This document provides an overview of the College Writing I course taught by Christin Van Atta. It includes information about the instructor, required materials, course description, writing assignments, policies, schedule, and learning outcomes. The major writing assignments are designed to move from reflecting internally on oneself as a writer to exploring how writing connects one to others and back to examining oneself. Students will complete 4 major writing assignments, peer reviews, and various in-class writings totaling at least 20 pages over the semester. The course aims to teach students about writing as a discipline and improve their skills in areas such as rhetorical knowledge, critical thinking, the writing process, collaboration, conventions, and composing in digital environments.

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College Writing I Christin Van Atta
ENG-11011-101-201480 Fall, 2015
MWF 12:05-12:55 cvanatta@kent.edu
212 SFH
Office: 209E Satterfield Grad Lounge (2nd floor near elevators)
Office Hours: W 1-2, M 11-12 and by appointment or chance...
Required Materials:
- The Norton Field Guide to Writing 3RD EDITION
- Richard Bullock
-Kent State Custom St. Martin’s Handbook, 8TH EDITION
-Andrea Lunsford
-ISBN# 9781319040857
-Blackboard account
-Kent State Gmail account
Recommended Materials:
-Blackboard Learn App on your phone (alerts you of changes and updates to the BB site
immediately)
-Dictionary App on your phone (extremely useful for increasing one’s vocabulary)
College Writing I
In this course, we will not only study the discipline of writing, but we will explore the “point” of
writing and discover some useful purposes for it in your life by using the Norton Field Guide to
Writing and other selected readings. We will cover elements of narrative writing, research
writing, argumentative writing, reflective writing, and the importance of rhetorical situations in
all genres of writing.
Writing In This Course
I have designed the major writing assignments to move “from internal, to external, back to
internal.” This means that the assignments are ordered so that we will begin by reflecting on
ourselves to see how our past affects your current writing. Then, we will move toward exploring
how writing connects us to others, and tie the class up with a return back to examination of
ourselves as writers.
I believe strongly in Socrates’ famous command, which asks a great deal of us: “Know
thyself.” Just as you cannot begin to understand others before you understand yourself, we
cannot begin to understand and use others’ writing if we do not first understand our own writing.
That being said, you will use both introspection and examination of outside sources during this
course to improve as a writer, and prepare for College Writing II.
This course will offer you a safe haven for exploration of yourself and others, a place
where you will come to discover things about yourself and your writing that perhaps you did not

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know before, and also a place where I guarantee you will learn a few things you did not know
about the study of writing in general.
Be prepared to complete 4 major writing assignments and many random free-writing
assignments in class. You will produce at least 20 pages of graded writing throughout the
semester in accordance with Kent State’s requirements.
You will also find that writing is neither a completely individual process nor an entirely
collaborative process; it falls somewhere in the middle. Writing in this section of CWI will
consist mostly of individual projects, but will also make use of a few guided peer review sessions
in order to demonstrate to you how your peers can be of help to you in the writing process.
We will be trying out many different types of writing during the course and I ask
that you give everything a chance. You may not enjoy every project, and you may not enjoy
any of them, but I ask that you sample the things I assign you and give them your best effort.
Who knows, maybe you’ll even decide writing isn’t so dumb after all.
A final note: please feel free to discuss anything at all regarding assignment length,
topic, requirements, or whatever you like, with me at any time, especially when we are going
over the assignments for the first time together as a class. Syllabi are, by nature, tentative
depending on what the class needs, and I am more than willing to work with you all as a class
to create fair, engaging assignments. This means that I am open to suggestions and discussions
about assignments, but does not by any means, require me to accept all pleas and requests. I truly
enjoy hearing your ideas! I consider you all to be my students, but also my equals in a way; we
are here to work together, not make each other’s lives difficult, so I encourage you to all
consider the best advice I ever gave myself in college: “ask for what you need.”
REQUIREMENTS FOR ALL ASSIGNMENTS:
-Complete all papers in MLA format
-12 point font
-Times New Roman/Times font ONLY
-1 inch margins all the way around
- A works cited page, if outside sources are referenced
*for major writing assignments, if you hand me a paper without the requirements listed above, I
will hand it back to you for a redo/resubmit and you will lose 5 points for lateness
Student Guide
Access to the Student Guide to College Writing I & II can be gained by going to our class
Blackboard page and locating the label “Student Guide” on the left hand side bar.
Gmail Account
All class notifications will be announced through Kent State Gmail. I will sometimes cancel
class, give clarification about homework, change homework assignments, push back paper due
dates etc. through email, so it is your responsibility to monitor your account and check frequently
for emails from me.
A Note on Personal Expression
Students need to be aware that writing, by its very nature, can often be misunderstood. In
addition, students should know that their instructors are responsible for reporting any

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evidence of a student’s possible intent to harm him- or herself, or to harm others.
Therefore, never put in writing anything that could be taken out of context, regardless of
your intent, which would necessitate an instructor’s taking action to clarify the matter or
to protect the student(s) or himself or herself from harm. If you are unsure about
something you are writing, ask your teacher about the material ahead of time.
Reading in This Course
The readings in this course are chosen to teach you about the study of writing. They are
not going to explicitly tell you “this is how to write an article,” or “this technique makes
everyone a better writer in 21 days or less!” This is not a book full of infomercials; it is a
collection of scholarly material written to teach you about writing itself, as a discipline, as a
subject.
All readings will be supplemented with discussions in class. I will never leave you to
interpret a text by yourself.
The only other thing I ask of you is to read with a dictionary and a pen. Active reading is
something we will explore in the class and you might as well start from the get-go. The best
professor I ever had said to me once “only fools read without a dictionary.” I promise you, there
will be many words you do not know off the top of your head in our text book, and you will
misinterpret even more words if you do not look up the ones that stump you. Reading with a pen
in your hand signals to your brain: “OK, time to pay attention to this thing in front of me. Time
to interact with it.”
Marking the things you don’t know, the things that make sense to you and anything else
that strikes you will help you not only to absorb more information but it will help you pay
attention to the text as a malleable thing, not a stone carving that can never be changed or
interacted with. Arguably the most important skill you will learn in this class is how to interact
with the text as you read. To challenge it, make fun of it in your head, agree with it, hate it, love
it, treat it as the embodiment of the person who wrote it. The text you see in front of you is alive
with meaning and it begs you to communicate with it.
TIER I LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Rhetorical Knowledge
By the end of their Tier I writing course, students should be able to recognize the elements that inform rhetorical
situations. This understanding should enable them to produce texts that:
· Have a clear purpose
· Respond to the needs of intended audiences
· Assume an appropriate stance
· Adopt an appropriate voice, tone, style, and level of formality
· Use appropriate conventions of format and structure
2. Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing
By the end of their Tier I writing course, students should be able to:
· Use reading and writing for inquiry, learning, thinking, and communicating
· Analyze relationships among writer, text, and audience in various kinds of texts
· Use various critical thinking strategies to analyze texts
3. Knowledge of Composing Processes
By the end of their Tier I writing course, students should be able to:

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· Understand writing as a series of recursive and interrelated steps that includes generating ideas and
text, drafting, revising, and editing
· Recognize that writing is a flexible, recursive process
· Apply this understanding and recognition to produce successive drafts of increasing quality
4. Collaboration
By the end of their Tier I writing course, students should understand that the writing process is often
collaborative and social. To demonstrate that understanding, students should be able to:
· Work with others to improve their own and others’ texts
· Balance the advantages of relying on others with taking responsibility for their own work
5. Knowledge of Conventions
By the end of their Tier I writing course, students should be able to:
· Employ appropriate conventions for structure, paragraphing, mechanics, and format
· Acknowledge the work of others when appropriate
· Use a standard documentation format as needed
· Control syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling
6. Composing in Digital Environments
Developments in digital technology are expanding our understanding of “writing.” To the extent that technology
is available and appropriate, by the end of their Tier I writing course students should be able to:
· Understand the possibilities of digital media/technologies for composing and publishing texts
· Use digital environments to support writing tasks such as drafting, reviewing, revising, editing, and
sharing texts
Sequence Rationale
(why my assignments are ordered the way they are)
As mentioned before under “Writing in This Course,” these assignments will move in a very
intentional way: from internal, to external, back to internal. We will examine ourselves as
writers, and then move outward to examine other writers before returning to ourselves as the end
of the semester to track our progress and examine how others have affected our writing and vice
versa. We will wrap up the semester by completing a reflection paper that helps you see how far
you’ve come as a writer.
Attendance
You will be allowed 3 unquestioned absences. After 3 absences, only excused absences will be
tolerated. If you do not discuss with me the reasons for your exceeding 3 absences, your final
grade will drop 5% for each absence after 3.
Tardiness of more than 10 minutes counts as an absence; if you have a good reason you need to
be late (immoveable doctor’s appointment, car died on the way to class, bus system took a dump
on your morning commute) PLEASE EMAIL ME.
University Definition of Excused Absence
“Legitimate reasons for an “excused” absence include, but are not limited to, illness and injury,
disability-related concerns, military service, death in the immediate family, religious observance,
academic field trips, and participation in an approved concert or athletic event, and direct
participation in university disciplinary hearings.”

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Late Assignments
Assignments must be turned in, IN CLASS, the day they are due, unless otherwise stated.
-I CANNOT ACCEPT make-up work for unexcused absences
-I CAN ACCEPT make-up work for excused absences
Late Papers: any major writing assignment turned in late will be accepted, but 10 points per day
that it is late (including weekends) will be deducted from the final grade of the paper.
Cell Phones
If you choose to use your phone in class, you had better give the correct answer when I call on
you (and I will call on you). If you do not, I will inform you that you have just lost the cell phone
privilege for the rest of the day. Better luck next time.
**I also reserve the right to revoke this policy entirely if I believe that the class is abusing the
privileges I have granted**
Participation
Short, in-class assignments which will often be collected and checked for completion. These,
along with daily verbal participation, will result in your participation grade. Keep in mind
participation equals 10% of your grade.
Mini-Conferences
Before each major writing assignment, we will have mini-conferences. During the conference
days, we will meet in class as usual, and you will have time to work on your papers
independently. As you work, I will chat with each of you individually. This is your time to ask
me questions, have me read small sections of your paper, check your sources, approve your
thesis, etc.
Plagiarism/Academic Honesty
Plagiarism is using another’s words or ideas in your own writing without quoting or
acknowledging them as a source. My advice: better safe than sorry. In other words, if you are
wondering whether or not to cite something, especially something not considered common
knowledge to most people, CITE IT. From time to time, I may also run your papers through an
online database which checks for plagiarized work. I will not tell you when I do this.
Official University Statement on Plagiarism:
“Plagiarize” means to take and present as one’s own a material portion of the ideas or word
s of another or to present as one’s own an idea or work derived from an existing source wit
hout full and proper credit to the source of the ideas, words, or works. This definition inclu
des using another student’s work as your own as well as inadequately referencing other sou
rces in your work. Plagiarism carries a variety of sanctions, ranging from lowering of a gra
de to dismissal from the University. Additional information regarding the University’s polic
y is available at the University’s Plagiarism site:
http://www.kent.edu/academics/resources/plagiarism/. You are responsible for knowing and abiding
by this policy.”

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Students with Disabilities
University policy 3342-3-18 requires that students with disabilities be provided
reasonable accommodations to ensure their equal access to course content. If a student
has a documented disability and requires accommodations, he/she must contact the
instructor at the beginning of the semester to make arrangements for necessary classroom
adjustments. Students must first verify their eligibility for these through Student
Accessibility Services (330-672-3391 or by visiting www.kent.edu/sas for more
information on registration procedures) 2003.
Grading
Literacy Narrative (5%)
Discourse Community Paper (30%)
Persuasion/TED Talk Paper (30%)
Reflective Essay (15%)
2-Paragraph Revision of Paper of Choice (10%)
In-Class Assignments/participation (10%)
Grading Scale:
A 94-100
A- 90-93
B+ 87-89
B 84-86
B- 80-83
C+ 77-79
C 74-76
C- 70-73
D 60-69
F 59 and below
Enrollment and Registration
The official registration deadline for this course can be found at:
http://www.registrars.kent.edu/home/CLASSES/sessdatesrch.cfm). University policy requires all students
to be officially registered in each class they are attending. Students who are not officially
registered for a course by published deadlines should not be attending classes and will not
receive credit or a grade for the course. Each student must confirm enrollment by checking
his/her class schedule (using Student Tools in FlashLine) prior to the deadline indicated.
Registration errors must be corrected prior to the deadline.
Schedule
This is a tentative schedule and may change. I will alert you of all changes.

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(Assignments and readings are listed on the day they are due. For example: when you walk into
class on 9/2 you should have Sherman Alexie’s “Superman and Me” and the syllabus, and
completed the Writing Profile Project)
NFG = Norton Field Guide to Writing
BB = Blackboard
PPT = PowerPoint
Week 1
M 8/31 Introduction to class/syllabus
Collect WPP, check to see who has syllabus
BB
Book, Active reading
Email Etiquette
Name game
W 9/2 SYLLABUS QUIZ
DUE: Writing Profile Project
READ Syllabus (use active reading skills)
READ Sherman Alexie “Superman and Me” (BB)
F 9/4 READ: Malcolm X “Learning to Read” (BB)
Week 2
M 9/7 LABOR DAY-NO CLASS
W 9/9 READ: NFG Emily Vallowe “Write or Wrong Identity” p.27-32
READ: Villanueva “Bootstraps” p. 65 -74 (BB)
F 9/11 READ: NFG Marjorie Agosin “Always Living in Spanish” p.33-35
Week 3
M 9/14 READ: NFG Shannon Nichols & Sofia Gomez p.36-42
READ: NFG p.42-46
W 9/16 READ: NFG p. 47-52
READ: PPT period, comma, semi-colons (BB)
F 9/18 DUE IN CLASS: Literacy Narrative
In class: NFG p.51”Taking Stock of Your Work” reflection
Week 4
M 9/21 READ: Swales “The Concept of Discourse Communities” (BB)
W 9/23 READ: Victoria Marro “The Genres of Chi Omega” (BB)

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F 9/25 READ: READ: Through The Looking Glass Ch. VI Humpy Dumpty (BB)
Hand back assignment #1
Introduce Discourse Community Paper
Week 5
M 9/28 READ: Toni Mirabelli “Learning to Serve” (BB)
W 9/30 DUE: Post discourse community choice for Assignment #2 to BB discussion board
NFG p.251 “Writing as Inquiry”
BRING LAPTOPS
F 10/2 NO CLASS-Ms. V OUT OF TOWN
Week 6
M 10/5 DUE: bring 3 examples of materials you might use in your DC paper
READ: NFG Matthew O’Brien “The Strange Economics of Engagement Rings”
p.105-113
W 10/7 READ: PPT on Thesis/Topic Sentences (BB)
READ: PPT transitions/ organization
F 10/9 READ: NFG p.266-267
Week 7
M 10/12 DUE: thesis statement & 1 paragraph for assignment #2
Group A-Peer Review
Group B- Mini Conferences
W 10/14 hand back thesis and paragraphs
Group A- Mini Conferences
Group B- Peer Review
F 10/16 DUE IN CLASS: Discourse Community Paper
In class: “Taking Stock of Your Work” NFG p.118
Week 8
M 10/19 READ: NFG p.1-2
READ: “What IS Rhetorical Situation? Definitions, Devices and Examples.” (BB)
W 10/21 DUE: Covino&Jolliffe discussion board
READ: “Means of Persuasion” in the Covino & Jolliffe article (BB)

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F 10/23 READ: (again) Covino & Jolliffe (BB)
Hand back Discourse Community Papers
Week 9
M 10/26 DUE: Pathos, Ethos, Logos, Notecards
W 10/28 READ: NFG Audience p.3-7, 19-24
READ: Average College Freshman (BB)
Introduce TED Talk/Persuasion Assignment
F10/30 Group 1 READ: Bill Gate Screwed the Millenials (BB)
Group 2 READ: Clusterfuggle: Girls Can Brew Beer Too (BB)
Group 3 READ: Sleeper Sharks (BB)
Week 10
M 11/2 READ: Lumbersexuals (BB)
READ: NFG p.119-124, 135
DUE: TED Talk choice posted to BB discussion board
W 11/4 READ: NFG 127-131, 135-139
F 11/6
Week 11
M 11/9
W 11/11 READ: PPT thesis (BB)
F 11/13 DUE: thesis posted to BB discussion board
READ: NFG 144-146
READ: PPT Topic Sentences, PPT Transitions (BB)
Week 12
M 11/16 Mini Conferences
W 11/18 READ: PPT Academic tone/ Citations / Conclusions (BB)
Peer Review
F 11/20 DUE IN CLASS: Persuasion/TED Talk Paper
In class: Taking Stock of your writing NFG p.270/274
Sentence Numbering
Week 13
M 11/23 READ: Anne Lamott “Shitty First Drafts” (BB)
Introduce revision assignment & sentence numbering
Give sentence numbering assignment over break

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W 11/25 THANKSGIVING BREAK
F 11/27 THANKSGIVING BREAK
Week 14
M 11/30 READ: NFG p.269-274
READ: Thomas Osborne “Late Nights, Last Rites…” (BB)
Selecting revision paragraphs/ In class work time
W 12/2 Group A Peer Review, Group B Mini Conferences
F 12/4 Group A Mini Conferences, Group B Peer Review
Week 15
M 12/7 DUE IN CLASS: Revision of two paragraphs stapled to original copy of paper with
my comments. New, revised paragraphs should be “numbered” as well.
Evaluations
W 12/9 Discuss Final Reflection Assignment
In class work time
Class selfie
F 12/11
Final Reflective Paper due anytime between December 11th and December 15th at 5pm.
Must be emailed AS A WORD DOCUMENT to me using proper email etiquette between
those times.
For late papers: for every hour it is late (past 5pm on Dec. 15th), 10 points will be deducted
from the final grade of the paper.