ENG 3203

ENG 3203.50

Advanced Grammar and Composition

Spring 2006

Course Name, Number, and Description: “ENG 3203. Advanced Grammar and Composition. Concentration on the basic terminology and procedures of English grammar and composition, with intensive practice in both. Prerequisites: Nine hours of English. Three lecture hours a week. Credit: Three hours.”

This course satisfies the requirement for advanced grammar on the degree plan for the B.A. in English or for an upper-level English course for the English minor. It does NOT meet the requirement for the CORE. The course will be taught online using Blackboard except for a mandatory, face-to-face final examination. The final exam will be held on Monday, May 8th, from 3-5 p.m. in ASB 101.

This course is divided into fifteen weeks. A week begins on Monday and ends on Sunday (except for the final week). Any online assignment may be posted at any time during the assigned week. For example, assignments due in Week ONE (17 January 2006 to 22 January 2006) may be posted at any time until midnight on 22 January 2006. After that time, the assignment will be late.

We will use five books:

With Lester we will cover grammar terminology, common errors, parts of speech, sentence structure, verb tenses, phrases, and clauses.

With Williams we will cover helpful composition skills associated with style, specifically character, action, cohesion, coherence, and emphasis.

With Ramage and Bean, we will cover key concepts in rhetoric, specifically thesis, topic sentences, genre, audience, argumentation, and the formal essay.

With Diane Hacker's The Bedford Handbook, we will have a quick reference to grammar issues and most of the exercises in the course.

We will use Gore Vidal’s book of essays as our grammatical and rhetorical laboratory, writing about Vidal’s arguments and his method of presenting those arguments.

Faculty Contact Information: Office Location, Phone, Hours:
Russell Greer, Ph.D. Associate Professor. Office: CFO 803. E-mail: rgreer@twu.edu or russellgreer@verizon.net. Fax: (940) 898-2297. Office telephone: (940) 898-2346. Website: www.russellgreer.com

Most students find they can communicate with me quickly through the course itself online or by e-mail (rgreer@twu.edu). In addition, I will host office hours in CFO 803 on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Mondays and Wednesdays from noon to 2 p.m. Typically, if I cannot hold those regularly scheduled office hours, I will post that information on Blackboard and leave a note on my office door. I am also available at other times in my office by appointment. You may also leave me a voice mail at (940) 898-2346. I check for messages once a day and try to return calls promptly.

Course Goals:

By the end of the course, you should have improved your writing skills and gained a better understanding of key concepts in grammar, composition, and rhetoric.

Student Learning Outcomes:

You will demonstrate that improvement in writing and understanding in four essays, weekly quizzes, one in-class final examination, and extensive responses to weekly discussion questions.

List of textbooks and supplies:

Grammar and Usage in the Classroom (Lester) by Mark Lester (2nd edition. Allyn and Bacon. 2001)
United States Essays 1952-1992 (Vidal) by Gore Vidal (Random House. 1993)
Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace (Williams) by Joseph Williams (8th edition. Longman. 2005).
The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing: Brief Edition (Ramage and Bean) Fourth Edition. (2006).
The Bedford Handbook (7th edition) by Diana Hacker (Bedford/St. Martins, 2006).

Disability Statement:
”Texas Woman's University seeks to provide appropriate academic adjustments for all individuals with disabilities. The University will comply with all applicable federal, state, and local laws, regulations, and guidelines, specifically Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), with respect to providing appropriate academic adjustments to afford equal educational opportunity. It is the responsibility of the student to register with and provide medical verification and academic schedules to Disability Support Services (DSS) at the beginning of each semester and no later than the second week of school in a timely manner to arrange for appropriate academic adjustment. For further information regarding Disability Support Services or to register for assistance, please contact the office at 898-3835 (voice, 898-3830 (TDD), or visit CFO 105” (Texas Woman’s University Office of Academic Affairs).

Grading Policy, Major Course Assignments and Examinations and Attendance:

Participation (Online Attendance: credit is given for postings to the three discussion questions, anything posted in your group’s forum for a particular week, and the weekly summary ): 15%

Online Attendance (Participation): Fifteen percent of your final grade will depend on your participation online. You must post a minimum of TEN times a week on the discussion question forums (including the weekly summary) and in your groups. Some of these postings will be responses to the study questions; others will be preparation of group responses; others will be responses to your classmates. If you do not post at least ten times in the assigned week, do not expect full participation credit for that week. You will attach a student feedback report to your weekly summary in which you collect your ten best postings, showing that you have posted in all the required forums. You may revise these postings for grammar and usage. I will give you a participation grade for every week and announce them every few weeks (usually when I return the essays). Your grade will be determined by (1) the amount of postings and (2) the quality of the postings (equally weighted). I calculate participation for a week that begins on Monday and ends at midnight on the following Sunday. Your postings do not need to be long (100-240 words for a primary answer to a DQ is adequate, and responses can be shorter), but they DO need to advance the discussion helpfully. Postings only count in the week they are due; in other words you cannot “make up” late postings after the week is over. Postings only count in the following places: (1) the discussion question forums; (2) the weekly summary forum (including the student feedback report); and (3) your group forum for the week in question. Note: Each week you will be asked to answer three discussion questions, one of which will usually be a group question (after the first week). These discussion questions will allow you to earn participation credit and share ideas with your classmates.

Grading Policy
Final Examination 45% [Final Exam Week]
Weekly Participation (includes Exercises) 15%
Group Essay (5%) [Week THREE]
Individual Essay #1 (5%) [Week SIX]

Individual Essay #2 (10%) [Week TEN]

Individual Essay #3 (15%) [Week THIRTEEN]

PowerPoint 5%

Academic Dishonesty:

“Honesty in completing assignments is essential to the mission of the university and to the development of the personal integrity of the student. Cheating, plagiarism, or other kinds of academic dishonesty will not be tolerated and will result in appropriate sanctions that may include failing an assignment, failing the class, or being suspended or expelled. Suspected cases in this course may be reported to Student Life. The specific disciplinary process for academic dishonesty is found in the TWU Student Handbook. Tools to help you avoid plagiarism are available through the TWU Libraries’ “Quick Links” under “Research Help” (http://www.twu.edu/library/literacy/index.htm)” (This statement was authorized and mandated by the TWU Provost. November 10, 2005).

Plagiarism

The following definition of plagiarism appears in Joseph F. Trimmer’s A Guide to MLA Documentation (Sixth Edition), published by Houghton Mifflin Company (2004): “Plagiarism is theft. It is using someone else’s words or ideas without giving proper credit—or without giving any credit at all—to the writer of the original. Whether plagiarism is intentional or unintentional, it is a serious offense…You can avoid plagiarism by taking notes carefully, by formulating and developing your own ideas and by using quotes responsibly to support, rather than replace, your own work” (25). Note that I have used this quotation from a source and have given it full attribution. You should do the same with your sources. I strongly urge you to read the discussion of academic dishonesty that appears in Section Four of The Student Handbook and Planner 2005-2006 (pages 133-135). I intend to follow TWU policy as outlined in this handbook exactly. It defines plagiarism in this way: “Plagiarism occurs when a student obtains portions or elements of someone else's work, including materials prepared by another person or agency, and presents those ideas or words as her or his own academic work. The intentional or unintentional use by paraphrase or direct quotation of the published work of another person without full and clear acknowledgement shall constitute plagiarism. Students are responsible for following guidelines of the appropriate course or discipline (ie; MLA, APA)" (133). In this course, we will use the Modern Language Association (MLA) format. Penalties for first-time offenses include, at the instructor’s discretion, any of the following: (1) “Written reprimand”; (2) “Assignment of a lower grade on the test/paper/project in question, with an explanation from the instructor”; (3) “Assignment of a 0 on an assignment"; (4) “Assignment of a grade of F in the course" (134). A discussion of the more severe penalties for second offenses appears on pages 134-135. If you have any questions about whether or not a practice constitutes plagiarism, please contact me before you turn in the assignment. All student papers and discussion forum postings may be checked for plagiarism with a plagiarism website.

Essay Grading
Argumentation is the central focus of each essay. Every essay should have a strong thesis, strong topic sentences, good grammar, and good evidence. When I report your essay grades to you, I will try to communicate as much specific information as possible by breaking down the grade into five areas, each weighted differently. Fifty percent of your essay grade will come from my assessment of the essay's content and organization: Was there strong content? Were the ideas presented logically and as requested by the assignment? Does the paper contain a clear introduction and summary statement? For style, I will look specifically at sentence structures and transitions. For diction, I will examine your spelling and word choice. For mechanics and grammar, I will focus on whether or not you are using the MLA conventions correctly and whether or not you are making any serious grammatical errors. In particular, I will look for fragments, comma splices, agreement errors (both pronoun and subject/predicate), apostrophe errors, and fused sentences. Four of these errors in any combination in any essay or final examination will merit a “20” for the essay or examination. A "1" is the lowest mark for one of these areas; a "5" is the highest. In addition to comments on your essays (which should be written and posted using WORD), I will give you a grading scale that looks like this:
Content (1-5)
Organization (1-5) x 5 = _____________
Style (1-5)
Diction (1-5) x 3 = ___________
Mechanics and Grammar (1-5) x 4 = _______________
Total:__________________

Final Examination: The final examination will consist of one hundred grammar exercises taken directly from Lester, typically from the chapter reviews. Each exercise will count one point. To do well on this examination, you must consistently do the exercises each week and ask questions about whatever you are do not understand. Students who do not do the exercises every week generally do not pass the final examination. Do not think you can wait until the end of the course to "catch up" and do the exercises then. It will be too late.

Mandatory Conference: If you are failing after Week SEVEN, you will need to meet with me individually in my office so that we can create a strategy that will allow you to improve your grade.

Student Participation Summary Form

You will post a summary to a forum provided after you have completed all your week's postings and attach a "student participation summary" form. You can find this form under SYLLABUS (since it's an appendix to the syllabus). In this form, you will cut and paste your "top ten" postings from the week. You may edit your postings for grammar and spelling (in fact you SHOULD edit them for grammar and spelling) but not for content (I will check occasionally to make sure that the they represent your actual work from the week). I will use this summary form to assign your participation grade. In this report, state which exercises you have done and state which exercises you are having problems with.

Academic Calendar

Tentative calendar of classes, assignments.
Please note that this daily syllabus is for planning purposes only and is subject to change.

Week ONE (17-22 January 2006)

Reading.

1. Week ONE lecture
2. Ramage and Bean: Chapter 3: Thinking Rhetorically about Purpose, Audience, and Genre.
3. Williams: Lesson One: Understanding Style
4. Lester: Chapter 2. Parts of Speech.
5. Vidal: “The Four Generations of the Adams Family” (pgs. 644-663).

Assignments:

1. Post your autobiography.

2. Form learning teams. If you have no preference, I will assign you to a group at the beginning of Week TWO.

3. Answer three discussion questions, post weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements.

4. Read the Week ONE lecture.

5. You should also do as many of the exercises in this chapter as necessary to understand the material. You may also wish to do useful exercises on the topics assigned at www.dianahacker.com/bedhandbook.

6. Please take the diagnostic test at http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/hackerdiag/ You will need to register with the website to take the diagnostic test, so please be patient. This diagnostic test will not affect your grade! But, if possible, please take it in Week ONE. It will help you get to know the dianahacker web site, and it will help me get a feeling for your strengths and weaknesses in grammar. You will see four diagnostic tests. Please take the first one (Test A). You will also be asked for your instructor's e-mail address. Please use this one: rgreer@twu.edu

Week TWO (23-29 January 2006)

Reading.

1. Week TWO lecture.
2. Ramage and Bean: Chapter 4: Thinking Rhetorically about how Messages Persuade
3. Williams: Lesson Two: Correctness
4. Lester: Chapter 3: Basic Sentences and Their Diagrams
5. Vidal: “First Note on Abraham Lincoln” (pgs. 664-668).

Assignments:

1. Answer three discussion questions, including your first group question, post a weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements.

2. Read the Week TWO lecture.

3. You should also do as many of the exercises in this chapter as necessary to understand the material. You may also wish to do useful exercises on the topics assigned at www.dianahacker.com/bedhandbook.

Week THREE (30 January to 5 February 2006)

Reading.

1. Week THREE Lecture
2. Ramage and Bean: Chapter 14: Writing a Classical Argument
3. Williams: Lesson Three: Actions
4. Lester: Chapter 4: Verb Forms, "Tense," and Helping Verbs
5. Vidal: “Lincoln, Lincoln, and the Priests of Academe” (part 1; pages 669-684).

Assignments:

1. Group Essay (5%) due at the end of Week THREE. Your group will be required to write one critical essay of 3-5 pages and post it to me on digital dropbox. I will give you more information about these essays later in the course, but in general they should be typed, double-spaced, and conform to MLA guidelines. Your primary purpose in these essays is to suggest a strong thesis, an argument about how to understand the story or stories. I will grade the essay in terms of content, organization, style, diction, and grammar.

2. Answer three discussion questions, including your group question, post a weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements.

3. Read the Week THREE lecture.

4. You should also do as many of the exercises in this chapter as necessary to understand the material. You may also wish to do useful exercises on the topics assigned at www.dianahacker.com/bedhandbook.

Week FOUR (6-12 February 2006)

Reading.

1. Week FOUR Lecture
2. Ramage and Bean: Chapter 17: Writing as a Problem-Solving Process
3. Williams: Characters
4. Lester: Chapter 5: Phrases (Noun, Prepositional, Appositive)
5. Vidal: “Lincoln, Lincoln, and the Priests of Academe” (part 2; pages 684-700).” (pages 797-803).

Assignments:

1. Answer three discussion questions, including your group question, post a weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements.

2. Read the Week FOUR lecture.

Week FIVE (13-19 February 2006)

Reading.

1. Week FIVE lecture
2. Ramage and Bean: Chapter 18 (Lessons 1 and 2)
3. Williams: Lesson Five. Cohesion and Coherence
4. Vidal: “Last Note on Lincoln” (pages 701-707).
5. Lester: Chapter 5 continued: Verbal Phrases

Assignments:

1. Answer three discussion questions, including your group question, post a weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements.

2. Read the Week FIVE lecture.

Week SIX (20-26 February 2006)

Reading:
1. Week SIX Lecture
2. Ramage and Bean: Chapter 18 (Lessons 3 and 4)
3. Williams: Lesson Six: Emphasis
4. Vidal: “President and Mrs. U.S. Grant” (pages 708-722).
5. Lester: Chapter 6: Clauses (Adjective)

Assignments:
1. Answer three discussion questions, including your group question, post a weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements.

2. You should also do as many of the exercises in this chapter as necessary to understand the material.

3. Individual Essay #1(5%) due at the end of Week SIX. You will be required to write one critical essay of 3-5 pages and post it to me on digital dropbox. I will give you more information about these essays later in the course, but in general they should be typed, double-spaced, and conform to MLA guidelines. Your primary purpose in these essays is to suggest a strong thesis, an argument about how to understand the story or stories. I will grade the essay in terms of content, organization, style, diction, and grammar. Please pay particular attention to avoiding the five major errors: fragments, fused sentences, comma splices, apostrophe errors, and agreement errors.

Week SEVEN (27 February to 5 March 2006)

Reading:
1. Week SEVEN lecture
2. Ramage and Bean: Chapter 18 (Lessons 5 and 6)
3. Lester: Chapter 6 continued: Clauses (Adverb)
4. Vidal: “Theodore Roosevelt An American Sissy” (pages 723-737).

Assignments:
1. Answer three discussion questions, including your group question, post a weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements.

2. You should also do as many of the exercises in this chapter as necessary to understand the material. You may also wish to do useful exercises on the topics assigned at www.dianahacker.com/bedhandbook.

Week EIGHT (6-12 March 2006)

Reading:
1. Week EIGHT lecture
2. Ramage and Bean: Chapter 18 (Lessons 7 and 8)
3. Lester: Chapter 6 continued: Clauses (Noun)
4. Vidal: “Eleanor Roosevelt” (pages 738-749).

Assignments:
1. Three discussion questions, including your group question, post a weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements.

3. PowerPoint Presentation due (5%): For this presentation, you will prepare twenty PowerPoint slides to teaching a grammatical concept of your choice and post this presentation on the assigned discussion forum. I will grade this presentation based upon its effectiveness in teaching the grammatical concept.

Spring Break 13-19 March 2006

Week NINE (20-26 March 2006)

Reading:
1. Week NINE lecture
2. Ramage and Bean: Chapter 18: (Lesson 9)
3. Lester: Chapter 7 "Redefining Verb Complements" and 267-302 and Usage: Apostrophes (305). Comma Splices (333).
4. Vidal: “President Kennedy” (pages 797-803).

Assignments:
1. Answer three discussion questions, including your group question, post a weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements.

2. Exercises. Do as many of the usage exercises as necessary to understand the material. You may also wish to do useful exercises on the topics assigned at www.dianahacker.com/bedhandbook.

Week TEN (27 March to 2 April 2006)

Reading:
1. Week TEN lecture
2. Ramage and Bean: Chapter 18: (Lesson 10)
3. Lester: Chapter 1 "Teaching Grammar and Usage" (3) and Usage: Commas and Appositives (333). Commas and Adjective Clauses (335). Commas and Coordinate Adjectives (335). Commas and Coordinating Conjunctions (339). Commas and Introductory Elements (343).
4. Vidal: “Ronny and Nancy: A Life in Pictures” (pages 980-994)

Assignments:
1. Answer three discussion questions, including your group question, post a weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements.

2. Exercises. Do as many of the usage exercises as necessary to understand the material. You may also wish to do useful exercises on the topics assigned at www.dianahacker.com/bedhandbook.

3. Individual Essay #2 (10%) due at the end of Week TEN. You will be required to write one critical essay of 3-5 pages and post it to me on digital dropbox. I will give you more information about these essays later in the course, but in general they should be typed, double-spaced, and conform to MLA guidelines. Your primary purpose in these essays is to suggest a strong thesis, an argument about how to understand the story or stories. I will grade the essay in terms of content, organization, style, diction, and grammar. Please pay particular attention to avoiding the five major errors: fragments, fused sentences, comma splices, apostrophe errors, and agreement errors.

Week ELEVEN (3-9 April 2006)

Reading:
1. Week ELEVEN Lecture.
2. Lester: Conjunctive Adverbs (345).Dangling Modifiers (345).
3. Williams: Lesson SEVEN: "Concision"
4. Vidal: “H.L. Mencken: The Journalist” (pages 750-767)

Assignments:
1. Answer three discussion questions, including your group question, post a weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements.

2. Exercises. You should also do as many of the other exercises in this chapter as necessary to understand the material. You may also wish to do useful exercises on the topics assigned at www.dianahacker.com/bedhandbook.

Week TWELVE (10-16 April 2006)

Reading:
1. Week TWELVE Lecture.
2. Lester: Fragments (349).
3. Vidal: “What Robert Moses Did to New York City” (pages 773-780)
4. Williams: Lesson EIGHT: "Shape"

Assignments:
1. Answer three discussion questions, including your group question, post a weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements.

Week THIRTEEN (17-23 April 2006)

Reading:
1. Week THIRTEEN Lecture
2. Lester: Fused Sentences (351).
3. Vidal: “The Manchester Book” (pages 804-808).
4. Williams: "Elegance"

Assignments:

1. Individual Essay #3(10%) due at the end of Week THIRTEEN. You will be required to write one critical essay of 3-5 pages and post it to me on digital dropbox. I will give you more information about these essays later in the course, but in general they should be typed, double-spaced, and conform to MLA guidelines. Your primary purpose in these essays is to suggest a strong thesis, an argument about how to understand the story or stories. I will grade the essay in terms of content, organization, style, diction, and grammar. Please pay particular attention to avoiding the five major errors: fragments, fused sentences, comma splices, apostrophe errors, and agreement errors.

2. Answer three discussion questions, including your group question, post a weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements.

3. Exercises. You should also do as many of the other exercises in this chapter as necessary to understand the material. You may also wish to do useful exercises on the topics assigned at www.dianahacker.com/bedhandbook.

Week FOURTEEN (24-30 April 2006)

Reading:
1. Week FOURTEEN Lecture
2. Lester: Pronoun Errors (356 and 360).
3. Vidal: “The Holy Family” (pages 809-826).
4. Williams: "Lesson Ten: The Ethics of Style" (177-199)

Assignments:
1. Answer three discussion questions, including your group question, post a weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements.

Week FIFTEEN (1-5 May: Please notice that this is a short week)

Reading:
1. Week FIFTEEN Lecture
2. Lester: Run-on Sentences (363). Subject-Verb Agreement (367).
3. Vidal: “Barry Goldwater: A Chat” (pages 827-840).
4. Williams: "Appendix: Punctuation"
5. Ramage and Bean: Chapter 25: Assembling a Portfolio and Writing a Reflective Self-Evaluation

Assignments:
1. Final Examination (45%)
2. Reflective Self-Examination Statement
3. Answer three discussion questions, including your group question, post a weekly summary, and complete all participation requirements.

4. Exercises. You should also do as many of the other exercises in this chapter as necessary to understand the material. You may also wish to do useful exercises on the topics assigned at www.dianahacker.com/bedhandbook.

Final Exam: Monday, May 8th, from 3-5 p.m. in ASB 101.

Last updated: 22 April 2006