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Course Syllabus & Policies
Course Details: Meeting Days: MWF, Time: 8:05am-8:55am, and Location: Walker 134
Instructor Information:
Richard L. Ward
richardw@mtu.edu
(906) 487-0925
Office Location: Walker Arts & Humanities Center, room 149
Office Hours (by appointment): Monday – 10:30am-11:30am; Wednesday – 10:30am-11:30am;
Friday – 9:30am-10:30am. Contact me with any scheduling conflicts.
“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”
Benjamin Franklin
Course Description & Overview
In this class, you’ll examine and interpret communication practices and apply what you learn to
your own written, spoken, and visual compositions. While writing is the core focus of our class,
you will also practice composing in other modes, as well. Class projects will ask you to attend to
audience, purpose, and context. You will produce texts over a series of drafts in order to hone
your skills as a thoughtful multimodal communicator.
Course Objectives
Upon successful completion of this course, you should be able to:
● recognize and use several strategies for producing and interpreting persuasive texts that
are appropriate for a particular context, audience, and purpose;
● know how to develop an organized text in written, aural, and/or visual modes and
demonstrate a basic understanding of the conventions of a genre or discipline;
● develop carefully crafted arguments informed by research, critical reasoning, and
persuasive techniques
This course is designed to meet two of Michigan Technological University’s Student Learning
Goals: Communication (Goal 5) and Information Literacy (Goal 6). To learn more about these
learning goals, please see the rubrics posted at
http://www.mtu.edu/assessment/program/university-learning-goals/
Required Readings & Other Materials
Johnson-Eilola, Johndan. Changing Writing: A Guide with Scenarios, 1st ed. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014.
The Purdue OWL & their guide for MLA 7 can be found at https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl
Other assigned readings will be posted in Canvas

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Assignments & Grade Distribution
Your course grade will be determined by the number of points you earn out of 1000 total. The
1000 points are broken down as follows:
Responses (100 pt.)
Responses of at least 300 words to readings will be assigned regularly; they can be turned in via
Canvas. Late work is accepted—I'd rather have you do the work late than not at all—but your
Professionalism grade (see below) will suffer if work is habitually late.
Rhetorical Analysis Essay (150 pt.)—due Monday, September 28th
A 1,500-word essay that identifies the rhetorical elements of a multimodal text of your choosing.
This essay will be written in multiple drafts.
Research Process Portfolio (150 pt.)—due Monday, October 19th
A collection of documents that traces the steps of your research for the researched argument
essay.
Researched Argument Essay (200 pt.)—due Monday, November 9th
A 2,500-word essay that uses the findings of your research to develop a thesis on an unsettled
question or issue. This essay will be written in multiple drafts.
Multimodal Project (200 pt.)—due Friday, December 4th
A multimodal “text” that persuades an audience using a combination of aural, visual, and/or
written modes of communication.
Final Portfolio (100 pt.)—due Friday, December 11th
A digital collection of your best, final efforts at the four major course assignments: Rhetorical
Analysis, Research Process Portfolio, Researched Argument Essay, and Multimodal Project,
submitted in separate files. The portfolio will also include a written reflection statement.
Professionalism (100 pt.)
Includes the quality completion of readings, discussions, in-class and homework activities,
informal writing assignments, project drafts, summaries of two on-campus cultural events
during the semester, and peer review exchanges.
NOTE: This semester, the Research Process Portfolio and Researched Argument
Essay will be submitted as part of our yearly assessment of the general education
program. This means that in addition to submitting these assignments to me for
grading, you will be required to submit them to LiveText through a link on Canvas
(I will provide you with more details about this process later in the semester.) If
you wish your work to remain anonymous, make sure to remove any identifying
information from the documents prior to submitting them to LiveText. You must
submit these two assignments to LiveText for assessment before the end of the semester in order
to receive your grade for the course—failure to do so will result in an “I” (incomplete) grade in
the course, until the assignments have been submitted.
Personal Technology Policy

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While I recognize students’ need for educational and emergency-related technological devices
such as laptops, PDAs, cellular phones, etc., using them unethically or recreationally during
class time is never appropriate. That said, using your electronic device to take notes and do in-
class work is encouraged; however, this will change if the device distracts other students or
myself. Once again, the use of your devices is subject to the professionalism grade below.
Attendance
Your unwavering attendance is both required and expected. Decisions about papers will be
made in class and your grade for Professionalism (see below) depends significantly upon regular
attendance. Missing more than three class sessions may result in a grade penalty, and missing
more than five class sessions may result in a failing grade for the course.
I do not distinguish between excused and unexcused absences. Please note that if you miss
class, I will not re-teach the material to you during office hours and any work we do in class
(e.g., peer review) cannot be made up.
That said, however, I’m not a complete monster. I do understand that there are times when
extenuating circumstances do arise. In these cases, I will refer to Michigan Tech’s policy on
attendance found here:
http://www.mtu.edu/deanofstudents/academic-policies/attendance/
Grading Scale
Final grades correspond to the following percentages:
Letter
Grade Percentage Letter Grade Percentage
A 93% – 100% C 70% – 75%
AB 87% – 92% CD 65% – 69%
B 82% – 86% D 60% - 64%
BC 76% – 81% F 0% - 59%
Professionalism
A significant portion of your grade is based on the professionalism you demonstrate toward the
course and its content, toward me, and toward your fellow students. Conduct that influences
professionalism includes but is not limited to the following:
 Your willingness to engage the texts and issues associated with the course in the spirit of
learning more about yourself and the world you live in.

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 Your ability to respect a diversity of opinion as demonstrated by conducting yourself in a
civil manner and by refraining from interruptions and ridicule of others.
 Your ability to listen and participate during class.
 Your ability to offer relevant, on-topic commentary.
 Your ability to arrive at class or a conference on time and prepared. This requirement
includes obtaining the textbook by the first day of class.
 Your ability to focus on class during class time. Habitual entrances and exits during class
sessions will result in a grade penalty, as will holding private discussions or texting
during class and disruptions arising from cell phones, watches, pagers, and the like.
Exception: if your cell phone rings to a song from the 1980s, you will receive extra credit.
 Your ability to avoid complaining and asking questions whose answers have already been
provided (e.g., “Can I make up the quiz?” and “What is the response for next time?”).
 Your ability to let me know ahead of time if you have to miss an appointment or
conference.
 Your attendance at and brief (~250-word) summaries of two on-campus cultural events
during the semester. These events may be lectures, plays, concerts, art exhibits, or other
occasions. They may not be events whose primary purpose is entertainment or an
athletic contest; ask me if you’re not sure if an event qualifies. Be sure that your
summary demonstrates that you stayed for the duration of the event.
You may be asked to read and discuss issues from perspectives that may disturb your moral
and/or religious prejudices. While I do not intend to influence your opinion, make you
purposefully uncomfortable, or otherwise grade you on your perspectives, you may find some
material too personally offensive to maintain high standards of intellectual pursuit and honesty.
If you think your views will interfere with your ability to conduct yourself professionally in this
course, we’ll need to schedule a meeting and discuss it.
Late or Missing Work
Late homework assignments will significantly impact your professionalism grade, such as
“Responses” listed above. However, late essay and project drafts impact your grade in two ways:
your professionalism grade AND the essay or project grade itself. These types of assignments
submitted within ONE (1) day (starting the instant it is considered late on Canvas) of the due
date will receive a reduction of a letter grade, and it will lower another letter grade by day TWO
(2), and yet another letter grade on day THREE (3). This means that, if you turn your paper in
three days late, the very best grade you could hope for will be a D. If your assignment is four
(4) or more days late of the due date, you will receive a ZERO (0) for the assignment. Students
must turn in complete, final drafts of ALL major assignments in order to receive a passing
course grade.
NOTE: This rule can be modified simply by notifying me BEFORE the date the assignment is
due and giving me a valid reason for its tardiness.
University Policies
Michigan Tech has standard policies on academic misconduct and complies with all federal and
state laws and regulations regarding discrimination, including the Americans with Disabilities

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Act of 1990. For more information about reasonable accommodation for or equal access to
education or services at Michigan Tech, please call the Dean of Students Office, at (906) 487-
2212 or go to
http://www.mtu.edu/ctl/instructional-resources/syllabus/syllabus_policies.html
Plagiarism
Plagiarism, which Michigan Tech defines as “knowingly copying another's work or ideas and
calling them one's own or not giving proper credit or citation,” is a violation of the academic
integrity policy: <http://www.admin.mtu.edu/usenate/policies/p109-1.htm>. In this class, we
will discuss the practical and ethical aspects of source attribution so you can learn how and why
to avoid plagiarism in your academic work. It is crucial that you take care to acknowledge the
sources of your written, audio, or visual material in this and other classes. Instances of
plagiarized work will be handled according to university procedures, which includes a reporting
of the incident to the Office of Student Affairs.
Assessment
Student work products (exams, essays, projects, etc.) may be used for the purposes of university,
program, or course assessment. All work used for assessment purposes will not include any
individual student identification; therefore, students should remove their names, teachers'
names, course and section identifiers before submitting work for assessment.
Disability Services
If you have a disability that could affect your performance in any class or that requires an
accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act, please contact your instructor or
Disability Services at 487-1494 as soon as possible so that appropriate arrangements can be
made. http://www.mtu.edu/deanofstudents/students/disability/
Veterans / Military
Veterans and active duty military personnel with special circumstances (e.g., upcoming
deployments, drill requirements, disabilities) are welcomed and encouraged to communicate
these, in advance if possible, to their instructor(s).
http://www.mtu.edu/registrar/students/veterans/
The Office of Institutional Equity
http://www.mtu.edu/equity
Equal Opportunity, Discrimination, or Harassment Statement
http://www.admin.mtu.edu/admin/boc/policy/ch5/
Disclaimer
This syllabus is subject to change by the instructor.