COURSE DESCRIPTION

Objectives
This course will help you develop the research and writing skills necessary for work in your major field of study, and in your career. The course builds on the kind of analytic reading and writing that is the cornerstone of English 125 at York College. For this reason, English 125 (or its equivalent) is a prerequisite. The course requires a great deal of work on your part! Do not attempt a course overload (more than 15 credits) while taking Writing 303.

Required Texts
>Ballenger, B. (2004). The curious researcher: A guide to writing research papers. (4th ed.) New York: Pearson Education.
>A Citation/Style Manual. I suggest The Bedford Handbook (6th ed.). This is the manual you used in English 125, and so you've probably got it on your bookshelf. If you don't have that manual, please purchase Diana Hacker, Research and Documentation in the Electronic Age.
>Three articles on reserve in the York College library. Go, check them out, and make copies.
>A folder/binder to store written work, class notes, etc.

Attendance
>Expect to attend every class meeting. Do not expect (or ask) me to deviate from this policy.
>Miss more than four (4) classes and your final grade will be reduced by one letter grade.
>You will fail if you miss more than eight (8) class meetings.
>Any student more than 15 minutes late will receive a one-half (1/2) absence.
>Show up 40 minutes late for class and you're absent!

Written Assignments
Writing 303 is a writing class. You will be expected to produce written work in advance of, and during, each class meeting. All written assignments outside of class must be typed!

> Low and Middle Stakes Assignments. Regularly assigned writing usually marked as completed or not completed. Much of this work will occur in the Discussion Board for our Blackboard site. The purpose of this writing is to facilitate discussion, thinking, or research. It is also very closely connected to your High Stakes Assignments. Simply completing this work is enough to prepare you for class. Another set of these regular assignments will receive brief comments and an evaluation of satisfactory/unsatisfactory. Research progress reports are the sorts of assignments that fall into this category. Complete at least 80% of these assignments or risk a reduction in your final grade. Failure to complete a majority of the evaluated assignments with a mark of “satisfactory” will negatively impact your final grade.

> High Stakes Assignments. There are five (5) major paper or writing assignments in the course. They are the Objective Synthesis, the Multiple Source Paper, the Research Proposal, the Annotated Bibliography, and the Research Paper for the course. Each assignment will go through a drafting process that includes peer-review and instructor feedback before being revised and evaluated for a grade. The low and middle stakes assignments are tailored to help you do well on these assignments.

All papers must be submitted as both electronic (via email) and hard copy. Please send as either MSWord or RTF format documents. We'll discuss this issue when the time comes.

Participation
This class depends on class participation to function effectively. I cannot “lecture” on techniques for research, critical reading, thinking, and writing. These important skills can only be learned through practice and active engagement in the course. You will be ready to participate if you complete the research and writing assignments before coming to class, volunteer your ideas in class, and come to class ready to talk. Since I believe that oral communication is about as important as written communication, I will also assign individual class “presentations” over the course of the term. You must complete these presentations to receive full participation credit.

Calculation of Grade (in rough order of assignment)
5% - Objective Synthesis Assignment
10% - Multiple Source Paper
5% - Research Proposal
10% - Annotated Bibliography
10% - Completion of Drafts
40% - Final Research Paper Project
20% - Low and Middle stakes assignments, participation, and the final exam.

Late Work
Obviously, none of us plans to hand in late work. To ensure that our intentions are linked to incentives in the class, late work is significantly penalized. Please do not ask me to deviate from this policy.
>Low stakes and middle stakes writing assignments are considered “uncompleted” if not handed in on time. (This means that you are not permitted to hand them in late.)
>All drafts of the formal papers must be submitted. Late first drafts are penalized by a one-half (1/2) grade reduction on the final draft grade for each day they are late. Late final drafts are penalized one full letter grade for each day they are late.
> I do accept email submissions of assignments. I won’t count a paper late if you are absent on the due date and I have received the paper by email. But my “failure to receive” an emailed paper does not excuse your failure to submit a hard copy on the due date.

Technology
This class has plenty of opportunities for you to develop competency in software and internet technologies. I strongly encourage you to do so. Technological competency is highly valued by employers, and employees are increasingly expected to come to the workplace with these skills. I regularly check email, you'll send me your formal paper drafts as attachments, maintain a discussion board for students to post and share low-stakes and middle-stakes writing assignments, and am open to other possibilities as well. In the first three weeks, the class will visit a computer classroom for an introduction to some of these technology-enabled features of the course.

Plagiarism
We will pay special attention to the ways research writing draws on the work of others, and to using sources effectively and appropriately. A related concern is plagiarism – using words or ideas of another person without acknowledging your debt. While the sharing and exchange of ideas are central to an intellectual and professional community, plagiarism is the theft of another person’s ideas. For this reason, plagiarism is severely penalized. Deliberate plagiarism on any assignment (low, middle, or high stakes) will result in a grade of F for the course. Trust me, this will happen if you plagiarize.

This F can become a permanent mark on your transcript. Please see the York College Bulletin for the College’s policy and penalties regarding plagiarism, including a statement of your rights should you be accused of plagiarism (page 29 in the 2002-2003 Edition).