ENGL 0099 Spring 2010

Office Hours: MW 10-1. TR 12:15-1. F 10-12:30. Other times by appointment. Call or email.

Peer workshops, conferences. Multi-draft, timed, and informal writings of various types. Research and writing-appropriate technology skills. Class, group, and individual activities.

Your grade will be determined by the number of points you accumulate throughout the semester. For example, a major essay may be worth 200 points, and a daily writing worth 10. You can figure your grade at any time by totaling your points to that date and dividing it by the number of points possible to that date.

On the following few pages is information relevant to all Engl 0099 courses at ABAC:

Course Name:

DEVELOPMENTAL ENGLISH

Course Number:

ENGL 0099

Course Description:

Four hours of lecture each week. A composition course required of students scoring below an established cut-off score of the writing placement exam. Instruction focuses on helping students develop proficiency and confidence in their writing processes and in reading and responding to the writing of others. Students may exit Learning Support English by successfully completing ENGL 0099, passing the WPE, and making a satisfactory score on the COMPASS exam. Fall, Spring, Summer.

Pre-requisites/Co-requisites:

USG General Education Outcomes Pertinent to this Course:

Communications: Oral and written communication will be characterized by clarity, critical analysis, logic, coherence, persuasion, precision, and rhetorical awareness.

Competence within the context of collegiate general education is defined by the following outcomes:

Ability to assimilate, analyze, and present in oral and written forms, a body of information;
Ability to analyze arguments;
Ability to adapt communication to circumstances and audience;
Ability to consider and accommodate opposing points of view;
Ability to interpret content of written materials on related topics from various disciplines;
Ability to communicate in various modes and media, including the proper use of appropriate technology;
Ability to produce communication that is stylistically appropriate and mature;
Ability to communicate in standard English for academic and professional contexts;
Ability to interpret inferences and develop subtleties of symbolic and indirect discourse;
Ability to sustain a consistent purpose and point of view;
Ability to compose effective written materials for various academic and professional contexts.

ABAC Course Learning Outcomes:

English 0099 Outcomes:

Students will write logical, coherent, and well-developed paragraphs and assemble these into well-developed multi-draft essays with final drafts completed on a word processor.
Students will practice and demonstrate the processes of writing, including prewriting, drafting, peer evaluation, revisions, and final draft

3. Students will use Standard English grammar, punctuation, word choice, spelling, and sentence structure in writing with a level of error that does not impede understanding.

Students will demonstrate the ability to write a timed, single-draft essay that meets ABAC’s writing proficiency criteria for coherence, organization, development, and mechanical correctness.

College Policy on Academic Dishonesty:

A. Academic Dishonesty

Academic irregularities include, but are not limited to, giving or receiving of unauthorized assistance in the preparation of any academic assignment; taking or attempting to take, stealing, or otherwise obtaining in an unauthorized manner any material pertaining to the education process; selling, giving, lending, or otherwise furnishing to any person any question and/or answers to any examination known to be scheduled at any subsequent date; fabricating, forging, or falsifying lab or clinical results; plagiarism in any form related to themes, essays, term papers, tests, and other assignments; breaching any confidentiality regarding patient information.

B. Disciplinary Procedures

1. When a faculty member suspects that a student has engaged in academic dishonesty, the faculty member will contact the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs. The Vice President for Academic Affairs will notify the student in writing of the report and will appoint a neutral person from among the faculty or staff to meet with the faculty member who reported the matter and the student(s) believed to have engaged in academic dishonesty. The purpose of the meeting, to be scheduled by the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, will be to provide a facilitated discussion about what may have occurred. The faculty member who reported the matter, the student(s) believed to have engaged in academic dishonesty, and the facilitator are the only participants in the meeting. Audio nor video recordings of these proceedings will be permitted. Following the discussion, the facilitator will submit a form summarizing results of the proceedings to the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs.

2. The faculty member and student(s) may reach an agreement about the matter and, if dishonesty is involved, may determine the appropriate consequences. If no resolution is agreed upon, the matter will be forwarded to the Dean of Student Life and Housing, who will convene the Student Judiciary Committee to determine the outcome of the allegation.

3. Guidelines for disciplinary procedures as outlined in Section V of the Student Code of Conduct will be applicable in cases involving alleged academic dishonesty. A written copy of the recommendations by the Student Judiciary Committee shall be sent not only to the student but also to the faculty member who made the allegations of academic dishonesty against the student, to the Vice President for Academic Affairs, and to the President.

4. Prior to any finding of responsibility on the part of the student, the faculty member shall permit the student to complete all required academic work and shall evaluate and grade all work except the assignment(s) involved in the accusation of dishonesty. The faculty member may, however, take any action reasonably necessary to collect and preserve evidence of the alleged violation and to maintain or restore the integrity of exam or laboratory conditions.

5. A student may not withdraw from a course to avoid penalty of plagiarism or other forms of academic dishonesty.

C. Appeals Process

Students have the right to appeal a Student Judiciary Committee hearing recommendation in accordance with the following procedures:

1. Requests for appeals must be submitted in writing to the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs within five business days of the date of the letter notifying the student of the original decision. Failure to appeal within the allotted time will render the original decision final and conclusive.

2. Written requests for appeals must be specific and detailed as to the nature and substance of the student’s complaint and must clearly indicate what action is requested. The written request should specify the grounds for appeal. Judicial recommendations may be appealed on the following grounds:

• A violation of due process

• Prejudicial treatment by the original hearing body

• New evidence has become available which was not available at the time of the hearing.

3. Appeals shall be decided upon the record of the original proceedings, the written appeal submitted by the defendant, and any written briefs submitted by other participants. Cases will not be reheard on appeal.

4. If the student is dissatisfied with the decision of the Vice President for Student Affairs, the student may request in writing that the President consider the appeal, but such request must be made within five business days of the Vice President’s decision or the Vice President’s decision will be considered final and conclusive.

5. Within five business days of receiving the appeal, the President will either rule on the appeal or refer the appeal to a special Presidential Panel. The Presidential Panel will review all facts and circumstances connected with the case and within five business days make a report of its findings to the President. After consideration of the Panel’s report, the President will within five business days make a decision which shall be final so far as the College is concerned.

6. Should the student be dissatisfied with the President’s decision, written application may be made to the Board of Regents for a review of the decision. This application must be submitted within twenty days following the decision of the President. Additional information regarding procedures for appealing to the Board is available in the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs. The decision of the Board shall be final and binding for all purposes.

Midterm Advisory Grades

Midterm Advisory Grades will be reported on Banner Web to any student who has a “C,” “D,” or “F” in any class. The number of class absences will be posted for all students. Advisory grades are not entered on the student’s permanent record. Students should note that these grades are advisory and will not necessarily reflect the final grade earned in a course. These grades are intended to provide students with information in order to improve their performance in the second half of the semester. Students are responsible for checking Banner Web when grades and absences have been reported. Students who receive grades should meet with their instructors to develop plans for success in the second half of the semester. Students should also take advantage of study groups and plan for ongoing conferences with instructors in order to monitor their progress. ABAC provides free tutorial assistance for most courses through the Academic Assistance Center (AAC); in addition to other academic support activities, students should work with their instructors to establish tutoring in the AAC.

Students with Disabilities

Students requiring classroom accommodations or modifications because of a documented disability must discuss this need with the instructor at the very beginning of the semester and must provide the proper documentation. Such students must be registered with Dr. Maggie Martin’s office, The Student Development Center, in Branch Student Center. Students with Learning Disabilities must also register with Dr. Martin’s office and must notify the instructor. Notification to the instructor must consist of an official letter of accommodations.

To pass this class and “exit” Learning Support English, you must complete three steps:

If you do not complete all three steps successfully, you must repeat ENGL 0099. You will receive for your current grade either an F or an IP, as explained immediately below.

IP: In Progress: To be eligible to receive a grade of IP, a student must meet one of the following criteria:

If an eligible student does not take the WPE or the Compass Exam, he/she will receive a grade of F.

If a student does not pass the Compass Exam and fails to retest during final exams, the grade will be IP.

You have only three attempts per Learning Support area (or 12 semester hours, whichever comes first) to exit that area. If you do not exit after the third attempt, you will be suspended from Georgia colleges for three years, and then you will have to re-apply as a new student. Bottom line: there’s no time to play around. Get serious so you can get out of Learning Support!

Writing Proficiency Exam (WPE): If you qualify, this semester’s WPE is ????.

COMPASS: If you qualify, you will sign up for a time slot. The test will be during Final Exams.

Journals. There will be numerous journal writings usually worth 3 points each. We’ll do however many we have time to do. I may take up an individual journal at the time, but the complete journal will be due at a specified time near the end of the semester. The journals should be placed in a “tang” and should be clearly labeled and in order. If they are not, the overall journal grade will be affected. You are responsible for completing all activities even if you are absent.

Process Points include drafts handed in on time, participation in required conferences, letters to the reader, in-class revision activities, peer workshop---all of the steps I assign as part of an essay’s process. You are responsible for completing all activities even if you are absent.

Academic Honesty/Plagiarism: You are expected to do your own work, yourself. There is nothing wrong with presenting someone else's words and ideas in your own writing. In fact, most non-practical learning occurs as people read each other's ideas, and then synthesize and build on those ideas. Some other cultures may not insist on documenting sources; however, American institutions do. The key to properly using others’ ideas in your writing lies in acknowledgement and citation. As a result, to avoid plagiarism, it is very important that you give credit where it is due. Plagiarism is using others' ideas and words without clearly acknowledging the source of that information.

· any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings--any pieces of information--that are not common knowledge;

Penalties for Plagiarism: Since one of the goals of this class is to teach you how to use the tools of proper documentation to acknowledge others’ ideas in your work, plagiarism is broken into the following two categories:

· Inadvertent Plagiarism: If you make the attempt to use the tools of documentation, but fail to do so correctly, this is considered unintentional – a part of the learning process. Consequently, errors of this sort as determined by the instructor will be considered as major errors during the grading process, and will affect the assignment’s grade accordingly.

· Intentional Plagiarism: When you use material from an outside source without any attempt at proper documentation (such as “cutting and pasting” passages from one or more sources), this is considered to be intentional plagiarism. This includes using material from a source without documenting it, even when you document other material from the same or different sources, so be very careful. Submitting an assignment that you did not write, whether obtained through purchase from or other arrangement with ANY person or source, will be considered cheating on the assignment, even if you make some changes to the obtained source. The type and seriousness of plagiarism will be determined by the instructor and may result in a grade of zero (0) points for the assignment or failure of the course.

Cheating on a writing assignment is a violation of the college’s policy in the Student Academic Code of Conduct. If you have plagiarized on an assignment, the procedures for dealing with Academic Dishonesty are set forth in the Academic Policies and Procedures section of the ABAC catalog.

**This instructor will use TurnItIn.Com as well as other methods to ensure academic honesty.

When an essay is due, the paper packet (including all drafts and prewriting materials) is due at the beginning of class on the date the schedule indicates (see below). The final draft of the essay must also be submitted to TurnItIn.Com by midnight on the same date. Failure to submit either the paper copy or the electronic TII copy will result in late penalties or a zero, as explained below. I will not accept an essay that hasn’t been submitted both to TurnItIn and to me in paper.

Assignments are due on or before the beginning of class on the date the schedule indicates and electronically to TII by midnight on the same day. Come to class with the paper version ready to be turned in. Late papers/submissions will be excused only if your absence is excused (talk with me about it ASAP, or I’ll assume it wasn’t excused). Unexcused late papers/submissions will be docked one letter grade per late day. Any assignment not turned in will receive a 0. Any multi-draft essay not submitted to TurnItIn will receive a 0.

Technical issues (with computers, printers, jump drives, etc.) must be resolved before the following class meeting.

All multi-draft essays must be typed or printed on the word processor. Neatness does count. Journals can be handwritten but should be in pen, not pencil.

Paper Format: All graded essays should be set up in MLA format (see grammar handbook).

Cell phones, pagers, and other disruptive devices should be in their “off” settings (speak with me if you have an emergency situation). Students in a class are expected to be focused on that class.

We will create a learning community, which means we will be supportive and help each other to learn. I help you, you help each other, you help me help you, etc. Therefore, any behavior which disrupts this learning environment will not be tolerated: private conversations, habitual late arrival to class, noise or other distractions, incivility or harassment of any type. Please note: your writing for this class is almost always public, which means that your peers and I will be reading it, hearing it, commenting on it. Keep that in mind as you choose your topics. Also, you should always treat your peers’ writing in the same manner you want them to treat yours---with tact, respect, diplomacy, and maturity.

In accordance with ABAC’s Learning Support Office policies, students whose number of unexcused absences is more than six in a Learning Support class in a regular semester (not including summer or session A/B) will receive a grade of “F” for the course. Students who stop attending class without officially withdrawing/dropping the class are subject to this policy.

It is your responsibility to make up work/notes/journals that you miss, and you should do so ASAP.

All missed graded assignments must be made up within two weeks of the miss or by the last regular day of classes, whichever comes first. As soon as you get back to class, arrange a time with me to make up the assignment. No make-up work will be accepted during Final Exams. Timed essays may be made up if your absence was excused.

Be prepared for class each day. If you are not (if you’ve forgotten your books or your draft copies) I may ask you to leave and therefore receive an absence.

To arrive after I have finished roll call is to be tardy. Three tardies equals one absence. If you are tardy, it is your responsibility to come up to me after class and ask me to change the absence to a tardy in my roll book, and you must do so on the day the tardy occurs.

In general, do not be late. Tardiness is disruptive to the instructor and especially to the class as a whole. But if you do have a valid reason, and I understand that from time to time a valid reason will occur, simply talk to me about it.

In the event of a campus closure, class may be conducted through WebCT Vista/GeorgiaView and/or my website and/or email. In this case, check your Stallions email for instructions. You will be responsible for completing class work conducted in this manner. ABAC Weather 229-391-5225 or check ABAC webpage.

If your life circumstances have led you to an excessive number of absences before midterm, you should probably go ahead and withdraw from the class. If you wish to withdraw from a class, you should see your advisor and fill out the proper forms, get the proper signatures, and deliver the form to the Registrar’s Office before the midterm deadline. Don’t wait until the last minute. If you’re on Financial Aid, you should consult with the Financial Aid Office beforehand to see if your FA will be affected.

Withdrawals after midterm are granted very rarely and only for drastic personal circumstances that occur after midterm and are beyond the student’s control.