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Eng 101 Syllabus

“The process may seem strange and yet it is very true. I did not so much gain the knowledge of things by
the words, as words by the experience I had of things.”
― Plutarch

“Has it ever struck you as odd, or unfortunate, that today, when the proportion of literacy is higher than it
has ever been, people should have become susceptible to the influence of advertisement and mass
propaganda to an extent hitherto unheard of and unimagined?”
― Dorothy L. Sayers, The Lost Tools of Learning

Contact Information:

[email protected]
585-507-3551
Office: 4276 (Main Campus, Ontario Building)

Office Hours:

MWF: 10-11. All meetings will take place virtually unless otherwise noted.
The virtual space can be accessed here:
https://flcc.webex.com/meet/charlotte.cline

Quick Response Hours: Mondays 1:30-3 p.m. and Thursday 12:30-2. During
these hours, I will respond within 5 or 10 minutes via email. We may also
meet in my virtual office if need be (link listed above). If you cannot meet
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during any of these times, then let me know so we can schedule an

appointment.

Course Objectives:
The goals of Composition I are to develop students' abilities to write at a college
level and to think critically. Students learn to make decisions based on rhetorical
concerns of the writer's purpose, the readers' needs, and the context in which
documents are read. Guided exploration of popular and scholarly sources is
interwoven into students' writing as one method of supporting ideas and connecting
with an audience. The course emphasizes reflective, informative, and analytical
process-based writing as well as the students’ reflection of their learning progress.
Co-requisite: ENG 095 or placement into ENG 101. This course carries SUNY
General Education Basic Communication: Written credit. 

Course Learning Outcomes:

1. Rhetorical Knowledge— read and compose a variety of texts by evaluating
purpose, audience, genre, and context for different situations.

2. Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing— analyze and interpret ideas,

information, situations, and texts in order to enhance their reading and writing
abilities.

3. Processes—use a composing process to generate ideas, draft, and revise for a

variety of writing situations.

4. Knowledge of Conventions-- apply conventions (grammar, punctuation,

paragraphing, tone, mechanics, etc.) for different writing situations in order to
create readable texts

Required Items:

Black Board Access.

Access to a computer and printer.
A notebook.
Pens, highlighters, and a personal calendar.
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Text books:

Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’Neil – available for free on

all campuses. Main campus: visit Student Life. Satellite campuses: see
the front desk operator.

A Rulebook for Arguments by Anthony Weston

Course Policies:

Classroom Conduct

Within this course, we may discuss subjects that you disagree with or
that you are unfamiliar with as a cultural norm, taboo, or perspective.
Please remember to respect others opinions and to engage with new
ideas respectfully. You are expected to follow the rules and
expectations of conduct outlined in your student handbook.

Attendance

There is not a formal attendance policy in this course, but attendance

is one of the best methods to guarantee success in any classroom
setting. If you miss several classes in a row, then you will miss key
discussions that will enhance the materials we read and discuss. A
classroom is a communal setting that is both flexible and interactive.
You are meant to ask questions as concepts are discussed. You are
meant to practice concepts and to bounce ideas off of one another.
That cannot happen if you are not present.

There is growing evidence that not attending class ensures that you
are likely to fail or to vastly underperform.

You have chosen to attend these classes. You are paying for these
courses. Even if you are not directly paying for the course content
(maybe you have a full scholarship or full financial aid) you are likely
still paying for content through your taxes. So, it is assumed that you
want to be here and that you plan to attend the class. Respect yourself
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enough to equip yourself with as much advantage as possible so that

you can pass this course and achieve your goals for the future.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism in any form is not tolerated at FLCC. Whether you have

allowed someone to use your work, or you have submitted another’s
work, then you will receive an F on the assignment and possibly
within the entire course. DO NOT COPY AND PASTE MATERIAL
FROM THE WEB WITHOUT CITING THE SOURCE. DO NOT
RELY TOO HEAVILY ON A SINGLE SOURCE. These are both
examples of plagiarism. You are expected to be familiar with the
College’s stance regarding academic integrity. All papers should be
submitted using MLA formatting and citations.

Make-up Work

Late work will not be accepted after one week. Do not get into the
habit of submitting work late as the cumulative effect will affect your
course grade. Only under extreme, dire circumstances (hospitalization,
death in the family) will exceptions be made, but you must present
some form of documentation for the event and contact me in advance
of the deadline if possible.

Medical or other personal situations

If you have a registered disability or a medical condition that may

prevent completing some of the course requirements or you require
accommodations (e.g. note takers, extra test time), then please let me
know as soon as possible. When in doubt about your standing or
situation, communicate with your instructors.

Course Grade Units: *note that this course uses weighted totals.

30 % Prompts 1-5:
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Writing / Rhetorical Situations using class prompts (4 final attempts

polished, 500-750 words each)

Drafts due: during “in class” writing

prompts
Peer Review due: ongoing
Final 4 copies due last week of classes.

30 % Annotated Bibliographies 1-6 Gathering research regarding Weapons of

Math Destruction. Each annotation should
be 300-500 words at minimum.

Draft due:
Peer Review due:
Final due:

30 % Essay 1: Analysis the final “say” on our societal use of

Weapons of Math Destruction. (2500-3000
words in total or 5-6 pages double-spaced.)

Draft due:
Peer Review:
Final due:

10 % Essay 2: Reflection A final letter regarding the learning and

thinking you completed all semester (500-
750 words in total)

Draft due:
Final due:

Recommended Resources:

Purdue Owl is a free, online resource that covers many aspects of writing.
This resource is invaluable and can be used for courses other than writing.
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
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Writing Center: https://www.flcc.edu/offices/writingcenter/

Office Hours

My office hours are listed at the beginning of this syllabus. I am

available during the times listed. If others are waiting in the virtual
forum, then I must limit our time to fifteen minutes. To make the time
as useful as possible, please arrive with a specific agenda or list of
questions that outline some of the problems or issues you might have
with the course content, an assignment sheet, or other consideration.

Communicating your academic needs and your personal situation to

your instructor can help you achieve your personal goals in this
course. On occasion, I might schedule an appointment with you
during office hours to address any concerns surrounding your
academic performance and/or personal conduct in the classroom. If it
is impossible for you to meet with me during the scheduled office
hours listed above, then we can arrange to meet at another time by
appointment.

Other Keys to Success:

Webex, Cameras, and Etiquette

For the most part, this course will be more successful for all of us if
we learn together. Please leave your cameras on and be prepared to
participate in class discussions either through your mics or through the
group chat. Classes will typically be recorded, but they will not be
posted to BB. You may request a recording if you miss classes, but
you cannot ask for every recording. You have signed up for a
synchronous online course, which requires you to attend and
participate in a group setting. On occasion, you may be asked to mute
if there is unnecessary feedback coming through in your audio. Class
participation is strongly encouraged. We will often disagree on the
ideas we discuss. Remember that we are focused on critical thinking,
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which requires us to examine multiple view points and to assess the

ethos, logos, and pathos of the rhetoric employed by content creators,
but not necessarily the validity or authenticity of those positions.

*Weighted Grades and Weighted Totals

It is preferable that you focus more on learning that worrying about

how to “game” the percentages outlined above. The purpose of this
course is to emphasize the cyclic and recursive nature of the writing
process: a process you will use in your day-to-day life as you enter the
“real world” to perform most jobs you might acquire post-graduation.
For example, you might say “I am just going to be a police officer so I
will never need to know how to write,” or you might think, “I plan to
make wine and to run a business, I just need to pass.”

Read more about how to best approach this course in the revisions
section.

Using weighted grades and weighted totals can illustrate what type of
activity you are engaged in when working on your course work. The
more items within a specific category or unit, the less each item is
“worth.” So, if you have a class participation grade in some of your
classes, then you should see that there will be at minimum 15 grades
in that category. Each participation day is worth less than a category
that might have a single grade such as a final exam. The principles
described here extend to most of your courses that use weighted totals,
but of course the percentages and “weight” may differ depending
upon a discipline.

So, let’s talk specifically about this course. The analysis essay only
has three grades that will go into that category that will affect 30% of
your course grade. You will receive nominal credit for submitting a
draft and for commenting during peer review. In total, those two
actions will not be worth more than 15 points. The final analysis essay
will be worth 25 points. Let’s say you write an essay that scores a
20/25. That is an 80% or a B on the final copy of the essay, but let us
say that you have NOT submitted the drafts or the comments during
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draft workshop. That means that for the entire project, the highest
score you will receive is a 20/40 points total (for the entire category).
That means that the highest you will achieve is 50% for that project.
Even if you have received an A+ on every other assignment in the
course, the highest grade you can achieve because of the performance
on the Analysis essay will be a B for the course.

Deaths by Zero
One of the most common mistakes students make every semester is to
not even attempt course work. A single zero has the power of driving
your entire course grade down, almost to the point of failure. Using
the example above, let us run an example that will illustrate just how
ineffective not completing an assignment is. Let’s say that you scored
a perfect in every category in the class, BUT you did not hand in any
part of the analysis essay for this class. In this example, you would
likely receive a 70%. It is unlikely that you would receive a perfect in
every single category ever. (That doesn’t mean it is impossible.) If
you have missed a few other items, or even scored low on a few other
items, it is entirely possible that you would receive a D or an F in this
scenario. So, the best advice to follow: it is better to attempt an
activity than to not complete any part of it.

Revisions

Important Dates to Remember:

February 22nd Professional Day

April 13th Laker Day
NO SPRING Break
May 18th Last Day of Classes

** This syllabus is subject to change based upon class discussions. You are
responsible for keeping track of changes announced during class. In the event of
an absence or other notable situation, please contact me via email to learn of any
possible changes.
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Tentative Course Reading/Topic Schedule:

This work should be completed in addition to the modules in Blackboard. The
reading schedule is also found on Blackboard.

Week 1: 2/1-2/5
Prompt 1.
Read: pages xii- 8 A Rulebook for Arguments.

Week 2: 2/8-2/12
Prompt 2.
Read: pages 9-22 A Rulebook for Arguments.

Week 3: 2/15-2/19
Prompt 3 and 4.
Read: pages 23-33 A Rulebook for Arguments.

Week 4: 2/22-2/26
*February 22nd Professional Day – No classes
The Social Dilemma
Read: the Introduction for Weapons of Math Destruction pages 1-13.

Week 5: 3/1-3/5
Read: pages 33-60 A Rulebook for Arguments.

Week 6: 3/8-3/12
Annotated Bibliography 1.
Read: pages 84-104 in Weapons of Math Destruction (Chapter 5).

Week 7: 3/15-3/19
Annotated Bibliography 2.
Read: No assigned textbook readings. Peer review and other classroom
activities.

Week 8: 3/22-3/26
Annotated Bibliography 3 and 4.
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Week 9: 3/29-4/2
Annotated Bibliography 5.
Read: A final chapter of your choice from Weapons of Math Destruction.
Recommended chapters include 6, 7, or 10.

Week 10: 4/5-4/9

Ethos, pathos, and logos
Read: pages 61-68 A Rulebook for Arguments

Week 11: 4/12-4/16

*April 13th Laker Day
Ethos, pathos, and logos.
Read: pages 87-102 A Rulebook for Arguments.

Week 12: 4/19-4/23

The Stases and the Common Topics.

Week 13: 4/26-4/30

Annotated Bibliography 6
Revision. Peer Editing.

Week 14: 5/3-5/7

Revision. Peer Editing.

Week 15: 5/10-5/14

Revision. Peer Editing.

Week 16: 5/17-5/18

*Last day of classes 5/18
All revisions and final copies due.