COMP 100-16: Composition (CRN 115)
MWF 9:00-9:50, SCHU 107
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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. Early in the semester, you will be assigned a decade of SUCO history to research (if class enrollment increases, you may be assigned a 5-year span instead of 10). You may request a time period that interests you, but only one student may research each time period, so if several of you requests the same time period, you may have to settle for a different one.
As you research this time period at SUCO, you will also need to research what was happening at the same time in Oneonta, New York State, the United States, and the world at the time. By the end of the semester, you will have chosen an aspect of that time period to write a research argument about.
Research Narrative (10%)
For your first out-of-class writing assignment, you will present your preliminary findings from your research. You will give an overview of major events from the time period you’re researching, focusing on SUCO as much as possible. You will also present some of the controversies that seem to crop up during this time period, whether they’re funding issues, student protests, or other issues. While you’re presenting this information, you should discuss where you’re finding your resources and where you need to look to discover more about the topic. The narrative should be 3-4 pages, and your last page will be a list of at least 10 sources. Note that you’re not choosing an argument for your final paper yet, just exploring possibilities for it and trying to narrow your focus to an area. The rough draft is due Monday, 16 Feb by 5. The final draft is due Monday, 2 March by 5.
Source Comparison (15%)
In your second out-of-class paper, you will examine several of your sources critically. You will choose at least 3 different types of sources (we will discuss source types in class) about the same topic and compare and contrast them on the following points:
To make these comparisons, you will need to summarize each source briefly (1 paragraph), and gather information about the author and publisher. Your comparison should touch on the strengths and weaknesses of each source in general and in relationship to the argument you think you will make. You do not need to declare one source superior to the others, but you should analyze the sources in terms of which one is most effective for which aspect of the project you’re writing. In other words, is the source useful for explaining background, supporting your argument, presenting the counterargument, or some combination of these things? You must list the sources you’re exploring (and any additional ones you may use in researching the authors and publishers) on a Works Cited page at the end of the essay. The rough draft of the essay, which should be 4-6 pages long, is due on Wednesday, 11 March in class (you will need to bring 3 copies). The final draft is due on Monday, 16 March by 5.
Informational Paper and Timeline (25%)
Your third out-of-class paper will be contain two things, an essay giving the background of the specific topic you’ve chosen to argue about and a list of events, a timeline, for the time period you’re researching. The specific information that you must include on the time will be determined in class earlier in the semester, but it will include events not just from SUCO but from Oneonta, New York, the US, and the world. You will be using your sources to help you compile this paper, which should not contain your argument. The goal of this paper is to make sure you have all of the information you need about the topic in one place. The final page of the information paper must be a Works Cited page that lists all of the sources you have used in compiling your informational paper and timeline. The rough draft of the essay, which should be 5-7 pages long, is due on Monday, 23 March by 5. The final draft is due on Monday, 30 March by 5. Following receipt of the graded copy, you will be required to edit and revise this paper for the informational booklet that will be compiled of these papers. This revision is due on Wednesday, 15 April in electronic form. At the end of the semester, you will receive a copy of the informational booklet.
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 source comparison 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 Friday, 24 April, 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 Wednesday, 6 May by 5 in my office as the final part of the portfolio (containing also the graded copies of your Research Narrative, Source Comparison, Informational Paper and Timeline, and Research Paper Rough Draft).
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, 19 January, 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 19 January.
Final Exam (5%)
You are required to attend the final exam, which is scheduled for Monday, 11 May, from 8:00-10:30. The exam will be an essay in which you discuss your writing and researching for the semester.
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