Dr. Cathy Decker
Spring 1998
English 95
Office: UH 301.40
Phone: 880-7388 (no messages) or 880-5824 (messages)
Email: cathy@cassandra.ucr.edu OR cathy@wiley.csusb.edu
Webpage: http://locutus.ucr.edu/~cathy
Office Hours: (Very Complex!!) March 30th, Mon. 1:40 to 3
pm. No office hours Wed. April 1 or Friday April 3.
Mon. April 6 & Wed. April 8, 1:40 to 3. No Mon.
office hours April 13 to May 4th--offices hours held
Wed. and Fri. for those four weeks, 1:40 to 3. After
May 8th, Office Hours, Mon. and Wed. 1:40 to 3.
Textbook: Gorrell, Donna. The Little, Brown Workbook. 7th ed. New York: Longman, 1998.
Class Policies--VERY IMPORTANT
1) Attendance: must attend twenty of the 29 classes to be eligible to receive a grade of CR. Keep track of your absences and be prepared to withdrawal, drop, or petition for a late drop if you cannot meet the attendance requirement.
2) Late Work: Work turned in after the class period it is due at is docked 10 points out of 100; after three class periods past the deadline, a zero is entered into the grade formula. Be aware a zero means you can subtract the total percent of the assignment from your final grade. For example, if you do not turn in a paper worth 10% of the grade, you lose 10 points off of your final grade. If you miss more than 25% of the work, you should drop the course or apply for a late drop (or accept that you will receive a failing grade due to irresponsibility).
3) Automatic Grade Deductions: the following penalties are taken off the grade of a writing
assignment after the initial grade is calculated based upon your performance. These signs of
grammatical, mechanical, and stylistic incompetence also effect the performance grade to a
minor degree.
No title: lose 3 points out of 100
Not typed when typing required: No credit (0 points out of 100)
Not Double spaced (either some single spacing or double double spacing at any point in a typed
paper): lose 5 points out of 100
More that eight spelling errors (Failure to proofread): Lose 5 points out of 100
No works cited page when sources used: Lose 5 points per source not documented
Plagiarism: see policy below
No page numbers after last name in upper right corner in MLA style: lose 3 points out of 100
Printing font variation and inappropriate use of all capital letters (not MLA style): Lose 3 points
out of 100
Inappropriate, non-MLA style parenthetical citations: Lose 5 points out of 100
4) Calculating Your Grade
Grade of 0 to 77: NC
Grade of 77 to 99: C+ to A
Class Participation 10%
Average of Writing Assignments 40%
Average of Other Homework 30%
Test 10%
Final Exam 10%
5) Common Sense about Grades, Drops, Withdraws, Office Hours, and Student Services
Students often become aware in week 8 or 9 that they will fail a class. By that time it is too late to prevent the failure. You should use the grade formula and keep a running estimate of your grade. You should keep track of your attendance, so you can withdrawal or drop if you will not be able to pass due to failure to attend classes. You should always go to see the teacher of a class at his or her office hours if you receive a grade below a C plus. Why? Because a grade below a C plus indicates mediocre or poor performance, you should find out how you can prevent yourself from receiving another such grade.
There are important school services that can help you: the counseling center offers free advice on personal problems; the academic advising office can suggest ways to handle drops, adds, withdraws, late drops, etc.; the computer learning center can get you a tutor; the writing center can help you with your writing projects; the writing center's ESL group can provide a forum for support, learning, and advice if English is your second language; student services can arrange for appropriate accommodations to any physical or mental conditions you might have; the computer center will train you in how to use email and basic word processing; the SAIL or EOPS programs may be helpful if you are having trouble carrying a full load of courses and keeping a good GPA.
6) Racism, Sexism, and Other Forms of Discrimination
Physical, oral, or written communication that violates the civil rights of others will result in the student's removal from the class until a meeting occurs between the student, Dr. Decker, and the student conduct officer. The student conduct officer will determine if the student may resume attending class or if further action will be taken by the university. Students are asked to inform Dr. Decker immediately when they feel they or someone in the class has been discriminated against.
7) Basic Discipline: See policy above for discrimination, and see the school catalogue for the official discipline code.
8) Plagiarism: Any idea of another person must be cited as that person's idea (ideas from lectures, interviews, the internet, videos, books, journals, etc.) Failure to indicate the idea is another person's is plagiarism. Any exact wording of another author (including as few as two words) used by students must be indicated by quotation marks or the MLA, indented, long quotation format, or it is plagiarism. Any use of the sentence structure of another is plagiarism. For example if the original by Smith on page 24 is "Proverbs are timeless and used in every culture" and you paraphrase: "Maxims are ageless and found in all countries (Smith 24)," you have committed plagiarism.
Plagiarism receives a grade of ZERO. If the plagiarism is malicious, extensive, or repeated, you will be sent to the student conduct officer and can only return to the class with his permission. The conduct officer will determine what to do about your plagiarism; he has the power to expel you from college if he chooses.
9) Final Exams: The times are listed in the course catalogue; no student can take the final at a different time without the advanced permission of the dean. Petitions to take the final at alternate times must be submitted to the dean at least four weeks in advance. Students needing accommodation for physical or mental problems must petition student services at least two weeks prior to the final exam for permission to take the exam in the student center. If you miss the exam, you will receive a grade of zero unless the dean will write a note asking me to allow you to take the exam.
Class Schedule
Week One
Mon. 3/30 Discussion of syllabus and library assignment
Wed. 4/1 No class
Fri. 4/3 Library session, Meet by elevators in Library
Week Two
Mon. 4/6 Have read Introduction
Exercise 1-1 due
Wed. 4/8 Have read Chapter 5
Exercise 1-2 due (summary must be typed and follow MLA form)
Fri. 4/10 Library assignment due
Exercises 5-3, 5-5, 5-7, 5-8, and 5-9 due
Week Three
Mon. 4/13 Have read Chapter 1
Exercise 1-4 due (must be typed and follow MLA form; must be at least two pages)
Wed. 4/15 Exercises 5-13, 5-14, 5-15, and 5-16 due
Fri. 4/17 Exercises 1-5, 1-6, and 1-7 due
Week Four
Mon. 4/20 Have read Chapter 2
Exercises 1-8 and 1-9 due (for exercise 1-9 use the formal outline form)
Wed. 4/22 Have read Chapter 10
Exercise 2-2 due (must be typed)
Fri. 4/24 Exercises 10-2 and 10-3 due
Week Five
Mon. 4/27 Have read Chapter 3
Typed paper due based on formal outline of Exercise 1-9 (should be at least three pages)
Wed. 4/29 Exercises 3-7 and 3-11 due
Fri. 4/30 Have read Chapters 4
Exercises 3-8 and 3-9 due (must be typed)
Week Six
Mon. 5/4 Have read Chapter 21
Exercises 4-1 and 4-2 due
Wed. 5/6 Exercises 21-3 and 21-6 due
Fri. 5/8 Review
Week Seven
Mon. 5/11 Test on Chapter 1-5, 10, and 21
The rest of the class schedule will be handed out later.