Introduction to Academic Writing

Throughout the semester, you will work on analyzing your audience of readers and on tailoring your work to that audience, and you will learn what it means to identify or construct an issue to write about. You will consider and reconsider that issue as you investigate it further and craft the best available means of support and expression for your audience and purpose. Additionally, you will learn a set of concepts and a vocabulary of language analysis and rhetorical strategy. The more you know about how language and persuasion work, the more features of style and argument you can recognize and use.

The course syllabus will take you through a series of assignments, each of which will focus on different rhetorical skills. The syllabus specifies the kind of assignment you will do at each stage, and, in some cases, the subject matter. For the series of linked research papers, however, you will be able to choose your own topic to write about (within the distributed guidelines for topic selection). You can choose your own subjects and follow your own interests while you try out new forms and strategies of writing. You will also have the freedom to specify the audiences you want to address, though we will attend to the special situation of academic writing.

In addition to the general goals mentioned above, English 101 has the following specific goals:

• To teach you the fundamentals of rhetoric and suggest how these are adapted to a variety of special situations in academic writing
• To provide you with a variety of tactics for generating ideas about a topic
• To teach you systematic patterns of topic development and organization
• To help you meet the usage standards of the audience you are addressing
• To make you aware of word and sentence level stylistic options
• To teach you techniques for making your writing more coherent
• To help you develop strategies and techniques for revision that you will carry into other classes and contexts
• To teach you the academic conventions of incorporating and citing the words and ideas of others
• To increase your awareness of and ability to use research sources
• To help you develop the habit of thinking critically both about ideas and about sources of information

Style Exercises: You can improve your writing by isolating specific language features, practicing them, sometimes imitating them, and incorporating them in your work. We will, therefore, engage in some language work.

Computer or Computer Access: Additional information about the course will be disseminated via a class reflector list. As a student, you have been issued a University email address; the University regards that as the address at which you can be contacted. If you prefer to use another address, you should arrange to have messages from the University email address forwarded to your preferred email account. For the purposes of this class, I expect you to check your email at least once a week. If you believe you are not getting information sent to you via email, let me know.

External Assignments: Your principle work in this course consists of five papers written outside of class. Though you will do some significant work on these papers in class (brainstorming, drafting, revising), they must be researched, formed, and polished outside of class. Consider them representative of the best thinking and writing you can produce. Since these external assignments have been designed to build on each other, they must be done in the order specified and turned in on time. A paper drops one letter grade for every class day it is late (i.e., a paper due on Monday and submitted on Wednesday, due on Friday and submitted on the following Monday, and so on, is one "class day" late). Papers more than one week late will not be accepted, and no credit will be given for that assignment. Since papers are due at the start of class, lateness begins ten minutes into the class period. To allow you some leeway, you may hand in one paper one class day late without penalty (note: this does not apply to the Final Position Paper, and this does not apply to drafts). After that, the penalty is assessed. Common sense dictates that you should begin your work promptly when assigned, that you make frequent backups, and that you not rely on everything working immediately before class. Computer, printer, or disk failure is not a valid excuse for submitting a paper late. Always make a back-up copy of every paper you turn in. In fact, you should make back-up copies at regular intervals as you work on a paper. Make a habit of emailing your paper to yourself as an attachment at least a couple of times during the drafting process and certainly before you exit the document for the last time. This way, even if you lose your disk or your paper is erased, you still have an available copy in your email files. Take page length requirements seriously-submitting a paper that does not meet those standards betrays insufficient research or analysis. In order to receive a passing grade in this course, you must complete all five papers. Failure to turn in all five papers before the final paper due date will result in an F for the course.

Format for Assignments: All external papers must be typed/word processed. If you do not have your own computer and/or printer, computer labs and resources are available on campus. Papers must be submitted with a title page including an original title, your name, my name, the course and section numbers, the date on which the paper is submitted, and the Honor Pledge. Use a plain font, 11-12 point. Leave one-inch margins on all borders of your text. Papers must be double-spaced, and pages must be numbered. Failure to meet these guidelines will result in a grade lowered by a full letter (an A becomes a B, etc.) for that assignment.

Draft Workshops: Throughout the semester, you will be asked to participate in draft workshops, which serve to develop your skills as both a writer and a reader. The draft you bring to workshop must meet the length requirements for the final version of each paper and must evidence substantial work. If you fail to bring a sufficient draft to class on a workshop day, which denies you the opportunity to share useful criticism and receive the same, I will not allow you to attend that class meeting. As a result, you will have used one of your three discretionary absences.

Course Materials: In addition to the texts listed above, you will need a pocket folder. All papers, completed in and out of class, should be kept in that folder. When you submit a paper, turn in the entire folder containing all the work for that project (invention worksheets, drafts, draft worksheets, the final draft, and any other material listed on the IAW assignment sheet). At the end of the course, I will collect your folder as a portfolio of your graded writing. You can retrieve your portfolio at the beginning of the next semester.

English 101 has been designated a "skills" class. What this means in practical terms is that attendance can be, and is, required. A University-sanctioned excuse, if presented in a timely fashion, entitles you to make up-promptly-such work as can be made up. It cannot do the impossible: it cannot guarantee a passing grade, nor can it entitle you to make up work which by its very nature cannot be made up-workshopping with class members, for example, or participating in discussion. Since some of your grade measures class participation, an excuse cannot even guarantee you the grade you would have had if you had not been absent. If you are having the sort of semester during which you are likely to be absent a great deal, I recommend strongly that you wait to take the course during a semester in which you can more easily attend the class.

Discretionary Absences: You may miss three days of class without penalty. Discretionary absences should be viewed not as "free days" but as days you may need to deal with unforeseen events. For each unexcused absence after three, your final grade will be lowered by one full letter grade.

Excused Absences: The University excuses absences for certain reasons (illness, representing the University at certain events, religious observance, and the death of an immediate family member), provided the cause of absence is appropriately documented.

If you have, or will have an excused absence (such as your mandatory presence at a University event or the death of an immediate family member), you must let me know ahead of time or as soon as possible. No absence is excused, however, until I have seen the documentation. Documentation must be presented no later than the first class period after your return to class. If you do not do so within the specified time period, your absence will remain unexcused. Please make one copy of your documentation for me to keep and keep another copy for your own records.

Documentation Requirements to Justify an Excused Absence: Documentation must justify absence for the specific period missed: a vague statement that you were "under [a doctor's] care during the week of X" will not suffice. You must have the attending doctor or nurse practitioner write down specific dates during which you could not attend class along with the doctor's/nurse's name and office phone number. Ask your doctor to be specific about times and physical limitations.

Making Up Work: Timeliness is important in making up work. As soon as possible, make an appointment with me, or come to my first office hour so you can arrange a schedule to make up any work you have missed.

Tardiness: I will start class immediately on the appointed hour. In the first minutes of class I may make important announcements, establish the agenda for the class meeting, begin immediately with an important lesson, or field questions you have about the subject matter under consideration.

Lateness to class will be treated as follows: two instances of tardiness (arriving more than ten minutes late) will be considered one unexcused absence.

This is a large campus and sometimes classes are located far from one another. I am sympathetic to the problems students encounter when putting together a schedule. However, ultimately, it is your responsibility to get to each of your classes on time. If my class is too far from the class you are taking in the preceding hour, or if your teacher consistently releases you late, then you should attempt to find another section of 101. Taking a section that you can get to on time is a better option than taking a section you can't get to on time and watching your grade suffer for it.

I am also available to meet with you by appointment if it is impossible for you to meet with me during office hours-every attempt should be made by you, however, to meet with me during those times. I will schedule appointments when it is convenient for both of us; the time you request for an appointment may not be a time when I can be available. I treat scheduled appointments like class time; if a student agrees a time to meet with me (outside of regular office hours) but does not show up and offers no legitimate excuse for missing the appointment, I count that as an unexcused absence.

Tangible participation in a course's regular meetings signals your place in an intellectual community; your ability to negotiate that community is an important part of academic growth. Because class participation is evidence of your progress, your activity in class (which includes all work done in the classroom, as well as the class's guided conversations) will be reflected in your final grade. Successful class participation includes serious, critical, and insightful dialogue, timely and thorough completion of all work, and productive draft workshop performance. Negative class participation (unwillingness to cooperate, refusal to do assignments, unnecessary disruption, etc.) will adversely affect that grade. In order to ensure an A in class participation, a student should not only speak during discussions and be willing and able to answer questions, but also to encourage participation in others by working well in groups, asking thoughtful and appropriate questions, and listening carefully.

Note that these percentages assume that the attendance requirements are met. Excessive unexcused absences will impact the final grade as indicated above.

You will be asked to write and sign The Honor Pledge, a statement of integrity, on the cover sheet of each formal paper you turn in to this class. For Freshman Writing, the Honor Pledge is as follows: "I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized (or unacknowledged) assistance on this assignment. Moreover, I have not taken or "borrowed" the ideas or words of another without properly citing that source."

Please visit the following website for more information about academic integrity and the Honor Pledge: http://www.inform.umd.edu/CampusInfo/Departments/JPO/. You are responsible for knowing the University's Code of Academic Integrity.

Some rules to bear in mind: (a) explaining what happened is not the same thing as having a valid excuse; (b) advance notice is not the same thing as permission; (c) while you will need to give me a written request for any special consideration you want, you should let me know informally as soon as you realize there will be a problem.