• To develop an awareness of, understanding of, and ability to use logic, Rhetoric and various Rhetorical Modes.
• To support generalizations and claims with specific and credible evidence.
• To make clear to the reader the relationship between the evidence presented and the essay's thesis or main point.
• To give instruction and practice in the writing of college essays.
• To give practice in the writing and revising of effective sentences, paragraphs, and essays. To demonstrate a competency in the conventions of Standard American English.
• To gain an understanding of and practice in the use of computer technology for interpersonal communication and academic research.

Pass the Class!

The primary goal of this class is to get you to pass the class by writing essays with a fairly high degree of proficiency. You cannot pass the course with a transferable grade (2.0 or better) without submitting all of the four revisable essays and undertaking the mandatory revisions (explained in the syllabus). Missing any one essay, or not submitting even one required revision, which includes the impromptu essays, means you will fail the course with a 0.0. The following does not apply to summer students: Additionally, because the class consists of a portfolio evaluation, this is part of your grade. If you do not pass the final portfolio evaluation, you will receive a '0' for that part of your grade. If you do pass the portfolio evaluation, your highest grade will be matched and included as your portfolio grade.

Help you Write Effective Essays

A goal of this class is to help you not only pass so you can move on to English 201, but to help you develop skills and strategies so you can write effective essays for other classes. This will happen best if you come to class each day and do as is expected of you.

Build Literacies

A third goal of this course, wrapped up in the course content and its delivery, is increased traditional, cultural, social and technological literacies at both functional and higher levels. Functional literacy in a traditional sense means you can read and write well enough to function effectively in society. In a technological sense it means you are master of the machine rather than the other way around. We'll work toward an critical literacy in a traditional and technological sense. This will give you a greater sense of how rhetoric and technology function to shape society and culture and how you can use them to shape your own place in the world.

Understand the Importance of Being Here

For summer students, it's more about meeting deadlines than being anywhere. Consider the following material in this spirit: Some students fail to make this connection, but our course’s success depends on the quality of class discussion and participation, so please come to class having read and thought about the assignment. If you miss a class, you must get any information you missed from a classmate or from the blog. All students have one week's worth of class that can be missed without penalty, and all absences--excused or unexcused--are equal. Students missing less than one-half a week's worth of class will have a .3 bonus added to their final grades (assuming that all work and revisions have been turned in, each individual essay has earned at least a 2.0, the final grade at that point is at least 2.0 and the essays have passed the portfolio evaluation process). Students missing more than a week's worth of classes will have a .1 deducted from the final grade for each absence after that. Once more than two weeks of class has been missed, you may fail the course with an earned F. If you find this to be objectionable, you have two choices: make it to class as expected or find another section. I won't be flexible about this. Online students will earn this bonus by submitting all work on time, including all assigned blogs, responses to blogs, drafts, responses to drafts and revisions.

Work Effectively with Others

For each assignment in this class you will be working with other writers and myself. When doing so, you are to offer constructive feedback to help group members improve the paper they have written. My goal is to help you not only learn to recognize good writing and offer help and suggestions on how to improve your classmates' essays, but to enable you to learn something about the people in your groups. This creates a community of writers in our classroom where you can learn that written communication is to be read, not just stuffed away in a drawer or to be given to an instructor to be marked up with red ink (Normally I use blue or black on paper). This is also done so you can learn that each member of this class can offer you something to enrich your life and your scholarly pursuits. The rule for responding to the work of others is to do so with honesty (as opposed to being "brutally frank"), respect and courtesy. We are here to help each other improve as writers, not to laugh at or judge each other. I understand that the responses from other students are not always the best, but part of the reason we do this is so you are able to give better feedback once you are through with this and other writing classes.

Engage in Self-reflection

I want you to think about what it is you are doing and how you could possibly do it better. In part, this means writing your essays well before the day they are due so you can let your ideas simmer in your mind. You will also write a short paragraph (which answers certain assigned questions) at the end of each essay to evaluate your performance and the behaviors during the writing of your essays. This is one way to both learn from your mistakes and avoid repeating them while learning to recognize your strengths as well. I would also like you to consider how your behavior as a student affects others in the class. Respect and courtesy are key. Self-reflection is key to writing as process.