ENGL 1010: English Composition-Student Version (2018-19 Archive): Dhillon, Sameet

Required Materials:

• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Online course pack & grammar handbook: https://libguides.brooklyn.cuny.edu/1010/Dhillon_Sameet
• A composition book (bring to class every day)

Course Expectations

Attendance is required. Please do your best to attend every class. If you miss more than five classes, you will receive an F for participation.  If you’re late more than three times, that will count as one absence. Arriving more than 10 minutes late counts as an absence. If you’re consistently late this will adversely affect your grade. Please speak with me privately if you think attendance will be an issue for you due to work or other personal reasons.

Participation: It is important that each of you fully engage with the text and with each other. That being said, I’m aware that different people are comfortable participating in different ways. It is my hope that all of you will become comfortable participating in class discussions. However, there will be other opportunities to participate—group work, journal entries, etc.—and I expect those of you who struggle to participate in class discussions to take advantage of these other opportunities.  I also expect you all to participate in building a kind and respectful classroom environment; please refrain from talking while others are talking, responding to others rudely/judgmentally, or texting in class. We’re here to listen and try to understand each other’s points of view. Disruptive behaviors will result in a lower grade.

Cell Phones and other Electronic Devices: The use of cell phones is forbidden during class time. All cell phones and other electronic devices (with the exception of those being used for note-taking) should remain off and out of sight during the duration of class. Your participation grade will suffer if you are seen using an electronic device inappropriately during class. Please speak to me if you have special circumstances regarding an electronic device.

Journal: We will begin each class by writing in our journals for 10-15 mins. I will give you a writing prompt. On certain days, you will be asked to discuss a journal entry or do group-work with your journals (I will make sure to warn you about those days, and you will never be forced to share anything personal). Every so often, I will collect the journals to make sure you’re writing in them and we will also have a few take-home journal assignments. At the end of the semester, there will be an extra credit opportunity in which you can expand on three journal entries and earn up to 2 points on your final grade. More info to come.

Essays:​ ​

There are five essays assigned for this course (one in-class and four outside class.) Typed work should be 12 pt. font, Times New Roman, double-spaced, 1.25” margins (left and right), 1” margins (top and bottom). All assignments must be completed in order to pass the course. Essays should be submitted via email (as a Word document) to sdhillon23@gmail.com. Please submit your essays by midnight on the day that it is due, unless I have specified that we will be using them in class (for a peer editing workshop, etc.). If you prefer submitting a paper copy of your essay, bring it to class on the day it is due.

The essay assignments are as follows (details/prompts will be given to you closer to the deadline):

• Essay #1 will be a personal narrative written in response to Americanah. This personal narrative should be 3-4 pages in length and will be due on Sept. 20^th.
• Essay #2 (2 Summaries) You will be required to submit 2 summaries of assigned texts (250-500 words). Rough drafts due on Oct. 2^nd and final drafts due on Oct. 9^th.
• Essay #3 will be an argumentative essay. This essay should be 2-3 pages in length. The rough draft for this essay is due on Oct. 23th and the final draft is due on Nov. 1^st.
• Essay #4 will be a compare and contrast essay in which you are to take either “X” and “Y” OR “A” and “B” and evaluate the contrasting arguments presented in each pair of essays. This essay should be 2-3 pages in length; the rough draft for this essay is due on Nov. 20th and the final draft is due on Nov. 29th.
• Essay #5 will be an in-class practice essay in preparation for the final exam. It will be on Dec. 6^th.

Revision: I believe that revision is as important as writing itself. For Essays #2, #3, and #4 you will be required to participate in peer-editing workshops and submit a second draft. In addition, any of your essays can be revised and resubmitted for a higher grade as long as you get them to me by the last day of class. Please keep in mind that revision, at a college level, means making substantial changes to the work (to the structure and content of the essays) and not just changing a few words or fixing the grammar. Take my feedback and your peers’ feedback into account, and talk to me if you’re confused by or disagree with my feedback.

Final Exam: At the end of the semester, all students must take the English Department’s exit exam. The exit exam will count for 20% of your final grade. We will talk more about the exit exam as we get closer to the end of the semester, but sufficed to say, the work we are doing in this class should generally prepare you for the exam. The exam will be On December 14^th from 10:30-12:30.

Plagiarism:

The following is taken from the Brooklyn College website:

The faculty and administration of Brooklyn College support an environment free from cheating and plagiarism. Each student is responsible for being aware of what constitutes cheating and plagiarism and for avoiding both. The complete text of the CUNY Academic Integrity Policy and the Brooklyn College procedure for policy implementation can be found at www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/bc/policies. If a faculty member suspects a violation of academic integrity and, upon investigation, confirms that violation, or if the student admits the violation, the faculty member MUST report the violation. Plagiarism is the act of presenting another person’s ideas, research or writings as your own. The following are some examples of plagiarism, but by no means is it an exhaustive list:

• Copying another person’s actual works without the use of quotation marks and footnotes attributing the words to their source.
• Presenting another person’s ideas or theories in your own words (i.e. paraphrasing) without acknowledging the source.
• Using information that is not common knowledge without acknowledging the source
• Failing to acknowledge collaborators on homework and laboratory assignments. Internet plagiarism includes submitting downloaded term papers or parts of term papers, paraphrasing or copying information from the internet without citing the source, and “cutting & pasting” from various sources without proper attribution. Any instance of plagiarism in this course will result in an automatic F for the paper.

Disabilities:

The following statement in reference to the Center for Student Disability Services: 

In order to receive disability-related academic accommodations students must first be registered with the Center for Student Disability Services. Students who have a documented disability or suspect they may have a disability are invited to set up an appointment with the Director of the Center for Student Disability Services, Ms. Valerie Stewart-Lovell at (718) 951-5538. If you have already registered with the Center for Student Disability Services, please provide your professor with the course accommodation form and discuss your specific accommodation with him/her.

The Learning Center:

http://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/web/academics/centers/learning.php

The Learning Center offers Brooklyn College students free peer tutoring in courses across the curriculum in a comfortable, supportive environment well-stocked with computers and reference materials for student use. The Learning Center is open every weekday, some evenings, and weekends.

Grading

Essays: 50% (Essays are all evenly weighted)

Final Exam: 20%

Other assignments: 20%

Attendance, participation, LOOP Orientation: 10%

Letter grades will be applied in the following way:

       A (95-100)

       A- (90-94)

B+ (86-89)

B (83-85)

       B- (80-83)

C+ (76-79)

C (73-75)

       C- (70-73)

The passing grades for English 1010 range from A to C-. A grade of F will be given for failure to complete all the assignments. A grade of NC will be given when a student, despite regular attendance and completion of all work, fails to produce satisfactory work. All students must pass the English Department’s English 1010 Final Examination in order to pass the course.