Course Syllabus

 

                           ENC1101.0M03: First Year Composition

                                                   Spring 2017

                                                                         PSY 204

 

Instructor: Luann Henken 
Office: 305D Colbourn Hall  
Office Hours:Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:00 - 10:15; Tuesdays, 1:30 - 4pm; Thursdays, 1:30 - 2:30pm; and by appointment
E-mail: Luann.Henken@ucf.edu

Class meeting time:  Tuesday, noon - 1:15

Course Description

In this three-credit hour mixed-mode course, students will learn and practice the strategies and processes that successful writers employ as they work to accomplish specific purpose.  Towards that end, we’ll examine writing as a discipline and focus on an understanding of how everything we write--from lab reports to love letters--stems from an awareness of the rhetorical situation. 

Course Objectives

• Students will demonstrate an awareness of rhetorical situations and acquire strategies for writing in different contexts.
• Students will improve as readers of complex texts.
• Students will demonstrate an awareness of the relationship between discourse conventions, lexis, genres, and their related communities.
• Students will learn to craft effective, clear, concise prose and to revise and edit their writing with an eye toward creating effective paragraphs and sentences.
• Students will think critically and communicate clearly about their own writing.

Texts

• UCF Writes
• Assigned readings from the Internet, open textbooks, and the Hitt Library database

Materials

Something to write with; something to write on. Oh, and a computer. Internet access. And a printer.

Seriously, though. You will need a binder in which you can place the work of the semester. And because you will be doing a lot of in-class writing that will be submitted to me and then returned to you for placement into said binder. It's difficult to put a piece of paper that has been torn from a spiral notebook back into that notebook.

And you'll need a spiral notebook. Well, any type of bound notebook, really, will work. This will be for our commonplace books. Find something you like the look of with line spacing that you can write on. (If you prefer unlined pages, that's fine, too.)

What to Expect

In this course, you can expect the following:

• one individual conference for each major writing project
• written feedback on each major writing project given in a timely manner
• responses to email messages within 24 hours, Monday through Friday
• three major writing projects
• weekly online assignments
• in-class writing warm ups
• creative writing activities

What is Expected of You

The following will be expected of you as a student in this course:

• to attend every class meeting
• to come prepared to all class meetings
• to meet all due dates, including written work, online assignments, and revisions
• to be an active participant in the learning experience

Policies and Protocols

In order for you to succeed in this class, you first must have an understanding of the rules. This is true for most things in life: if you want to pass the driving test in order to receive your license, you must know the rules of the road; if you want to win at a board game, you must be clear on how it's played. The following will outline for you what you need to know if you expect to do well. Skip reading this section at your own peril.

Attendance and Deportment

This is a reduced seat-time class, meaning we meet face-to-face only once a week. Much of that class time will be spent discussing readings and drafts of writing—sometime your writing, sometimes the writing of scholars.   Absences, while never beneficial,  negatively affect your work in this course even more than in a standard class because of this shortened class time. To that point, all absences are unexcused absences unless you are participating in a UCF-sponsored function and have evidence to support your participation.

To that point, while attendance is not taken, writing warm ups will be completed during the first seven minutes of ten randomly selected classes. If you arrive late, you miss the warm up, which is detrimental to your overall grade. Leaving early is akin to arriving late.  You are expected to say for the entire class; if you leave early, you will lose writing warm up points for that day.

If you know ahead of time that you will need to miss a class due to some unavoidable circumstance, please let me know; you may be able to complete assignments ahead of time instead of accumulating late points. Keep in mind, however, in-class work cannot be made up.

From time to time, I’ll ask you to pull out your cell phones, but for the most part, they won’t be needed during class. We all forget from time to time to turn them off when we don’t need them, so if your ringer goes off during class once or twice, it won’t be a problem.  It becomes a problem when you appear to be paying more attention to your phone than to what’s going on in class. Students who are found using their phones or laptops for purposes having nothing to do with class will automatically lose that day's writing warm up points. 

Missed Assignments

As stated above, only students representing UCF in a university-sanctioned event can make up work missed due to absence. Students will have one week from the date of the absence to make up the work during my office hours; otherwise the opportunity if forfeited.

You do need to stay on top of what you missed whenever you miss class. I encourage you to exchange contact information with a classmate or two from whom you can obtain class notes and any other relevant details you may have missed while absent. Please do not contact me for this information: Any emails requesting me to basically recap what went on in class will be deleted.

Late Assignments/Extra Credit

I do not like to accept late assignments. at the same time, if things in your life are interfering with your work, come see me. Should I agree to accept a late assignment—and I am under no obligation to do so—the assignment will lose five points from the final grade for each late day (including weekends). Prior arrangements can be made with me if you anticipate difficulty meeting a due date because of family, work, or health concerns.

Extra credit, should I decide to offer it, will be available only to students in good standing in the course; in other words, students cannot pass the course with points earned from extra credit.  Extra credit opportunities will be announced at the discretion of the instructor.

Academic Activity Verification

As of Fall 2014, all faculty are required to document students’ academic activity at the beginning of each course. In order to document that you began this course, please complete the first assignment and post to Webcourses by Thursday, 11:59pm, of the first week of classes. Failure to do so may result in a delay in the disbursement of your financial aid.

Evaluation and Grading

In order to pass ENC 1101,students must receive a C- or better; no D’s or incompletes are given in this course. The grade of NC (no credit) can be assigned at the teacher’s discretion only if the student completed all course work on time and attended class regularly but was unable to write at an ENC1101-appropriate level. Below is the grading scale:

 

Letter Grade	Points
A	930 – 1000 points
A-	900 – 929 points
B+	870 – 899 points
B	830 – 869 points
B-	800 – 829 points
C+	770 – 799 points
C	730 – 769 points
C-	700 – 720 points
F	699 and below

Letter Grade	Percentage
A	100-93%
A-	92-90%
B+	87-89%
B	83-86%
B-	82-80%
C+	77-79%
C	76-73%
C-	72-70%
F	59% or below

 

Essays and Major Assignments

This class requires engagement in class discussion, individual conferences, peer workshops, and homework:

• You will write three major writing projects, one of which is a group effort.
• You will complete weekly online activities as well as homework.
• You will complete five creative writing assignments during the semester.
• You will participate in a final exam presentation of your writing.

 Assignments and due dates may be found in the modules or by clicking on the blue link at the bottom of this page. 

The following is a breakdown of the points allotted to each assignment:

Online activities	400
Major writing projects  (3 @ 100 points each)	300
Weekend writing practice	50
Commonplace notebook	50
Writing warm ups	100
Final (students with an A average will be exempt)	100

 

ENC 1101 is subject to the state-mandated Gordon Rule, which UCF currently interprets as requiring students to write at least four formal graded writing assignments. You must earn at least a C- in order to fulfill Gordon Rule requirements. Assignments with an asterisk indicate adherence to this rule.

Important Dates

Thursday, January 12:     Drop/Swap ends at 11:59pm)

Wednesday, March 22:     Withdrawal deadline (11:59pm)

March 13 - 18:                Spring break

Monday, April 24:             Last day of regular classes

FINAL EXAM:    Tuesday, May 2^nd from 4:00PM – 6:50PM in PSY 204.

For information regarding any dates not appearing above, please refer to the Academic Calendar online: http://calendar.ucf.edu/2016/fall

Academic Honesty

Plagiarism and cheating of any kind on an examination, quiz, or assignment will result at least in an "F" for that assignment (and may, depending on the severity of the case, lead to an "F" for the entire course) and may be subject to appropriate referral to the Office of Student Conduct for further action. See the UCF Golden Rule for further information. I will assume for this course that you will adhere to the academic creed of this University and will maintain the highest standards of academic integrity. In other words, don't cheat by giving answers to others or taking them from anyone else. I will also adhere to the highest standards of academic integrity, so please do not ask me to change (or expect me to change) your grade illegitimately or to bend or break rules for one person that will not apply to everyone.

Disability Statement

The University of Central Florida is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for all persons with disabilities. This syllabus is available in alternate formats upon request. Students with disabilities who need accommodations in this course must contact the professor at the beginning of the semester to discuss needed accommodations. No accommodations will be provided until the student has met with the professor to request accommodations. Students who need accommodations must be registered with Student Disability Services, Ferrell Commons, 7F, Room 185, phone (407) 823-2371, TTY/TDD only phone (407) 823-2116, before requesting accommodations from the professor.

Copyright

This course may contain copyright protected materials such as audio or video clips, images, text materials, etc. These items are being used with regard to the Fair Use doctrine in order to enhance the learning environment. Please do not copy, duplicate, download or distribute these items. The use of these materials is strictly reserved for this online classroom environment and your use only. All copyright materials are credited to the copyright holder.

Third-Party Software and FERPA

During this course you might have the opportunity to use public online services and/or software applications sometimes called third-party software such as a blog or wiki. While some of these could be required assignments, you need not make any personally identifying information on a public site. Do not post or provide any private information about yourself or your classmates. Where appropriate you may use a pseudonym or nickname. Some written assignments posted publicly may require personal reflection/comments, but the assignments will not require you to disclose any personally identity-sensitive information. If you have any concerns about this, please contact your instructor.