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WR060 Waters
- 1. WR060—12
Fall 2020
Elements of the Essay
Kendra Waters
kwaters@bluecc.edu
Office Hours: By Appointment
F 10:00 – 11:50 AM
Zoom Meeting ID: 957 4157 6049
Zoom Meeting Passcode: 416073
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Welcome to Writing 060, Elements of the Essay! This course is designed to teach the foundational
skills of writing and revision that will assist you throughout your college career. We will move from
the basic building blocks of writing—well-constructed sentences and then paragraphs—to
sophisticated and formal essay writing. We will focus on the idea that you are already composing
and how that can help you find your identity as not only a writer, but a composer. Understanding
the writing process and honing your skills as a critical thinker will help you develop confidence in
your ability to produce a strong final draft for any writing assignment you are given.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
1. Use critical and original thinking in course discussions and assignments.
2. Build vocabulary usage and composition skills through exposure to words, ideas, and
organizational approaches in readings and subsequent application in writing.
3. Recognize that writing is a process that requires practice to improve or master.
4. Know and apply relevant prewriting strategies.
5. Demonstrate awareness of writing as a recursive and dynamic process through successive
drafts, substantive revision, and thorough proofreading and editing.
6. Understand how to write for varied purposes and audiences.
7. Generate original ideas that are organized into coherent paragraphs that have evident topic
sentences and strong supporting details.
8. Produce focused essays based on well-developed main ideas, with strong introductory, body,
and concluding paragraphs.
9. Revise and edit all documents for content, organization, mechanics, usage, and consistency of
language, tone, and style to demonstrate competence in written Standard English usage.
10. Access, use, and document sources of information through field and library research that are
appropriate to the audience and purpose of the written product; document using MLA Citation
format.
REQUIRED TEXTBOOK
Our main textbook will be Writing for Success, which can be found for free here:
https://open.lib.umn.edu/writingforsuccess/
I recommend bookmarking the site or downloading the PDF, so it is easily accessible. These
readings will be supplemented and paired with additional readings that will be linked in the weekly
modules.
COURSE POLICIES
Attendance. Attendance for this course is required. Being present in class is the key to success in
the course as we will often use course time for peer review and workshopping. Compiling more
- 2. than two unexcused absences (two weeks of class) could lead to 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 an instructor or administrator (in
the event of athletic events or field trips). Please email me ahead of class if you will not be attending
our session. 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 these conditions, you can be marked absent for
the day.
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 via email. If your learning environment is noisy, please keep your
microphone muted unless you are speaking. Disruptive behavior during class may result in
expulsion from a class meeting or the entire course.
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 through our Canvas
site. 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 at the bottom.
Generally, you can expect a response during regular business hours (Monday-Friday, 8 AM-5 PM).
Deadlines. All work is due at 11:59 PM on the days designated in Canvas. LATE WORK WILL NOT
BE ACCEPTED. If you are struggling to complete an assignment, please email me before the
deadline. In some instances, an extension may be granted.
Exception to late policy: Major assignments will be accepted late with the following warning:
• Major Assignments submitted within 24 hours from the due date are subject to a 5% grade
reduction.
• Major Assignments submitted within 48 hours from the due date are subject to a 10% grade
reduction.
• Major Assignments submitted within 72 hours from the due date are subject to a 15% grade
reduction.
• Major Assignments submitted after 72 hours from the due date are subject to receiving a
zero grade.
Original Writing. All work for this class must be written for this class. Reusing an assignment you
completed for another class, or back in high school, constitutes academic dishonesty.
The public nature of class writing and discussion. Please consider every piece of writing you do
for this class to be “public property.” Part of becoming a good writer is learning to appreciate the
ideas and criticisms of others, and in this course our purpose is to come together as a writing
community. Remember that you will often be expected to share your writing with others, so avoid
writing about things that you may not be prepared to subject to public scrutiny, or things that you
feel so strongly about that you are unwilling to listen to perspectives other than your own. This
does not mean that you are not entitled to an opinion, but that you adopt positions responsibly,
contemplating the possible effect on others.
- 3. INDIVIDUAL CONFERENCES/OFFICE HOURS
Because of the nature of this course, I do not have concrete office hours. If you would like to set up a
Zoom meeting, please email me with at least three options of dates and times you have available,
and I will schedule something that works with us both. There may be some weeks where I
announce a block of time that I will be readily available for virtual office hours!
You will be required to meet with me at least once during the semester. This conference will be
scheduled well in advance and counts as a homework grade. The purpose of this conference is to
touch bases with you and get you acquainted with meeting with your instructors.
ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING
Major Assignments. There will be five major writing assignments and one final portfolio.
• Paragraph 1: You will create a coherent, complete, and well-developed paragraph on a
topic selected in class (150-250 words). Due Date: 10/04
• Paragraph 2: You will write a second coherent, complete, and well-developed paragraph
on a different topic, selected in class (200-300 words). Due Date: 10/18
• Paragraph Revision and Expansion: You will choose one of your paragraphs to
significantly revise and improve in a longer, multi-paragraph essay (350-500 words).
Due Date: 11/01
• Short Essay: You will select one of the writing modes we have discussed in class and
produce a short, condensed essay on an approved topic using that mode (550-650
words). Due Date: 11/15
• Argument Essay: You will write an argument-based essay that persuades a specific
audience to think, act, or feel a certain way because of your stance on an approved
issue/topic. You must use at least one approved outside resource found in the library
databases (750-1000 words). Due Date: 12/02
• Final Portfolio: This portfolio will include a reflection and a polished version of your
Argument Essay. Due Date: 12/10
Formatting: All assignments must be formatted in MLA style unless otherwise noted. A sample
document has been provided for you to use as a template on Canvas.
Daily Assignments/Homework. There will be shorter (what we call “invention” or “prep work”)
assignments due regularly. These assignments are specifically designed to help you generate
material to write the major assignments and may be completed as homework or in class.
Discussion Board: We will have a weekly discussion board. The prompts will ask you to think
about the topics of the course in different ways and apply them to your daily lives. You will be
expected to both post and reply to your peers.
Revision. A lot of focus will be spent on revision of your written work. Revision is a key component
to growing as a writer.
Participation. Effectively participating in this course means being attentive during class and other
online group activities. A large portion of the participation grade will come from peer review.
You will have access to 1-2 weeks’ worth of material at a time. There will be a PowerPoint
presentation uploaded that contains any “lecture slides” and detailed instructions on when and how
to complete the homework assignments prior to that week’s class.
- 4. GRADING SYSTEM
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY POLICTY
As a member of this college classroom community, a student is expected to be honest in all
their academic coursework and activities. Academic dishonesty, such as cheating of any
kind on examinations, course assignments, or projects, plagiarism, misrepresentation, and
the unauthorized possession of exams or other course-related materials, is prohibited.
Plagiarism is unacceptable to the college community. Academic work submitted by
students is assumed to be the result of their own thought, research, or self-expression.
When students borrow ideas, wording, or organization from another source, they are
expected to acknowledge that fact in an appropriate manner, using proper documentation.
Plagiarism is the deliberate use and appropriation of another’s work without identifying
the source and trying to pass off such work as the student’s own. Any student who fails to
give full credit for ideas or materials taken from another has plagiarized.
Any student who shares their work for the purpose of cheating on class assignments or
tests or who helps another to cheat or plagiarize is subject to the same penalties as the
student who commits the act.
When cheating or plagiarism has occurred, the instructor will take academic action ranging
from denial of credit for or assigning a grade of “F” on a specific assignment, examination,
or project, to assigning a grade of “F” for the course. The students may also be subject to
further sanctions such as disciplinary probation, suspension, or dismissal from the college.
In an effort to ensure the integrity of the academic process, BMCC uses Turnitin to
compare a student’s work with multiple sources. It then reports a percentage of
similarity and provides links to those specific sources. The tool itself does not
determine whether or not a paper has been plagiarized. Instead, that judgement
must be made by the individual faculty member. Do NOT turn in assignments from
previous or concurrent classes.
DISABILITIES/SPECIAL NEEDS CONTACT STATEMENT
Blue Mountain Community College is committed to providing inclusive learning
environments. Please notify us if there are aspects of the course that result in disability-
Percent Grading Scale:
Passing:
90 – 100 = A
80 – 90 = B
70 – 79 = C
Not Passing:
60 – 69 = D
<60 = F
Paragraph 1 10%
Paragraph 2 10%
Paragraph Revision and Expansion 10%
Short Essay 15%
Argument Essay 20%
Final Portfolio 10%
Homework (Includes Discussion Boards) 15%
Participation (Includes Peer Review) 10%
TOTAL 100%
