade that we present to the world and to ourselves. As a result, we are crazed and deformed creatures forever lost in a world of solipsism."
In a 5-page essay, analyze McMahon's remarks in the context of no fewer than 4 stories from Tobias Wolff's collection Our Story Begins.
For your Works Cited, use Wolff's collection, my blog, and a book review.
Option 3
One camp of readers argues that Wolff's fiction is redemptive in that its characters are delivered from their delusions through life-changing epiphanies that propel them back into the world of reality and personal accountability. Another camp of readers say the epiphanies come too little too late and only serve to speak to the characters' lives, which can be defined by endless cycles of futility and as such Wolff's stories are not redemptive but nihilistic.
What camp are you in? Develop an argumentative thesis that defends your position in a 5-page essay. For your Works Cited, use Wolff's collection, my blog, and a book review.
Essay Final 4: The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley, 400 points
McMahon said in class that “Malcolm X was an autodidactic genius who showed us that literacy could be used as a vital tool for two essential undertakings: The first was to strip away the façade of a false America, replace the mythic America with a sobering reality, that of a country that relied on white supremacy as the foundation of its economy and identity and that this false religion, white supremacy, continues to metastasize across the country, in different forms, today; the second was to use literacy to reinvent the self, one from ignorance, degradation, learned helplessness, victimization, and moral dissolution into a person of knowledge, dignity, critical thinking, purpose, and effective action.”
But some people disagree with McMahon’s "exalted view" of Malcolm X and argue that Malcolm X was a hustler and a demagogue who reinvented himself through fabrication, contrivance, exaggeration of racism, and myth-making to reinvent his view of America, and himself, and that this view of America is unjustly skewed, pessimistic, and hellish in its rendering.
Which camp do you belong to, McMahon’s or McMahon’s critics? Defend your position in a thesis that generates a 6-page research paper of about 1,500 words. Remember you don’t have to agree with McMahon to write a successful paper. However, you do need to devote a section of your essay to refuting your opponents if your essay is to be A-grade.
Your guidelines are as follows:
This research paper should present a thesis that is specific, manageable, provable, and contestable—in other words, the thesis should offer a clear position, stand, or opinion that will be proven with research.
You should analyze and prove your thesis using examples and quotes from a variety of sources.
You need to research and cite from at least five sources. You must use at least 3 different types of sources.
At least one source must be from an ECC library database.
At least one source must be a book, anthology or textbook.
At least one source must be from a credible website, appropriate for academic use.
The paper should not over-rely on one main source for most of the information. Rather, it should use multiple sources and synthesize the information found in them.
This paper will be approximately 5-7 pages in length, not including the Works Cited page, which is also required. This means at least 5 full pages of text. The Works Cited page does NOT count towards length requirement.
You must use MLA format for the document, in-text citations, and Works Cited page.
You must integrate quotations and paraphrases using signal phrases and analysis or commentary.
You must sustain your argument, use transitions effectively, and use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
Your paper must be logically organized and focused.
Reading and Writing Schedule for Fall Semester 2014
August 25 Introduction, policies, grading, common writing errors
August 27 Cooked 1-50; clauses and phrases
September 1 Holiday
September 3 Cooked 51-150; sentence fragments
September 8 Cooked 151-end; signal phrases, comma splices
September 10 Cooked; topic sentence; paragraph unity and cohesiveness
September 15 Reading Exam 1 for Cooked in class: bring blue book or college-ruled paper
September 17 Ha Jin "The Beauty"; essential and nonessential clauses; Essay 1 due for Cooked
September 22 Ha Jin: “Temporary Love”; pronoun errors
September 24 Ha Jin: “Choice”; paragraph transitions
September 29 Ha Jin: “A Composer and His Parakeets”; analytical vs. argumentative thesis; basic comma rules
October 1 Ha Jin: “The House Behind a Weeping Cherry” and “A Good Fall”; parallelism
October 6 Ha Jin “In the Crossfire”; faulty subordination
October 8 Ha Jin “The Bane of the Internet”; envy, consumer addiction, Hunger for More; subject-verb agreement
October 13 Reading Exam 2 for A Good Fall in class
October 15 Wolff "The Rich Brother"; possessive case; Essay 2 due for A Good Fall
October 20 Wolff: “Desert Breakdown,” and “Nightingale”
October 22 Wolff: “Say Yes” and “Mortals”; paraphrasing, summarizing, quoting
October 27 Wolff: “The Chain” and “The Other Miller”
October 29 Wolff: “Firelight” and “A White Bible”
November 3 Wolff: “The Deposition,” and “The Liar.”
November 5 Wolff: “In the Garden of North American Martyrs” See "Our Quiet Tragedies."; revisit signal phrases and integrating quotations in your essay.
November 10 Reading Exam 3 for Our Story Begins in class
November 12 Malcolm X Chapter 1; Toulmin argument; Essay 3 due for Our Story Begins
November 17 Malcolm X Chapters 2-3; Rogerian argument
November 19 Malcolm X Chapters 4-9; counterarguments
November 24 Malcolm X Chapters 10-12; logical fallacies
November 26 Malcolm X Chapters 13-15; Four Pillars of Argument
December 1 Malcolm X Chapters 16-end, Counter-Myth analysis by Marable; argumentative thesis
December 3 Malcolm X Review; Research Paper checklist and methods review, annotated bibliography
December 8 Reading Exam 4 in class on Malcolm X
December 10 Final Research Paper Due in class
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