At the end of the course, the Office of Institutional Assessment and the Composition Program will collect random samples of students’ final research projects to assess the effectiveness of the Students as Scholars Program. This assessment has no bearing on your grade in the course.

Below are course goals and learning outcomes for the composition program and the SaS initiative.

STUDENTS AS SCHOLARS LEARNING OUTCOMES:

* CORE: Articulate and refine a question, problem, or challenge.

* ETHICAL: Identify relevant ethical issues and follow ethical principles.

* DISCOVERY: Distinguish between personal beliefs and evidence.

* METHOD: Gather and evaluate evidence appropriate to the inquiry.

* METHOD: Appropriately analyze scholarly evidence.

* CONTEXT: Explain how knowledge is situated and shared in relevant scholarly contexts

1. analyze the rhetorical situations—audience, purpose, and context—in order to recognize the expectations of readers and understand the main purposes of composing across multiple contexts relevant to their fields of study
   
2. understand the conventions of academic and non-academic genres, to include usage, specialized vocabulary, format and attribution/citation systems
3. apply critical reading strategies that are appropriate to advanced academic and nonacademic texts of relevance to their fields of study
4. identify and synthesize multiple perspectives in articulating and refining a research question relevant to their fields of study
   
5. engage in a recursive process of inventing, investigating, shaping, drafting, revising and editing to produce a range of academic and nonacademic texts of relevance to their fields of study
   

1. use writing as a tool for exploration and reflection in addressing advanced problems, as well as for exposition and persuasion
2. successfully employ strategies for writing as a recursive process of inventing, investigating, shaping, drafting, revising, and editing to meet a range of advanced academic and professional expectations—including, when given appropriate time for drafting and editing,--the ability to produce documents in Standard Edited American English that are generally free from error 
   
3. collaborate with others as they write, through peer review, group projects, and/or consulting with outside experts (writing center tutors, librarians, subject-matter experts, workplace informants, etc.) 
   
4. identify, evaluate, and use research sources (print and electronic), to include advanced online library searching of databases pertinent to their disciplines and the critical use of web sites 
   
5. employ a range of appropriate technologies to support their researching, reading, and thinking, with particular attention to the ways that advanced students and professional locate, analyze, organize and share information
   

•    You will need access to a Windows or Macintosh computer with at least 2 GB of RAM and access to a fast and reliable broadband internet connection (e.g., cable, DSL). A larger screen is recommended for better visibility of course material. You will need speakers or headphones to hear recorded content and a microphone and camera in order to participate in virtual conferences.

•    You should have sufficient hard disk space available to allow for the storage needed to install any additional software and space to store work that you will do for the course. Make sure you have a backup file system in place, such as Dropbox or OneDrive (1 TB of cloud-based storage provided through Mason’s Office 365) to save your work in the event of a hard drive failure.

•    If you need to purchase a computer, laptop, or tablet, you can do so through PatriotTech, the computer store of the George Mason Barnes & Noble Bookstore. The store offers educational discounts and special deals.

•    You will be using Blackboard, a learning management system (LMS), for your online composition course. To access Blackboard, go to the MyMason Portal page and log in with your Patriot Pass credentials. Your Patriot Pass consists of your Mason NetID (username)and strong password. If you are new student at George Mason, go HERE to sign up for a Patriot Pass.

•    Make sure your computer is protected from viruses by downloading the latest version of Symantec Endpoint Protection/Anti-Virus software for free HERE.

•    To view video and audio files, you must also have Adobe Flash and Quicktime, Real Player, or Windows Media Player installed on your computer. These programs require a high-speed Internet connection.

•    BROWSER compatible with Blackboard. Go HERE to see the current list of supported browsers.  You can use this “Browser Checker” to see if Blackboard supports the browser and operating system you are using.

•    To participate in virtual conferences, you must have a computer or tablet with virtual meeting software. Any of the following are acceptable: Blackboard Collaborate Ultra (native in Blackboard), Zoom, or Skype. All of these platforms require you to use and a reliable computer with a camera and microphone. 

CLASS POLICY ON FORMATTING EMAIL

Any questions or correspondence should be directed to the instructor's GMU email address: jjohnsto@gmu.edu.  This is the preferred method of contact.  All GMU-related correspondence is handled through that address and ONLY that address. All replies from the instructor will be directed to the student's GMU email address and ONLY that address. When contacting the instructor about a message sent to the class list, students should be sure to reply to the instructor's email address rather than to the entire list.  This places communications within the requirements of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

UNIVERSITY POLICY ON CLASS MEMBERSHIP

Students are responsible for verifying their enrollment in this class. Deadlines are included in the Course Schedule for this class as well as the GMU Schedule of Classes.

For Fall 2020, the Last Day to Add classes is Monday, Aug. 31, 2020.  The Last Day to Drop is without financial penalty is Tuesday, Sept. 18  The absolutely last day to drop is Monday, Sept. 28.

ACADEMIC ACCOMMODATIONS POLICY

In accordance with English Department policy, each student will submit a minimum of 3500 words in the course of the semester, which will serve as the basis for the course grade. Any student with a documented disability which could impact the completion of this requirement must notify the instructor at the beginning of the semester, using a Faculty Contact Sheet. 

George Mason University is committed to providing equitable access to learning opportunites for all students by upholding the laws that ensure equal treatment of all people with disabilities.  If you are seeking accommodations for this class, pleases first visit http://ds.gmu.edu  for detailed information about the Disability Services registration process.  Then please discuss your approved accommodations with the professor.  Documentation is required to obtain course adaptations to ensure that students recieve appropriate support and assistance for success in the class. The Office of Disability Services is located in
SUB 1, Suite 2500, phone number (703) 993-2474. Its email address is ods@gmu.edu.

All assignments must be submitted to Blackboard. The instructions file for each assignment contains the link to submit it when finished.

It is the students' responsibiity to retain a copy of work submitted in case of submission problems, plus all graded files until the final course grade appears on their transcripts at the end of the semester.

If extraordinary circumstances prevent a student from submitting to Blackboard on time, it is his/her responsibility to email the assignment to the instructor before the due date to avoid late penalties.  

CLASS POLICY ON EXTRA CREDIT

Extra credit is not awarded in this class. However, the Annotated Bibliography assignment can be revised and resubmitted for regrading after a professor-student conference.  Directions can be found in the Annotated Bibliography folder under the Instructions for Assignments link in our Blackboard  course menu.

CLASS POLICY ON LATE WORK

All assignments should be submitted to Blackboard on time.

• Late work will be penalized one letter grade for the first  24 hours after the due date.
• Late work will be penalized 50% of the original grade if submitted more than 24 hours after the due date until the end of the first week. The late penalty cannot be removed from work resubmitted or revised. 
• No work will be accepted more than a week after the due date indicated on the Course Schedule.

IMPORTANT: The Research Paper has a non-negotiable due date due to the necessity of submitting final grades in time for graduation. It cannot be submitted late.

Late work may be delayed in being graded and returned; delay is usually one week but may be more. Please keep this in mind, especially near the end of the semester.

Students should retain all graded files until the final course grade appears on their transcripts at the end of the semester.

CLASS PARTICIPATION POLICY

Be aware that writing is a time-intensive activity. The Registrar's Office suggests 2-3 hours per week per credit hour, but composition courses can easily take more time.  It is thus very difficult to make up any significant amount of lost time. Anyone who must unavoidably miss class activities is advised to notify the instructor promptly to avoid falling behind.  In an online class like this one, course work and deadlines go on as scheduled, regardless of weather-related closings, unless there is a network outage or Blackboard crash.

If a major religious holiday will interfere with the ability to participate in class activities or submit an assignment on the due date, it is the student's obligation to provide the professor with the date(s) within the first two weeks of the semester.  See the Mason University Life Religious Holiday Calendar for dates.

Since group work is conducted online, it is crucial that each person contribute meaningfully to the group to which that person is assigned. Therefore, participation in the class environment is an important part of the semester grade, especially for the civility blog and the peer reviews of research papers.  It is not possible to earn an "A" in this class without timely, meaningful group contributions. When interacting with others in the class, as well as the instructor, remember the core rules of Netiquette.  Be sure to carefully craft communications to show respect and avoid misinterpretation.

Active presence in online conversations is essential.  This implies brain awareness, without other distractions, as well as the basic courtesies of formal social gatherings. A student who is seriously unprepared for class or group work--having no draft ready for group mates to critique, for example--will lose class participation points for that activity.  Any serious breach of good online conduct may cause the loss of all participation points.

UNIVERSITY GRADING REQUIREMENTS FOR ENGLISH 302

It is University policy that in all Mason Core English classes (English 100, 101, 201 and 302), students must achieve a grade of C (73) or higher to receive credit for the course. Students must complete all major projects to earn a C (or higher.) Students with averages of C-  (72.4) or lower will receive an NC (No Credit) for the course. Students can keep track of their grade in the course folder in Blackboard by clicking on My Grades in the Course Menu.

It is also university policy that all students in English 302 must successfully complete a major research assignment in order to earn credit for the course.  In our case, this is the Research Paper

It is also the policy of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, which houses the English Department, that once final grades have been recorded, instructors should not accept any additional work from a student to change a grade.

In addition, the University requires that students submit a minimum of 3500 words in course of the semester, upon which the course grade is based.

Beginning Fall 2018, there is a limit of three graded attempts for this course.  A W does not count as a graded attempt. Please see AP.1.3.4 in the University Catalog and consult with your academic advisor if you have any questions.

COURSE GRADING SCALE: PERCENTAGE BREAKDOWN OF FINAL GRADES

Each assignment, as well as the final course grade, is based upon a total of 100 points. Grading ranges are:

A+  =  97.5-100.  A = 93-97.4.  A- =  90-92.9.  B+ =  87.5-89.9.  B =  83-87.4.  B- =  80-82.9.  C+ = 77.5-79..9  C = 73-77.4.  C- = 70-72.9.  D = 60-69.9.  F =  below 60.

ESSAY GRADING CRITERIA

Essays are graded using the following general criteria:

•  An "A" level grade (90-100%) marks an essay that is a delight for the reader and engages him/her in a provocative conversation  Even more than in a "B" essay, its author anticipates and responds to possible reader questions, uses a wide range of supporting evidence, structures arguments and analyses to create a fluid reading experience, provides unexpected insights, and/or uses language with care and facility.
•  A "B" level grade (80-90%) highlights a strong example of college writing and thinking.  In addition to meeting the "C" level requirements, such an essay goes further in some way(s): it demonstrates some insight into the "gray areas" of the topic, provides original or very thorough support that is tightly woven into the overall argument, reads smoothly at both the sentence and paragraph levels, and/or exhibits a lively personal "voice" or style.  It has few sentence-level errors.
• a "C" level grade (70-79%) denotes average college-level writing and achievement.  The essay is a competent response to the assignment:  it meets, to some degree, all the assignment requirements, and demonstrates tsome key strategies for communicating his/her ideas to his/her targeted audience.  It has a thesis or central focus, presents some support, and moves from point to point in an orderly fashion; sentence-level errors do not significantly prevent comprehension.  Essays that do not meet these criteria will not earn a "C."

• "D" and "F" level essays do not meet the basic expectations of the assignment.

There are four MAJOR WRITING ASSIGNMENTS for this course, each in a different format. Each assignment has an instructions containing goals, skills developed by the assignment, procedures to complete the assignment, and grading criteria. There are also help files supplementing each assignment, designed to provide support in locating materials and/or developing needed critical analysis and research skills.

1. The Analysis of Academic Writing--idenitfies characteristic of the academic writing genre in a research article of the student's choice
2. The Annotated Bibliography---presents your preliminary research about your potential topic to establish that it is a current and viable issue in your field. The research should help you narrow your topic to a current "problem" that can be addressed in your literature review  
3. Public Writing--Annotated compares and contrasts academic writing with writing for a wider audience on the same topic
4. The Research Paper--a scholarly paper that includes the current knowledge and gaps in the research on the "problem" identified in your Annotated Bibliography.  This assignment allows the student to demonstrate:
1. Synthesis writing as students review the current state of scholarly and popular-media knowledge about a current technology which affects their disciplines
2. Identification of research gaps and fruitful avenues for future exploration
   
3. Standards and expectations for graduate level research in students'field of study, including evaluation of types of source and requirements for credibility
4. Participation in the intellectual conversation in students' disciplines by evaluating current technology use and proposing practical applications of their research
   
5. The use of the appropriate documentation format for a given discipline
6. Use of appropriate vocabulary, sentence structure and organizational patterns for college-level writing
7. Tone and diction appropriate to a scholar 
8. Ability to move smoothly from first-person to third-person writing when appropriate

Four SHORT WRITINGS will establish appropriate online behavior norms, used for critical reading, writing and reflection on research material:

1. a class blog in which students compare appropriate with potentially challenging topics for online interaction, followed by a survey to establish a class code of conduct for a business environment
2. a worksheet designed to introduce and reinforce the concept of an academic discipline
3. peer review of classmates' literature review drafts
4. a brief statement  which accompanies the student's face-to-face or virtual conference on his/her research proposal

Three QUIZZES, taken online, will cover concerns in business research and writing.

1. The first will cover punctuating and citing quotations from sources, an essential mechanical skill for researched writing
   
2. The second tests student knowledge of the policies established by the Mason Core program, Students as Scholars, the English Department and the University itself, as well as the professor's policies for the class
   
3. The third will review plagiarism and intellectual property. It is a prerequisite for acceptance of the literature review, which in turn is required in order to pass the class.  

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HONOR CODE

AVOIDING PLAGIARISM

To avoid plagiarism, meet the expectations of a US Academic Audience, give their readers a chance to investigate the issue further, and make credible arguments, writers must:

• put quotation marks around, and give an in-text citation for, any sentences or distinctive phrases (even very short, 2- or 3-word phrases) that writers copy directly from any outside source: a book, textbook, article, website, newspaper, song, baseball card, interview, encyclopedia, CD, YouTube video, movie, etc.

• completely rewrite—not just switch out a few words—any information they find in a separate source and wish to summarize or paraphrase for their readers, and also give an in-text citation for that paraphrased information

• give an in-text citation for any facts, statistics, or opinions which the writers learned from outside sources (or which they just happen to know) and which are not considered “common knowledge” in the target audience (this may require new research to locate a credible outside source to cite)

• give a new in-text citation for each element of information—that is, do not rely on a single citation at the end of a paragraph, because that is not usually sufficient to inform a reader clearly of how much of the paragraph comes from an outside source.

Writers must also include a References list at the end of their essay, providing full bibliographic information for every source cited in their essay.

While different disciplines may have slightly different citation styles, and different instructors may emphasize different levels of citation for different assignments, writers should always begin with these conservative practices unless they are expressly told otherwise. If student writers ever have questions about a citation practice, they should ask their instructor.

AVOIDING SELF-PLAGIARISM 

Students should be careful to avoid self-plagiarism, the practice of re-using their own academic work in two courses or contexts.  If you wish to use your research or writing from another course, project or context in this section of ENGH 302, please speak to the instructor first.  The Instructor needs to approve every instance in which previous research and portions of previous writing might be used in two different courses.  Failure to consult with the instructor might result in a failing grade for the assignment and/or a referral to the Academic Integrity Office.

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STUDENT RESOURCES

STUDENT SAFETY

In an emergency, call Crisis Link at (703) 527-4077 or go to Online Crisis Chat, sponsored by the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.  You may also call the campus police at (703)-993-2810, especially if a problem arises at night when daytime offices are closed.

George Mason University is committed to providing equal opportunity and an educational and work environment free from any discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation or age.  GMU adheres to all applicable state and federal equal opportunity/affirmative action statutes and regulations.

George Mason University values diversity. Through the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Multicultural Education (ODIME), Mason seeks to create and sustain inclusive learning environments where all are welcome,valued and supported. It is committed to providing equal opportunity and an educational and work environment free from any discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation or age.  GMU adheres to all applicable state and federal equal opportunity/affirmative action statutes and regulations.

Students can use the tools Mason provides to change their name and pronouns on Mason records.  If you wish, you can inform the instructor of your name and gender pronouns, and how best to address you in emails or conferences. The instructor uses the pronouns "she/her/hers" and prefers to be addressed as "Professor Johnston" in emails and verbally.

George Mason University is also committed to a campus that is free of sexual misconduct and incidents of interpersonal violence.  As a faculty member, the instructor for this course is designated as a "Responsible Employee" and must report all disclosures of sexual assault, interpersonal violence and stalking to Mason't Title IX Coordinator per University Policy 1412.  If you experience or witness such an incident, contact the Title IX Coordinator's Office at (703) 993-8730 for available options and resources at the Office of Diversity Services and Programs. This office works specifically with African Heritage, Hispanic/Latino, Asian/Pacific American, American Indian, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning populations.  

The Student Support and Advocacy Center , available at (703) 380-1434, offers educational programming, one-on-one consultations, and resources in the areas of interpersonal violence, personal wellness, and alcohol and drug use. Students seeking additional counselling or advice should contact Counseling and Psychological Services  (CAPS) at (703) 993-2380.   CAPS provides free counselling and academic workshops to enhance students' personal experience and academic performance.

IMPORTANT: The University Catalog is the central resource for university policies affecting all students, faculty and staff conduct in university academic affairs.  Other policies are available at http://universitypolicy.gmu.edu/.  All members of the university community are responsible for knowing and following established policies.

ACADEMIC RESOURCES

The Office of Disability Services at George Mason is committed to providing equitable access to learning opportunities for all students by upholding the laws that ensure equal treatment of people with disabilities.  If you are seeking accommodations for this class, please first visit http://ds.gmu.edu for detailed information about the Disability Services registration process.  Then please discuss your approved accommodations with your instructor.  Disability Services is located in Student Union Building I (SUBI), Suite 2500.  Email: ods@gmu.edu
Phone: (703) 993-2474.

Response to Covid-19 from the Disability Services Office includes testing accommodations and FAQs.  Although this class is conducted entirely online, the university offers guidance on a Safe Return to Campus for those students coming in to campus.

The University Writing Center: The Writing Center is one of the best resources you will find on campus. The center’s website offers a wealth of online resources for student writers. You can schedule a free 45‐minute appointment with a trained tutor to help with any phase of the writing process. Tutors can help you brainstorm, provide feedback on a draft, answer your questions, and show you strategies for organizing, drafting, revising, and editing. In addition to free individual tutoring sessions, the center has a website that offers resources for writers. To schedule an appointment, visit the center's main location in Robinson Hall B 213, or go to writingcenter.gmu.edu, register with the center, and make an appointment using the online scheduler.

The University Library: In addition to a wealth of printed resources, the library hosts around 150 electronic databases indexing hundreds of journals. GMU is also a member of the Washington Research Library Consortium (WRLC), which means you have hassle‐free access to the library resources of eight area universities.  Please take some time to explore the library’s offerings; you may also instant message the library with any questions. In our distance learning environment, the library's Online Education Services are particularly helpful

The Language Resource Center in Mason's Global Center provides workshops and tutoring in reading, speaking and writing for ESL students. Assistance with writing is also available at the Mason Writing Center.

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