ENGL 109 F22 Hadfield

Course Description

English 109 is designed to get you comfortable writing in an academic context, at the university level. You will learn about different forms of academic writing, as well as the processes that great writers engage in to create their best work. You will read texts to learn more about how they were written, and thus to improve your own writing. If you can do well in this class, you should be able to do well in all of your classes, because writing is always going to be a big part of what you do, regardless of your major. Even programs like engineering, or accounting, or geography include major writing assignments, especially in upper years, in part because they recognize that careers in those fields require far more writing than students might expect.

Because we value learning as a social activity, and thus recognize that writers and readers learn from one another, much of your work in English 109 will involve different kinds of collaboration with your peers. You will learn to give helpful feedback on your peers' writing, and consider how to revise your own work based on the feedback you get in return. You will get to revise all of your writing times in response to feedback, and reflect on your strengths and challenges as you develop your skills as a writer.

We believe that this work of writing and reading rhetorically is an important process that takes place over time, so helping you develop a writing process plays an important part in this course. We will lead you through a series of activities to help you develop your major assignments, and you will receive marks for completing those activities as well as for the major assignments you submit.

Learning Outcomes

This course will do the following:

• help you develop your abilities as a writer and reader of texts;
• help you to think critically and communicate effectively;
• learn and practice a variety of strategies for inventing, drafting, and editing texts written in different genres and for different audiences;
• help you learn to read rhetorically
• learn ways to adapt your writing to different situations, so that you can more effectively and more powerfully communicate; and
• prepare you to succeed throughout your academic career, regardless of your disciplin

Course Policies

Standard of Work

This is a university-level course, and you are expected to be comfortable with the mechanics of writing; that is, to understand and use proper grammar, syntax, and punctuation in order to communicate effectively. One of the course textbooks (The Word on College Reading and Writing) includes a section to help you with these mechanics, and there are lots of other such resources available. If you need extra assistance with the basics of writing, it is your responsibility to seek help.

Rights and Responsibilities Agreement

Every member of this course—instructors as well as students—has rights and responsibilities to ensure a pleasant and productive experience for all. We are all answerable to University policies governing ethical behaviour (Policy 33 – Ethical Behaviour) and academic integrity (Policy 71 – Student Discipline), as well as to those outlining grievance or dispute procedures (Policy 70 – Student Petitions and Grievances).

Online Etiquette

We want the class environment to be a positive one for everyone. Together we will create an online space that promotes mutual respect, positive discussions, the free exchange of ideas, and the productive use of time.

 

Late Work

All assignments are due at the date and time specified. However, you can have up to five

(5) penalty-free extension days ("flex days") to use however you wish throughout the

term for major written assignments (not writing process activities). You can use all five days on one assignment, spread them out over several assignment due dates, or not use any at all. Don't use these days as an excuse to procrastinate; they are intended to give you a little breathing space if you unexpectedly run up against one of life's little glitches. If you choose to use any extension days, you don’t need to ask permission or provide documentation other than a note with your submission stating how many days you are using and how many you have left. It's your responsibility to keep track of those numbers. Once you use up your flex days, late assignments will incur a deduction of 2% per day, including weekends.

Check the Course Schedule for all due dates. You are expected to complete all assignments on time, or within the flex days allowance. Writing process and most other activities will not be available to complete or submit if you miss a due date. It is very important that you also provide feedback to your peers in a timely manner. Late peer-review notes will miss out on a significant completion grade, and a pattern of late or insufficient peer-review may result in other penalties.

Exemptions from late penalties can only be given where there are significant extenuating circumstances. In such cases, you must contact the instructor before (or immediately after) the assignment or activity deadline, providing appropriate documentation.

All major papers must be completed—you will fail the class if any of the major papers is not completed and submitted, however late.

Submitting Work

All work must be submitted according to the submission instructions provided with the assignments. Instructors and TAs do not accept assignments by email under any circumstances.

Course Concerns

If you are experiencing problems with the course or with the marking, you should first discuss your difficulties with your TA via email if applicable. If your problem persists or there is no TA for your course, then you should contact the course instructor via email.

Students who believe that they have been wrongfully or unjustly treated or penalized have the right to grieve; refer to Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances.

Intellectual Property

Students should be aware that this course contains the intellectual property of their instructor, TA, and/or the University of Waterloo. Intellectual property includes items such as:

• Lecture content, spoken and written (and any audio/video recording thereof);
• Lecture handouts, presentations, and other materials prepared for the course (e.g., PowerPoint slides);
• Questions or solution sets from various types of assessments (e.g., assignments, quizzes, tests, final exams); and
• Work protected by copyright (e.g., any work authored by the instructor or TA or used by the instructor or TA with permission of the copyright owner).

University Policies                                  

Submission Times

Please be aware that the University of Waterloo is located in the Eastern Time Zone (GMT or UTC-5 during standard time and UTC-4 during daylight saving time) and, as such, the time that your activities and/or assignments are due is based on this zone. If you are outside the Eastern Time Zone and require assistance with converting your time, please try the Ontario, Canada Time Converter.

Accommodation Due to Illness

If your instructor has provided specific procedures for you to follow if you miss assignment due dates, term tests, or a final examination, adhere to those instructions. Otherwise:

Missed Assignments/Tests/Quizzes

Contact the instructor as soon as you realize there will be a problem, and preferably within 48 hours, but no more than 72 hours, have a medical practitioner complete a Verification of Illness Form.

Email a scanned copy of the Verification of Illness Form to your instructor. In your email to the instructor, provide your name, student ID number, and exactly what course activity you missed.

Further information regarding Management of Requests for Accommodation Due to Illness can be found on the Accommodation due to illness page.

Missed Final Examinations

Contact your instructor as soon as possible if you are unable to fulfill academic requirements due to illness or other extenuating circumstances.

Further information about Examination Accommodations is available in the Undergraduate Calendar.

Academic Integrity

In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo community are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility. If you have not already completed the online tutorial regarding academic integrity you should do so as soon as possible. Undergraduate students should see the Academic Integrity Tutorial and graduate students should see the Graduate Students and Academic

Integrity website.

Proper citations are part of academic integrity. Citations in CEL course materials usually follow CEL style, which is based on APA style. Your course may follow a different style. If you are uncertain which style to use for an assignment, please confirm with your instructor or TA.

For further information on academic integrity, please visit the Office of Academic Integrity.

Turnitin

Turnitin.com: Text matching software (Turnitin®) may be used to screen assignments in this course. Turnitin® is used to verify that all materials and sources in assignments are documented. Students’ submissions are stored on a U.S. server, therefore students must be given an alternative (e.g., scaffolded assignment or annotated bibliography), if they are concerned about their privacy and/or security. Students will be given due notice, in the first week of the term and/or at the time assignment details are provided, about arrangements and alternatives for the use of Turnitin® in this course.

It is the responsibility of the student to notify the instructor if they, in the first week of term or at the time assignment details are provided, wish to submit the alternate assignment.

Turnitin® at Waterloo

Discipline

A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity to avoid committing an academic offence, and to take responsibility for his/her actions. A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about “rules” for group work/collaboration, should seek guidance from the course instructor, academic advisor, or the undergraduate Associate Dean. For information on categories of offences and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71 - Student Discipline. For typical penalties, check Guidelines for the Assessment of Penalties.

Appeals

A decision made or penalty imposed under Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances, (other than a petition) or Policy 71 - Student Discipline, may be appealed if there is a ground. A student who believes he/she has a ground for an appeal should refer to Policy 72

- Student Appeals.

Grievance

A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4. When in doubt please be certain to contact the department’s administrative assistant who will provide further assistance.

Final Grades

In accordance with Policy 46 - Information Management, Appendix A - Access to and Release of Student Information, the Centre for Extended Learning does not release final examination grades or final course grades to students. Students must go to Quest to see all final grades. Any grades posted in Waterloo LEARN are unofficial.

AccessAbility Services

AccessAbility Services, located in Needles Hall, collaborates with all academic departments to arrange appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities without compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If you require academic accommodation to lessen the impact of your disability, please register with AccessAbility Services at the beginning of each academic term and for each course.

Accessibility Statement

The Centre for Extended Learning strives to meet the needs of all our online learners. Our ongoing efforts to become aligned with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) are guided by University of Waterloo accessibility Legislation and policy and

the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. The majority of our online courses are currently delivered via the Desire2Learn Learning Environment. Learn more about Desire2Learn’s Accessibility Standards Compliance.

Use of Computing and Network Resources

Please see the Guidelines on Use of Waterloo Computing and Network Resources.

Copyright Information

UWaterloo’s Web Pages

All rights, including copyright, images, slides, audio, and video components, of the content of this course are owned by the course author and the University of Waterloo, unless otherwise stated. By accessing this course, you agree that you may only download the content for your own personal, non-commercial use. You are not permitted to copy, broadcast, download, store (in any medium), transmit, show or play in public, adapt, or change in any way the content of these web pages for any other purpose whatsoever without the prior written permission of the course author and the University of Waterloo, Centre for Extended Learning.

Other Sources

Respect the copyright of others and abide by all copyright notices and regulations when using the computing facilities provided for your course of study by the University of Waterloo. No material on the Internet or World Wide Web may be reproduced or distributed in any material form or in any medium, without permission from copyright holders or their assignees. To support your course of study, the University of Waterloo has provided hypertext links to relevant websites, resources, and services on the web. These resources must be used in accordance with any registration requirements or conditions which may be specified. You must be aware that in providing such hypertext links, the University of Waterloo has not authorized any acts (including reproduction or distribution) which, if undertaken without permission of copyright owners or their assignees, may be infringement of copyright. Permission for such acts can only be granted by copyright owners or their assignees.

If there are any questions about this notice, please contact the University of Waterloo,

Centre for Extended Learning, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 3G1 or extendedlearning@uwaterloo.ca.

Territorial Acknowledgement              

We acknowledge that we live and work on the traditional territory of the Attawandaron (Neutral), Anishinaabeg, and Haudenosaunee peoples. The University of Waterloo is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land promised to the Six Nations that includes ten kilometres on each side of the Grand River.