Essay 1 assignment

Essay #1: The School Lunch Wars

All academic writing involves responding to the writing of others. Academic writing is like a long-running conversation, in which each essay answers a previous text in some way, either to agree with it, disagree with it, analyze it, or apply it to some new situation. As you might imagine, the most important first step in responding to another text is to make sure you understand that text. Writing a summary is one of the best ways to prove to yourself and others that you understand a piece of writing.

For our first essay this quarter, I’d like you to summarize a recent The Wilson Quarterly article titled “The School Lunch Wars.”  This article was written by Kristen Hinman and appeared in the Spring 2011 issue of the magazine; using this information, it should be easy for you to find the article using EBSCO (and, by the way, I would like you to use EBSCO to find the article, even though you can also find the article just by googling it).

After reading Hinman’s article, I would like you to write a summary of her argument in 1000 words or less. An essay of 1000 words is less than three pages long in double-spaced 12-point type, so your response will need to be both focused and economical. 

In grading this paper, I will look at all six criteria on the “What Makes a Good English 101 Essay?” section in the syllabus: focus, development, audience awareness, organization, correctness, and citations. I expect your paper to be word processed, using 12 point type, double-spaced, in an academic font such as Times New Roman, and proofread. Note, by the way, that proofreading is different from spell checking: your paper is likely to have more spelling and grammar errors if all you do is turn on the spell checker after writing your paper. I will also be evaluating your sentence grammar (that is, whether you are able to produce complete sentences), as well as your correct use of commas. At this point, I won’t be too much of a stickler on the finer points of MLA citations; however, to do well on this essay you need to understand the difference between a direct quote and a paraphrase, and you need to give a signal phrase for any outside piece of information you use.

DUE: ____________________________

One Time Due Date Extender

 The One-Time-Only Due-Date Extender

Instructions: Fill in your name, the date, and the name of the assignment you’d like to turn in late or make up. Then attach the form to an email.

I am requesting permission to turn in the attached assignment, or make up a missed test, up to three calendar days late with no grade penalty. I agree not to ask for extensions on any other assignments I may turn in for this class, and I understand that any other assignment I turn in after the class period in which it is due, for whatever reason, will receive a grade penalty.

Note: no assignments will be accepted for any reason after the last regular day of classes (i.e. no assignments are accepted during finals week).

___________________________________

Name of assignment

___________________________________

Name of student

___________________________________

Date

Eng 101 outcomes

ENGL 101, 102, 103, 110, 113, 115, 135, and 2355

Those who score from 78-100 in writing skills on the COMPASS test may register in ENGL &101. In addition, they should register in the reading class indicated by scores on the COMPASS reading test.

The purpose in common of ENGL 101, 102, 103, 110, 113, 115, 135 and 235 is to help students understand and practice the process of writing while developing the ability to write standard English effectively, to discuss ideas and opinions in a precise, clear, direct, vigorous, and sustained manner, and to use information found through research to develop and support ideas.

Scope and Methods of ENGL 101, 102, 103, 110, 113, 115, 135, and 235

Above all, of course, your instructor will ask you to write. He or she will require you to produce between 4000 and 5000 words of finished compositions, including some in-class writing. In ENGL 102, that total will include 2000 or more words in a library-research paper.

Each instructor will determine the number and kinds of writing assignments for each class. The instructor will also decide what special approaches or work may be appropriate to a particular section of ENGL 101, 102, 103, 110, 113, 115, 135, or 235. He or she may require a journal, a vocabulary notebook, an oral report, special assignments tailored to a student's particular needs, a rewrite of an essay, complete re-accomplishment of an assignment, exploration of the library, or individual conferences about the work.

All instructors study and comment systematically on student essays. They will also generally return the essays for follow-through correction before the next assignment is due in order to encourage the continuity of skill development from one assignment to another.

Instructors will also explain in a written syllabus, within the first week, details of the course that will include the criteria for arriving at final grades.

In general, however, students will be expected by the end of each course to be able to describe and use the stages of the writing process; understand and apply the concepts of audience and purpose in writing; write essays that each contain a clear and competent thesis statement; organize essays logically; develop paragraphs fully and effectively; express ideas accurately, concisely, and clearly with appropriate diction, grammar, syntax, punctuation, and mechanics; and incorporate information from library research in a way that supports the essay's purpose and gives appropriate, academic-style credit to all borrowed material.

Instructors comment on these matters paper by paper; however, an instructor may give corrective advice on only two or three of these issues at a time, rather than advice on all of them on each paper.

Each instructor will also explain the criteria by which papers will be evaluated.

The Potential Problem of Plagiarism in Any Course

Instructors will explain that any writing that uses sources must follow appropriate conventions for citations in order to avoid plagiarism: the presentation as one's own work, with intent to deceive, the words, phrases, ideas, findings, illustrations, etc., of another commentator or writer. Please study the statement on plagiarism.

English 101 syllabus

English 101: English Composition

Fall 2013 Syllabus

Section: BS                                                                 Instructor: Joe Van Zutphenn

Room: JSH 115                                                            Office: AA5 - 209

Meeting Times: T/Th 8:00 – 10:20                 E-mail: jvanzutphen@clark.edu                                  Homepage:

Office Hours: by appt.

Course Description:

This five-credit class is designed to help you write confidently and competently in many of the writing situations you will encounter in other classes and in your professional life. To accomplish this goal, we will practice techniques such as the writing process, active reading, and revision-focused writing throughout the quarter. When the quarter is over, you may not be a master at writing, reading, or critical thinking—mastering these skills represents a lifetime’s work—but if you work hard you will be a much better writer, reader, and thinker at the end of the class than you were at the beginning.

English 101 is a college level course: that is, students must either be placed into this class by a recommending score on the COMPASS test or by having received a grade of C or better in English 098.

Course Objectives:

The English department has laid out the skills that students should be able to perform at the end of each composition class. This list, called the Student Learning Outcomes, appears on the class web page (http://english101clarkcollegevanzutphen.blogspot.com/). If you look under the column headed “English 101 Outcomes,” you will see the writing, reading, and research tasks that successful students will be able to perform by the end of this class.

Instructional Methods Used:

English 101 is a class best taught by a combination of instructional methods. The method students will encounter most frequently is the class discussion, in which the teacher is not so much a lecturer as a facilitator of student conversation. We will use class discussion to explore the issues we will be writing about. Additionally, students will often evaluate their writing or explore class concepts using small group discussions or workshops. On a few occasions during the quarter I will give formal lectures, particularly to explain grammar or citation concepts. Finally, and most importantly, students will spend a good deal of time writing in class, both as a tool for discovery, for assessment of student ability, and for practicing our writing skills.

Course Requirements:

The bulk of the work for this class will involve reading twelve or so challenging, college-level essays and articles, as well as writing several essays, summaries, responses, and other writing assignments. More specifically, you will write six essays over the course of the quarter, four of which will be written as take home assignments over a period of roughly two weeks each. The other two essays will be in-class writing exams which will occur at midterm and during finals week. Each of these essay assignments will be different, with different length requirements, structures, and topics, though all will require that you analyze the topic critically and respond to it with college-level writing.

In addition to your writing essays and tests, I will ask you to practice your writing with shorter day-to-day assignments. Most of these assignments will be short—summaries, reader responses, and the like—and you will submit them for a quick “check-off” grade. For some assignments, I may ask you to provide evidence of active reading or to fill out a brief grammar exercise, but most of the day-to-day assignments will involve writing. Research (and common sense) suggest that if you want to be a better writer you must write, and these day-to-day assignments offer you an opportunity to practice your skills.

Finally, because good writing depends so much on revision, I will ask you to help one another revise essays by working in peer response groups. These groups will meet several times during the class and you will be graded on the quality of your participation in these groups.

Grading

As you can see by the grade scale below, your work is graded more heavily at the end of the quarter than at the beginning. This is deliberate. It really isn’t very important to me how strong (or weak) a writer and reader you are at the beginning of the quarter; what matters to me is how much you learn in this class and how competently you can write at the end.

Assignment	Points of Final Grade
Take-Home Essay 1	15
Take-Home Essay 2	20
In-Class Essay 3	30
Take-Home Essay 4	50
In-Class Exam 1	10
In-Class Exam 2	15
In-class writing and other homework	30
Peer response, attendance, participation	30 200

Regarding the question of how these assignments will be graded, the end of this syllabus contains a chart of my grading criteria for the essays and day-to-day assignments. I will also post documents soon that describe these grading criteria in greater detail. Your peer response participation grade will depend on the quality and quantity of written comments and suggestions you make on your classmates’ papers during peer response workshops.

All students have the opportunity to turn in any one assignment up to five days late without incurring a grade penalty. There’s a little form to fill out and email to me; you can find it on the class web page (http://english101clarkcollegevanzutphen.blogspot.com/ ). Once you have used this permission, though, any other late assignments you turn in will be lowered by a full letter grade for every calendar day (not class day) that they are late. Note that the permission slip is good for turning in a paper up to five days late; papers later than this will receive severe grade penalties. Papers are due at the start of class and an assignment that is turned in later that day is considered a day late. Please understand also that I will always grade assignments which have been turned in on time before I will grade a late assignment; therefore, if you turn in an assignment late, it will not be graded as promptly. Finally, keep in mind that no late assignment may be turned in for any reason after the last regular class day of the quarter.

I accept no assignments via e-mail.

Each assignment will be graded on a scale of 0-100, corresponding to the following grade scale:

93-100                          A

90-92                            A-

88-89                            B+

83-87                            B

80-82                            B-

78-79                            C+

73-77                            C

70-72                            C-

68-69                            D+

63-67                            D

60-62                            D-

<60                              F

 

Students who receive a grade of C or can move on to English 102 or English 109 next quarter. Those who receive a grade of C- or lower will need to retake English 101.

Texts and Materials

Required Text:

Hacker, Diana. Rules for Writers. 6^th ed. Boston, MA. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008.

Other Materials:

You will need to have access to a computer with a word processor and an Internet connection. Don’t despair if you don’t own a computer: there are many computer labs at Clark College for student use. While we’re on the subject, it’s a good idea to save your work in two places, such as on a thumb drive and in an email account: please back up your work frequently, as essays which are erased/virus-infected/eaten by computers are your responsibility.

Finally, you’ll need some kind of paper notebook or folder for day-to-day writing. A single spiral bound notebook should be fine.

Class Policies

Attendance: Please come to class and be on time. While I am happy to work with students who must miss a class because of a genuine emergency, students simply will not do well in the course if they make a habit of missing class. You only get one chance this quarter to turn your work in late, and a good share of your final grade corresponds to work you will be doing in class. Also, students are given credit for peer response workshops only if they participate in the workshops during class time. In short, you need to be here regularly if you want to do well. I will be taking attendance to encourage your staying caught up with the challenging class material. Students may miss up to five class days for any reason; after that, each subsequent absence will lower the student’s overall grade by 3%. Students who have missed more than ten class days will automatically receive a final class grade of C- or lower.

The only exception to these rules occurs in the first week of the quarter. During that time, in accordance with English department policy, I will drop any student who misses a class during the first two class meetings and does not get in touch with me.

Class Courtesy: Having a safe and civil atmosphere for learning depends on all of us. When we speak with one another, especially when disagreeing, it is vital that we do so with mutual respect. Students who are disruptive or abusive towards others may be asked to leave the class. On a related note, it is both disruptive and rude to leave your cell phone on in the classroom. Please turn it off when you come to class.

Plagiarism: Students who copy the words or ideas of any other writer without acknowledging the original author of those words or ideas are engaging in plagiarism. Plagiarism is grounds for failing this course. One of the goals of this course is to understand how to use information effectively and ethically in your writing. Once those concepts have been introduced, any instances of plagiarism will result in severe grade penalties for the student. In most cases, these penalties lead to failure of the class.

For more information about the English department’s plagiarism policy, please follow this link:

http://www.clark.edu/Library/PDF/eng_dept_statement_plagiarism.pdf

Americans with Disabilities Act Accommodations: If you have, or think you have, a disability which interferes with your performance in this course, you are invited to speak with the Disability Support Services office in Gaiser Hall or at 992-2580 for assistance.

Weather Closures and Instructor Illness: Students now have the ability to check on line each day to be sure that their classes are meeting. To access this information go to the Clark College website and click on Quick Links, then on Classes Today. It will show any classes that have been cancelled for that day only.

Tentative Schedule

Date	Class Activities	What’s Due?
Week 1 (1/08- 1/10)	Introduction to the course; discussion of syllabus; discussion of active reading and summaries; introduction to writing process.  Essay 1 assigned.	Diagnostic Writing
Week 2 (1/15- 1/17)	Sentence grammar review; introduction to peer response; review of paragraphing; discussion of common reading for essay 1. Peer response of essay 1.	Essay 1
Week 3 (1/22- 1/24	Review of comma usage; basic citation methods introduced; The Aristotelian Rhetoric; discussion of revision strategies. Essay 2 assigned.
Week 4 (1/29- 1/31	The Rogerian argument; discussion of common readings for essay 2; peer response of essay 2.	Essay 2
Week 5 (2/5 - 2/7)	Essay 3 assigned. Discussion of common readings for essay 3. Practice with impromptu writing.	In-Class Exam 1
Week 6 (2/12 - 2/14)	Discussion of common readings for essay 3; peer response for essay 3. Practice with impromptu writing.	Essay 3
Week 7 (2/19 - 2/21)	Essay 4 assigned. Advanced citation methods introduced; evaluating logic; Toulmin analysis. Discussion of common readings for essay 4;
Week 8 (2/26 - 2/28)	Peer response for essay 4; discussion of logical fallacies; discussion of writing style.
Week 9 (3/5 -3/7)	Discussion of common readings for essay 4; peer response for essay 4; discussion of logical fallacies; discussion of writing style.	Essay 4
Week 10 (3/12 -3/14)	Review and final revisions; final practice on impromptu writing Final exam – in-class	Rewrite of essay 1,2, or 3; In-class exam 2
Week 11 (3/19 -3/21)	Final conference

Please note: while I have done my best to provide all necessary information for the class here, this syllabus is subject to change. Also, many assignments like specific readings, grammar exercises, and in-class writing exercises do not appear on this schedule, as their scheduling depends on how quickly or slowly the class proceeds. Please attend class and talk with me regularly so that you will not be surprised by changes. I will provide a more detailed day-by-day schedule for each essay; these schedules will supersede the schedule given here. Note also that any changes to the syllabus will be announced in the assignment sheets and made as changes to the syllabus on my web page.

What Makes a Good English 101 Essay?

Most students can read another student’s essay and tell whether it is good or not so good. Just like teachers, when you read a classmate’s work you get a first impression about whether the essay is strong or weak. However, answering why an essay is strong or weak becomes more difficult. Though this is a difficult question to answer when looking at a classmate’s essay, it is an even tougher question to apply to your own writing.

What follows is a brief list of qualities that make your writing strong. When looking at another student’s writing or evaluating your own, think of the essay in these terms. If you ever wonder why you received a certain grade on an essay in this class, the answer has to do with the qualities listed below.

Focus: A well-focused essay speaks about one main topic, called the thesis, and does not stray from it. In the case of short 101 essays, this main topic can often be identified in a single statement in the essay, called the thesis statement. Even when there is no single explicit thesis statement, however, the essay should be focused around a single idea. The main topic of the essay is not so broad that you cannot explore it fully in your paper; also, it is not so narrow that you cannot develop it (for more on development, see below). Though you may write an essay of many paragraphs with many different arguments and pieces of evidence, everything in the essay should ultimately support your main idea.

Development: An essay is well developed when every claim you make is supported by evidence of some kind, as well as by a sound and logical argument. This evidence should be appropriate to the argument you are making, relevant to the case at hand, and reputable. In addition, a good writer uses logic that is sound and well thought-out. A well-developed essay does not claim anything to be true without offering evidence to show why or how it is true.

Audience Awareness: Good writers tailor their essays towards the needs of the audience, or reader. For example, a good writer chooses a tone that does not insult or talk down to the reader; similarly, good essays are written at a level that the audience is likely to be able to comprehend. In other words, a writer with good audience awareness writes in a style that is readable and which sounds natural. In all communication, what we mean to say and what we actually do say can be very different things; however, good writers work hard to minimize this difference. A writer with good audience awareness also does not make unfair assumptions about the reader’s gender, race, religion, class, sexuality, or value system.

Organization: Strong essays are well organized into paragraphs. Each paragraph focuses on a single idea—often this one idea can be conveyed in a single topic sentence—and displays a logical strategy for conveying its information. Each paragraph should be unified by intelligent use of transitions and key words. Similarly, a good writer uses transitions to link paragraphs into a sequence. This sequence of paragraphs should be logical and should serve to support the essay’s thesis.

Correctness: Strong essays display correct sentence grammar, punctuation, sentence unity, agreement, syntax, and spelling. While it is normal for English 101 students to make grammatical mistakes once in a while, by the time you finish this class you should have pretty strong control over sentence structure and sentence form.

Research and Citations: When it’s called for, students should know how to find outside information to support their arguments. They should also know how to cite this outside information correctly, giving proper credit wherever another writer’s words or ideas are used.