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ENG 110
COURSE SYLLABUS: Fall 2010

Instructor: Allyson Jones

Office Location: HL 103 (Writing Center)
Office Hours: T 12:00-1:00 W 12:00-1:00
Office Phone: 903.886.5280
University Email Address: allysonlee1@yahoo.com
Course Website: http://eng110allysonjones.wordpress.com/

COURSE INFORMATION

Materials – Textbooks, Readings, Supplementary Readings:

 Stepping on My Brother’s Head And Other Secrets Your English Professor Never Told
You: A College Reader Edited by Sondra Perl and Charles Schuster. ISBN #: 978-0-86709-
592-0
 a three-ring binder or pocket folder that will later serve as your response journal
 a college level dictionary writing paper pens/pencils/highlighters copy card (with at least
$5) for printing (your campus ID)

Course Description:

ENG 110 is a course designed to help students work through the various reading and writing
projects assigned in their writing-intensive courses (English 101, 102, etc). Students work in
small groups and with a tutor in order to sharpen their abilities to read the imperatives of a given
writing or reading project/situation and shape their discourse to successfully address these
imperatives. Much emphasis is placed on the important ways that the reading or writing process
used must take into account the writing or reading task at hand.

This course contains two elements:

1. The “lecture” section, where you will meet each week on Monday at 2:00 to discuss the
week’s reading assignment and your response to that assignment.
2. The “lab” section, where you will be required to complete seven productive writing center
visits during the semester.

Student Learning Outcomes:

Students who successfully complete ENG 110 should be able to:

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1. Identify and employ critical reading strategies

2. Identify the main idea or central argument in a text
3. Identify and understand potential bias within a text
4. Identify rhetorical strategies used by authors to support arguments
5. Recognize and identify organizational elements of writing
6. Explicate a difficult text for meaning and understanding

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Grading:

20% Mid-term Critical Reading Response

Revise one of your better reading responses from your journal for a formal grade. Choose one
that shows that you’ve thoroughly understood and engaged with the reading.

20% Final Critical Reading Response

20% Response Journal

A document of your responses to each week’s reading. This is your chance to prove that you’ve
understood the reading and show that you can discuss what you’ve read. You’ll discuss your
responses each week in class. Remember that you will revise two of these responses for the mid-
term and final papers. Also keep in mind that you can ask a writing center tutor or your instructor
for help on these responses.

20% What is Critical Reading? Handout

You will create a handout to be used for students in the writing center. Relying on what you’ve
learned and experienced in this class, how would you define critical reading to someone just
learning about it? What advice, guidelines, or tips could you offer to someone enrolled in this
class next semester? Remember that your audience will be students who visit the writing center.

20% Participation and Writing Center visits

On a scale from one to ten, how engaged were you in the course? Did you come prepared to class
everyday? Were you absent often? Did you participate in class discussion? Were you an engaged
listener? Did you complete seven engaged writing center visits throughout the semester? There’s
a lot of effort involved in becoming a good, critical reader, so we want to recognize and reward
that effort.

Guide to Writing Center Visits:

You have three major writing assignments to complete this semester: a mid-term reading
response, a final reading response, and a handout on critical reading. You should use these
visits to plan, develop, revise, and perfect these assignments. The writing center tutors can also
help you with your reading assignment for the week. If you’re having trouble understanding
the main points, purpose, etc of the essay, writing center tutors are well equipped to help you
with these questions. Also, a writing center tutor could help you with your weekly reading
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response and in choosing which responses are strongest and should therefore be revised for the
midterm and final critical reading responses.
In order to receive credit for your writing center visit, please obtain and hand in to your
instructor a copy of the writing center proof sheet your tutor will give to you. Only visits
from which you turn in a proof sheet will count toward your seven required visits. Don’t put
off your visits until the end. The writing center gets busy at the end of the semester. As a
precautionary measure, you will be required to show proof of visiting the WC throughout the
semester. (See weekly schedule for details.)

Classroom Protocol:

Important to the creation of a classroom community:

 Use of cell phones, MP3 players, and other electronic devices will not be tolerated during
class. In order to be counted as present for the day, you must be present in both body and
mind. Students using these devices will be asked to leave and counted as absent for the
day*. (*In some cases an electronic device may be approved for a specific academic
use.)

 All students enrolled at the university shall follow the tenets of common decency and
acceptable behavior conducive to a positive learning environment. Please be respectful of
your instructor during lecture and your peers during discussion.

Attendance

Your attendance is essential to your success in this course. Absence/tardiness rules and
consequences will comply with institutional regulations:

 I will close the door at the start of class. Arriving after the door is closed constitutes a
tardy. Three tardies are considered an absence.

 Leaving class early for any reason is considered a tardy.

 Four absences will lower your course grade by one letter.

 Six absences will cause you to be assigned an F for the class.

If you must miss a class, email me ahead of time to explain your absence. You are still
responsible for knowing about assignments, announcements, and changes in the coursework. I
encourage you to exchange contact information with a classmate so that you can be updated on
missed work. Of course, your syllabus is an invaluable tool for knowing where you are in the
class.

TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENTS
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 Flash drive or other means (dropbox.com account, for example) of storing digital versions
of the essays and other written material you generate (always, always keep a backup of
everything you turn in!)
 A valid, working email address that you check every day.
 Regular internet access (additional readings available online)
 Access to a computer with a word processing program and a printer (assignments must be
typed and printed)

COMMUNICATION AND SUPPORT

Interaction with Instructor Statement:

Please contact you instructor with any questions you may have. Your instructor’s communication
preference is e-mail, and her address is: AllysonLee1@yahoo.com. Also, each instructor in the
department of literature and languages is required to keep at least three office hours per course
per week.

Grievance Procedure:

If you have concerns about the class or about me as an instructor, please speak to me about those
concerns. If you are not satisfied with the outcome of our conversation, the next person in the
chain of command is the Director of the Writing Program, Dr. Tabetha Adkins. Her e-mail
address is Tabetha_Adkins@tamu-commerce.edu.

COURSE AND UNIVERSITY PROCEDURES/POLICIES

Course Specific Procedures:

A Message from the Writing Center

The Writing Center is a free service available to students, faculty, and alumni at Texas A&M-
Commerce. The writing center is staffed by experienced writers who are dedicated to helping
students in all disciplines become better writers. This is your place for assistance with your
reading and writing projects. They can help you with your papers in any of your classes.
Please note that your lab grade requires you to visit the writing center on several
occasions during the semester. See you lab syllabus for more information.

Hours of Operation:

Hall of Languages: Monday through Thursday: 9:00 AM until 4:00 PM Friday: 9:00 AM
until 1:00 PM

Gee Library: Sunday through Thursday 6:00 PM until 9:00 PM

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To make an appointment, come to HL 103 or call 903.886.5280. You don’t have to make an
appointment, but they are encouraged, especially near the end of the semester.

Academic Honesty

The official departmental policy: “Instructors in the Department of Literature and Languages do
not tolerate plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonestly. Instructors uphold and support
the highest academic standards, and students are expected to do likewise. Penalties for students
guilty of academic dishonesty include disciplinary probation, suspension, and expulsion. (Texas
A&M University-Commerce Code of Student Conduct 5.b [1,2,3])
If you ever have any questions about a particular use of a source, always ask your instructor.
They want you to avoid plagiarism, too, so they will help you do so whenever and wherever they
can. Do what you can to take advantage of this support—to look innocent in addition to being
innocent when it comes to charges of plagiarism.
Students who commit academic dishonest acts should expect to fail the assignment in question
and, depending on the nature of the offense, the entire course.

On University-Sanctioned Activities

To accommodate students who participate in university-sanctioned activities, the First- Year

Composition Program offers sections of this course at various times of the day and week. If you
think that this course may conflict with a university-sanctioned activity in which you are
involved--athletics, etc.--please see your instructor after class on the first day.

University Specific Procedures:

ADA Statement

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination statute that provides
comprehensive civil rights protection for persons with disabilities. Among other things, this
legislation requires that all students with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that
provides for reasonable accommodation of their disabilities. If you have a disability requiring an
accommodation, please contact:

Office of Student Disability Resources and Services

Texas A&M University-Commerce
Gee Library 132
Phone (903) 886-5150 or (903) 886-5835
Fax (903) 468-8148
StudentDisabilityServices@tamu-commerce.edu
Student Disability Resources & Services

Student Conduct
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All students enrolled at the University shall follow the tenets of common decency and acceptable
behavior conducive to a positive learning environment. (See Code of Student Conduct from
Student Guide Handbook).

COURSE OUTLINE / CALENDAR

The instructor reserves the right to adjust this schedule throughout the semester to accommodate
for class needs, unexpected weather, etc.

Date Due during class

(reading must be finished prior to class session
in which we’re scheduled to discuss it.)

Week one Introduction to course

1/24 Course assessment for Dr. Adkins

Week two Read introduction to textbook

1/31 Read Schuster essay, pgs 1-12

Week three Read Tobin essay, pgs 13-22

2/7 Writing Center visits 1 & 2 due

Week four Read Pinard essay, pgs 23-37

2/14
Week five Read article of your choice
2/21 Response journal check

Week six Read Bloom essay pgs 38-46

2/28
Week seven Read Ballenger essay, pgs 55-62
3/7
Week eight
SPRING BREAK!
Week nine Mid Term reading response due
3/21 Writing center visits 3&4 due
Read Malinowitz essay, pgs 63-76
(No response for Malinowitz essay, but we will
discuss it.)

Week nine Response journal check

3/28 Read Elred essay, pgs 77-92

Week ten In-Class Activity

4/4
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Week eleven Read Schwartz essay, pgs 93-100

4/11

Week twelve Read Rose essay, pgs 101-114

4/18

Week thirteen Response journal check

4/25 In-Class Activity

Week fourteen Read Faery essay, pgs 115-128

5/2 Discussion—what is critical reading to you?

Week fifteen Read Perl essay, pgs 129-end

5/9 Final reading response due
Writing Center visits 5&6 due
Response journal due

Week sixteen Finals week- Present Critical Reading

5/16 Handout in class
Writing Center visit 7 due
Course evaluation Course assessment for Dr.
Adkins