UNIVERSITY OBJECTIVES FOR ENGLISH 302
As explained in "General Education at George Mason University," English 302 is an integral part of the general education curriculum at George Mason. The mission of the General Education Program is to educate, liberate, and broaden the mind, and to instill lifelong love of learning. In conjunction with each students' major program of study and other electives, minors, or certificates, this program seeks to produce graduates with intellectual vision, creative abilities, and moral sensibility, as well as the skills to assure a well-rounded and useable education. The General Education Program seeks four specific goals: 1. General education courses should first ensure that all undergraduates develop skills in information gathering, written and oral communication, and analytical and quantitative reasoning. 2. General education courses should expose students to the development of knowledge by emphasizing major domains of thought and methods of inquiry. 3. General education courses should enable students to attain a breadth of knowledge that supports their specializations and contributes to their education in both personal and professional ways. 4. General education courses should encourage students to make important connections across boundaries (for example: among disciplines; between the university and the external world; between the United States and other countries).
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT OBJECTIVES FOR ENGLISH 302
Students who successfully complete ENGL302 will be able to adapt their reading and writing to meet the expectations of their academic discipline and future workplace. They will be able to demonstrate the ability to
- apply critical reading strategies that are appropriate to advanced reading in their academic discipline and in their possible future workplaces
- recognize how knowledge is constructed in their academic discipline and possible future workplaces, attending to issues such as kinds of claims or questions posed by advanced or professional writers
- evidence considered sufficient to support arguments
- analyze the rhetorical situations—audience, purpose, and context—of texts produced in their academic disciplines and in possible future workplaces
- produce writing—including arguments or proposals—that is appropriate for a range of rhetorical situations within their academic disciplines and possible future workplaces, with particular attention to textual features such as
- common genres
- organizational strategies
- style, tone, and diction
- expected citation formats
By the end of this course students will be able to
- use writing as a tool for exploration and reflection in addressing advanced problems, as well as for exposition and persuasion
- 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
- identify, evaluate, and use research sources
- employ a range of appropriate technologies to support researching, reading, writing, and thinking
- apply critical reading strategies that are appropriate to advanced reading in your academic discipline and in possible future workplaces
- recognize how knowledge is constructed in your academic discipline and possible future workplaces
- analyze rhetorical situations – audience, purpose, and context – of texts produced in your academic disciplines and possible future workplaces
- produce
writing – including argument proposals – that is appropriate for a range
of rhetorical situations within your academic disciplines and possible
future workplaces
PREREQUISITES TO ENTER ENGLISH 302
- A minimum of 45 credit hours
- Credit or requirement waiver for ENGL100 or ENGL101
- In degree programs that require 6 hours of literature, at least 3 must be taken prior to ENGL302; 3 credits may be taken concurrently with ENGL302
TEXTBOOKS AND MATERIALS FOR THIS COURSE
- Readings will be done online, using both links provided in the syllabus and material e-mailed to the class by the instructor. Thus, it will be essential to have regular, reliable computer access and to check e-mail regularly, as well as daily when drafts or finished assignments are due. An email will be sent to the class at the beginning of each week reviewing the activities for that week.
- All assignments are available on the instructor's website (http://mason.gmu.edu/~jjohnsto) at URL's linked to the syllabus. Also, the same material is available in our password-protected course folder at http://courses.gmu.edu. Text summaries of all assignments are therefore available at all times, complete with goals, instructions and grading criteria.
- GMU
computer account (free to students) with user ID and password, or other
working e-mail account. Students who do not begin the semester with an
account should apply on-line or in person on the
- The Mozilla Firefox browser, available free from GMU's IT support web site.
Our course software, Classroom Edition 6 of the Blackboard Learning
System (CE6), often does not display properly or presents problems with
uploading and downloading on Internet Explorer. Also, Firefox is
far more resistant to viruses and other malfunctions. Mac users should use the Safari browser to avoid similar problems.
- Willingness and ability to use GMU's libraries in Fenwick, the Johnson Center, and if necessary the Prince William and Law School campuses, plus possibly the Washington Research Library Consortium. Students new to GMU's libraries may receive free orientation sessions, which the library staff provides near the beginning of each semester. See the calendar of orientation sessions.
Optional materials include:
- A research handbook, either the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.) for students in the sciences or social sciences, or the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th ed.) for students in the humanities. Both are available on-line if preferred (links are given in the syllabus) or can be purchased from the GMU bookstore, Barnes and Noble, Waldenbooks, Borders, etc. Please be aware that since this is a humanities section, instruction will NOT be provided for APA, CBE and engineering formats; only MLA will be taught. Students are responsible for correct MLA, APA, Engineering, Anthropolgy, CBE or Chicago format for all papers, whether or not the text is purchased. If using an older edition of the MLA Hnadbook, be aware that you are responsible for updating your formatting to reflect the changes made in the 7th edition, issued April 2009.
- If you have not used Blackboard CE6 previously, review the tutorial immediately.
- The User's Guide to Mason is available in the Copy Shop (Room 117 in the Johnson Center) for those unfamiliar with GMU's computer support, at a cost of about $1.00.
- Diana Hacker's A Writer's Reference (6th Edition) is recommended for those seeking a highly readable handbook of correct grammar and English usage. Her A Pocket Style Manual is an abridged but cheaper version of the same thing.
NOTE: Online readings on the syllabus are no less required than paper texts are in other classes, while others may be e-mailed to you.
There will be a graded quiz on quotation marks due to their importance in formatting both critical analyses and researched writing . After the due date for the quiz, students will be expected to use quotation marks accurately and appropriately, with grade penalties if this goal is not achieved, Otherwise, grammar will be taught in this class only occasionally, on an as-needed basis. Please consult the instructor if a particular grammar question plagues you or see the English Department's helpful links to grammar and composition web sites.
METHODS OF INSTRUCTION
COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING PERCENTAGES
In addition, there are three online quizzes: the Netiquette quiz, the Quotations quiz and the Plagiarism test. Each contains tutorial material and is self-grading. Finally, a Research Proposal is required before submitting the Research Project. It has an associated instruction file similar to those for the essays listed above.
| PERCENTAGE | ASSIGNMENT | DUE DATE |
| 5% | Netiquette Quiz | 9/13 |
| 5% | Plagiarism Test | 10/16 |
| 5% | Quotations Quiz | 9/25 |
| 5% | Research Proposal | 11/12 |
| 10% | Artistic Analysis | 10/4 |
| 10% | Theatre, Dance or Concert Review | 11/8 |
| 10% | Participation in Writing Groups | 11/20 |
| 15% | Design, Image and Subtext in Public Spaces | 10/25 |
| 15% | Publication and Authority Paper | 9/21 |
| 20% | Research Project | 11/22 |
PLEASE NOTE: since the English Department requires a research component in all sections of English 302, anyone not completing the Research Project will FAIL THE CLASS.
COURSE COMPLETION AND GRADING POLICIES
UNIVERSITY POLICY ON CLASS MEMBERSHIP: Students are responsible for verifying their enrollment in this class. Schedule adjustments should be made by the deadlines published in the Schedule of Classes. For Fall 2009, the Last Day to Add or to Drop without tuition penalty is Sept. 15; the absolutely Last Day to Drop is Oct. 2. Both are marked on our syllabus. After the last day to drop a class, withdrawing from this class requires the approval of the Dean and is only allowed for nonacademic reasons. Undergraduate students may choose to exercise a selective withdrawal. The selective withdrawal option may be used no more than three times in a student's undergraduate career at George Mason and must be completed within the selective withdrawal period. For Fall 2009, the period lasts from Oct. 5-Oct. 30, 2009. See the Schedule of Classes for selective withdrawal procedures.COMPLETION POLICY: All final essays must involve one or more earlier drafts submitted to the writing group within our CE6 class folder, located at http://courses.gmu.edu. You must complete all essay assignments plus the Plagiarism Test to earn a "C" or higher; to pass at all requires completion of the Research Project, as noted above.
ENGLISH 302 GRADING POLICY: It is University policy that in all General Education English classes (English 100, 101, 201 and 302), students must achieve a grade of C (75) or higher to receive credit for the course. Students with averages of C- or lower will receive an NC (No Credit) for the course
COURSE GRADING POLICY: In grading essays, I use the following general criteria:
- 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 that the author has put significant time and effort into communicating his/her ideas to his/her targeted audience. It has a thesis, 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.
Each assignment, as well as the final course grade, is based upon a total of 100 points. Grading ranges are:
A+ = 98-100. A = 92-97. A- = 90-91. B+ = 88-89. B = 82-87. B- = 80-81. C+ = 78-79. C = 72-77. C- = 70-71. D+ = 68-69. D = 62-67. D- = 60-61. Any grade below D- receives no credit for the assignment.LATE WORK POLICY: All work is due on the date specified in the syllabus. Unless by prior arrangement with the instructor, late work will be penalized one letter grade for each week or portion thereof and two letter grades thereafter. This penalty cannot be removed from work resubmitted or revised.
In addition, late work may be delayed in being graded and returned to you; delay is usually one week but may be more. Please keep this in mind if planning to resubmit a paper, especially near the end of the semester. No work will be accepted after the date indicated on the syllabus as the last day to submit rewritten assignments.
REVISION POLICY: At the end of the term, the student may select ONE essay to revise for a new grade. This is an OPTIONAL acitivity. The revision must demonstrate attention to the instructor's comments and the grading rubric. It must show substantial change to the focus, support, approach and/or organization of the essay in addition to comprehensive error correction, or it will be returned with no grade change. Revision should use the graded file as the base document, leaving all marks by the professor undisturbed while clearly indicating changes made by the student. To submit, e-mail the file to the professor by the due date.
FORMATTING ASSIGNMENTS FOR SUBMISSION
Each assignment has related instructions in a link to that assignment in the online version of the Syllabus. The format for each assignment is presented in the file of instructions. Please refer to the Syllabus itself, either in our class Blackboard folder or at http://mason.gmu.edu/~jjohnsto/syllh30f09.html
Assignments submitted electronically MUST be in Word (.doc or .docx) format. Because they cannot be written on, PDF files prevent ths instructor from grading the assignment. GMU's e-mail will not read Mime, NotePador WordPerfect documents, and regards zipped documents as possible viruses. Therefore, any material sent in any of these formats cannot be accepted and may not even arrive. If using a Mac or Open Office or equivalent, it is the student's responsibility to make sure that his/her assignments can be read in Word 2007.
Finally, any REVISED assignments or correspondence should be directed to the instructor's GMU e-mail: jjohnsto@gmu.edu. A Google or other search will reveal other e-mail addresses, but all GMU-related correspondence is handled through that address and only that address.
Mail sent to other addresses will receive no response.
NOTE: Be careful when responding to mail sent to the class list. The Registrar's Office provides the capability to e-mail the whole class from its online registration site, but requires the sender to use whatever mail program is resident on the machine (s)he is using rather than GMU's mail program, which is web-based. If trying to reach the instructor, DO NOT reply to the mail address used for class mailings, but to the GMU address above.
Return to Top of PageATTENDANCE AND CLASS PARTICIPATION
Also, students ARE graded for their participation in their writing groups. There are five major essay assignments requiring group participation: the Publication and Authority paper, the Artistic Analysis, the Public Spaces paper, the Concert or Theatre review and the Research Project. For each of these, each group member must complete and post a complete draft on time, then critique his/her group members' drafts, also on time. Late posting is penalized at two points per day. Thus,
10 graded activities x 10 points each = 100 possible points
Be aware that writing is a time-intensive activity. 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 as promptly as possible to avoid falling behind. Students are also encouraged to sign up for notification of university closings due to inclement weather or other emergencies by visiting the website http://alert.gmu.edu . Notice of other emergency procedures on campus can be found at http://www.gmu.edu/service/cert .
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT POLICY
ON PLAGIARISM AND ACADEMIC HONESTY
In a research and writing course, it is especially important that students respect the intellectual property of others. In academic writing, integrity of results falls under acute scrutiny from fellow professionals. All students are therefore expected to scrupulously observe all GMU policies as well as individual instructors' guidelines. Please read and observe the English Department's Statement on Plagiarism below.
- Plagiarism means using the exact words, opinions, or factual information from another source without giving that source credit. Writers give credit through the use of accepted documentation styles, such as parenthetical citation, footnotes, or end notes; a simple listing of books, articles, and websites is not sufficient. Plagiarism is the equivalent of intellectual robbery and cannot be tolerated in an academic setting.
- Student
writers are often confused as to what should be cited. Some think that
only direct quotations need to be credited. While direct quotations do
need citations, so do paraphrases and summaries of opinions or factual
information formerly unknown to the writers or which the writers did
not discover themselves. Exceptions to this include factual information
which can be obtained from a variety of sources, the writers' own
insights or findings from their own field research, (what has been
called common knowledge). What constitutes common knowledge can
sometimes be precarious; what is common knowledge for one audience may
be so for another. In such situations, it is helpful to keep the reader
in mind and to think of citations as being "reader friendly." In other
words, writers provide a citation for any piece of information that
they think their readers might want to investigate further. Not only is
this attitude considerate of readers, it will almost certainly ensure
that writers will not be guilty of plagiarism. Consult the George Mason Honor Code for more information.
Learning—especially writing--relies upon mutual communication and trust, both student to student and student to instructor. It is especially dependent upon students' intellectual honesty and commitment to do their own work without inappropriate assistance. If, however, that trust appears it to have breached, it is with greatest reluctance that the instructor will submit student work for analysis by SafeAssign, the plagiarism detection tool that is part of Blackoard. SafeAssign uses phrase matching software to determine whether information in a student's writing has been attributed to its source(s). If results show consistent lack of attribution, appropriate academic penalties will be applied.
STUDENTS
WITH DISABILITIES
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