ENGLISH 103 Fall 2017

RHETORIC AND COMPOSITION

Mon, Wed, Fri – 10am
M/F - Reavis 202, W -Graham 136

Instructor: Ms. Amy Bayliss, Office: Reavis 315, Office hours: 10am-12pm
Course description and objectives:
The primary goal of this course is to help you become a better writer. Writing is a
continuing process of thinking, discovering, learning, communicating, and
reflecting. You will need these skills to succeed as an engaged citizen of NIU and
the world beyond. You have things to say and voices with which to say them.
You have much to contribute to the classroom conversations at each class
meeting. You also have a good knowledge of English that comes from many years
of use—speaking, reading, and writing.
English 103 offers you the occasion to explore the purposes, intents, and
audiences of expressive, informative, and persuasive writing, as well as the rhetoric
of electronic communication. The course provides the opportunity for you to
become more conscious about the strategies involved in shifting focus among the
writer, message, audience, style, and medium. It asks you to become more
sensitive to the ways all writing emerges from the expressions of community and
in turn influences the nature of community.
Finally, this course affords you the opportunity to become more aware of yourself
as a writer by creating an electronic portfolio. This portfolio is a collection of
material that you will select and assemble to demonstrate the course competencies
identified in the English 103 Outcomes. Reflective writing both generates material
for your portfolio and serves as the glue that holds your portfolio together by
showing how its pieces demonstrate course competencies.
Required texts:
The English department wants to keep textbook costs low – so the textbook
bundle that you purchased will serve you for both courses. Your bundle includes:
Make Your Home Among Strangers by Jennine Capó ENGL 103/UNIV 101
Crucet
Easy Writer by Andrea A. Lunsford ENGL 103/203
 An Insider’s Guide to Academic Writing by Cochran, ENGL 203
Stamper, and Miller-Cochran

Diversity and Inclusion:

I am committed to acceptance and celebration of diversity in culture, gender, race,
ethnicity, sexual orientation, social class, learning styles, and ability. My classroom aims to
be an inclusive place for all students, and I expect inclusive behavior from students in the
class as well. At times, this may ask you to confront information and perspectives that
differ from your own, which can be a difficult task. While diversity and inclusion are
valuable for their own sake; in our class, they also serve as important avenues for us to
expand our perspectives and approaches to the world.

NIU has a variety of resources for students with regard to their diverse identities; those
resources are too numerous to name in the syllabus, but we will take a look at these as a
class in our first week. One resource that I will mention is the Disability Resource Center
which provides accommodations for students with documented ability differences. The
NIU Disability Resource Center is located on the 4th floor of the University Health
Service (753-1303) and is the office that provides services and assistance for students.
Please contact me early in the semester so that I may work with the DRC in facilitating
any accommodations that you may need.

Course Requirements:

Summary of graded work:

Name % 1st Draft Due Final Draft Due

Personal Narrative 5% N/A

Rhetorical Technique Analysis 15%

Visual Analysis 15%

Persuasive Essay 20%

E-Portfolio 15%

In-class work 10% -------------- --------------

Class/lab preparation and participation: 20% N/A

This system of evaluation rewards you for timely, serious effort on daily assignments and
in workshop. It does not penalize you for mistakes or experiments that go awry, as you
learn from mishaps how to produce quality finished work. In fact, this system assumes
that finished, effective communication is often the end product of a very messy creation
process in which you take risks, follow false leads or trails, make lots of mistakes, and
return anew to your writing task. This system encourages you to engage in the recursive
and sometimes chaotic process of becoming a productive, confident, and fluent writer.
Early in the semester we will arrive at an understanding of the standards by which our
writing is judged, both within the community of our class and within the larger public
audience of readers. The course assumes that your final revised essays will observe the
conventions of grammar, spelling, and punctuation of written academic American
English. If you need extra support with these conventions, I will help you. You may also
seek writing assistance from the University Writing Center, Stevenson South Lower Level,
753-6636.

Grading:
NIU uses plus/minus grading system. The following scale will be used in determining
course grades:
A 93-100
A- 90-92
B+ 87-89
B 83-86
B- 80-82
C+ 77-79
C 70-76
D 60-69
Rubrics
The course will use rubrics as a way of keeping writing goals consistent and assisting
students with evaluating their progress as writers. Evaluative rubrics will not be used for
grading but will be provided (along with grades and summative comments) as feedback
on student work.

Attendance and Participation:

As a community of writers, attendance and participation is of vital importance for all
students’ success in the course. As such, 20% of students’ course grade will come from
attendance, in-class work, and participation.

Plagiarism:
The English Department has developed a formal policy concerning plagiarism to
supplement the University statement in the Undergraduate Catalog. This policy is
available online at http://www.engl.niu.edu/composition/plag.shtml. Since plagiarism
can jeopardize your academic future, we will review the policy together early in the
semester and discuss its implications for us as writers.

Computer-mediated composition:
Class will meet once each week in a computer lab. Remember to back up your files in
more than one place to prevent inconvenience or even disaster.

You need to have your network LOGIN ID and password and your email account
operational by the end of the first lab. Write your username and password down and keep
 it a safe place. As you may use more than one kind of computer throughout the semester,
all writing assignments must be saved in a format that is accessible in class on lab days.

‘Paperless’ classroom:
It is the class room policy to limit the amount of printing done by both students and the
instructor to minimize our impact on the environment and keep printing costs down for
students. This means that all major assignments will be submitted via Blackboard, and
peer review and instructor conferences will use digital versions of assignments. This will
mean that all students must be able to use their student email, student calendar, the
revision functionalities of MS Word, and Blackboard. While we will practice these skills in
class, please come and see me if you are unsure about any of these platforms.

Conferences:
We will meet 3 times throughout the semester for a one on one conference to discuss
your writing development. You are encouraged to come to my office hours frequently to
discuss any aspect of the course, your progress as a writer, or your academic life here at
NIU.

EW = Easy Writer; BB = Blackboard; IG = Insider’s Guide to Academic Writing

Date Readings Submissions
Week 1 (W) BB “Thank Goodness,” “Figuring It Out for Myself,” Set of criteria to define
8/28 “Beautiful Façade;” good writing
(F) THE WRITING PROCESS
Composition #1: Draft of
personal narrative
Week 2 (M) Labor Day – no class
9/4 (W) IG Critical Reading pg. 39-45, Make Your Home Among Strangers,
pp. 1-58
(F) EW: Building Arguments pg. 48-54, “A Writer’s Choice” pg.
14-21 & “Planning and Drafting” pg. 24-27 BB: Thesis Statements
Week 3 (M) Make Your Home Among Strangers, pp. 59-135 Composition #2: Thesis
9/11 (W) EW: Paragraphing pg. 25-27 due
(F)
(BB) Writing Rhetorical Analyses, Organizing Your Analysis,
Drafting,
Week 4* (M) Make Your Home Among Strangers, 136-211 Composition #2: Narrative
9/18 (W) Technique Analysis (draft)
(F) IG: Reviewing, Revising, and Editing pg. 34-37, BB: Local
Revision (CC)

Week 5 (M) Conferences Composition #2: Narrative

9/25 (W) Make Your Home Among Strangers, pp. 211-296; Technique Analysis
(revision)
Week 6 (M) Make Your Home Among Strangers, pp. 297-388;
10/2 (W) IG: Visual Rhetoric: Images as Arguments pg. 117-145
(F) TBA
Week 7 (M) TBA Composition #3 Proposal
10/9 (W) TBA and thesis
(F) IG: *Revisiting the writing process* pg. 178-194
Week 8 (M) BB: “Pasta and Romance,” “Boys and Their Toys,” “I Can Do Composition #3: Visual
10/16 Anything You Can Do” Analysis (draft)
(W) BB: Outlining, Shaping Paragraphs, Transitions, Introductions,
Conclusions
Week 9 Conferences Composition #3: Visual
10/23 (W) TBA Analysis (revision)
(F) TBA
Week 10 (M) BB: Reading Complex Texts (CC)
10/30 (W) BB Assigned case and related online readings;
(F) N/A
Week 11 (M) BB: Working w/sources reading 1 Composition #5:
11/6 (W) BB: MLA reading Persuasive Essay draft due
(F) N/A
Week 12 Conferences Composition #5:
11/13 Reading: Persuasive Essay final due
(M) N/A
(W) BB: Working w/sources reading 2
(F) TBA
Week 13 Thanksgiving Break
11/20 (M) TBA
Week 14 (M) BB: Portfolio reading Reflection drafts due
11/27 (W) BB: Reflecting
(F) TBA

Week 15 Reflection revisions due

12/4 Friday
Week 16 Final Exams E-portfolio final due
12/11