Composition I & College Writing I

Congratulations on making it to class! 

Composition I and College Writing I are basically the same class~different colleges have different names. However, the topics will be the same.

Sometimes the beginning of a new semester can be a bit of a shock, can't it? Like, where the heck did break go? Wasn't it the beginning of break just last week?? 

Anyway, I'm happy to have you in class this semester and look forward to reading the terrific writing I know you'll be doing. 

The first thing you should do once you have access to D2L/Brightspace is take the time to explore the class a bit and see how things are set up. The key areas of this particular class are the Discussions forum, the Content page, and the Assignments folders. You will also periodically be using Quizzes. So click around, try things out, and don't freak out when you first look at the Content page, which lists all the assignments you'll be doing in the next few weeks. 

This class provides extended practice in critical reading, writing, and thinking skills. You will develop an effective writing process and work to achieve college-level competence in reading and responding to texts, visuals, events, and ideas in a variety of written formats, with an emphasis on the academic essay. Audience awareness, interpretation and analysis, logical reasoning, and persuasive and argumentative skills will be developed. MLA style documentation of primary sources will be included.

The number of assignments may seem frightening, but when you knuckle down and start completing them, they aren't so very bad. Some of them are designed to help you succeed in any college class and may take less than 15-minutes! 

To help you keep track of what is due when, you can use the syllabus which shows due dates for primary assignments, but even more helpful will be the weekly announcements that I post on this, the course homepage. Each week I will list what you'll be doing along with an easy link to get there. However, you can also access everything as well through Content. Additionally, watch the little calendar widget on your D2L/Brightspace homepage as it will also show you what's due.

Keeping on top of what is due will be important, as I don't accept late work (although you are more than welcome to turn things in early). Do we need to take a moment here to yell, collectively, "Holy migraine and EEEEEEEEKKKKK"?

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. That's how we'll tackle everything. One week and one topic at a time. The best way to ensure you do well in the class (aside of course doing the work on time), is to fully engage with the content for each week. This means reading and watching what's covered that week. Really paying attention to the instructions for assignments will help you do your very best. 

This class has been designed as a Z-Course. That is there is no textbook for you to purchase. The primary textbook for this class can be found under Content and Class Textbook: You-Writing-3rd-Edition You can download it if you'd like. Other items that you will read, are supplied in their corresponding week.

Okay, now that we've got that out of the way, we can face facts: the class will have a weekly due date of Sundays at 11:00 p.m. Discussions are slightly different as your initial post will be due Fridays at 11:00 pm with your peer responses due on Sundays at 11:00 pm. Grades on late initial discussion posts will be docked, which over time can drop you by a full letter grade. So, it's important that you stay on schedule.

Part of your grade is dependent on discussion participation and are required. The discussions are set up as mini-writing assignments designed to help you progress as writers. Discussions CANNOT be made up once the deadline for the week's discussion has passed. Think about it this way: let's say you missed a department meeting. You would not tell your supervisor to reconvene everyone to discuss what you had missed. It's the same way for class discussions. Once the week has passed, the class has moved on.

Feel free to work ahead on assignments <giggling>. 

Since this may be your first online class -- or even if you're already experienced with online classes, every teacher sets up their class differently -- I imagine there will be a learning curve, and we will run into some snags. But hang in there, let me know when things aren't working, and we'll figure it out. Onward! 

Incidentally, I'm always happy to answer questions or receive chatty emails or DMs from you, so please: hit me up any time you want some connection. Online classes can be super fun; the more you show up for them and get to know those of us in the room, the better the experience will be.