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Syllabus English 102 SP 2018
COLLEGE WRITING AND RHETORIC
INSTRUCTOR: Caitlin Hill
EMAIL: cjhill@uidaho.edu
OFFICE: Brink 102
PHONE: 885-6156 (messages only)
OFFICE HOURS: M 2-4, T 2-3:15 or by appointment
COURSE TIME & PLACE: MWF 12:30 pm, TLC 241
COURSE DESCRIPTION
English 102 is an introductory composition course designed to improve your skills in persuasive,
expository writing—the sort you will be doing in other courses in college and in many jobs. Sometimes this
kid of writing is called transactional writing; it is used to transact something: persuade and inform a
reasonably well-educated audience, conduct business, evaluate, review, or explain a complex process,
procedure, or event.
This section of English 102 is designed around a theme of place. You will develop these course goals
through the analysis and argument of how our environments affect who we are by what takes place within
the, how we interact with them, and how they are designed.
COURSE GOALS
By the end of the course, you should be very good at doing the following:
• Accurately assessing and effectively responding to a wide variety of audiences and communication
situations.
• Comprehending college-level and professional prose and analyzing how authors present their ideas
in view of their probable purposes, audiences, and occasions.
• Presenting your ideas as related to, but clearly distinguished from, the ideas of others (includes the
ability to paraphrase, summarize, and correctly cite and document borrowed material).
• Developing a central idea or argument logically, supporting and illustrating it clearly.
• Writing critical analyses and syntheses of college-level and professional prose.
• Being able to make the connection between questions and problems in your life both within and
outside of college.
• Gather and evaluate information and use it for a rhetorical purpose in writing a research paper.
• Using a variety of strategies during the prewriting or “invention” process.
• Revising effectively.
• Accurately proofreading your own work in order to produce writing that maintains the conventions
of publishing English.
• Giving and receiving constructive feedback from peers.
Of course, I expect that you are able to carry out some of these tasks already.

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DEADLINES & LATE WORK POLICY
Administrative Deadlines
The university has certain deadlines of which you need to be aware if you want to drop the course at some
point during the term.
Thursday, January 18th
– Last day to add the course WITH a late fee.
Wednesday, January 24th
– Last day to drop the course without a grade of W.
Friday, March 30th
– Last day to drop the course with a grade of W.
Course Deadlines
The due dates for all homework assignments and drafts are posted under the appropriate Unit and Week
on the course BbLearn site. Late daily homework will receive a 10% deduction for every day it is late,
including weekends. Late major assignments will be ineligible for a grade higher than a C. Not completing
a major writing assignment will be grounds for failure of the course.
REQUIRED TEXTBOOK
• Nicotra, Jodie, Becoming Rhetorical
• There will be additional course readings outside of the textbook, which will be available on the
course BbLearn site as PDF documents
COURSE WEBSITE
All major writing assignments and process homework (everything except in-class assignments) will be
submitted through the course BbLearn site. All assignment sheets and other course materials will also be
posted in the BbLearn site. Log on into BbLearn (http://bblearn.uidaho.edu) using your University of
Idaho NetID and password, and locate English 102.
Please be aware that course materials and deadlines are subject to change. You should check this BbLearn
site and your University of Idaho email account at least once a day to stay properly updated, in addition to
paying keen attention in class. I will not take "I didn't see/hear anything about that" as an excuse for missed
or late work or being unprepared in class.
ATTENDANCE
Attendance in English 102 is mandatory. Being present in class is the key to success in the course. More
than five unexcused absences is grounds for failure of the course. An excused absence is an official note
specifying the days and reasons you were required to miss class. Excused absences must be in writing from
an official such as a doctor or a university instructor or administrator (in the event of athletic events or field
trips). You are responsible for making up work you miss due to absences.
Attendance means being physically present, awake, coherent, and fully prepared for class, with the day’s
assignments completed. If you do not meet all of these conditions, you can be marked absent for the day.
You are responsible for making up work that you miss.
COURSE ETIQUETTE
Classroom Citizenship
The classroom is a learning community. Be respectful of your fellow students and your instructor. If you
have a problem with anything in the course, speak to me about it privately after class or meet me during
my office hours. Disruptive, insulting, intolerant behavior during class or via email correspondence may
result in expulsion from a class meeting or the entire course.

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Technology
All cell phones must put away during class time. Unless you have been given explicit permission to use
your laptop in class, all laptops should be shut and stowed. Even if you aren’t called out in class for using
this technology, inappropriate use will be reflected in your participation points. If you answer a phone call
in class, expect to be excused.
Email Etiquette
I welcome your emails and questions – if you have questions about the course, your work, meeting times,
etc., please contact me at the address listed above or on the BbLearn home page. When you contact me,
please treat it as a professional correspondence—your message should have a greeting, be written in
complete sentences, and signed with your name and section number at the bottom. If your email is written
like you’re texting a friend, don’t expect a reply. Generally, you can expect a timely response during
regular business hours (Monday-Friday, 8-5 PM). Other times will be delayed.
OFFICE HOURS
My office hours and office number are listed above and on the BbLearn home page. I welcome you to
stop by to discuss your work, questions about the course, etc., during that time. If for some reason you
can’t come during my regularly posted hours, please email me or stop by after class to make other
arrangements.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Major Assignments
There will be four major composition assignments. Each major assignment will develop the University of
Idaho ENGL 102 learning outcomes through a focus on environments:
• Personal Narrative: Place-Identity
• Annotated Bibliography
• Research Essay: Place & Crisis
• Multi-Genre Assignment: Analysis of a UI Place or Space
Daily Assignments/Homework
There will be shorter process work writing assignments due regularly. These assignments are specifically
designed to help you generate material to write the major assignments and make up credit for the “Process
Points” portion of each unit. For the most part, this work will be completed entirely in class and handed in
to me at the end of the period. Your time outside of class should be spent on reading assignments and
your major writing assignments.
Class Meeting Format
For the most part, this class will follow a specific schedule of what work happens in class each day of the
week: Mondays are lecture days, where I will discuss and outline all the information that is needed for the
week; Wednesdays are activity days, where group work and other student activities are planned around
learning and implementing the week’s material; and Fridays are Socratic days, where class discussion is led
by students, questioning the week’s material.
Further Explanation: Socratic Days
The Socratic method is a method of learning through questioning. Nearly every Friday of the
semester, class will become a Socratic seminar, where students will circle up and ask questions they
have prepared (through prompts provided by the instructor) to one another to help solidify that
week’s knowledge. Friday Socratic days are a large portion of the Unit’s participation points—the
instructor will, for the most part, be completely removed from this discussion and will be available

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only to help direct veering conversation and take note of student participation. Questions should
be typed out and ready to hand in at the end of each Friday class.
Journals
Daily free-writes will be incorporated into our classroom meetings. I suggest recording your responses to
the free-write prompts into a separate composition notebook designated entirely to your English 102 free-
writes and classroom notes. You will post a type written document of your favorite 5 responses from each
Unit to a BbLearn dropbox at the end of each Unit. It is through this submission that I award points for
the “Journal” portion of the Unit grade. Writing these responses in class on a laptop is not allowed—you
will be expected to hand write the responses in class and then type them out on your own time.
Rough Drafts
There are no rough drafts required for this course. You will not be forced to hand in any draft of a major
assignment before the final draft due date. However, 10 out of the 100 available points for each major
assignment are allotted to handing in a complete rough draft and the presence of significant revision in the
final draft based on instructor comments on said rough draft. If you choose not to submit a rough draft,
you will be ineligible to receive more than 89 points on the major assignment.
If you want to turn in a rough draft, you will submit it in the appropriate dropbox on the BbLearn site. Do
not panic when you receive 0 points for this submission—the points appear in the rubric for the final draft
submission.
GRADING
Course Grading System
Here is the distribution of the total points for the four units this semester:
Unit One Process Points - 50 Journal - 40 Major As. - 100 Participation- 60 Total Points
Possible: 250
Unit Two Process Points - 50 Journal – 40 Major As.- 100 Participation- 60 Total Points
Possible: 250
Unit
Three
Process Points - 50 Journal - 40 Major As. - 100 Participation- 60 Total Points
Possible: 250
Unit Four Process Points - 50 Journal - 40 Major As. - 100 Participation- 60 Total Points
Possible: 250
Total Available Course Points 1,000
All of these scores will be posted on Blackboard under the My Grades link promptly and regularly. Note:
Homework assignments are completed in class and are graded out of the Process Points of each unit. In
some cases where there is an out of class homework assignment, those points will be subtracted from the
Process Points for that unit. For example, Unit 2 has 10 posted Process Points, as 40 points are distributed
to take-home homework assignments.
I will recommend an F in the course if you fail to submit any major assignments.

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Course Grades Possible
A
Represents achievement that is outstanding or superior relative to the level necessary to meet
the requirements of the course.
B
Represents achievement that is significantly above the level necessary to meet the requirements
of the course.
Grades of A or B are honors grades. You must do something beyond the minimum required in order to
earn an A or B.
C
Represents achievement that meets the basic requirements in every respect. It signifies that the
work is average, but nothing more.
W
Stands for Withdrawal. This is the grade you will receive if you withdraw from the course after
Thursday, January 18 but on or before Friday, March 30. A W has no effect on your GPA, but
you can have only 20 W credits during your time as an undergraduate at UI (about six courses.
After Friday, March 30 you can no longer withdraw from the course.
N
Stands for No Credit. A grade of N has no effect on your GPA, but it does mean that you need
to take the course again. You will earn a grade of N if your grade is an N and you have done all
the work for the course. You also must have made a good faith effort to complete all the
assignments. Handing in just any piece of writing just to avoid getting an F will not work.
F
Stands for Failure. A grade of F has a negative effect on your GPA. If you fail to hand in any
major writing assignment or do not make a good-faith effort to succeed at a major assignment,
you will automatically earn an F. If your average grade is an N but you did not complete one of
the major components of the course (one of the major papers of all of the homework
assignments or drafts), you will automatically earn an F in the course. There is no reason for
receiving an F in this course, unless you simply fail to submit the required work.
I
Stands for incomplete. Under very unusual circumstances you could be assigned an
Incomplete in the course if something happened to you within the last two weeks of the
semester that made it impossible to complete the course (a serious accident or illness that left
you hospitalized and very significant personal tragedy, etc.)
Center for Disability Access and Resources Reasonable Accommodations Statement
Reasonable accommodations are available for students who have documented temporary or permanent
disabilities. All accommodations must be approved through the Center for Disability Access and
Resources located in the Bruce M. Pitman Center, Suite 127 in order to notify your instructor(s) as soon
as possible regarding accommodation(s) needed for the course.
Phone: 208-885‐6307
Email: cdar@uidaho.edu
Website: www.uidaho.edu/current-students/cdar
University of Idaho Classroom Learning Civility Clause
In any environment in which people gather to learn, it is essential that all members feel as free and safe as
possible in their participation. To this end, it is expected that everyone in this course will be treated with
mutual respect and civility, with an understanding that all of us (students, instructors, professors, guests,

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and teaching assistants) will be respectful and civil to one another in discussion, in action, in teaching, and
in learning.
Should you feel our classroom interactions do not reflect an environment of civility and respect, you are
encouraged to meet with your instructor during office hours to discuss your concern. Additional resources
for expression of concern or requesting support include the Dean of Students office and staff (208-885-
6757), the UI Counseling & Testing Center’s confidential services (208-885-6716), or the UI Office of
Human Rights, Access, & Inclusion (208-885-4285).
Policy on Plagiarism in English 102
At the University of Idaho, we assume you will do your own work and that you will work with your
instructor on improving writing that is your own. Plagiarism—using someone else’s ideas or words as yours
own without proper attribution--is a serious matter.
The Council of Writing Program Administrators defines plagiarism in the following way: “In an
instructional setting, plagiarism occurs when a writer deliberately uses someone else’s language, ideas, or
other original (not common-knowledge) material without acknowledging its source. This definition applies
to texts published in print or on-line, to manuscripts, and to the work of other student writers.” (From
“Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices,”
http://wpacouncil.org/node/9).
Also, turning in work you have previously completed for another course—either an entire paper or
significant portions of it—can also be considered an unethical use of your own work and can be considered
a form of plagiarism worthy of reporting as an instance of academic dishonesty.
The consequences of plagiarism:
If evidence of plagiarism is found in student work in English 101, the instructor is empowered by
Regulation 0-2 of the general catalog to assign a grade of F for the course, a penalty that may be imposed
in particularly serious cases. In most cases of plagiarism, the instructor will also make a complaint to the
Dean of Students Office, which is responsible for enforcing the regulations in the Student Code of
Conduct. So in addition to the academic penalty of receiving an F in the course, you may also be subject to
other disciplinary penalties, which can include suspension of expulsion. Although such severe penalties are
rarely imposed for first-time offenders, the Dean of Students Office maintains disciplinary records as part
of a student’s overall academic record.
Instructors may demonstrate that a paper involves plagiarism in two ways: 1) by identifying the source, and
2) by showing the discrepancy of style between previous papers and the paper I questions.
If a paper involves misuse of sources or other materials--which the CWPA defines as when a writer
“carelessly or inadequately [cites] ideas and words borrowed from another source”-- the instructor may ask
you to rewrite the paper, using correct forms of documentation.
When you need to use words or ideas from another person—whether an idea, a picture, a powerful
statement, a set of facts, or an explanation—cite your source!