In the university catalog, the general focus of English 302 is described as follows: "Intensive practice in writing and analyzing expository forms such as essay, article, proposal, and technical or scientific reports with emphasis on research related to student’s major field". This course is designed to build on the general writing skills and techniques you have acquired in 101 and other university courses, and to prepare you for completing advanced level writing, analysis and research in your major discipline, in other academic situations you may encounter, and in your possible future workplace.  We will, therefore, practice the various genres of writing you are likely to encounter. Throughout the semester, you will also learn to recognize the way(s) that knowledge is constructed in various disciplines, adapt your writing to common purposes and audience needs, conduct and synthesize research, use computer technologies as part of your research and writing process, and produce writng that employs the organizational techniques and genres typical in each discipline.

English 302 fulfills all or in part the writing-intensive requirements for general education at George Mason Unversity. 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).

Of the six key areas where General Education learning outcomes are reviewed by GMU's Office of Institutional Assessment, English 302 falls under "Written Communication."  
Students who successfully complete one or more writing-intensive courses in their major will be able to:

• Analyze and synthesize course content using methods appropriate to the major;
• Make reasoned, well-organized arguments with introductions, thesis statements, supporting evidence, and conclusions appropriate to the major.
• Use credible evidence, to include, as applicable, data from credible primary and/or secondary sources, integrated and documented accurately according to styles preferred in the major.
• Employ rhetorical strategies suited to the purpose(s) and audience(s) for the writing, to include appropriate vocabulary, voice, tone, and level of formality.
• Produce writing that employs the organizational techniques, formats, and genres (print and/or digital) typical in the major and/or workplace.
• Produce writing that demonstrates proficiency in standard edited American English, including correct grammar/syntax, sentence structure, word choice, and punctuation.

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As explained on the Composition Program website, students who successfully complete ENGH 302 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

TEXTBOOKS AND MATERIALS FOR THIS COURSE

• A research handbook is required: Either The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.) Washington, DC: APA, 2010, or the MLA Handbook (7th ed.) New York: MLA, 2010.
• 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. 
• All assignments are available on the instructor's website Joyce Johnston's Home Page (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://mymasonportal.gmu.edu. Text summaries of all assignments are therefore available at all times, complete with goals, instructions and grading criteria.
• GMU email account: students must use their Mason email accounts--either the exisitng "MEMO" system or the new "MASONLIVE" account to receive important university information, including messages related to this class. See http://masonlive.gmu.edu for more information.. (IMPORTANT NOTE: any student not regularly using his or her GMU e-mail account must set that account to forward to the student's preferrred e-mail address. Failure to do so will mean that the student will not receive any class notices or the web links needed for class work, which are sent to the class list maintained by the Registrar's Office.)
• The Mozilla Firefox browser, available free from GMU's  IT support web site. Our course software, Classroom Edition 9.1 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. Blackboard is compatible with Mac OS 10.5 or higher.
  
• 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:

•  Please be aware that  instruction will NOT be provided for CSE, Anthropology or engineering formats; only MLA and APA will  be taught. Students are responsible for correct MLA, APA, Engineering, Anthropology, CBE, AMA or Chicago format for all papers, whether or not the text is purchased. If using an older edition of the MLA or APA Handbooks, be aware that you are responsible for updating your formatting to reflect the changes made in the 7th edition, issued April 2009. Each was issued in spring 2009, then amended during the summer.
• If you have not used Blackboard CE9.0 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 ed.) is a vlauable reosurce for questions of grammar, punctuation, and documentation. A Pocket Style Manual is an abridged but cheaper version of the same resource.

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 or found in the Course Content modules in Blackboard.

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ELEMENTS OF  A SCIENTIFIC PAPER  500-750 words; 10% of course grade)

This assignment is designed to help students identify and appreciate the characteristics of top-quality research publications. It specifically addresses qualifications for publication of primary research as defined by one of the most influential scientific editors of the 20th century. Students look closely at the diction, organization, required elemnts, and formatting of empirical research writing. Further, the assignment provides practice in identifying research publications when students encounter them in class assignments or in professional literature.

DISCIPLINARY  RESOURCES WIKI  (1000 words; 15% of course grade)

LITERATURE REVIEW (500-750 words; 15% of course grade)

This assignment combines multiple goals. First, it reviews the appropriate documentation format for each student's field, beginning research while expanding the use of academic databases beyond consulting those appropriate to a student’s field to also include identify database(s) appropriate to the particular research tasks the student has identified. It also encourages disciplinary and research awareness by focusing on an ongoing research issue within the student's major or career field  Locating appropriate articles uses skills and information developed by the wiki assignment: selection of empirical research rticles form journals recognized and respected in the student's discipline.  Composing the review serves to integrate persuasive writing techniques, revision for persuasion and concision and paragraph construction as well as requiring higher level thinking as students synthesize the articles they have found to come to a greater understanding of the state of knowledge on a larger issue. The assignment file on Blackboard contains detailed instructions for completion.

RESEARCH PAPER (1500-1750 words; 20% of course grade)

This assignment allows students to synthesize all the major elements of learning this semester:

• Synthesis writing which combines the student's present academic status, personal goals, finances, and career path with programs and standards at top-ranked universities as well as at GMU.
• The function and experience of graduate schooling within a discipline
• Standards and expectations for graduate level research in your field of study, including evaluation of types of source and requirements for credibility
• The use of the appropriate documentation format for a given discipline
• Use of appropriate vocabulary, sentence structure and organizational patterns for college-level writing
• Tone and diction appropriate to a scholar 
• Ability to move smoothly from first-person to third-person writing when appropriate    

• Netiquette Quiz (5% of course grade)
• Integrating quotations into Researched Writing (5% of course grade)
  
• Transitions and Connectors Quiz (5% of course grade)
• Metacognitive Writing for Research Paper (5% of course grade)
• Participation in Writing Groups (10% of course grade)
  

All assignments are listed below, in order of their percentage values out of 100%.

PLEASE NOTE: since the English Department requires a research component in all sections of English 302, anyone not completing the Plagiarism Test and the  Research Project will FAIL THE CLASS.

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COURSE COMPLETION AND GRADING POLICIES

• For Spring 2013, the Last Day to Add or to Drop without tuition penalty is Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013. 
• the absolutely Last Day to Drop is Friday, Feb. 22, 2013.  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 Spring 2013, the period lasts from Feb. 25-March 29, 2013..  See the GMU Schedule of Classes for selective withdrawal procedures.

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 (73) or higher to receive credit for the course. Students with averages of C- or lower will receive an NC (No Credit) for the course and must repeat it.  It is also the policy of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences that once final grades have been recorded, instructors should not accept any additional work that would alter the course grade.  Essays are graded using 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."

•  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 personal "voice" or style.  It has few sentence-level errors.

•  An "A" level grade (90-100%) marks an essay that is a delight for the reader.  Even more than in a "B" essay, its author anticipates and responds to possible reader questions, uses a wide range of supporting evidence, engages the reader in a provocative conversation, provides unexpected insights, and/or uses language with care and facility.

• "D" and "F" level essays do not meet the basic expectations of 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. You should retain all graded files until the final course grade appears on your transcript at the end of the semester. 

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 delay in submitting an assignment, especially near the end of the semester. No work will be accepted after the date indicated on the syllabus as the due date for the research paper.  The absolutely non-negotiable final date for grade change is also indicated on the syllabus.

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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/syllm302m20s13.html

Essay 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 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. You will also receive messages from inside our course folder in Blackboard, to which you cannot directly reply. If trying to reach the instructor, DO NOT reply to the mail address used for class mailings, but to the GMU address above.

When engaged in online learning, you should be actively present.  This implies brain awareness as well as the basic courtesies of formal social gatherings.  Students who are watching TV, playing games online, carrying on private conversations, answering or texting on cell phones, participating in social media or working on assignments for other classes (etc.) are not wholly, actively present in the class.  If you are seriously unprepared for class or group work—having absolutely little or no draft for a draft workshop, for example—you may lose participation points for that activity.  Any serious breach of good online conduct may result in withdrawal of privilege to participate in a virtual group, thus directly affecting your participation points.

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•  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

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Return to the Syllabus for Section M20, Spring 2013

Return to Joyce Johnston's Home Page