COMP 100-03: Composition (CRN 167)
MWF 9:00-9:50, SCHU 110

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Portfolio and Assignments Guidelines

The following is a list of all of the assignments comprising your final grade, with the percentage they are worth of your final grade in parentheses. For some of the major writing assignments, you will later receive a more descriptive explanation of the assignment in class. The underlined assignments must be saved after they are graded and included in your final portfolio at the end of the semester.

Research Topic Parameters: This semester you will focus on a single research topic and will submit several papers about that topic. Your topic must in some way be related to SUCO or a local issue. It must also be a topic that will allow you to make some kind of argument. Choose a topic about which you can sustain an interest for 14 weeks. You have two options for finding a topic for the class: 1) choose something from the list at the end of this handout, or 2) devise a topic of your own and get approval for it from both me and either Kay Benjamin or Heather Heyduk (the librarians who will be teaching you how to research these local topics).  Do not be reluctant to seek approval for a topic if you have one in mind; we just want to make sure you’ll be able to find enough resources to make it viable before we give approval.

Research Prospectus (10%)

Early in the semester, you will write a short (2-3 page) paper in which you present your general research topic or question (e.g. “How has life at SUCO changed since 1960?” or “What effect did the Black List have on campus?” or “How has farming practice changed in Otsego County over the past 20 years?”) and ways in which you are thinking about narrowing it. This paper is an exploration of your thoughts on the topic. You can include additional questions you might want/need to answer as your research progresses, as well as how you expect to go about your research (e.g. what types of sources will be most useful for you). See the specific handout on the prospectus for more information. The draft of the prospectus is due 22 September; the final draft is due 26 September. The graded Research Prospectus must be included in your final portfolio.

Annotated Bibliography (20%)

An annotated bibliography is a collection of sources about your topic that you summarize and analyze as you complete your research for class. For the purposes of this class, you will annotate at least 10 sources, submitted in 2 parts of 5 sources each. Of the sources, 1 must be field work (an interview, survey, etc.) and 1 must be an internet source (but you may not have more than 3 internet sources). The rest of the sources are up to you. Each annotation will be 1 ½ to 2 pages long, and each will start with the bibliographic citation (in MLA format). The actual annotation will have 4 parts: a brief summary of the source; an analysis of the source’s reliability; an analysis of the content of the source; and an explanation of the source’s relevance to your paper. You need to read each source before you write its annotation, so start reading your sources immediately. The summary should be no more than 1/3 of the annotation. Alphabetize the sources in the final draft. You will submit the rough draft of 2 annotations to me on 3 October, and we will discuss them during an individual conference. You will revise those 2 annotations and submit them with 3 others for Part I of the Annotated Bibliography, due 17 October. Part II of the Annotated Bibliography (the remaining 5 sources) is due on 14 November. Each part will be graded separately and averaged to make up 20% of your final grade. Save both parts of the graded Annotated Bibliography to place in your portfolio at the end of the semester.

Informational Paper (20%)

About halfway through the semester, you will write an essay in which you present the factual background information about your topic. This essay, which should be 5-7 pages long, should not present an argument. Rather, you will give all of the pertinent information about this topic. This information will be a combination of the history of the topic and basic facts and figures on the topic. Your goal for the paper is to get all of your knowledge about this topic onto paper. The rough draft for the Informational Paper is due Monday, 27 October. The final draft is due Friday, 31 October. Keep the graded copy to include in your final portfolio.

Research Paper (submitted as part of the final portfolio) (30%)

At the end of the semester, you will write a research paper of 10-12 pages long (no more than 25). This research paper is not just a report of the information you've gathered, but an argumentative, analytical essay about a greatly narrowed version of your topic. Papers that do not contain a clearly expressed argument are unacceptable for this course. You should wait until the end of the semester to write the paper (though hopefully not the day before it's due). By the time you do write the paper, you should be more than ready to present your research since you will have been writing about it in your annotated bibliography and informational paper. The research must contain a Works Cited page in order for it to be graded. Failure to include this page will result in an E for the portfolio. I will distribute a more specific rubric for the grading of the research paper when we begin drafting it. Your rough draft of the research paper is due on Monday, 1 December, and we will discuss this draft in a conference. Failure to submit a rough draft will result in your research paper losing 10%. The research paper is due Friday, 12 December by 5 in my office as the final part of the portfolio (containing also the graded copies of your Research Prospectus, Annotated Bibliography (both parts), Informational Paper, and Research Paper Rough Draft).

Final Exam (5%)

You are required to attend the final exam, which is scheduled for Wednesday, 17 December, from 8:00-10:30. The exam will be an essay in which you discuss your writing and researching for the semester.

Participation and Miscellaneous (5%)

Throughout the semester, we will be having frequent discussions and in-class writings and other exercises, and you will be graded on your participation in them. In addition, your attendance at the library sessions and conferences (see syllabus for dates) will count toward your participation grade. If I feel that the class as a whole is unprepared for discussions, there is also the possibility of quizzes about the materials we’re covering. The quiz grades, if necessary, will count toward this portion of your final grade.

Caught’ya Exercises (10%)

We will spend part of each class discussing grammatical and mechanical issues in writing through an exercise called Caught’ya. Starting on Monday, 1 September, you will come to class and copy the sentences on the board onto a sheet of paper using blue or black ink or a pencil, correcting the grammatical and mechanical errors you see in them as you do so. I will come around the room and try to "catch" you missing these errors. After a couple minutes, as a class we will go over the sentences and you will make any corrections you missed in red ink or pencil and mark the number of errors in the left margin.  Each Friday, I will collect the Caught'ya paper (you will do all of a week's sentences on the same page) and grade it based on whether you have marked your sentences correctly (and followed the assigned formatting for the paper).  A sample Caught’ya page and more specific instructions will be distributed in class on 1 September.

Approved Topics
College and student-related topic ideas

The Black List (September 1992)
College Camp
Town & Gown
Greek Societies on the Oneonta Campus
            Community service by Greek organizations
            Focus on one specific Greek organization:

Student protests
Department Histories:

History of or focus on particular campus buildings:
            Old Main
College Union
            Bugbee
            Fine Arts
            Physical Education Buildings
Key people on campus and their influence on the campus:
            James M. Milne (Principal from 1889-1898)
            Percy I. Bugbee (Principal from 1898 – 1933)
            Charles W. Hunt (President from 1933-1951)
            Royal F. Netzer (President from 1951 – 1970)
            Clifford J. Craven (President from 1970 – 1987)
            Alan B. Donovan (President 1988 – 2008)
            Carey Brush
            John New
            Charles Burnsworth
            Carleton Clay
            P. Jay Fleisher
            Bill Harman
Ashok Malhotra          
People buildings on campus are named after: 
                        Edwin Bacon (teacher 1889-1910)
                        Charles A. Schumacher (teacher 1895-1939)
                        Frank D. Blodgett (teacher 1893-1915)
                        Arthur M. Curtis (teacher 1895-1933)
                        Laurence B. Goodrich (teacher 1944-1967)
                        Evelyn R. Hodgdon (teacher 1934-1959)       
The changing life of the Oneonta student – scrapbooks, yearbooks, State Times going back many years

Oneonta community topics

Local businesses
            Restaurants
            Hotels
            Banks
            Retail stores
Southside Mall
Architecture
            Wilber Mansion
            Oneonta Theater
            Swart-Wilcox House
            Huntington Library
Baseball
            Oneonta Yankees
            Oneonta Tigers
            Baseball parks (Cooperstown Dreams Park, etc.)
Soccer Hall of Fame
Churches
Transportation issues
I-88
Railroads
Airports
Bus services
Traffic issues
Environmental issues
Susquehanna River
Otsego Lake pollution (Cooperstown)
New York City watershed
Recycling
Garbage & landfills
Water supply
Hospitals
            A.O. Fox
            Homer Folks (TB hospital now home of Job Corps)
Parks
            Neahwa Park
            Wilber Park
            Fortin Park
Schools
            Job Corps
            Elementary Schools
            Oneonta High School
Hartwick College
Agriculture and farming
Urban renewal

Background from Backgrounds Archive