This morning in class you worked collaboratively with four of your classmates to find in the syllabus the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about the course. Those questions and their answers appear below.
How many major assignments will we write and what are their length requirements?
- Analytical Essay (750-word minimum)15%
- Midterm Reflection (750-word minimum)10%
- Final Essay (1,800-word minimum) 25%
- Final Reflection & Portfolio (750-word reflection, portfolio length will vary)15%
- Creative project, length will vary, minimum TBD 10%
Where do we post the revisions of our major assignments?
All major assignments will be posted both to Blackboard and to your WordPress blog.
What are Check, Please! and WordPress, and how do they figure in the course?
This course meets face-to-face for the equivalent of a 3-credit course. However, as a 4-credit course, it is designed to require 8 hours of out-of-class preparation, or 2 per credit hour. This means more out-of-class preparation is expected in ENG 1103, and to earn that 4th-hour credit, students will be required to complete the Check, Please! Starter Course, based on Mike Caulfield’s Web Literacy for Student Fact Checkers, and create and maintain free WordPress blogs as platforms for sharing information and knowledge.
May we use our phones, tablets, and laptops in the classroom? If so, when?
Occasionally you will have the opportunity to use your tablet or laptop in class, but often your work will require the sustained focus that working online inhibits. Therefore, unless instructed otherwise, please leave your phones, smart watches, laptops, and tablets stored in your backpack or bag.
May we make up short in-class assignments that we miss? How will missing them affect our grade?
If you are absent on the day that such an in-class assignment is graded, you will not be assigned a grade of F (or zero). Instead, the daily assignment average will be based on the in-class assignments that you were present to complete.
Textbook
If you haven’t already purchased or rented your copy of the textbook, please do so as soon as possible.
Note that different sections of English 1103 require different textbooks. Be sure that the textbook you rent or purchase is Writing Analytically, the required textbook for sections 05 and 21.
Since our screen time in class will be limited, all students in sections 05 and 21 of English 1103 are required to have the paperback edition of the textbook, not the electronic edition. You will frequently use your textbook during Monday and Wednesday classes.
Additional Required Materials
The additional required materials listed in your syllabus (and below) are also featured in the image at the top of this blog post.
- Writer’s notebook—bring to every class
- Loose leaf paper (for drafts and short in-class assignments)—bring to Monday and Wednesday classes
- Pocket portfolio (for class handouts)—bring to every class
Up Next
For Wednesday’s class, continue to review the syllabus and make note of any questions you have.
Jane Lucas 