Fall 2025
Composition I
ENGL 1301 9H2 202590 Online INSTRUCTOR CONTACT INFORMATION Instructor: Brian Noel Email: bnoel@lit.edu Office Phone: N/A Office Location: N/A Office Hours: Email, during the week or Starfish: M, W, or Th: 5-6:30 by appointment. CREDIT 3 Semester Credit Hours (3 hours lecture, 0 hours lab) 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 academic essays 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 Objectives 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. 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 a virtual class. Students are required to attend and engage remotely. There are no in-person class meeting times for this class. Additionally, students are expected to check Blackboard and their LIT e-mail daily. Students must engage in class and participate in regular discussions and assignments to receive full credit. Students who do not engage with the class daily will fall behind. 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, face-to-face class. COURSE CALENDAR DATE TOPIC ASSIGNMENTS Week One: Aug 25-Aug 31 SEPT 1 LABOR DAY HOLIDAY Course Information Module & Module 1 Lectures: Classroom Orientation Meet Your Professor Plagiarism Intro to Composition -Professional Introduction -Orientation Quiz - Plagiarism Quiz -"English is Not Normal” Peer Review All due 8/31 “English is Not Normal” John McWhorter Week Two: Sept 2-7 Module 2 Lectures: - MLA Formatting - Works Cited Grammar: Nouns and Pronouns -Spot the Difference -MLA Template -Works Cited -Nouns & Pronouns Quiz All due 9/7 Week Three: Sept 8-14 Module 3 Lectures: - In-Text Citations - Rhetorical Analysis - “Dear Pedants...” Chi Luu - “What’s the Language of the Future” Henry Hitchings - “What the F***” Steven Pinkner Grammar: Verbs - Peer Review - Rhetorical Analysis Prewriting - Rhetorical Analysis Outline - Verb Quiz - In-text Citation Quiz All Due 9/14 Week Four: Sept 15-21 Module 4 Lectures: - Adjectives & Adverbs - To Infinitive & Beyond Grammar: Adjectives & Adverbs - Adjectives & Adverbs Quiz - To Infinitive & Beyond Quiz - Introductions & Conclusions Quiz All due 9/21 Week Five: Sept 22-28 Module 5 Lectures: - Revising - MLA Samples Docs Grammar: Conjunctions & Prepositions - Spot the Difference - Conjunctions & Prepositions Quiz All due 9/28 Week Six: Module 6 Lectures: - Rhetorical Analysis Peer Review Sept 29- Oct 5 - The Thesis Statement - The Seven Cs of Good Writing - Constructing Sentences - Does Your Paper Sail the Seven Cs? 1 - Forum Debate - Rhetorical Analysis Final Draft All Due 10/5 Week Seven: Oct 6-12 Module 7 Lectures: - How to Be Unfazed by Phrases - Fragments of Memories: Common Sentence Errors - How to Persuade and Influence People Grammar Focus: Phrases & Sentence Errors - Phrases Quiz - Sentence Errors Quiz - Persuasive Essay Prewriting All Due 10/12 Week Eight: Oct 13-19 Module 8 Lectures: - Fallacious Reasoning - Punctuation - “Name the Logical Fallacy: COVID 19 Edition” Grammar Focus: Punctuation - Persuasive Essay Early Draft - Fallacious Reasoning Quiz - Punctuation Quiz 1 All due 10/19 Week Nine: Oct 20-26 Module 9 Lectures: - Quotations & Apostrophes - Hyphens, Dashes, Parentheses, and Brackets - Capitalization, Abbreviations, and Numbers Grammar Focus: Punctuation - Persuasive Essay Peer Review - Punctuation Quiz 2 All due 10/26 Week Ten: Module 10 Lectures: - Annotated Bibliography - Does Your Paper Sail the 7 Cs? 2 - Persuasive Research Essay Prewriting Oct 27-Nov 2 - Finding Good Sources - Persuasive Essay Final Draft - Sources Quiz All due 11/2 Week Eleven: Nov 3-9 Module 11 Lectures: - Common Mistakes in Papers & How to Avoid Them - Highlights of the Elements of Style - Annotated Bibliography Prewriting - Research Persuasive Annotated Bibliography - Common Mistakes Quiz All due 11/9 Week Twelve: Nov 9-16 Module 12 Lectures: - Spelling Tips & Tricks - “How to Avoid Bias in Your Writing” - How to Avoid Bias - Research Persuasive Essay Early Draft All due 11/16 Week Thirteen: Nov 17-23 Module 13 Lectures: - Peer Review - Persuasive Research Essay Peer Review - Does Your Paper Sail the 7 Cs? 3 All due 11/23 Holiday Thanksgiving Break Week Fourteen: Nov 24-Nov 30 Module14 Lecture: - Grammar Review: The Least You Need to Know - Grammar Focus: Review - Research Persuasive Essay Final Draft - Grammar Quiz All Due 11/30 Week Fifteen: Dec 1-3 Module 15 Lecture: - The American Scholar - “The American Scholar” Ralph Waldo Emmerson - The Scholar’s Influence - Remediation as needed All due 12/3 Week Sixteen: FINALS Week Dec 4-10 Module 16: Final Final Exam: “Sailing on into the Sunset” All due 12/9 COURSE EVALUATION Final grades will be calculated according to the following criteria: ● Participation 10% ● Short Writing Assignments 15% ● Daily Grades 15% ● Informative Essay 10% ● Professional Research Essay 15% ● Persuasive Research Essay 20% ● Final Exam 15% ● Total 100% GRADING 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-minimum-computer-requirements. 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 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 All registered Lamar Institute of Technology students are responsible for accessing, reading, understanding and abiding 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 instructor's discretion. 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 do not allow students to retake assignments. 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 Jarmarcus Corks in 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. Self-plagiarism: submitting a piece of writing that’s already received credit in another course. 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. Using AI (ChatGPT, any AI bot, or artificial intelligence learning tools that can mimic student-produced work) to write any part of the content of your essay is considered academic dishonesty and will receive consequences in congruence with plagiarism or academic dishonesty consequences. 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 open-book 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. 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. Late Work: Late work is not accepted for this class. Any assignment turned in late will receive a zero. In exceedingly rare and extreme cases, if you feel that you must request an extension, it must be requested at least 24 hours before the assignment is due to be considered, although no guarantees are promised. It is important that students do not get behind in a class. Typically, if a student gets in the habit of turning in all assignments within the first three weeks, they can build that habit for the rest of the class. 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.