"As you start to walk on the way, the way appears."

Rumi

With my help, you are going to design your own course. You're going to tell me what you want to write. Think about your interests and what you might want or need to compose in your personal, public, or professional life. In these real-world compositions of your design, you will decide what to say and why, and to whom you will say it and how. I'll ask you to set major composition goals, determine the smaller steps that you will need to take to achieve them, and establish a timeline that you'll then follow to complete each phase of your composition. You will also create the tools for evaluating your own compositions. In addition to the composition, you will create and act on a plan to deliver your works to the authentic audiences for whom you composed them. What you compose during your time in this course should be more than just a college assignment read by a teacher. What you compose should have real-world value for you and your intended audience.

Presence & Journal - 20%

Presence is about more than simply making an appearance in class. It's about being engaged in your own learning process. To chronicle your learning in this course, you will keep a journal in which you will set and track goals, practice different writing strategies, and reflect on your growth as an academic reader and writer. More details about "presence" are provided below.

Midterm Portfolio - 30%

Our first writing project will center on composing a creative texts for general audiences. To this end, we will read, discuss, and imitate texts such a poems and creative nonfiction essays so that you can practice making style choices based on your own audience and purpose for writing. You'll have the opportunity to receive feedback, revise, and polish your work before "publishing" your portfolio. 

Final Portfolio - 30%

Our second writing project will center on composing academic texts for an academic audiences. To this end, we will read, discuss, and imitate texts such as academic articles, speeches, and podcasts so that you can practice making style choices and analyzing and synthesizing primary and secondary sources to compose texts that demonstrate academic purpose and are designed for academic audiences.

Checkpoint Conferences - 20%

Throughout the term, you should plan to meet with me to complete four (4) checkpoint conferences. During these conferences we will discuss your reading and writing goals, your writing projects, and your progress in this course. Beginning Week 3, I will bring a conference sign-up sheet to each class meeting so that you can schedule these checkpoint conferences according to your availability outside of class. Each checkpoint conference will have a final deadline, after which you will not be able to receive credit for the conference. This is due to the progressive nature of this course and the purpose of each checkpoint conference. 

All sections of ENGL 101/ENGL 110 will use the same textbook. However, in our course, we will not really use this book, so if it makes financial sense for you to opt out of Delgado Course Complete, then you should do so, but only do so if you do not need textbooks for any of your other classes.

Here are the materials that you will absolutely need to be successful in this course:

• A 1" 3-ring binder for organizing handouts and readings

• A personal planner

• A journal or composition notebook

• Pens/Pencils/Highlighters

• A 3-hole punch

• Access to Canvas and Google Drive

One of the most important elements in the learning process is simply being there with others who are learning alongside you. Therefore, your classroom presence counts significantly toward your overall course grade. Please strive to be present for every scheduled class meeting. In class, you not only benefit from lessons, explanations, exercises, and activities, but you also hear the answers to other students’ questions, as well as any important or necessary schedule updates. These experiences cannot be replicated or "made up" if you miss them.

"Clocking In"

Class begins the second the clock strikes our start time, so if class is scheduled for 8:00, it begins at 8:00 on the dot, not 8:01 or 30 seconds after 8. You should plan to arrive a few minutes before our scheduled start time so that you can sign the attendance sheet and "clock in" for class. I will always provide instructions for "clocking in" on the board.

Even though you may be physically in the room, you are not "present" until you are clocked in. Clocking-in means that you are ready to learn at a moment’s notice; it means that backpacks, purses, phones, and earbuds are stowed away, your notebook and Canvas are open, and you have a writing implement in hand and are ready to begin class. If you’re still zipping and unzipping, getting out materials, checking your messages, etc., you are not yet engaged in the class or ready for learning. If you are not clocked-in when class begins, you may be marked "tardy."

Note: If you enter the classroom and the attendance sheet is not available, it means that you have arrived late and will need to sign in at the end of class. You can still receive partial attendance credit as long as you are no more than 15 minutes late. If you miss fewer than 15 minutes of class (either by arriving late or leaving early), you will be marked “tardy” for the day. If you arrive late, be sure to check with me after class to be marked on the roll for that class meeting. If you miss more than 15 minutes of class, you will be marked absent for that day.

To Students in ENRE 110: We will have a 10 minute break because our class is scheduled to meet for about two hours. The clocking in policy applies to the start of the second half of class. 

To Student in ENGL 110: We have a 15 minute break between our lecture time (8 a.m.) and our studio time (9:30 a.m.). The clocking in policy applies to the start of the studio time. To earn full attendance credit for a class meeting, you must attend both lecture and studio in full.

Engagement

Class engagement may also affect your daily attendance score. You can show that you are engaged by volunteering to speak when volunteers are called for, speaking when called on, engaging in all writing, note-taking, or research activities, responding to questions that I or other students pose to the class, and offering you interpretations and perspectives during class discussion. Essentially, the idea here is that you have a true presence in our class. So, if you are asleep at your desk or constantly on your phone and not engaging in class activities, you will be marked absent for that class meeting.

"Clocking Out"

We begin class on time so that we can end on time. I will always allow you time at the end of class to "clock out"--which means logging out of Canvas and Google, putting away your notebooks and writing implements, and gathering your belongings. You should not "clock out" until I say the word. Often students have questions or I have important announcements to share before we depart, so it is highly distracting and disrespectful to pack your bag prior to the official end of class. If, without express permission, you "clock out" early, you will lose your attendance credit for the day. Make it a habit to wait for my signal before you start packing up.

If You Must Miss Class

If you do have to miss class, please let me know before the class period and communicate with me (and/or you classmates) after the class period for important exercises, readings, or updates that you missed. Please note that in college, there is no distinction between an excused and an unexcused absence. I realize that sometimes missing class is unavoidable, so students can miss three or four class meetings before absences will start to negatively affect your course grade. If you encounter a verifiable emergency (meaning, there is appropriate documentation) that results in more than one calendar week of absences, please contact me as as soon as possible so that we can determine the best course of action for your situation. 

As a final note, disruptive and disrespectful behavior is a violation of the Student Code of Conduct and will not be tolerated. Students who violate this college policy will be asked to leave class (and will, necessary, be escorted out by campus police) and will not be able to return to class until after their student judicial hearing. 

I am mindful that this is likely not the only course you are taking, and most of you have jobs and families that require your time as well. However, as college students, you should expect homework in all of your classes. We have limited time together as a class, so we cannot complete everything together during class time. You need to set aside at least three hours a week outside of this class for homework. Homework will include reading, writing, responding to each other's work, listening to a podcast, or watching a video lecture. Set up a workspace at home. Set aside time. Set goals in your personal planner. This will help you stay on top of the workload demands for your courses.  

Deadlines are a fact of life, and this is no different in college. Delgado Community College requires that I submit midterm and final grades by specific deadlines. I do not get to choose these deadlines, but I must meet them, and excuses for turning them in late are prohibited. Therefore, while you will have some flexibility in the creation of timelines for your composition projects in this course, you will need to keep in mind the midterm and final grade deadlines, which we will review and discuss in more detail during the first few weeks of class. Given these non-negotiable College deadlines, we will establish dates by which you should submit your writing portfolios and complete certain checkpoint conferences. Once we determine these deadlines as a class, they will not be up for further negotiation, so you will need to plan and manage your time accordingly.

The nature of this course is collaborative and progressive. It is not the type of course where you can submit all the work at the end of the term and hope to pass. You must complete the work as it is due. 

However, should you encounter an emergency situation that requires you to submit work after a determined deadline, you will have one additional week to submit the assignment; after that, the assignment will no longer be eligible for credit. Do not email me in May to ask me if you can submit work that was due in February. The answer is no. 

Late work will not receive the same level of feedback as work that is submitted on time, and if late submissions are a chronic problem, points will be deducted from the assignment's final grade. 

If you encounter a true and verifiable emergency during our course, please contact me immediately so that we can discuss your situation. The sooner I know what is going on, the better I can assist you. If you disappear for a month with no communication, it will be very difficult to get back on track. Communication is the key here.

Delgado Community College requires that students adhere to the highest standards of academic integrity. Students are entrusted to be honest in every phase of their academic life and to present as their own work only that which is genuinely theirs. Plagiarism or other falsification of academic work is a serious breach of College standards. 

Plagiarism is defined as any attempt to represent the work of another as one's own original work. More specifically, plagiarism is the direct appropriation of the language, thoughts, or ideas of another—either literally or in paraphrase—without appropriate notation of the source and in such fashion as to imply that the work is one's own original work. Plagiarism can be as small as a partial sentence taken from an outside source without proper credit or a basic sentence structured taken from an outside source with a few words changed. No matter how small, plagiarism cannot be accepted. I've found that most cases of plagiarism that I encounter frequently are one of the two above cases and are usually committed by accident or ignorance of the rules. There will never be a penalty for asking me before you submit a composition if certain language is considered original, or if you've accidentally committed plagiarism. Please talk to me if you ever feel unclear on this or have any questions at all pertaining to academic honesty!

All out-of-class compositions will be submitted to an originality checker (Turn It In) before the work is graded.

Depending on the nature of the case, a student guilty of academic dishonesty may receive penalties ranging from a grade of "F" for the work submitted to expulsion from the College. 

Here's my main message about academic honesty: We now live in a world with robots that can write papers for us. How close will you come to letting a robot think for you?

We're here to practice expressing what we think. Please never allow convenience to override your natural right to think your own original thoughts.

We will spend a lot of time discussing originality and plagiarism this semester. We will also explore the possibilities and pitfalls of using generative AI as part of our composition process. As a result, we will outline together the guidelines and grading policies for using these tools. A good rule of thumb in regard to the use of these tools in any class: ASK if you can use it; ADHERE to the guidelines your instructors provide; ATTRIBUTE the work you produce using AI to the tools that you used. 

If you are not already signed up for Delgado Alert, please do so as soon as possible. This alert system is how the College communicates with us in the event of unexpected campus closures, whether due to hurricanes or some other type of situation that results in the need to transition to online learning.

In the event that classes can no longer continue on campus, we'll move to remote delivery via Zoom. I will provide information for this transition in our Canvas Announcements, so you are expected to check our Canvas course site as soon as you receive a Delgado Alert that there has been a campus closure. 

In Zoom, everyone must be as fully present as they would be in traditional face-to-face classrooms. In order to receive full credit for attendance in Zoom, have your camera on with your whole face visible and adequately lit, not just your forehead or your wall or ceiling. Zoom backgrounds may be used. You should be seated at a desk or table--not driving, lying down, running errands, cooking dinner, shopping, interacting with others not in the class, etc.--with notebook, printed materials, and writing utensils in front of you, and you must stay present, visible, and engaged until class is dismissed. If you need to temporarily turn off your camera during class, send me a private message in the Zoom chat.