course.goals
materials
assignments
grading
attendance
electronica
ethics
disability

 

instructor kevin eric depew
office bal 313
phone 757.683.4019
e.mail kdepew@odu.edu
web.page http://www.odu.edu/~kdepew
office hours tu & th 12:00-2:00


quick links

calendar
directory
listserv
email
resources


course.goals

English 327w is a lecture/discussion/worksop course for those who already write competently, but who seek ways to make their writing livelier and more sophisticated, and who are willing to do the hard work necessary to improve even good writing. The course emphasizes the linguistic, social, and rhetorical aspects of writing from both theoretical and practical perspectives.

In this course you will learn to...

  • understand the rhetorical nature of writing
  • write using different modes of persuasive discourse
  • examine the meaning and practice of literacy
  • design and conduct research to examine a specific issue
  • compose visually effective documents
  • manage documents and files
  • examine the rhetorical situation to determine appropriate genres
  • identify potential complications in writing contexts, including ethical concerns
  • consider different audiences, including primary audiences and secondary audiences
  • understand and create logical structures in text

Prerequisites

To best fulfill these goals, the prerequisites for English327w include...

  • completion of first-year composition requirement, both English 110 & English 111.
  • passing the Writing Sample Test.


course.materials

Required
Literacy Across Communities [LAC]
Editor: Beverly Moss
Hampton Press
ISBN: 1-881303-62

E-reserves

Optional
Any writer's handbook. I recommend...

The New Century Handbook
Authors: Christine A. Hult & Thomas N. Huckin
Allyn and Bacon


major.assignments

Portfolio (400 points)

Throughout the course of the semester you will write several documents. When you submit these documents, the instructor will review them and provide a minor evaluation. All the documents will be submitted at the end of the semester in a portfolio which will receive a grade. The documents for the portfolio are...

Progressive Annotated Bibliography [PAB]
Throughout the semester you will find and annotate five sources related to the topic you are studying; evaluated annotation and a synthesizing introduction will included in the portfolio.

Project Proposal [pro]
Before you start doing research on a specific literacy practice you will outline and justify the project that you develop.

Research Plan [res]
Prior to conducting your field research you will detail how you will specifically collect data.

Data Analysis [dat]
After you have conducted field research you will report the relevant data that you collected and draw conclusions (i.e., answer your research questions).

Genre & Audience Analysis [gaa]
After you have studied your target audience and the genre that you intend to use, you will write up the strategies that you will use to be most rhetorically effective.

Final Document
After you have determined your audience and an appropriate genre for this audience, you will develop an inflormed document that moves this audience to a specific action.

Rhetorical Statement
This final document gives you the opportunity to walk the instructor through your portfolio and explain the deliberate decisions that you made.

Three Means of Failing the Course related to Major Assignments

  • Not completing a major assignment
  • Major assignments will be given no credit if the assignment is not turned in prior to the instructor returning the respective assignment to the class. This becomes the equivalent of not completing a major assignment
  • An act of plagiarism (or other forms of academic dishonesty)

Other Assignments

There are a lot of smaller assignments that will help you prepare and prewrite for the larger assignments. These assignments include peer reviews, group activities and exercises, required email postings, group work evaluations, and other short in- and out-of-class assignments.

Use these writing opportunities to your advantage instead of treating them as "busy work." A lot of the work that you do for these smaller assignments can be used directly in the major assignments; therefore, you will want to take these assignments seriously. This also gives you an opportunity to get serious feedback from the instructor on your work-in-progress. So, just fulfilling these assignments will often result in twice as much work for you.


grading

Portfolio Grading

The portfolio will consist of different documents that you compose during the course. The instructor, upon receiving these documents, will only make comments on each text and return it to the students. For the portfolio, you will submit all of these documents as hard copies in a manila folder (or envelope). With some of these evaluated assignments you will submit revisions and a rhetorical statement that explains the decisions that you made in your documents.

The instructor will use the principles of Purpose, Product, and Production/Process (as described below) to make comments and determine the point value on the respective document. Remember that each document pertains to a new writing task; therefore how you address these principles in one assignment may not be applicable in another.

PURPOSE (Content) : How effectively does the document accomplish its intended task for its intended purpose and audience? Does the document...

      • meet its goals and the demands of its context (both academic and organizational)? solve a problem or address a significant organizational need? help people? improve people's lives?
      • provide a sound or viable argument in support of a proposed action? use evidence to support its arguments?
      • meet readers' needs? improve relations between people? provide relevant, useful, and accurate information?

PRODUCT (Content/Convention) : How well constructed is the document? Does the document have...

      • an orderly and coherent presentation of material?
      • an effective design and formatting? correctness?
      • an effective use of visuals?
      • a professional tone and style?

PRODUCTION/PROCESS (Convention) : How effectively was the document produced? When applicable is there evidence of...

      • quality of planning, collaboration, research & invention, drafting, editing, proofreading?

Process Grade

Your process grade will be 20% of your overall grade (1o0 points). All students will start with 85% of the possible process grade points (85 points); this point total will be adjusted positively and negatively based upon homework, class work and attendance using the plus, check, minus system described below. This system is designed to encourage you to take risks with your thinking on prewriting assignments, give you an indictation of your progress in the course, and encourage you to complete the course work (espeically in a timely manner).

Process assignments (e.g., class activities and homework) that contribute to the process of completing the poirtfolio. They will be marked and commented upon; these marks will entail a large percentage of your participation grade. Late or missing minor assignments that are no longer relevant will receive no credit. Late work will only be accepted if you consult with the instructor prior to the class period in which the work is due.

Each minor assignment will be given a score from -4 to +2.

(or 0) = You did the work satisfactorily, and on time. It will need some revisions or rethinking before the final assignment or before it is put into practice

+1, +2= You demonstrated various degree of engagement with the ideas and you turned it in on time. It will need some revision or rethinking, but not much

–1, -2= Your work demonstrates a misunderstanding of the assignment, minimal effort, shows that you did not do the assigned reading, or was not turned in on time. Significant revision will be needed before the final assignment

- 4 = No submission

This style of grading allows the instructor to evaluate the process of your work–how each student's work develops throughout a project–instead of only grading each minor assignment as a separate entity. The major assignment grades are final; therefore consider the questions and comments that the instructors poses to you in your minor assignments.

Grade Scale

Your final grade will be graded on the following point scale* :
  A =92-100 % A -= 90-91.9 % B+ = 87-89.9 %
  B = 82-86.9 % B- = 80-81.9 % C+ = 77-79.9 %
  C = 72-76.9 % C- = 70-71.9 % D+ = 67-69.9 %
  D = 62-66.9 % D -= 60-61.9 %  
  F = 0-59.9 %    

* = The instructor reserves the right to adjust this scale based on the students' performance throughout the semester. Any adjustments will 1) apply to the entire class and 2) never deny a student the grade that she/he earns based upon this posted scale.


attendance

Students are required to attend every class. If you miss a class, for whatever reason, you are responsible for making up any missed work.

In a writing class, you do a lot of work in the classroom. Therefore the attendance policies are:

  • you are allowed four absences, excused or unexcused. More than four absences will result in failing the course
    • on the first day that you return from an absence you are responsible for submitting any homework due on the day that you missed. You are, however, encouraged to submit the work earlier.
    • If we do class work for credit you are responsible for doing this work on your own. Failure to attempt this work will result in 1 point reduction of your process grade.
    • To learn what work you have missed consult the instructor or the calendar.
  • being late to class will be marked as a tardy (-1 from your process grade)– unless previously arranged.
    • students can miss no more than twenty minutes of class to receive attendance credit.

As a general rule, a student missing a class assignment because of observance of a religious holiday shall have the opportunity to make up missed work. Students must notify the instructor of anticipated absences before the absence occurs. Likewise, students who represent ODU at any official extracurricular activity shall have the opportunity to make up missed assignments, but the student must provide official written and/or email notification to the instructor no less than one week prior to the missed class(es).


electronica

Electronica refers to technology-related issues.

E.mail Accounts
Having an e-mail account is required; a lot of information for this class will be exchanged via email, including some assignment submissions and class updates. You will want to establish a consistent email account that you will use throughout the entire semester. To get an ODU account go to OCCS. You are responsible for making sure that files and messages are successfully received by the instructor and your peers; other email providers cannot provide this security.

LAN Accounts
LAN accounts will be necessary to use the computers in the computer labs throughout the semester. If you do not already have a LAN account, please register for one with OCCS.

Drafting Documents
You should use a recent version of MS Word to compose or to save the documents that you will send as an attachment. This will guarantee that your audience, the instructor, can view and read your submissions. You are responsible for making sure that the instructor can access your work.

Because you are sending these documents electronically, it will be most appropriate to single space your work.

Saving Documents
When you save Word documents for the Project Proposal, Research Plan, Data Analysis, and Genre & Audience Analysis you will want to name the assignment to clearly distinguish the person who sent the file and what work you are sending. To do this, please use the following guidelines for naming files.

[First Three Letters of your Last Name][Assignment Acronym].[File Type]

                                  ex. DEPpro.doc

  • Remember this is the attached file name (the name that you save the document as), not just the subject line of the email.
  • The Assignment Acronym will be found with the assignment descriptions–look for bracketed acronyms.
  • The extensions (e.g., ".doc" or ".ppt") is often needed to transfer files successfully, especially across platforms.
  • Files that do not comply with these guidelines will be returned unevaluated.

Protecting Your Work
Backup your document files frequently. Also save all email transmissions for this course. Keep your files on your home machine, floppy disks, cds, and/ or flash drives. The excuse "that was my only copy" is not a valid one. Some tips for protecting your work–and yourself are:

  • Save all English 327w work until the course is over
  • Maintain copies of drafts and work-in-progress
  • Create folders on your hard drive and in your INBOX (email) for this class.
  • Keep copies of your email messages related to the course as a record of your work. For all messages that you send to the instructor, you should either have the message sent to your "Sent" folder in your email account or cc: yourself the message so that you have a copy for verification

Receiving Comments
For documents submitted as MS Word attachments, the instructor will use the Comment function in MS Word to send you comments. All of the campus computers will allow you to review the comments that the instructor has made. If you do not have access to a computer with this function, please talk to the instructor.

E.mailing
When emailing the instructor or the the class list make sure that you include a subject line that includes the nature of the email. A subject line, such as "homework" is vague. Instead be specific and state whether it is a "homework submission," "homework clarification," or "homework problem."

Also use the priority setting rhetorically; in other words, make your email message stand out when you really need to draw the recipient's attention to your message. Do not use the priority setting on your standard assignment submissions.

Class List
A list will be set up to make announcements, exchange information, and discuss issues raised in the class. Also, post questions about homework and assignments to the list because in most cases, all students will have the same question.

Keeping Up

  • Check your e-mail daily to keep up with announcements.
  • Check the calendar every Sunday evening (after 8pm) for new updates for the next two weeks.
  • If you are going to miss class, inform the instructor ahead of the missed class to find out what will occur on that day.

Electronic Ethics and Respect
Electronic media allows us some freedoms that print media does not allow. Consequently, it is also subject to abuse. Please be respectful of your peers throughout the semester by not displaying, viewing, or posting web pages, files, or emails that may make others uncomfortable. Violations of this respect can be considered harassment according to university policy and will be handled as such.


ethics&plagiarism

As per the University's Honor Code, you must do your own original work in English 327w and appropriately identify that portion of your work which is collaborative with others, or which is borrowed from others, or which is your own work from other contexts. Whenever you borrow graphics, quote passages, or use ideas from others, you are legally and/or ethically obliged to acknowledge that use, following appropriate conventions for documenting sources. In English 327w, the most serious form of academic dishonesty is to recycle another individual's major project under your own name.

If you have doubts about whether or not you are using your own or others' writing ethically and legally, ask the instructor. Follow this primary principle: If in doubt, ask. Be up front and honest about what you are doing and about what you have contributed to an assignment.


documented.disability

If you have a documented disability, make sure you register with Disability Services 757.683.4655. Once you do so, feel free to talk to me about any special accommodations that you may need to fulfill the requirements of this course.


course.evaluation

At the end of the semester, you will have an opportunity to evaluate the instructor and the course. This is very important for helping the instructor and the department access the course. Please take the time at the end of the semester to do these online evaluations.

last.updated 01.11.05