Due to an unusual situation in the English Department, I took over the teaching of this course on the first day of the second week of classes. In order to minimize the confusion this might cause students, I adopted the following syllabus, created by the instructor originally assigned to teach the course, making only minimal changes (shown in blue).

NEW Syllabus (note revisions in blue)

English 145, Section 05

Spring 2006

Instructor: Claire C. Lamonica

Office: STV 337

Hours: 9-10 M-W-F or by appointment

Office phone: 438-3297

E-mail: cclamon@ilstu.edu

Textbook required: Course Guide for English 145: Language and Composition II

Textbook recommended: a good handbook such as The Little Brown Compact Handbook by Jane E. Aaron or A Writer’s Reference by Diana Hacker. Books like these are useful not just for this class, but for all your classes and in the professions. Web sites also can be helpful, especially www.dianahacker.com/writersref and http://owl.english.purdue.edu

No other textbook is required for these sections. However, there will be other assigned readings, and you will be required to find, choose, and read essays from professional journals in several disciplines.

The Course Guide introduces and explains the course. Please read it this week and email me with any questions you have. If you have no questions, please email me and let me know that you have read it and have no questions. I want to be sure you understand the course at the onset. We will follow the Guide pretty closely. One change, however, is the order of the papers written. Our first paper will be a paper in the humanities.

This syllabus should be read in conjunction with the Guide. Here you will find daily assignments, instructions, reminders, etc.

Journal: Each student will keep a journal in which s/he will write at the start of each class period. When you come to class, please open my Instructor Folder and look at the Daily Notes. That’s where you will find the journal prompt for the day. This journal is particularly important because it becomes the basis of your final analytical paper at the end of the semester. Entries should be somewhere between a paragraph and a page, but the more you write now, the easier it will be to compose that final analytical essay!

Portfolio: This is a portfolio course. All the work is considered holistically in the final evaluation. However, advisory grades will be assigned to the individual papers. We will discuss this in class.

Since the course is evaluated holistically, everything you write—all discovery drafts, journal entries, rough drafts, revisions, peer reviews, responses to peer reviews, etc—is part of the portfolio and should be kept. (See Portfolio Grading Standards in Course Guide.) I prefer a paperless classroom, so all of your work will be electronic, including your final portfolio. Be sure, therefore, to keep back up copies of all your work. Keep all your work in your instructor’s folder and in your H drive. Another backup—a thumb drive, disks, or on your hard drive at home—is a good idea.

The course is interactive. You are a member of a writing community. To succeed you must participate in the class as a member of the community. To do that, you need to be here. Your attendance and participation are required. (See course policies re: attendance in the Course Guide.)