ENGLISH 101 ONLINE
 Greenville Technical College
Arts and Sciences Division
English Department
Course Syllabus Spring 2008

Things you need to know up front:

  1. A class orientation will be offered ONLINE, WITHIN THE COURSE, during Drop-Add.  Students are responsible for completing that orientation by the due date; those who do not will be denied access to the course.

  2. All students are expected to make contact with the instructor via e-mail or Discussion post inside the course during Drop-Add. 

  3. MS Word is a course requirement; no other word processing system will do.  MS Works is not acceptable.  If you have Microsoft Office 2007, you will need to "save down" your documents to Word 2003.

  4. Students may be expected to attend a documentation review session held on the Barton Campus.   If so, dates and times will be announced on the Discussion Board.

ENG 101 Course Information

Course: ENG 101

Semester credit: 3.0

Course title: English Composition I

Instructor:  Various

Prerequisite: Satisfactory performance on a diagnostic placement test or a verbal score of at least 480 on an SAT test taken within the past three

Description: ENG 101 is a study of composition in conjunction with appropriate literary selections with frequent theme assignments to reinforce effective writing; and a review of standard usage and basic techniques of research. Students must make a C or better in ENG 101 in order to take ENG 102, SPC 205, SPC 208, SPC 209, or JOU 101.

Purpose:  To enable the student to write correct, clear sentences; complete, coherent paragraphs; and logically organized essays exhibiting unified purpose and adequate content.

Required texts:

Kirszner, Laurie G., and Stephen R. Mandell, eds. Patterns for College Writing: A Rhetorical Reader and Guide. 10th ed.

Boston:  Bedford, 2007. 

Kirszner, Laurie G., Stephen R. Mandell, and David Blakesley.  The Wadsworth English Handbook and Research Guide.  8th

ed.   Boston:  Thomson, 2008. 

Be sure to purchase a handbook with this ISBN:  1428209514.  Along with the handbook, students are purchasing an access code to online materials.  This code will be valid for four semesters.

A good college-level dictionary

Objectives of Course:  Students who successfully complete English 101 with 70% accuracy or better will have demonstrated the skills required to accomplish the following minimum objectives:

  1. to compose writing using the structures, principles and rules of grammar, mechanics, punctuation, and diction covered in the textbook and lecture;
  2. to outline, draft, write, and revise five essays including the final exam (with a minimum of 400 words) demonstrating the ability to
  3. to generate all out-of-class essays on a computer;
  4. to draft, write, and revise the final exam composition within an official, timed exam period without in-class assistance from the   instructor.

Note:  These objectives outline minimum requirements.  The instructor may require additional assignments. For traditional lecture classes, the number of in-class writing assignments written under time constraints will be determined by the instructor; however, one essay (in addition to the final exam) must be an in-class essay.

Assignments:  Assignments will include paragraphs, essays, research assignments, quizzes, journal entries, and Discussion Board posts, and other work to be discussed inside the course.

Grading Scale: According to this scale, final grades will be awarded as follows:

90-100% receives an A

80-89% receives a B

70-79% receives a C

60-69% receives a D

59 and below % receives an F

Only final grades C or above will transfer
to other colleges.

  

 

 

 

 

Important Events                                                               Date
Spring Classes Begin                                                 January 7, 2008
Martin Luther King’s Birthday Holiday                            January 21, 2008
Classes Begin for 10-Week Session                              February 12, 2008
Last Day to Withdraw from Full Term                            March 17, 2008
Spring Break                                                            March 24-28, 2008
Last Day to Withdraw from 10-Week Session                 April 4, 2008
Last Class Day for Full term, 2nd Half & 10-Week            April 28, 2008
Exams                                                                    April 29-May 2, 2008

 

English Department Online Attendance Policy:

Initial Contact in Online Courses:

At the beginning of the term, online students are expected to contact their online instructors by logging into their courses on WebCT and following the instructions they find there.  These instructions may include

Students who have not contacted their instructor via telephone or e-mail within 24 hours after Drop-Add will be denied access to the course and be marked "NIC" (never in class) on the roster.  This designation can affect a student's financial aid status. 

If a student has added the class during Drop-Add but cannot yet log into WebCT, then he or she must contact the instructor via telephone or Campus Cruiser e-mail no later than 24 hours after Drop-Add in order to avoid being denied access and designated NIC (never in class) on the roster.

Attendance during the term: 

Success in an online course requires active participation from students and faculty alike.  Attendance in online classes is kept as students meet the course deadlines and make contact with the instructor.  To that end, a student's attendance is defined as active participation in class.  In order to be counted present, a student must do one or another of these things at least once each week throughout the term (Individual courses and instructors will define specific requirements or assignments): 

Students who are passively visiting the course, who simply log into a course during the week without making their presence known, who

are not attending and will be counted absent.

A student with an excessive number of absences in an online class will lose access to the course.  "Excessive number" is defined as two weeks.

Two consecutive weeks of not logging in at all or attending only passively will result in a student's being denied access to the course, unless prior arrangements are made with the instructor.  Being denied access can affect a student's financial aid status. 

Note:  being denied access is not the same as being withdrawn.  Students who are denied access and wish to remain in class must contact the instructor outside WebCT to request to receive access; however, there is no guarantee that access will be granted.  Students who are denied access and who are not reinstated are responsible for withdrawing themselves from the course. 

Students wishing to withdraw from a course must follow the college's current policy on withdrawals and refunds.  A student who stops attending class cannot assume that the instructor will process withdrawal paperwork on his or her behalf.

Welcome:  Now that you are familiar with some of the assignments and policies of the course, please accept our hearty welcome to ENG 101, English Composition!  This is a course that will give you the opportunity to stretch yourself, to experiment, to learn to write for specific audiences and situations.  If you think about it, you don't talk the same way to adults as you do to children; nor do you speak with your peers at school the same way you might speak to your boss.  We all adjust what we say and how we say it to who's going to hear it, our audience.  This course will help you think about and learn to direct your writing to the particular audience it's intended for and teach you how to get your message across effectively.

It's an online course, and that fact in itself will help your writing:  all the communications will be online, and in writing.  This is a fantastic opportunity to practice the very techniques involved in writing well.  In your course communications, the teacher and your classmates are your audience, and you are theirs.  This course can be a great opportunity to investigate the aspects of what makes writing effective and practice what you learn.