Breakthrough Writer: English 1A Syllabus for McMahon’s Spring 2017

English 1A Syllabus for McMahon’s Spring 2017

Office H121P; Phone Extension: 5673

Office Hours: Mon and Wed: 2:30-3:45; Tues and Thurs: 12:15-1 and 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:

One. Recognize and revise sentence-level grammar and usage errors.

Two. Read and apply critical-thinking skills to numerous published articles and to college-level, book-length works for the purpose of writing and discussion.

Three. Apply appropriate strategies in the writing process including prewriting, composing, revising, and editing techniques.

Four. Compose multi-paragraph, thesis-driven essays with logical and appropriate supporting ideas, and with unity and coherence.

Five. Demonstrate ability to locate and utilize a variety of academic databases, peer-reviewed journals, and scholarly websites.

Six. 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:

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.
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.
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.

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, 2^nd 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.

Books You Need to Buy for This Class

It's Beginning to Hurt by James Lasdun

Acting Out Culture, 3rd edition, edited by James S. Miller

Rules for Writers, 8^th edition by Diana Hacker

Other Materials You Need: 2 large size blue books for in-class exams

Total Words Written in Semester: 8,000; Total Points: 1,000

One. First four 1,400-word essays are 150 points each.

Two. Final Capstone Essay: 1,400-word essay is 200 points.

Three. The final essay, Number 5, is 200 points and needs a completed typed draft for peer edit due the class before the final draft is due. This completed draft must be completed on Peer Edit day or student loses 20 points on Final Capstone essay.

Four. In-Class Reading Exams are 500 words for 100 points each.

Total Points: 1,000

Essay Options

Essay 1 for 150 points: 1,400 words typed and 3 sources: Hard copy and turnitin upload due no later than start of class on March 1:

Option One

Comparing at least 3 stories from Lasdun’s collection, develop an analytical thesis that shows how Joseph Epstein’s online essay “The Perpetual Adolescent” supports the assertion that Lasdun’s characters self-destruct under the weight of their adolescent fixation.

By perpetual adolescence, we meaning the following:

Chasing Eros instead of maturing.

Chasing the ego's needs instead of maturing.

Adulating or worshipping the culture of youth while shunning the wisdom of maturity

Chasing the compulsivity of youth and never learning the self-control of maturity.

Chasing the hedonism of youth instead of finding connection and meaning.

Pursuing Dionysian impulses instead of Apollonian inclinations. Some say that all literature is about the conflict between Dionysian and Apollonian forces.

Be sure your essay has a minimum of 3 sources.

Option Two

Develop a thesis that answers the following question: How do characters in Lasdun's "love stories" reach the demonic state? (cause and effect thesis)

By "demonic" I mean several things:

They go mad as they become disconnected from others and living inside their head, the condition known as solipsism.

They become irrational so that they are incapable of maturity, which means having the faculties of love and reason.

They have no boundaries with others, so that they are “clingers,” as we discussed last class, people capable of symbiotic relationships, which render both people emotional cripples.

They become blind to their own self-destruction so that they have no self-awareness or metacognition.

They chase a pipe dream or a chimera and obliterate themselves in the process.

They become bitter at their wasted life and realize they've squandered their existence on a cheap dream. They're overcome, as a result, with self-hatred and remorse.

Consider, their madness as the result of the Faustian Bargain, settling, the dream of eternal adolescence, and the chimera for a comparison essay that includes at least 3 stories, "The Half Sister," "An Anxious Man," "The Natural Order," and "Peter Khan's Third Wife." Be sure your essay has a minimum of 3 sources.

Option Three

Analyze two stories in terms of the Faustian Bargain described in the essay "Love People, Not Pleasure," by Arthur C. Brooks. Be sure your essay at least 3 sources. You may use the Black Mirror episode "Nosedive" as a source and as a story comparison.

Essay 2 for 150 points. Options: 1,400 words typed and 3 sources: Hard copy and turnitin upload due no later than the start of class on March 22.

Sherry Turkle’s “The Flight from Conversation” and Curtis Silver’s “The Quagmire of Social Media Friendships” (444) allege certain pathologies result from social media. These pathologies include an empathy deficit, depression, narcissism, shortened attention span, online shaming, lost conversation skills, and even altered brain development. In an argumentative essay, support, refute, or complicate the assertion from Sherry Turkle’s “The Flight from Conversation” (online essay) that social media is harmful for our social, cultural and intellectual development.

Essay 3 for 150 points. Options: 1,400 words typed options and 3 sources is due no later than the start of class on April 19.

One. Refute, support, or complicate Asma’s assertion that green guilt is not only a relative to religious guilt but speaks to our drive to sacrifice self-indulgence for the drive of altruistic self-preservation and social reciprocity. See Elizabeth Anderson’s online essay “If God Is Dead, Is Everything Permitted?”

Two. Develop a thesis that supports, refutes, or complicates the assertion Debra J. Dickerson, who wrote the “The Great White Way,” would find Michael Eric Dyson's essay "Understanding Black Patriotism" a complement to Dickerson's ideas about race, power, and hierarchy.

Three. Support, refute, or complicate Debra J. Dickerson's argument that race in America is more of a social fantasy than a reflection of objective reality.

Four. Show how the Jordan Peele movie Get Out builds on Debra J. Dickerson's argument that race in America is a cruel invention designed to create a hierarchy of power, one that can be seen in all its horror in post-Obama America. For sources, see NYT review , The Guardian review, and the Variety review.

Five. Develop a thesis that analyzes the human inclination for staying within the tribe of sameness as explained in David Brooks’ “People Like Us.”

Six. Support, refute, or complicate Nicholas Kristof’s assertion that slashing food stamps is morally indefensible.

Seven. Addressing at least one essay we've covered in class (“The Wages of Sin” and “Eat Cake, Subtract Self-Esteem), support, refute, or complicate the argument that overeating, anorexia, and other eating disorders are not the result of a disease but are habits of individual circumstance and economics.

Eight. Support, refute, or complicate the argument that feminist-political explanations for anorexia, as evident in Caroline Knapp's essay, are a ruse that hide the disease's real causes.

Essay 4 for 150 points. Options. 1,400 words and is due no later than start of class on May 10

One. Defend, refute, or complicate Conor Friedersdorf’s assertion in “A Social-Media Mistake Is No Reason to be Fired” that too often digital mobs pervert our ability to distinguish a social media mistake from a job-termination-worthy behavior.

Two. Develop an argumentative or cause and effect thesis of your choice that addresses one of the essays we’ve read on online shaming and digital mobs.

Three. Addressing Catherine Buni and Soraya Chemaly’s “The Unsafety Net,” develop an argumentative or cause and effect thesis of your choice about misogynistic trolls and social media.

Four. Comparing “Faces in the Mirror” and “Markets and Morals,” develop an argumentative or cause and effect thesis about how the relationship between the commodification of everything, including celebrity, results in dehumanization.

Five. In the context of “Our Baby, Her Womb,” support, defend, or complicate the argument that surrogate motherhood is a moral abomination.

Six. In the context of “Unspeakable Conversations,” defend, refute, or complicate Peter Singer’s position that there are moral grounds for infanticide or “mercy killings.”

Final Capstone Essay 5 for 200 points. Options. 1,400 words and is due no later than the start of class on June 5 (worth 200 points)

One. Support, refute, or complicate Alfie Kohn’s assertion from “Degrading to De-grading” that grading is an inferior education tool that all conscientious teachers should abandon.

Two. Support, refute, or complicate the inferred lesson from bell hooks’ essay, “Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class” that upward mobility requires a betrayal of one’s economic class and even family.

Three. In the context of one or more essays we’ve read about standardized testing, support, refute, or complicate the assertion that standardized testing is a money-making canard sodden with incompetence, corruption, and moral bankruptcy, and therefore must be abolished.

Four. Support, refute, or complicate the argument that “Against School” and any other essays we’ve covered persuasively evidence that American education is more about protecting private business interests, maintaining class bias, and asserting mass control than it is about promoting real empowerment such as critical thinking, independence, and freedom.

Five. In the context of John Taylor Gatto’s “Against School,” support, refute, or complicate the argument that that American education is more about protecting private business interests, maintaining class bias, and asserting mass control than it is about promoting real empowerment such as critical thinking, independence, and freedom.

Six. Compare the themes in "Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class" by Bell Hooks to H.G. Wells' short story "The Country of the Blind."

Seven. Compare the themes in Bell Hooks' "Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class"

Your guidelines for your Final Research Paper 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.

Late papers reduced a full grade. No late papers accepted a week past due date. If you turn in paper more than a week late, you not earn more than a D plus.

Peer Edit

You must do a peer edit. You must show up to class on peer edit day with a completed typed draft for 20 points.

You Can’t “Ride” the Class

If you’re “riding” the class, that is missing more than 10% of classes and not keeping up with assignments, you can’t fulfill the Student Learning Outcomes, and you will be dropped.

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 see 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.

Tardies: It’s reasonable to be late a couple of times a semester, but some students consistently show up late to class, and this distraction compromises the learning environment significantly. Therefore, starting on the fourth tardy, 50 points must be deducted from total grade and another 25 points must be deducted for every tardy after that.

Reading and Writing Schedule

2-13 Introduction

2-15 Joseph Epstein's online essay "The Perpetual Adolescent," Lasdun's "The Natural Order"

2-20 Holiday

2-22 Lasdun's "The Half Sister" and "Lime Pickle"

2-27 Lasdun's "The Incalculable Life Gesture" and "Peter Khan's Third Wife"

3-1 Essay 1 Due; "Flight from Conversation"

3-6 "Quagmire of Social Media Relationships" 444 and "Exploring Facebook Depression"

3-8 "Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?", "Facebook Isn't Making Us Lonely," "How Facebook Makes Us Unhappy"

3-13 "Empathy Deficit," 464 "I Used to be a Human Being," "Do Facebook and Other Social Media Encourage Narcissism?"

3-15 "Space Between Mourning and Grief," "Stop Googling. Let's Talk"

3-20 "Flight from Conversation" in The Atlantic; "I, Narcissist--Vanity, Social Media, and the Human Condition"