Fall 2025
Composition I
INRW 1301_2A1_202590 CREDIT 3 Semester Credit Hours (3 hours lecture) MODE OF INSTRUCTION Online PREREQUISITE/CO-REQUISITE: TSI Complete in Reading and Writing. COURSE DESCRIPTION Intensive study of and practice in writing processes, from invention and researching to drafting, revising, and editing, both individually and collaboratively. Emphasis on effective rhetorical choices, including audience, purpose, arrangement, and style. Focus on writing the academic essay as a vehicle for learning, communicating, and critical analysis. COURSE OBJECTIVES Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to: 1. Demonstrate knowledge of individual and collaborative writing processes. 2. Develop ideas with appropriate support and attribution. 3. Write in a style appropriate to audience and purpose. 4. Read, reflect, and respond critically to a variety of texts. 5. Use Edited American English in academic essays. CORE OBJECTIVE 1. Critical Thinking Skills: To include creative thinking, innovation, inquiry, and analysis, evaluation, and synthesis of information. 2. Communication Skills: To include effective development, interpretation and expression of ideas through written, oral and visual communication. 3. Personal Responsibility: To include the ability to connect choices, actions and consequences to ethical decision-making. INSTRUCTOR CONTACT INFORMATION Instructor: Kimberly Schexnider Email: kschexnider@lit.edu Cell Phone: 409-998-0346 (text only) Office Location: Remote Office Hours: By appointment only Approved: Initials/date REQUIRED TEXTBOOK AND MATERIALS An electronic device with access to the Internet. Textbook: Successful College Composition 3rd Ed (SCC) =Free PDF in Course (no purchase necessary) ATTENDANCE POLICY This is an in-person class. Students are required to attend each scheduled class in person. Additionally, students are expected to check BlackBoard and their LIT e-mail daily. Students are required to engage and be physically present in class to receive full credit. Students who do not engage with the class daily will fall behind. Students who accrue too many absences may suffer up to a 10% loss of their final grade. DROP POLICY If you wish to drop a course, you are responsible for initiating and completing the drop process by the specified drop date as listed on the Academic Calendar. If you stop coming to class and fail to drop the course, you will earn an “F” in the course. STUDENT EXPECTED TIME REQUIREMENT For every hour in class (or unit of credit), students should expect to spend at least two to three hours per week studying and completing assignments. For a 3-credit-hour class, students should prepare to allocate approximately six to nine hours per week outside of class in a 16- week session OR approximately twelve to eighteen hours in an 8-week session. Online/Hybrid students should expect to spend at least as much time in this course as in the traditional, faceto face class. COURSE CALENDAR Date Topic READINGS (Due on this Date) ASIGNMENTS (Due on this Date) Week 1 – 8/25-8/31 • Introduction to Composition I Lecture • “English Is Not Normal” by John McWhorter • Orientation Quiz 8/31 • Professional Introduction Forum 8/31 • “English Is Not Normal” Peer Review 8/31 Week 2 – 9/2-9/7 • Nouns and Pronouns Lecture • MLA Formatting Lecture • Works Cited Page Lecture • Sample MLA Essays • Nouns and Pronouns Quiz 9/7 • Spot the Difference Assignment 9/7 • MLA Template Due 9/7 • Create a Works Cited Page Assignment 9/7 Week 3 – 9/8-9/14 • Verbs Lecture • In-Text Citations Lecture • Introduction to Rhetorical Analysis Lecture • “Dear Pedants: Your Fave Grammar Rule is Probably Fake” by Chi Luu • Read one of the following “What’s the Language of the Future” by Henry Hitchings OR “What the F***” by Steven Pinker • Verb Quiz 9/14 • In-Text Citations Quiz 9/14 • “Your Fave Grammar Rule” Peer Review Wed. 9/10 • Rhetorical Analysis Pre-Writing Wed. 9/10 • Rhetorical Analysis Essay Outline 9/14 Week 4 – 9/15-9/21 • Adjectives and Adverbs Lecture • To Infinitive and Beyond Lecture • Adjectives and Adverbs Quiz 9/21 • Infinitive Quiz 9/21 • Introductions and Conclusions Quiz (extra credit) 9/21 • Rhetorical Analysis Rough Draft 9/21 Week 5 – 9/22-9/28 • Conjunctions and Propositions Lecture • Revising Lecture • MLA Sample Essays • Conjunctions and Prepositions Quiz 9/28 • Spot the Difference! Assignment 2 9/28 • Rhetorical Analysis Peer Review 9/28 Week 6 – 9/29-10/5 • The Thesis Statement Lecture • Seven Cs of Good Writing Lecture • Constructing Sentences Lecture • Sentences Quiz 10/5 • Forum Debate 10/5 • Does Your Paper Sail the Seven Cs Assignment 1 Wed. 10/31 • Rhetorical Analysis Final Draft 10/5 Week 7 – 10/6-10/12 • How to be Unfazed by Phrases Lecture Fragments of Memories: Common • Persuasive Essay Prewriting 10/12 Sentence Errors Lecture • How to Persuade and Influence People Lecture Week 8 – 10/13-10/19 • Fallacious Reasoning Lecture • Punctuation Lecture • “Name the Logical Fallacy: COVID-19 Edition” by Charlotte A. Moser • Punctuation Quiz 1 10/19 • Fallacious Reasoning Quiz 10/19 • Persuasive Essay Rough Draft 10/19 Week 9 – 10/20-10/26 • Quotations and Apostrophes Lecture • Hyphens, Dashes, Parentheses, and Brackets Lecture • Capitalization, Abbreviation, and Numbers Lecture • Persuasive Essay Peer Review 10/26 Week 10 – 10/27-11/2 • The Annotated Bibliography Lecture • The University Library Presentation Lecture • Finding Good Sources Lecture • Sources Quiz 11/2 • Does Your Paper Sail the Seven Cs? Assignment 2 Wed. 10/29 • Research Essay Prewriting 11/2 • Persuasive Essay Final Draft 11/2 Week 11 – 11/3-11/9 • The Elements of Style Lecture • Common Mistakes in Papers and How to Avoid Them Lecture • Common Mistakes Quiz 11/10 • Annotated Bibliography Prewriting Wed. 11/5 • Research Persuasive Essay Annotated Bibliography 11/9 Week 12 – 11/10-11/16 • Spelling Tips and Tricks Lecture • How to Avoid Bias in Writing Lecture • “7 Tips on How to Avoid Bias in Your Writing” by Beth Ann Freely Raunch • Research Persuasive Essay Early Draft 11/16 Week 13 – 11/17-11/23 • Does Your Paper Sail the Seven Cs? Assignment 3 11/23 • Research Essay Persuasive Peer Review 11/23 Week 14 – 11/24-11/30 • Grammar Review: The Least You Need to Know Lecture • Research Persuasive Essay Final Draft 11/30 Final Exam Week Due 12/7 • The American Scholar: What You Can Do as a Writer and a Reader Lecture • Read or listen to “The American Scholar” by Ralph Waldo Emerson • Final Exam: Does This Paper Sail the Seven Cs? 12/7 COURSE EVALUATION Final grades will be calculated according to the following criteria: • Participation 10% • Short Writing Assignments 15% • Daily Assignments 15% • Essay #1 10% • Essay #2 15% • Persuasive Research Essay - Common Assessment 20% • Final Exam 15% • Total 100% GRADE SCALE 90 – 100 A 80 – 89 B 70 – 79 C 60 – 69 D 0 – 59 F LIT does not use +/- grading scales TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS The latest technical requirements, including hardware, compatible browsers, operating systems, etc. can be online at https://lit.edu/online-learning/online-learning-minimumcomputerrequirements. A functional broadband internet connection, such as DSL, cable, or WiFi is necessary to maximize the use of online technology and resources. DISABILITIES STATEMENT The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 are federal anti-discrimination statutes that provide comprehensive civil rights for persons with disabilities. LIT provides reasonable accommodations as defined in the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 504 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, to students with a diagnosed disability. The Special Populations Office is located in the Eagles’ Nest Room 129 and helps foster a supportive and inclusive educational environment by maintaining partnerships with faculty and staff, as well as promoting awareness among all members of the Lamar Institute of Technology community. If you believe you have a disability requiring an accommodation, please contact the Special Populations Coordinator at (409)-951-5708 or email specialpopulations@lit.edu. You may also visit the online resource at Special Populations - Lamar Institute of Technology (lit.edu). STUDENT CODE OF CONDUCT STATEMENT It is the responsibility of all registered Lamar Institute of Technology students to access, read, understand and abide by all published policies, regulations, and procedures listed in the LIT Catalog and Student Handbook. The LIT Catalog and Student Handbook may be accessed at www.lit.edu. Please note that the online version of the LIT Catalog and Student Handbook supersedes all other versions of the same document. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE STATEMENT Lamar Institute of Technology (LIT) recognizes the recent advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI), such as ChatGPT, have changed the landscape of many career disciplines and will impact many students in and out of the classroom. To prepare students for their selected careers, LIT desires to guide students in the ethical use of these technologies and incorporate AI into classroom instruction and assignments appropriately. Appropriate use of these technologies is at the discretion of the instructor. Students are reminded that all submitted work must be their own original work unless otherwise specified. Students should contact their instructor with any questions as to the acceptable use of AI/ChatGPT in their courses STARFISH LIT utilizes an early alert system called Starfish. Throughout the semester, you may receive emails from Starfish regarding your course grades, attendance, or academic performance. Faculty members record student attendance, raise flags and kudos to express concern or give praise, and you can make an appointment with faculty and staff all through the Starfish home page. You can also login to Blackboard or MyLIT and click on the Starfish link to view academic alerts and detailed information. It is the responsibility of the student to pay attention to these emails and information in Starfish and consider taking the recommended actions. Starfish is used to help you be a successful student at LIT. ADDITIONAL COURSE POLICIES/INFORMATION Due dates are subject to change. I will post an announcement as soon as possible if I need to change a due date. I will never make an assignment due sooner than the original due date. All assignments are due to Blackboard by 11:59pm on the due date listed. Most work is due by Sunday night, but please double check due dates as there are a few assignments due on other days as well. Communication: I will respond to e-mails within 24 hours during the week and within 48 hours over the weekend. Typically, I will only respond to e-mails during my office hours. Special Populations: If a student requires accommodations while on LIT campus, they must contact the Special Populations office in Student Services. If a dual credit student has accommodations through their school’s special populations office, they must still contact LIT’s Special Populations office at specialpopulations@lit.edu. Plagiarism/Cheating: Academic Dishonesty is a crime that Lamar Institute of Technology and I take seriously. Most colleges expel cheating students. Examples of academic dishonesty include but are not limited to: • Directly copying a source into an essay without citing the original source. • Paraphrasing a source without citing the original source. • Paying someone to complete an assignment, having a friend or family member complete an assignment, or using Artificial Intelligence to write a paper. • If a paper has a student’s name on it, I expect to see that student’s work. • Making minor changes to an original source while still retaining up to 75% of the structure of the sentence. • Taking a quiz or test with another student, giving the answers to a quiz or test to another student, or Googling the answers to the quiz or test. My quizzes are not openbook quizzes. Students are only allowed the notes they have taken over an assignment during a quiz. • If I receive a paper that requires a works cited page and in-text citations but does not feature either of those criteria, I will give the paper a zero. Consequences for Academic Dishonesty: Violations of this policy will result in academic and disciplinary consequences, which may include: 1. Receiving a zero on the assignment, quiz, or exam. 2. Failing the course. 3. Referral to the college’s disciplinary process, which may lead to probation, suspension, or expulsion. How to Know If Something Is Not Plagiarism: Generally, plagiarism only covers things that are not general knowledge. If a student makes the claim that the sky is blue, then they do not have to cite where they got that information, because it is something that 90% of the world already knows. However, if a student describes why the sky is blue, they have to cite their source, since that is not common knowledge. How to Avoid Plagiarism: First, students should practice good paraphrasing and rewrite sentences in their own words. Part of the course will be discussions, assignments, and videos over good paraphrasing. Also, when students turn in their assignments, they should get a visible score from SafeAssign. SafeAssign is not perfect, and I have found plagiarism in papers with as low as a 10% score. If a paper flags anything in SafeAssign, a student must rewrite and resubmit the paper until the percentage is at zero. Using AI to complete any part of your content is considered Academic Dishonesty and has the same consequences as plagiarism/academic dishonesty/cheating. Your assignment will receive a zero if any part of your assignment, unless explicitly asked for, uses an AI generator to complete it. All work must be completely original. Late Work Policy Assignments are expected to be submitted on time to keep the course on schedule and provide timely feedback. However, late work will be accepted under the following conditions: Late Work Guidelines: • Penalty: Assignments submitted after the deadline will incur a deduction of 10 points per calendar day late. • Maximum Time Frame: Late assignments will only be accepted up to five days after the original deadline. After five days, the assignment will receive a grade of zero. • MUST EMAIL ME – Once you turn in the assignment, please send me an email so that I am aware. Grading Timeline for Late Work: Please note that late submissions may not be graded with the same priority as on-time work. If you submit an assignment late, expect a delay in receiving your grade and feedback. Avoiding Late Submissions: To avoid losing points: • Manage your time effectively and plan ahead for due dates. • Communicate with the instructor before the deadline if you anticipate any issues. • Submit work early whenever possible to account for potential technical difficulties. This policy aims to balance flexibility with accountability while maintaining fairness to all students. Make-Up Work: I can make accommodations on deadlines for extenuating circumstances (family emergencies, sickness, mental health, chronic health issues, etc.) However, communication is necessary in these circumstances. I need to know at least 24 hours before a deadline if a student cannot complete an assignment on time. Upon evaluation of case-by-case circumstances, a new deadline may be determined in advance if approved by the instructor. If a student asks for more time on an assignment the day before or the day it is due, I will not grant their request; this will then fall under the Late Work Policy.