Course Description This course will help you  write prose  that is clear and informative.  Clear thinking is the first step in reaching this goal.  The class discussions, quizzes, and essay assignments have been especially designed to develop your critical thinking skills in this regard. Another key ingredient in the ability to write strong prose is  active reading.   You must be able to take apart a piece of writing and analyze it on an abstract level.  Leonardo da Vinci would never have been able to paint his Mona Lisa if he hadn't done his homework about human anatomy.  The same goes for each of you--except you will be studying the flesh, blood, and bones of written prose.  This active form of reading will help you when it comes time to do a little creating of your own on the printed page. Average Workload Per Week The average week in WR 122 will involve about 10-15 minutes per day of outside readings or watching video documentaries.  There are only three essays.  The first is a minimum of 2.5 pages long, the second is 3.5 pages long, and the third is 4.5 pages long. Instructional Approach This course is arranged chronologically and employs a modular design. Each week, students should complete all assignments listed in that week's lesson module. These modules can be accessed by clicking the "Learning Modules" folder on the Course Menu. Due dates  for each week's assignments will be listed in the  Course Calendar   link which is available on the Course Menu.   All submissions will by due by midnight on the date specified.   Assignments within the modules may direct students to use many of the tools contained in Blackboard, including the Assignment dropbox, Discussion Board, and Quizzes. These tools will be accessible both from within the weekly learning modules, as well as from the Course Menu. Communication Guidelines Communicate  by using the Blackboard e-mail system which can be accessed from the Course Menu. You can use Blackboard e-mail to send a private e-mail to your instructor and/or classmates. I will be checking email in Blackboard daily on weekdays. E-mail sent on weekdays will be answered within 48 hours. E-mail sent over the weekend will be answered the following Monday. If your question or comment would be of interest to other students, please post it to the corresponding weekly  Discussions  area or  Chat  board. This way other participants can help answer questions, and all participants will benefit from the answers. Your first communication assignment is to introduce yourself in the discussion topic "Introductions." Learning Outcomes By the end of the term, you should be able to use critical thinking to analyze, synthesize and evaluate ideas.  Your essays and compositions will demonstrate whether or not you have achieved this goal. Learning yow to write is not always a clean orderly activity.  A blank page is always cleaner than one filled with ink  Messes will be encouraged in this course, so long as they are not cre.

1. Course Description
This course will help you
write prose
that is clear and informative. Clear thinking is the first step in
reaching this goal. The class discussions, quizzes, and essay
assignments have been especially designed to develop your
critical thinking skills in this regard.
Another key ingredient in the ability to write strong prose is
active reading.
You must be able to take apart a piece of writing and analyze
it on an abstract level. Leonardo da Vinci would never have
been able to paint his Mona Lisa if he hadn't done his
homework about human anatomy. The same goes for each of
you--except you will be studying the flesh, blood, and bones of
written prose. This active form of reading will help you when it
comes time to do a little creating of your own on the printed
page.
Average Workload Per Week
The average week in WR 122 will involve about 10-15 minutes
per day of outside readings or watching video documentaries.
There are only three essays. The first is a minimum of 2.5
pages long, the second is 3.5 pages long, and the third is 4.5
pages long.
Instructional Approach
This course is arranged chronologically and employs a modular
design. Each week, students should complete all assignments
listed in that week's lesson module. These modules can be
accessed by clicking the "Learning Modules" folder on the
Course Menu.
Due dates
for each week's assignments will be listed in the
Course Calendar
link which is available on the Course Menu.
All submissions will by due

2. by
midnight
on the date specified.
Assignments within the modules may direct students to use
many of the tools contained in Blackboard, including the
Assignment dropbox, Discussion Board, and Quizzes. These
tools will be accessible both from within the weekly learning
modules, as well as from the Course Menu.
Communication Guidelines
Communicate
by using the Blackboard e-mail system which can be accessed
from the Course Menu. You can use Blackboard e-mail to send a
private e-mail to your instructor and/or classmates. I will be
checking email in Blackboard daily on weekdays. E-mail sent
on weekdays will be answered within 48 hours. E-mail sent over
the weekend will be answered the following Monday.
If your question or comment would be of interest to other
students, please post it to the corresponding weekly
Discussions
area or
Chat
board. This way other participants can help answer questions,
and all participants will benefit from the answers. Your first
communication assignment is to introduce yourself in the
discussion topic "Introductions."
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the term, you should be able to use critical
thinking to analyze, synthesize and evaluate ideas. Your essays
and compositions will demonstrate whether or not you have
achieved this goal.
Learning yow to write is not always a clean orderly activity. A

3. blank page is always cleaner than one filled with ink Messes
will be encouraged in this course, so long as they are not
created out of carelessness or a lack of effort. Mistakes are a
part of every good writer's learning process. Much of the
knowledge you gain will come from revising, editing, and
proofreading your work.
If you successfully complete this course with a C or better, you
should have learned how to do the following:
1. Write essays that
•: are part of a process of inquiry—a means of discovering new
ideas and new ways of thinking
•: have a clear purpose and a controlling central idea
•: are organized coherently and purposefully
•: use voice, language and structure to respond to different
rhetorical situations
•: integrate multiple points of view and distinguish your own
voice(s) from others’
•: are part of a recursive and social process that involves
multiple drafts and being able to articulate constructive
critiques of your own and others’ writing through peer
workshops and conferences
•: meet a minimum word count as specified for each
assignment
•: use the conventions of standard academic English and the
guidelines of MLA documentation
2. Read a variety of challenging texts and in the process
•: write a summary and analysis of a published article that
identifies central ideas and supporting points
•: interact with texts through response, discussion and notes to
arrive at a developed understanding of an article’s rhetorical
strategies and reasoning
•: interpret and analyze concepts, knowledge, and evidence from
other writers as a means of developing your own writing
•: use a variety of library and multi-media resources to locate,
evaluate and interpret different sources of information
3. Engage in critical thinking that

4. •: reexamines received ideas and cultural frames of reference
•: is at once open and skeptical, receptive to new ideas, and yet
careful to test them against previous experience and
knowledge
•: probes what we know and what we are taught for underlying
assumptions and contradictions
•: develops a perspective on the social construction of self and
society
•: explores the role of language as a means of both shaping and
challenging cultural frames of reference
•: demonstrates an ability to analyze historical precedents, hard
evidence, and examples in conjunction with universal ethical
standards that may transcend contemporary societal norms
Course Prerequisites
You should already have completed Writing 121 with a grade of
"C" or higher. If you have not, please contact me immediately
via course email.
Required Texts
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, by John Perkins (ISBN
978-0-452-28708-2) [REQUIRED]
From Critical Thinking to Argument, by Sylvan Barnet and
Hugo Bedau. (ISBN 978-0-312-60161-4)
Third Edition only. [REQUIRED]
Little Seagull Handbook, by Bullock and Weinberg. (ISBN 978-
0-393-91151-0) [REQUIRED]
A Pocket Style Manual, by Diana Hacker. (ISBN 978-0-312-
66480-0) Fifth edition only. [Recommended]
Extra Credit [Optional]: Read one book from the list of five
possible choices in the extra credit part of the course:
Lolita by Nabokov (Only Part I is required for Lolita; the other
books below require the entire books be read.)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by Rowling
Dracula by Stoker

5. The Da Vinci Code by Brown
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Larsson
Brave New World by Huxley
Nineteen Eighty-Four by Orwell
Participation Expectations
You are expected to enter the course on a weekly basis to work
on the lessons, check email, and participate in discussions.
Prompt participation in discussions is especially important when
group work is involved since others in your group are depending
on your input. Each time you log into the course be sure to
check for any new announcements, email and discussion
messages, and calendar postings.
Activities, Assignment, and Assesments
During this term, you will be asked to participate in weekly
discussions
, submit peer reviews, compose essays, and complete quizzes
Evaluation of Assignments/Assesments
Grades
are based on your essays, peer review submissions, quizzes,
and participation in class discussions. I will post grades within
one week after the due date. Be sure to check the
My Grades
for individual scores and feedback.
Grading Criteria:
Activity
Percentage
Points each
Total
Discussions (10)
10%
10
100
Quizzes (8)

6. 8%
10
80
Peer Reviews (2)
15%
85
170
Essay1
18%
180
180
Essay2
22%
220
220
Essay3
25%
250
250
Extra Credit Essay (analysis of approved novels from a
sociological perspective)
-or-
Extra credit Discussion and Quiz (about the US economy) for 20
points extra.
Students may not do both of these extra credit assignments--
only one of them.
[9%]
[20]
[100]
[20]
[100]
[20]
Total
100%
1000

7. Grading Scale:
Letter Grade
Total Final Percentage
A
900 - 1000
B
800 - 899
C
700 - 799
D
600 - 699
F
< 600
Late Work & Make-up Policy
Assignments must be completed on time in order to earn full
credit.
(Late assignments will be graded upon the instructors
discretion)
Name Changes
Kirk asks that you DO NOT ask other students to call you by
any name other than what is in the system. Likewise, please do
not use any other name than what is in your gradebook when
posting essays (with headers). Sometimes Kirk prints out
essays to grade by hand and he has no idea who you are if you
use another name in the header than what is in the grade book.
Thank you for understanding. For an online class in which
people do not see your face, this method works much better and
helps to avoid misunderstandings.
Instructor Availability
Generally speaking, the instructor will check e-mail and other
assignments, such as participation in the discussions five days
per week, normally Monday through Friday. The instructor
does
not
work seven days per week, and will not check e-mail on

8. weekends, unless he will be taking his two days off in the
middle of the week on that particular week. Do not expect the
instructor to check his e-mail on weekends. If the instructor is
home and not out of town, he will check e-mail on weekdays.
On most occasions, if the instructor will be gone for more than
24 hours during the week, he will post a "pop up" announcement
to that effect. If he does take his two days off in the middle of
the week, he will check his e-mail during that particular
weekend.
Turnaround Time on the Grading of Essays
The instructor generally returns essays within eleven days of the
posting due date for a particular essay assignment, and
sometimes his turnaround time is quite a bit faster than that. He
will not return essays within eleven days of when they were
posted if they were posted early since he tends to wait until the
due date and then grade the essays in batches, and not
individually. The instructor will not take longer than fourteen
(14) days to return essays, although it is quite rare for him to
take that long and it only happens in case of a personal
emergency, such as an extended illness that prevents him from
grading papers within his 7-11 day standard turnaround.
Comments and Feedback on Essays
The instructor tends to provide comments on the first essay with
more of an eye on grammar and style, although he does follow
the
grading rubric
precisely (see the table of contents in this folder). On Essay
Two, he focuses a little more on content and style, and will not
always cite the precise reasons why the grammar portion of a
student's grade was docked if grammar is a problem--
particularly if the student is not writing up to WR 90 standards,
which emphasizes writing in complete sentences that are free of
accidental fragments, comma splices and run-ons. If a student
obviously uses a fragment for dramatic effect, that is not a
problem since this style is utilized in contemporary journalism,
although it should not be overdone in any single essay. When

9. grading Essay Three, the instructor focuses primarily on the
argument applied, and the soundness of the journalistic sources
/ hard evidence.
Comments about grammar and style frequently cite Hacker's
Pocket Style Manual for the student to "bone up" on academic
concepts, such as comma splices or fragments. If the student
did not buy a copy of Hacker's text, the instructor will not
spend a great deal of time explaining the concepts that are
explained in Hacker's style guide. He may ask the student to
buy the textbook. If a student does own a copy of the text and
diligently reads it, trying to understand the concepts and still
does not, he or she should feel free to ask the instructor about
the concepts until he or she is fully satisfied that he or she
understands them completely.
The instructor does not read through entire rough drafts before
they are posted to be graded. Essays One and Two can be
rewritten, so this is the time for students to incorporate
suggestions provided by the instructor in an attempt to earn a
higher grade on an essay. Students are welcome to ask specific
questions about passages in any essay they are writing.
Questions about research, documentation, and content are also
welcome.
Complaining about Course Theme: Not the Same Thing as
Debating a Particular Point of View in a Discussion or an Essay
If a particular student lapses into "venting" about the course
theme in a discussion or in an essay, that student will be asked
to write the discussion or essay over again. "Venting" will not
be graded or evaluated. Refuting a particular conspiracy theory
through the use of hard evidence will be greatly valued. It's
also fine, of course, to agree with the conspiracy theory under
discussion. Either way is fine, just so long as the student does
not lapse into generalized statements about how he/she loathes
politics, or can't stand conspiracy theories in general. This type
of generalization will not help to forward the learning process
for anyone. Please see the section titled, "Disclaimer," which
appears at the bottom of the Table of Contents for the unit in

10. which this syllabus appears, if you would like to read an in-
depth clarification about the inappropriateness of "venting"
about the course theme in assignments. This said, any student
should feel free to email the instructor about anything at all in
the course that makes him or her feel uncomfortable. That is
entirely appropriate and certainly encouraged to help keep the
learning environment vibrant and open.
Academic Integrity
(rules about cheating, plagiarism, or sharing work)
Cheating is against Chemeketa policy. Cheating includes any
attempt to defraud, deceive, or mislead the instructor in arriving
at an honest grade assessment, and may include copying
answers from other students or using unauthorized notes during
tests. Plagiarism is a particular form of cheating that involves
presenting as one's own the ideas or work of another, and may
include using other people's ideas without proper attribution and
submitting another person's work as one's own. Violations of
the cheating policy will result in a grade of '0' for the
assignment in question, and may result in a failing grade for the
course at the instructor's discretion. For further information
review the institution's
Academic Integrity Policy
.
Students with Disabilities
Chemeketa is committed to supporting all students. If you plan
to use academic accommodations for this course, please contact
me as soon as possible to make arrangements. Accommodations
are not retroactive, but begin when the instructor receives the
OSD Approved Academic Accommodations form from the
student (this form may be submitted via email). To request
academic accommodations for a disability, please contact a
counselor in the
Disability Services Office
in Building 2, Room 174. This office is located on

11. Chemeketa's main campus.
Attachments:
sp115_winter_2013_syllabus_bb.pdf