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Course |
English 127 Research Writing |
Syllabus
The Syllabus link contains the course policies and serves as a contract between students and the instructor. You must read it carefully, and be sure to ask questions about anything that is not clear. I recommend printing it out and marking up the hardcopy.
Schedule
The "Weekly Schedules" page gives an overview of the topics and assignments we will cover throughout the quarter. This page is divided according to individual weeks; each week is linked to its own page with more detailed reading and writing assignments. The links for all of the weeks are not active at the beginning of the quarter; subsequent weeks are activated as we go along.
Announcements
In addition to the information and explanations you will find in the weekly schedules and in the guidelines sheets for individual assignments, I will also periodically communicate to the class as a whole through "announcements." The latest announcement appears on the homepage for the class; you can see past announcements by going to the Announcements page.
Forum
Your written work in this class will primarily take two forms: the Major Assignments (the final drafts of which you will send to me as email attachments); and more informal assignments (you can consider these homework, reading, or exploratory assignments) that you will post to the Discussion Forum. We will be using GRCC's Canvas system as the Forum (bulletin board system) for our class. This form of interaction is often called "asynchronous" communication since all participants do not need to be logged on at the same time in order to respond to one another. The Forum page contains further instructions for use.
Participation in the weekly discussion forums is required. Because this is an online course, our interaction does not include classroom dialogue. Nevertheless, the ongoing evolution of our thinking and writing, both as general skills and with regard to particular topics, depend heavily on conversation, considerations of audience, and reflection on the distinct steps in the writing process. Therefore, the forums are the means by which we will create a "virtual" community for our class. The weekly schedule pages will include forum assignments; there will be a separate discussion for each forum assignment (e.g., Wk1a, Wk4b, etc.).
Forum Grades: Each forum assignment is worth 10 points with 3 points for each required response. Postings will receive full credit if they are adequate and on time, half credit if they are late (up to 3 days) or incomplete or inadequate, and no credit if they are overly sloppy or more than three days late. Since your overall Forum score is worth 10% of your course grade, and since you are ensured full credit simply for doing them adequately, I highly recommend that you do not miss these assignments. You should expect to post messages between 2-4 times each week.