ENGL 1302:001

Summer I, 2000

315 Ransom Hall

8:00-10:00

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: Nancy V. Wood, Perspectives on Argument (Prentice-Hall, 1998).

Andrea Lunsford and Robert Connors, The New St. Martin's Handbook (Bedford/St. Martin's, 1995).

Course Description and Goals: ENGL 1302 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 argumentative essays and do shorter writing assignments and exercises to prepare for them, and study a number of different heuristic methods to check the validity of arguments, including our own.

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:

Another 15% of your grade will be based on the several in-class summary-response papers I will ask you to write. The remaining 10% of the final grade will be determined by attendance, class participation, and the in-class and out-of-class exercises. You may choose to revise two of the first three essays. I will average the revised grade with the original grade.

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 Daily Schedule

May 30: Introduction

May 31: Some Basic Notions and Resources; Perspectives, Chapters 1-2;

______ Exploratory Essay Assigned (115)

June 1: Perspectives, Chapter 3

June 5: Perspectives, Chapter 4,

June 6: Selections from Perspectives, Chapter 6-7

June 7: Exploratory Paper due. Rogerian Essay assigned (256). Perspectives, Chapters 6-8

June 8: Perspectives, Chapter 8, continued

June 12: Perspectives, Chapter 5

June 13: Perspectives, Chapter 5, continued

June 14: Rogerian Essay due. Perspectives, Chapters 5-7

_______Position Paper Based on "The Reader" assigned (237);

June 15: Perspectives, Chapter 10; in-class work on Position paper

June 19: Perspectives, Chapter 11; in-class work on Position paper

June 20: Presentation of drafts of Position Paper

June 21: Perspectives, Chapter 12: Revising and Documentation Styles

June 22: Position Paper due; Presentations and discussions

June 26: Literature and Argument; Perspectives, Chapter 9

June 27: Identifying arguments and explicating a poem;

_______Literature paper assigned (294-295)

June 28: Working with short stories

June 29: Literature Essay due

July 3: Literature Essay returned