COURSE DESCRIPTION AND GRADING SCALE
ENGLISH 302-S17
Advanced Composition
FALL 2006
WEDNESDAY 4:30-7:10 PM
Instructor: J. Johnston
Office: Robinson A 455
(H and Fax) 703.368.1704 (W) 703.368.1160
E-MAIL: jjohnsto@gmu.edu
OFFICE HOURS: Wednesday 3:30-4:20 or by appointment
This section of English 302 focuses on advanced writing and research skills in such fields as Administration of Justice, Anthropology, Communication, Economics, Government and International Politics, History, Psychology, Public Administration, Russian Studies, Social Work and Sociology. Students should endeavor to develop a flexible, literate writing style appropriate to a mature mind both in and out of these areas. Development of an individual, yet field-appropriate vocabulary and tone are primary, as is development of audience awareness. Familiarity with research techniques and sources--whether cyber, human or paper--is also essential.
MATERIALS FOR THIS COURSE
- The primary text for this section is A Rhetoric for the Social Sciences, by Kristine Hansen. (United States: Prentice Hall, 1998.) ISBN 0-13-440272-3.
- Regular access to computer with e-mail and World Wide Web capabilities, plus printer with DARK ribbon or cartridge. The computer may be either on- or off-campus. Since assignments are often constructed and/or critiqued in class, off-site work should be in a format compatible with the software loaded in our classroom. All assignments are available on the instructor's website at URL's linked to the syllabus. Although assignments will be discussed in class, text versions of all assignments are therefore available at all times, complete with goals, instructions and grading criteria. material may NOT be submitted as attachments.
- GMU computer account (free to
students) with user ID and password, or other working e-mail account.
Students who do not begin the semester with an account should apply
on-line at mail.gmu.edu or in
person on the
- Willingness and ability to use GMU's libraries in Fenwick, the
Optional materials include:
- A research handbook, either the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.) for students in the sciences or social sciences, or the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (5th ed.) for students in the humanities. Both are available on-line if preferred (links are given in the syllabus) or can be purchased from the GMU bookstore, Barnes and Noble, Waldenbooks, Borders, etc.Please be aware that since this is a social sciences section, instruction will be provided for APA format ONLY; MLA, CBE and Engineering formats will not be taught. Students are responsible for correct APA or field-appropriate format for all papers, whether or not the text is purchased.
- The User's Guide to Mason is available in the Copy Shop (Room 117 in the Johnson Center) for those unfamiliar with GMU's mainframes, at a cost of about $1.00.
- Diana Hacker's A Writer's Reference is recommended for those seeking a highly readable handbook of correct grammar and English usage. Her A Pocket Style Manual is an abridged but cheaper version of the same thing.
NOTE: In addition to the reader for this course; some readings are on-line. Some are listed on the syllabus, and are no less required than paper texts, while others will be introduced in class. Therefore, missing a class means not only missing instruction, but also missing needed readings.
Grammar will be taught in this class only occasionally, on an as-needed basis for the whole group. Please see the instructor if a particular grammar question plagues you.
COURSE OVERVIEW
It is important to know that Section S17 is being taught as a
“hybrid” section, in which some class meetings are conducted face to
face on campus and others are conducted asychronously
online. In addition, one class meeting will be held in the library and
one in
the
This course falls roughly into four sections:
An opening exercise exploring the library, personal, professional and Internet materials specialized to each student's field of study. This will be supported by a class session with a university librarian and will culminate in the first paper of the semester. It will be followed by a section in which the student critiques a professional research article.
A section in which the student prepares or updates career materials to include a resume and cover letter reflecting career placement upon either graduation or achievement of a Master's degree.
A research component, including a brief proposal for research leading to an independent research project related to the student's field. A student may substitute a dual submission to another class in his/her major for this project with the other professor's permission, and
A poster presentation prepared as a group and involving all group members, exploring an unresolved ethical issue now confronting professionals in the field.
PLEASE NOTE: since the English Department requires a research component in all sections of English 302, anyone not completing the research project will FAIL THE CLASS.
Students will also select one of two options to be completed independently in the course of the semester: to attend two university events and submit brief synopses/evaluations, or to read and annotate the MLA or APA handbook, as appropriate. Either option is equally acceptable. The events choice, in particular, is widely adaptable to fit the student's interests or educational needs. Note that events outside the university must be cleared with the instructor IN ADVANCE.
COURSE
OBJECTIVES
As explained in "General
Education at
George Mason University," English 302 is an integral part of the
general education curriculum at George Mason. The mission of the
General
Education Program is to educate, liberate, and broaden the mind, and to
instill
lifelong love of learning. In conjunction with each students'
major program of study and other electives, minors, or certificates,
this
program seeks to produce graduates with intellectual vision, creative
abilities, and moral sensibility, as well as the skills to assure a
well-rounded and useable education. The General Education Program seeks
four
specific goals: 1. General education courses should first ensure that
all
undergraduates develop skills in information gathering, written and
oral
communication, and analytical and quantitative reasoning. 2. General
education
courses should expose students to the development of knowledge by
emphasizing
major domains of thought and methods of inquiry. 3. General education
courses
should enable students to attain a breadth of knowledge that supports
their
specializations and contributes to their education in both personal and
professional ways. 4. General education courses should encourage
students to
make important connections across boundaries (for example: among
disciplines;
between the university and the external world; between the
This advanced composition course is designed to help you develop effective written communication and analytical skills, which are critical to the learning of every well-educated student. In addition to requiring a minimum of 3500 written words from each student, the English Department has identified both discipline-based and advanced writing goals for English 302. Students in humanities sections will demonstrate specific applications of these objectives to their own disciplines. Paper copies of both the general student learning goals for English 302 and the goals specific to the Humanities sections will be distributed with the syllabus at the first class meeting.
METHODS OF
INSTRUCTION
Principal methods of instruction in this class will include:
|
INSTRUCTIONAL TYPE |
EXAMPLE |
|
Direct instruction |
Online tutorials, in-class demonstrations, instructional web sites, online writing lab handouts, Presentations by Student Services, Library Instructional Staff, Career Development representative, instructor |
|
Guided Practice |
Workshops on writing skills, citation formats, analysis of journal articles, grammar and punctuation as needed, etc. These are supplemented by exercises from online writing labs such as Purdue's or GMU's |
|
Online tutorials and mastery exercises |
University and professional web site materials on plagiarism, editing, and documentation |
|
Guided and independent research |
Library orientation with hands-on practice,
location of appropriate articles for research review; use of |
|
Group processing activities |
Participation in writing groups, editing student drafts, proofreading citation entries, preparation of group poster presentation on ethics |
COURSE REQUIREMENTS/GRADING POLICY
In all General Education English classes (English 100, 101, 201 and 302), students must achieve a grade of C or higher to receive credit for the course. Students with averages of C- or lower will receive an NC (No Credit) for the course.
Assignments will carry the following percentage values:
Resume 10%
Cover Letter 5%
Elements of a Scientific Paper 10%
Publication and Authority Paper 15%
Writing Group Participation 10%
Group Poster Presentation 15%
Research Paper 20%
The final examination is optional; it may be attempted if a student wishes to seek a grade higher than the one achieved from the semester's work. The final examination, if attempted, is worth 15%. It will be averaged in with the other grades for the semester. If not elected, the assignments listed above will determine the final course grade, with no penalty for not attempting the exam. Again, anyone not completing the research project will FAIL THE COURSE.
On the last day of regular classes, each student will be informed of his/her semester grade to date and must then choose whether or not to take the exam. Students electing to take the exam will receive exam preparation instructions at that time. Any student electing the exam but not appearing on the scheduled date and time will be assumed to have elected to receive the grade earned as of the last scheduled day of classes.
Essential outlines of each assignment, along with goals and grading
criteria, are provided as links to this syllabus. However, they are not
exhaustive; they are simply summaries of the basic requirements. Please
note:
As previously mentioned, this is not a correspondence course, additional
instructions for each
assignment will be given in class. They are as much a part of the final
evaluation of each paper as the online support.
LATE ASSIGNMENTS
All work is due on the date specified in the syllabus. Unless by prior arrangement with the instructor, late work will be penalized one letter grade for each week or portion thereof and two letter grades thereafter. This penalty cannot be removed from work resubmitted or revised.
In addition, late work may be delayed in being graded and returned to you; delay is usually one week but may be more. Please keep this in mind if planning to resubmit a paper, especially near the end of the semester. No work will be accepted after the date indicated on the syllabus as the last day to submit rewritten assignments.
ATTENDANCE
Attendance is not graded in this class. However, missing any substantial art of class instruction or activities has the following disadvantages that the student is responsible to overcome:
- missing instructions for writing assignments
- lack of workshop preparation in formatting and writing skills
- nonparticipation in writing and presentation groups
- serious lack of consideration and support for other members of one's writing group
Anyone who must unavoidably miss class is advised to notify the instructor as promptly as possible to avoid falling behind and to minimize inconvenience to other writing group members.
Be aware that writing is a time-intensive activity. It is thus very difficult to make up any significant amount of lost time.
.
POLICY ON PLAGIARISM
In a research and writing course, it is especially important that students respect the intellectual property of others. Especially in thesciences, integrity of results falls under acute scrutiny from fellow professionals. All students are therefore expected to scrupulously observe all GMU policies as well as individual instructors' guidelines. Please read and observe the English Department's Statement on Plagiarism below.
Plagiarism means using the exact words, opinions, or factual information from another source without giving that source credit. Writers give credit through the use of accepted documentation styles, such as parenthetical citation, footnotes, or end notes; a simple listing of books, articles, and websites is not sufficient. Plagiarism is the equivalent of intellectual robbery and cannot be tolerated in an academic setting.
Student writers are often confused as to what should be cited. Some think that only direct quotations need to be credited. While direct quotations do need citations, so do paraphrases and summaries of opinions or factual information formerly unknown to the writers or which the writers did not discover themselves. Exceptions to this include factual information which can be obtained from a variety of sources, the writers' own insights or findings from their own field research, (what has been called common knowledge). What constitutes common knowledge can sometimes be precarious; what is common knowledge for one audience may be so for another. In such situations, it is helpful to keep the reader in mind and to think of citations as being "reader friendly." In other words, writers provide a citation for any piece of information that they think their readers might want to investigate further. Not only is this attitude considerate of readers, it will almost certainly ensure that writers will not be guilty of plagiarism.
FORMAT
Each assignment has related instructions
in a link
to that assignment in the online version of the Syllabus. The format
for each
assignment is presented in the file of instructions. Please refer to
the
Syllabus itself at http://mason.gmu.edu/~jjohnsto/sylls17f06.htm
Assignments submitted electronically MUST be in Word (.doc) or Acrobat (.pdf) format, especially if sent as attachments. GMU's e-mail will not read Mime, NotePad or WordPerfect documents, and regards zipped documents as possible viruses. Therefore, any material sent in any of these formats cannot be accepted and may not even arrive.
Finally, any assignments or correspondence should be directed to the instructor's GMU e-mail: jjohnsto@gmu.edu. A Google or other search will reveal other e-mail addresses, but all GMU-related correspondence is handled through that address and only that address.
STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
In accordance with English Department policy, each student will submit a minimum of 3500 words in the course of the semester, which will serve as the basis for the course grade. Any student with a documented disability which could impact the completion of this requirement should give the instructor a faculty contact sheet at the beginning of the course so that appropriate arrangements can be made in a timely fashion. Students in need of documentation are urged to contact the Disability Resource Center at 703.993.2474. Documentation is required to obtain course adaptations to ensure that students receive appropriate support and assistance for success in the class.
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SYLLABUS ENGLISH 302-S17 Advanced Composition FALL 2006 Wednesday, Krug Hall, Room 19 and Innovation Hall, Room 223 Instructor: J. Johnston Office: Robinson A 455 (H) 703.368.1704 (W) 703.368.1160 E-MAIL: jjohnsto@gmu.edu OFFICE HOURS:
Wednesday NOTE: All assignments, including textbook read assignments, are DUE on the dates specified. Late papers will be penalized one letter grade the first week and two letter grades thereafter.
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