Course Policies

Required Texts:

1) ISUComm Foundation Courses Student Guide for English 150 and 250, Iowa State

University, Department of English, 2013 - 2014.

2) Lunsford, Andrea. The Everyday Writer. 5^th edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013.

3) Lunsford, Andrea et. al. Everything’s an Argument with Readings. 6th edition.

Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013.

Objectives
The goals of English 250 are for you to develop skills in written, oral, visual, and electronic communication, as listed below.  As a result, you should become not only a more perceptive consumer of information, but also a communicator better able to make effective decisions in your own academic life and work. In this course, you'll summarize, analyze, and evaluate various types of communication and then use those skills in four kinds of assignments: summaries, rhetorical analyses (both textual and visual), exploratory/persuasive texts, and documented research.

Written

·      analyze professional writing to assess its purpose, audience, and rhetorical strategies

·      construct arguments that integrate logical, ethical, and emotional appeals

·      write source papers analyzing a rhetorical situation and identifying and accurately

documenting appropriate source material

·      avoid distracting or confusing sentence-level errors

·  reflect systematically upon all of your communication processes, strengths, goals, and

growth

Oral

·      give an oral presentation, either individually or as part of a team, using effective

invention, organization, language, and delivery strategies

·      be an effective team member in small groups as a contributor, listener, and presenter

Visual

·      rhetorically analyze visual communication, such as an advertisement, film, etc.

·      create a visual argument (i.e., advertisement, bookmark, poster, slide presentation)

Electronic

·      rhetorically analyze electronic communication, such as emails or websites

·      create an electronic composition (e.g., communication eportfolio)

Major Assignments

Major assignments will be penalized one letter grade (e.g., from B to C) for each class period they are late.    

Portrait of a Writer                                                                feedback; ungraded

Summary and reflection                                                10%

Textual rhetorical analysis and reflection                       10%

Visual rhetorical analysis and reflection                          10%

Oral presentation of visual analysis                                 5%

Documented essay and reflection                                   20%

Oral presentation on documented essay                        10%

Final Portfolio                                                               15%

Thought Pieces                                                             10%

Class participation                                                         10%
Extra Credit assignment (emailed 4-24)                           3%

(including ALL ungraded assignments – points lost for each assignment--homework or classwork --not completed)

In Case of an Emergency

•      If there is inclement weather that makes it unsafe for you to come to campus for class, stay home.

•      If you are ill and infectious, stay home.

•      Please go on AccessPlus and sign up for ISU Alert to notify your cell phone in the event of a campus emergency.  Please bring your cell phone to class set on vibrate.

TORNADO
•      In the event of a tornado emergency, our shelter area is in the basement of Ross Hall. Follow the signs.

 EVACUATION ORDERS
•      In the event of building emergency, we will evacuate and muster in the lobby of Heady Hall (Out the Eastern doors of Ross, down the sidewalk towards the SU a little, and across the street). I’ll take attendance again after we reach the muster area. If anyone is missing, I’ll be sending emergency personnel back into the building to look for you.  So don’t wander off until I account for you.

SHELTER IN PLACE
•      In the event of a shelter in place emergency, we will take necessary measures to stay safe in the classroom until given the all-clear by the authorities.

SHOOTER IN THE BUILDING
•      If someone enters our classroom and starts shooting with a firearm, security professionals recommend that we immediately begin throwing whatever is at hand at the attacker and swarm them. Everyone tries to secure a limb and take the gun away. Hiding has been shown to be an ineffective survival strategy once the shooter is in the room. Teachers are often shot first, so it is your own responsibility to attack and swarm the shooter. Do not hold the firearm once it is taken away from the shooter. Put it in a trashcan and hold or sit on the trashcan until police arrive.

•      If there is a shooter in the building but not close to our classroom, security professionals recommend that we flee the building to a safe, distant location. We will not muster together. Everyone is empowered to pursue their own survival.

Academic Honesty
Detecting plagiarism in English 150 and 250 is often fairly easy for an instructor who is familiar with your work, and once detected, it is mandatory that the Director of Foundation Communication be notified and consulted about consequences. Plagiarism is a serious legal and ethical breach, and it is treated as such by the university. Read thoroughly all of the material in your ISUComm Foundation Courses Student Guide, including the section regarding ethics and plagiarism in the academy. Understanding what constitutes plagiarism and academic dishonesty will help prevent you from committing these acts inadvertently and will strengthen your writing. If you have any questions about using work other than your own in your paper, see your instructor before you turn in an assignment.

End-of-Semester Portfolio

After you’ve completed the first 4 major individual assignments of the semester, you will be revisiting these products in order to compile a presentation portfolio worth 15% of your semester grade. This portfolio’s purpose is for you to present your communication work and your ability to reflect on and project ahead about this work.

In order to showcase your learning in this way, you will make selections from your previous work, revising one major piece of writing of your choosing (the “W” mode), presenting other parts of your work to demonstrate your competence in the remaining 3 modes (OVE—oral, visual, and electronic), and reflecting on these pieces in order to discuss changes you made to the originals and assess the new versions.

Specifically, the portfolio components are:

• Portfolio conference with your instructor (in which you lay out what pieces your portfolio will include and what sorts of issues you will discuss as you reflect on them—during Week 14)
• Portfolio will be due during Week 16

At this point, it’s not important (or even possible) to know exactly what you’ll include in this final portfolio or what you’ll say about your chosen pieces, and since you can’t know this now, it is very important to save everything you do in 250, both in electronic and hard copy, so that you have a lot of material from which to draw when you begin to put your portfolio together.

Class Attendance and Participation

One of the consistent components in the ISUComm Foundation Courses is the attendance policy. Classes are in a discussion/workshop format and depend on your active learning; therefore, regular attendance and productive, courteous participation with classmates and the instructor are important. Absences damage your grade in the class and create the probability that you’ll need to drop the course. Much of what we do in English 250 cannot be rescheduled for you individually, made up, or accepted late, regardless of your reason for missing class. To ensure that you stay on track with your attendance and submission of work, the following policies, developed by the Director of ISUComm Foundation Courses, will be enforced in sections of English 250:

• Missing more than three classes will lower your grade, and six absences will result in a failing grade for the course.
• Even with a valid reason to miss, you can accumulate so many absences in a semester that your work and classroom experience are too compromised for you to remain in the class. The Director of ISUComm Foundation Courses and your instructor will advise you and your advisor if your absences—regardless of their reason—are too numerous for you to remain in English 250 and you need to drop the class and take it in a semester when your schedule permits regular attendance.
• Please do not assume that exceptions will be made for you. If you are concerned about the number of times you anticipate missing, speak to your instructor immediately. If there is a medical condition, you must speak to the Disability Resources Office at the beginning of the semester (see page 4 of this document). If the time of day for the class is not convenient for you, you need to speak to your adviser; you may not routinely arrive late or leave early because of a schedule issue. If you are an athlete and your sport will cause you to miss more than the allowed number of time, you need to drop and take 250 in a semester when your sport and the class do not conflict.
• If you are more than 15 minutes late to class, you will be counted absent. If you are never able to arrive at class on time because of a preceding class or commitment, you must drop and find a section that fits in your schedule.
• Missing during group work or on the day of your oral presentation means taking an F for that activity, as it cannot be made up individually.
• When classes are cancelled for scheduled conferences, missing a scheduled individual or group conference counts as an absence.
• Your adviser will also be notified of attendance issues that threaten your ability to pass the class and you may receive a midterm low-grade report because of your attendance.
• Do not schedule travel that requires you to leave campus early for Spring Break or for summer break, as this could conflict with your class and/or your final exam. Your instructor cannot make individual arrangements for you.

Grading and Evaluation

In English 250, as in other university courses, the work required of you at the university will often be different in type and level of difficulty from what you did in high school.  Expectations are also naturally higher since your work is now in a pool with that of others who are also pursuing a degree at this large university. It is assumed that students admitted to the university can perform satisfactorily most of the time; however, earning As and Bs at the university level requires strong, consistent effort. Your assignment sheets in English 250 include evaluation criteria and your instructor will provide feedback on your work.  Be realistic in your expectations about grades; start assignments early and work steadily to avoid last-minute rushing.

In this course, I judge writing quality by considering the following categories:

Ø  match to intended genre and/or assignment guidelines

Ø  audience awareness and appropriateness of document for them

Ø  clarity of argument and strength of support for it

Ø  source use appropriate to genre, assignment, and writer=s needs

Ø  careful crafting of writing and document design

Ø  editing and proofreading

   A writing shows little or no weakness in any of these categories.

   B writing shows some weakness in some categories.

   C writing shows some weakness in most categories, or great weakness in some.

   D writing shows some weakness in all categories, or great weakness in most.

   F writing shows great weakness in all categories.

Computer Ethics

Please check the Student Guide: English 150–250 for information on the university's computer ethics policy. You are expected to use the university computers responsibly and to communicate courteously with others in your class—including the instructor—electronically. You are also expected to follow your instructor’s instructions on class days in the lab, using the computers for class-related activity only.

Diversity Affirmation

Iowa State University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, age, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, sex, marital status, or disability. An effective learning environment values and supports diversity. Respect the learning environment and learning needs of other students through appropriate behavior and civility.

Disability Accommodation

If you have a disability and require accommodations, you must contact your instructor early in the semester so that your learning needs may be appropriately met. You will need to provide documentation of your disability to the Disability Resources (DR) office, main floor of the Students Services Building, Room 1076, 515-294-7220.