EH 102.105: ENGLISH COMPOSITION II

Web Hybrid

TR 8:00-9:15; HUMB 0146; Spring 2021

Instructor: Prof. Robert O’Berry                        Email Address: reo901@southalabama.edu

Office Location:  Zoom Meeting                        Office Hours: TR 9:30-10:30

and by appointment

Required Texts and Supplies

Crusius, Timothy W. and Carolyn E. Channell. The Aims of Argument: A Text and Reader. 8th 

ed. McGraw-Hill, 2015.

McGraw-Hill Connect component for The Aims of Argument

*IF YOU BOUGHT A NEW INVENTION AND CRAFT WITH A CONNECT COMPONENT WITHIN THE LAST FOUR YEARS, THEN YOU DO NOT NEED TO PURCHASE THE CONNECT ACCESS AGAIN (YOU CAN BUY A USED AIMS OF ARGUMENT)

Course Description

EH 102 prepares students for college writing by focusing on argumentation, research, and the critical thinking required to argue effectively. Students must earn a C or higher in EH 102 to fulfill the University writing requirement for composition. Core course. Prerequisite: ACT English 27 or SAT Critical Reading 550 or University - EH101 Exempt P or EH 101 Minimum Grade of C.

Goals and Objectives (See Resources in Connect) 

The ultimate goal of EH 102 is to prepare you to write across the curriculum. Consequently, it will further your understanding of some elements of writing covered in EH 101, such as helping you

• plan, draft, and revise writing based on your analysis of the rhetorical situation, your knowledge of the subject matter, and feedback from your peers and your instructor;
• understand a variety academic genres by examining the basic characteristics that define each type;
• evaluate your writing and others’ by drawing on criteria that apply to most writing
• reflect on and evaluate your development as a writer;
• explore a range of ideas through writing, reading, and discussion in order for you to grow intellectually.

Minimum Requirements for EH 102 

To achieve the aforementioned goals, EH 102 and EH 105 center around the following:

• rhetorical analysis, emphasizing several elements of the rhetorical situation (subject, time and place, contrasting views, constraints, and exigencies);
• writing as a process of planning, drafting, and revising your ideas and writing;
• a writing process is affected by and adapted to the particular rhetorical situation;
• lectures, readings, and assignments that provide an understanding of Shared Criteria for writing (see Section 5);
• student/teacher conferences;
• collaborative learning throughout the writing process;
• readings that reflect and encourage the above and that encourage and model academic inquiry;
• a minimum of 6,500 words of formal, revised prose – at least two with a primary aim of argumentation;
• an emphasis on genres related to and supportive of argumentation;
• substantial practice in academic research in support of arguments and other academic genres.

EH 102 Threshold Concepts and Writing Transfer

All academic courses have basic concepts that serve as building blocks, called threshold concepts, for all the knowledge and skills developed in those courses.  EH 102 assumes you are aware of the threshold concepts from EH 101 that you will transfer to your work in EH 102.  Moreover, EH 102 adds more threshold concepts to those you already learned in EH 102 that you will be expected to transfer to the work you do in all subsequent courses that require writing. EH 102 has many of these concepts.  Five that we will emphasize are:

• Writing is about making meaning or getting work done.  It’s not just used for expression or creativity.
• Writing and researching are processes that require planning and revision.  Usually the revising process is more involved than the initial discovery of ideas.
• Writers write with identifiable patterns and structures that respond to context, audiences, and purposes.  University writing is a genre with many subgenres.
• Writers need to adapt their writing habits and strategies to the particular writing context.  What works in one context may not work in other contexts.  
• Through writing, we construct our disciplinary and professional identities. Writing does not merely report information; it also presents an image of the writer as an informed, competent member of a field of study or profession.  

Online Tools

Given the Web Hybrid delivery mode for this course, we will make use of four online tools:

• Canvas
• Zoom
• Connect
• Google Suite (Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive)

Essay Format

All formal essays must be typed, double-spaced, using 12-point Times New Roman font, with one-inch margins, and the pages must be numbered.  The following heading, single-spaced, must appear in the top left-hand corner of the first page.

Your Name

EH 102.105

Prof. O’Berry

Essay #

Draft or Final

Date

Descriptions of Required Coursework

• There are four formal essays in this section of EH 102: Summary, Visual Analysis, Position Paper (Convince and Persuade), Problem-Solution Paper (Mediate).  Each assignment will be defined by an assignment sheet.  The assignment sheet also will identify due dates for drafts, peer review, and the final copy.  It will establish the word count, outline the assignment’s general parameters, and explain the grading criteria. You cannot pass the course without completing all four of the formal essays, regardless of what your final point score may be.
• You will write three reflections, one after you complete the Visual Analysis, one after the Position Paper, one during the final exam period in which you will reflect on your work over the course of the semester.  The first two are worth 15 points each; the final one is worth 20 points.  The reflections are your opportunity to offer an honest, careful critique of your own work.  Writing them will help you examine your writing process, your effort on and understanding of the writing assignment, and your development as a writer.  
• We will have a quiz on nearly every chapter of The Aims of Argument that we read.  We probably will have other reading and lecture quizzes as well.  You will be able to drop two quiz grades.  Quizzes will be given at the beginning of the class period.  They will take no longer than ten minutes. They cannot be made up, so if you miss class or arrive late, you cannot take the quiz.  Your final quiz grade will be determined by a formula that converts your percentage score from the total number of quizzes to a point value on a 80-point scale.  
• A draft is a complete effort at writing an essay according to the assignment’s requirements.  It will have a beginning, a middle, and an end.  Aspects and/or sections of a draft may be underdeveloped, unfocused, or not well organized.  The style may be uneven.  It probably will not have been edited for grammar and mechanics.  It probably will not be as long as the final essay should be, but it generally will have all of the elements.  A draft is not a couple of sentences, a few paragraphs, or an outline – to name but three things that don’t meet the requirements.  You will not receive credit for submitting an incomplete draft. 
• A revised draft (peer review or final), should address instructor and peer review feedback. Revision is NOT a couple of sentences added to each paragraph. Revision is NOT editing for grammatical errors alone. Revision is a complete attempt at adjusting the paper to suit the needs of the reader and addresses concerns about what big issues need to be resolved in the paper. If significant revision is not made, I will give you a reduced grade on your paper, because writing is a process and revision is a critical part of this process.
• While you are encouraged to write about topics that you care about, certain topics are too broad for the scope of this class. For instance, abortion, gun control, the legalization of marijuana, climate change, and LGBTQ+ rights cannot be addressed efficiently within a five-page essay. Exceptions will only be considered after a scheduled one-on-one meeting with your instructor.

Class Policies

Program Attendance Policy

In fall and spring semesters, any student who misses more than two weeks’ worth of meetings will have their grade for the course lowered by a third of a letter grade for each subsequent absence.  This means that students in course sections that meet three days a week can miss up to six (6) days without incurring penalties to their grades, and students in course sections that meet two days a week can miss up to four (4) days without incurring penalties to their grades.

For the Spring 2021 semester, the absence limits apply to unexcused absences only. Excused absences will not be counted toward this total.

However, students who wish to have particular absences recognized as excused must follow the university’s Excused Absence Process for Spring 2021.  Students who are verified as having an illness or a need to self-quarantine because of symptoms or exposure can request an excused absence.  Students must make their request through the office of the Dean of Students. Your instructor will receive a letter by email notifying him or her of the excused absence.  To protect the student’s confidentiality, the details of the illness or exposure will not be provided.  The Dean of Students will send a follow-up letter to the faculty member at the end of the excused period (i.e., after the appropriate self-quarantine period ends) because the length of time of the excused period will differ based on individual circumstances.  Should a student not follow this process, the absences in question will be treated as unexcused.

If you must quarantine, your instructor will work remotely with you to accommodate your excused absences.  If you are too ill to participate or miss assignments that cannot be done remotely, your instructor will determine how you can make up the missed work.  In some cases, the timing and length of the absence may make completing course requirements during the semester difficult or impossible.  In those cases, your instructor may counsel you about options such as incompletes or course withdrawals.

With respect to Participation, I expect everyone to take part in class discussions.  I realize that some people are more inclined to talk in class while others are less inclined to talk, and some people talk without thinking, or reading.  Should it become apparent through class discussion that only a few are reading the assigned texts, we will have quizzes to augment the discussion, and the course grade breakdown will be adjusted accordingly.  So please come to class having read the texts assigned for the day and be prepared to participate in the discussion.  

Remote Class Days/Zoom Class Days:

For Zoom Class Days I strongly encourage the use of your cameras, but this is not required for class. However, the use of your mic is required for class, as we will have several discussions during the Zoom Class Days. We will use the raise hand feature during discussion in order not to talk over one another. Mics should be muted when someone else is talking, so we do not catch background noise.

Cell Phones and Other Electronic Devices

I will let you know when you can use such devices in class.  Otherwise, turn them off and leave them in your bags or pockets. Try taking notes with a pen or pencil and paper.  Then, after class, transfer those notes to a text file.  The process will help you prepare for the essay exams.  

Late and Missed Assignments

All written work must be submitted on the day it is due.  Otherwise, it will be considered late.  The penalties for late work are as follows:

Up to 24 hours late: one letter grade;

24-48 hours late: two letter grades;

48-72 hours late: three letter grades.

This penalty will apply to the grade for the assignment.  In other words, if you submit an essay three days late, the highest grade you can earn on that assignment is D.  

Student Support

Contacting Me

My phone, email, office, and office hours are listed at the top of page one.  Students get first priority during my posted office hours.  If you cannot meet me during those hours, please make an appointment to see me. By far the easiest way to contact me is via email.  I usually respond in less than eight hours.  Occasionally, it will take me twenty-four hours.  On weekends, however, I don’t check my email until Sunday evening.  I receive a significant number of emails a day, so write in caps in the subject line so I know the message is from a student.  

Counseling and Testing Services

Counseling and Testing Services provides a variety of free, confidential services for students. For further information, go to www.southalabama.edu/counseling or call 460-7051.

USA Writing Center

The USA Writing Center is a safe place where students, faculty, and staff may receive help on any type of writing task at any stage of the writing process, from idea generation, development, and revision, to grammar and editing strategies. The University Writing Center is an instructional facility. Its goal is to help the individual writer grow. Our writing consultants focus on working with writers to help them improve their skills, rather than simply fixing papers or correcting perceived errors. Schedule your own Writing Center appointment by going to https://www.southalabama.edu/departments/academicsuccess/cae/ and clicking on the "Schedule an Appointment" button in the menu on the left, or you can call (251) 460-6480.

Further USA Course Policies

University policies on the following are available on the course Canvas site under the Syllabus tab.

• Academic Disruption Policy and Class Demeanor
• Changes in Course Requirements
• Student Academic Conduct Policy
• Students with Disabilities
• USAOnline
• Operational Disruptions

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EH 102 SPRING 2021

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

AoA: Aims of Argument

HB: Connect Composition Essentials Handbook