Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
COURSE OUTLINE
Instructor: Jeannine Stanko
Lab hours:
Other hours:
Co-requisite(s): NONE
Course Description:
This is a course that introduces or continues to familiarize students with critical thinking, the principles of academic
writing, and rudimentary research skills. Through the writing process, students refine topics; develop and support
ideas; investigate, evaluate and integrate appropriate sources; edit for effective style and usage; and determine
appropriate approaches for a variety of contexts, audiences, and purposes.
Students must earn a C grade or better to register for the next course in this discipline or to use this course as a
prerequisite for a course in another discipline.
Learning Outcomes:
Upon successful completion of the course, the student will:
Write academic essays that
o Develop a thesis
o Create an organizing structure appropriate to purpose, audience and context
o Make valid inferences
o Support ideas with relevant explanation and substantial evidence details
o Integrate and cite information from relevant print and/or electronic sources
o Provide a coherent introduction and conclusion
Revise drafts to develop or support ideas more clearly, address potential objections, ensure effective transitions
between paragraphs, and correct errors in logic
Edit and proofread, using standards for formal written English
LISTED TOPICS
Review as Needed:
1. Using standard written English
2. Writing process from prewriting to rewriting
3. Developing ideas and supporting them with details
4. Creating introductions and conclusions
5. Using primary and secondary sources
6. Quoting, summarizing, paraphrasing sources
Further Develop:
1. Evaluating basic library and Internet sources
2. Using examples to clarify ideas vs. proving an idea
3. Avoiding 'cut and paste,' plagiarism and fabrication
4. Revising to accommodate differences in audience, tone, persona
5. Comparing and contrasting
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Introduce:
1. Distinguishing observations, inferences & value judgments
2. Summarizing or reporting a position vs. arguing for or against a position
3. Problem-solving techniques
4. Critiquing the informational or argumentative weaknesses of a document
The student will produce five to seven reading based multi-paragraphed expository and argumentative essays of
increasing difficulty, totaling 15-20 pages for the semester.
Instructor:
Telephone:
E-Mail Address:
Jeannine Stanko
724-396-4158
jstanko@ccac.edu
Section
BC08
Dates
1/19-5/9
Days
T/TH
Office Hours:
Office Location:
Time
9:30-10:45AM
Room
N307
T/TH: By Appointment
Writing Lab
79-70% - C;
69-60% - D;
59-0% - F
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Newsletters
30% of final grade
Essays
45% of final grade
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If you miss class the day a paper is due, email your essay to me as an attachment and copy/paste it into the
body of the email for full credit. The email must be sent prior to the beginning of your class time. I will
not accept essays for full credit when you return to class. When I receive your essay, I will respond to let
you know that it was received. If you do not receive acknowledgement from me, you know that I did not
receive the essay! It is your responsibility to ensure that I receive your essay. Do not wait until the next
class period to resolve this because I will not accept the essay.
Quizzes & Exams:
If absent on the day of a quiz, the mulligan for that quiz is forfeited. Exams may not be made up. If an
emergency arises, it is your responsibility to contact me within 24 hours to make arrangements.
Mulligans:
For each essay and newsletter, one mulligan or do-over will be offered. Any assignment submitted without a
rubric forfeits its mulligan. All mulligans are due before the next assignment in the course outline sequence.
Any essay submitted after the mulligan due date will not be accepted. The mulligan is forfeited if absent on
the day of the original assignments due date as listed in the course outline.
When submitting an essay mulligan, the essay showing corrections, the original essay, and its
rubric must be submitted. When submitting a newsletter mulligan, the corrected version, the
original version, and its rubric must be submitted.
Plagiarism:
A plagiarized essay will result in an automatic failure for the assignment. Plagiarism is representing
someone elses research, writing, or ideas as your own. Depending on the severity of the offense, a
plagiarized essay or assignment may result in course failure and/or academic dismissal from the college.
Miscellaneous:
All electronics (cell phones, iPods, etc.) must be turned off and put away during class. Texting or engaging
in any electronic social networking will result in a class absence. If class is held in a computer lab, students
who choose to engage in internet or computer activities without instructor consent will receive an absence
for that class period.
Students should not be receiving personal calls nor taking restroom breaks during class time. If there is an
emergency or medical problem, please let me know ahead. Otherwise, plan to stay in the room for the
entire time.
Please be aware that it is very disruptive when students talk in class while the instructor is teaching or other
students are asking questions. Every student should have a copy of the Student Handbook which outlines
acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Any student who demonstrates an inability to conform to acceptable
social conduct will be subject to the disciplinary policies and procedures of the college.
Please remember that it is school policy that children are not permitted in classes.
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Failure to process these forms with the Registration office by the published deadline may result in F
grades and have financial consequences.
Students with Disabilities
The Community College of Allegheny County makes every effort to provide reasonable accommodations
for students with disabilities. Questions about services and procedures for students with disabilities
should be directed to the Office of Supportive Services at your campus.
Title IX Notification
Know your rights as a student. Title IX, the Clery Act and the SaVE Act prohibits sexual harassment,
sexual misconduct and acts of sexual violence, including sexual assault, domestic violence, dating
violence, and stalking. See the complete policy and how to report at
https://www.ccac.edu/nondiscrimination/.
MyCCAC Portal and Academic Email
The MyCCAC portal provides access to all course, grade and administrative information at
https://my.ccac.edu. All email correspondence regarding your academic work is to be conducted to and
from your CCAC academic email account.
https://my.ccac.edu
Course Outline Corrections:
During the semester/session, reasonable changes to the course outline may be academically appropriate.
Students will be notified of these adjustments by the instructor in a timely manner.
The following is the tentative class schedule for the Spring 2016 semester. In the event of cancelled or
shortened days due to severe weather or emergencies, the schedule may be modified.
Course Plan:
Class
Week/Date
Week 1
January
19, 21
Week 2
January
26, 28
Week 3
February
2, 4
Week 4
February
9, 11
Week 5
February
16, 18
Week 6
February
23, 25
Week 7
March
1, 3
Lesson or Topic
Syllabus review,
grammar diagnostic
Learning
Activities
introductions
Lecture, group
work, in-class
writing
Writers
conferences,
scholarly article
discussion, writers
workshop
Active verbs,
prepositions,
Narration: Relating
Events, pronoun and
antecedent
agreement
Reading discussion,
run-ons, fragments,
writers conferences
Writers workshop,
sentence variety,
Comparison:
Showing
Relationships
Peer review,
lecture, discussion
Assignments
Evaluation
Grammar
diagnostic
Read chapter 1 (pgs. 218), chapter 3 (pgs 3556), chapter 4 (pgs. 5781), chapter 5 (pgs. 82103)
Due Diagnostic
Essay
MLA assignments
Lecture, discussion
Group work,
lecture, discussion
Due Essay #1
rough draft
Due Narrative
analysis rough
draft, Essay #1 final
copy
Due Essay #2
rough draft
NO CLASS
SPRING BREAK
NO CLASS
Reading discussion,
commas, writers
conferences
Group work,
lecture, discussion
Due Essay #3
rough draft
Writers workshop,
semicolons, colons,
Argument:
Convincing Others
Peer review,
lecture, discussion
Reading discussion,
other punctuation,
writers conferences
Group work,
lecture, discussion
Due Essay #4
rough draft
Writers workshop,
parallelism,
misplaced and
dangling modifiers,
numbers
Peer review,
lecture, discussion
Reading discussion,
capitalization,
writers conferences
Group work,
lecture, discussion
Writers workshop,
who/whom,
apostrophes, Cause
and Effect:
Explaining Why,
quotation
punctuation
SPRING BREAK
Peer review,
lecture, discussion
Week 8
March
8, 10
Week 9
March
15, 17
March
22, 24
Week 10
March
29, 31
Week 11
April
5, 7
Week 12
April
12, 14
Week 13
April
19, 21
Due Newsletter
Revisions #1
Due Essay #2 final
copy
Week 14
April
26, 28
Week 15
May
3, 5
Homophones,
commonly confused
words, appropriate
language, exact
words, streamlining,
visual analysis
Cumulative grammar
review, grammar
assessment
Lecture, group
discussion
Due Newsletter
Revisions #2
Review activities
Review games,
assessment
Grammar
assessment
Final Exam
wjp10/24/06
Approved by Academic Deans 10/24/2006
Newsletter Corrections #1
Directions: Following in-class direct instruction and practice, proofread the newsletters. The
newsletters can be downloaded from Blackboard in Word format. The purpose of this assignment is to
practice proofreading skills by systematically applying grammar rules to correct and refine the
newsletters. This assignment should also show students the importance of following grammar rules in
every major.
A 10 pts.
B 8 pts.
All
1
MLA format characteristics characteristic
apparent
is weak or
missing
All
1
characteristics characteristic
Active verbs
apparent
is weak or
missing
All
1
characteristics characteristic
ending
apparent
is weak or
prepositions
missing
All
1
characteristics characteristic
shifts
apparent
is weak or
missing
All
1
Pronoun &
characteristics characteristic
Antecedent
apparent
is weak or
Agreement
missing
All
1
characteristics
characteristic
Fragments
apparent
is weak or
missing
All
1
characteristics characteristic
Run-ons
apparent
is weak or
missing
All
1
characteristics characteristic
Sentence
apparent
is weak or
Variety
missing
All
1
Capitalization characteristics characteristic
apparent
is weak or
missing
EARNED:
C 7 pts.
2
characteristics
are weak or
missing
2
characteristics
are weak or
missing
2
characteristics
are weak or
missing
2
characteristics
are weak or
missing
2
characteristics
are weak or
missing
2
characteristics
are weak or
missing
2
characteristics
are weak or
missing
2
characteristics
are weak or
missing
2
characteristics
are weak or
missing
D 6 pts.
3
characteristics
are weak or
missing
3
characteristics
are weak or
missing
3
characteristics
are weak or
missing
3
characteristics
are weak or
missing
3
characteristics
are weak or
missing
3
characteristics
are weak or
missing
3
characteristics
are weak or
missing
3
characteristics
are weak or
missing
3
characteristics
are weak or
missing
90 Points Total
F 5 pts.
4 or more
characteristics
are weak or
missing
4 or more
characteristics
are weak or
missing
4 or more
characteristics
are weak or
missing
4 or more
errors in
grammar and
mechanics
4 or more
characteristics
are weak or
missing
4 or more
characteristics
are weak or
missing
4 or more
characteristics
are weak or
missing
4 or more
characteristics
are weak or
missing
4 or more
characteristics
are weak or
missing
Proofreading Guide
Circle all be verbs.
Circle the prepositions that end sentences.
Check the verb tenses to ensure that none of the verbs shift.
Ensure that there arent any shifts from a statement to a question or vice versa.
Underline all pronouns. Check the pronouns antecedent to ensure that it exists. Ensure that the
pronoun and antecedent align in singularity and plurality.
6. Double check that there arent any fragments or run-ons. Ensure the existence of sentence variety.
7. Check the application of capitalization rules.
8. Test the homophones their/there/theyre, youre/your, two/to/too
9. Cross out any inflated phrases, meaningless phrases (ie. due to the fact that), and clichs. Check for
offensive and sexist language.
10. Ensure that all apostrophes are used correctly. Remember apostrophes show only possession or
omission.
11. Look for dependent and transitional words (ie. When, therefore, secondly). Ensure that commas are
used after the dependent phrase or word. Do the inversion test.
12. Look for multiple adjectives describing a noun. Use the And Test to determine whether or not
commas are needed between the adjectives.
13. Look for extra information not needed for understanding the sentence. Use commas, dashes, or
parenthesis to offset this extra information.
14. Highlight all of the FANBOYS. If the FANBOY is between two complete sentences, make sure that
a comma is before the FANBOY. If the FANBOY is not between two complete sentences, ensure
that a comma is not used before the FANBOY.
15. Look for colons. Make sure that a complete sentence is before the colon. After the colon should be
either another complete sentence or a list.
16. Look for semicolons. Make sure that the semicolon is between two complete sentences or is used to
separate items in a list already containing commas.
17. Check hyphen usage. Hyphens are used when two or more words are used together as an adjective
before a noun; between fractions and numbers; prefixes all-, ex-, self-; the suffix elect; and between
double or triple letters.
18. Are all quotation marks used in pairs? Make sure that any shorter works like short stories, poems, and
songs are surrounded by quotation marks. Make sure that all direct quotations are placed inside
quotation marks as well.
19. Check for parallelism in all items in a series, in items with conjunctions, in items with correlative
conjunctions. Make sure that all function words (by, to, that, because) are repeated to clarify
parallels.
20. Look for limiting modifiers (only, even, almost, just, nearly) and place in front of the verb only if its
the word being modified. Make sure that modifying words and phrases are placed adjacent to the
words being further described. Check for split infinitives, dangling modifiers, and squinting
modifiers.
21. MLA
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.