Instructor: Dr. Tom Ryan

Office: 202 Carlisle Hall

Phone: 817-272-2758

Email: ryan@uta.edu 

URL: http://www.uta.edu/english/TAR/tar.html

Texts:Findings: Readings for Critical Writing, ed. Lewis Meyers, D. C. Heath, 1996.

The New Century Handbook, Christine A. Hult and Thomas Huckin, Longman, 2002.

Course Description and Goals: ENGL 1301 is a course devoted to improving students' reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. Toward these ends, we will read and discuss essays and other texts, write essays, and do shorter writing assignments and exercises to prepare for these essays. 

The English Department believes that its first-year composition sequence plays an important part in introducing students to the world of academic discourse. Students are encouraged to engage their minds with complex texts of lasting value, to develop original understandings of texts, and to express their ideas in essays of weight and significance. The sequence is conceived as more than a service to other departments that require writing in their courses; it helps lay the foundation of the liberal arts education to which the University is committed.

The Department is committed to teaching reading, writing, and critical thinking as integrated and mutually dependent processes. Essays are written as projects over several weeks, during which time students read texts, write texts of their own, and discuss both their reading and writing with the teacher and with each other. The approach is student-centered; classroom activities generally involve little lecture, much class discussion and groupwork. Regular conferences are also an important part of the approach, and even those are sometimes done in small groups to reinforce the teacher's role as a facilitator. 

Objectives of the sequence: 

1.To foster the idea that reading and writing are complex, recursive, interactive processes that are developed through repeated practice with a variety of texts and oral and written exercises.

2.To introduce and practice concepts and strategies that allow students to develop their ability to read, analyze and critique a variety of texts. 

3.To develop the idea that writing is one of the primary means of learning, and that people write in order to discover, explore and express what they think about a subject. 

4.To introduce students to the basic rhetorical, logical, and grammatical skills that will enable them to communicate effectively to a variety of specific audiences. 

5.To provide a supportive classroom community that promotes respect for the cultural and linguistic experiences of both students and instructors. 

Attendance Policy: Attendance in class and class participation are extremely important 

because we will frequently be working in groups on projects directed toward our essays. 

If you miss class, unless special arrangements have been made, your grade will suffer. 

Also, if for some reason you cannot continue in the class, remember to officially drop the 

course. It is now against University policy for faculty members to drop students. 

Course Requirements and Evaluation: Your grade in this course will be based 

primarily on the four major essays you will write:

 

Assignment	Due Date	Value
Myths of Existence Essay	9/26/2001	15.00%
Personal Identity Essay	In-class 10/17/2001 10/22/2001	5.00% 15.00%
The Natural World Essay	In-class 11/12/2001	20.00%
Social Reality/Moral Action and Spiritual Life Essay	12/10/2001	30.00%

The other 15% of your grade will be determined by attendance, class participation (both in-class and online), and the in-class and out-of-class exercises. 

The Z Grade: In First-Year English courses at UTA, students who complete all the work of the course, but who still have not yet acquired sufficient proficiency in the skills of the course to achieve a passing grade, are given a "Z." This is a special grade that is not figured into the calculation of your grade-point average. You receive no grade points for the course, and the course-hours are not included in your total hours. 

The Writing Center: The Writing Center is located in Room 411 of the UTA Central Library. Its services are free to all UTA students. There you will find tutors who will try to help you with writing problems that you may encounter. There is also an online version of the Writing Lab at http://www.uta.edu/owl.

Student Evaluation of Teaching: Toward the end of the semester, I shall ask your opinion on the success of the course by having you complete the Student Evaluation of Teaching Survey. 

Americans with Disabilities Act: The University of Texas at Arlington is on record as being committed to both the spirit and the letter of federal equal opportunity legislation; reference Public Law 93112: The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended. With the passage of new federal legislation entitled Americans with Disabilities Act [ADA], pursuant to section 504 of The Rehabilitation Act, there is renewed focus on providing this population with the same opportunities enjoyed by all citizens. As a faculty member, I am required by law to provide "reasonable accommodation" to students with disabilities, so as not to discriminate on the basis of that disability. Student responsibility primarily rests with informing faculty at the beginning of the semester and in providing authorized documentation through designated administrative channels. 

Academic Dishonesty: It is the philosophy of the University of Texas at Arlington that academic dishonesty is a completely unacceptable mode of conduct and will not be tolerated in any form. All persons involved in academic dishonesty will be disciplined in accordance with University regulations and procedures. Discipline may include suspension or expulsion from the University. 

"Scholastic dishonesty includes but is not limited to cheating, plagiarism, collusion, the submission for credit of any work or materials that are attributable in whole or in part to another person, taking an examination for another person, any act designed to give unfair advantage to a student or the attempt to commit such acts." (Regents' Rules and Regulations, Part One, Chapter VI, Section 3, Subsection 3.2, Subdivision 3.22)

Tentative Schedule