Fall 2025
Composition I
ENGL 1301_9M4 INSTRUCTOR CONTACT INFORMATION Instructor: Amy Jones Email: amjones7@lit.edu Office Phone: 409-679-3324 (cell – text only) Office Location: No office on campus Office Hours: Text, email, or 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 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. REQUIRED TEXTBOOK AND MATERIALS An electronic device with access to the Internet. ATTENDANCE POLICY This course is completely online and requires students to log in to Blackboard and complete assignments according to the course calendar. 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 READINGS (Due on this Date) ASSIGNMENTS (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 • Verb Quiz 9/14 • In-Text Citations Quiz 9/14 • “Your Fave Grammar • Read one of the following: “What’s the Language of the Future” by Henry Hitchings OR “What the F***” by Steven Pinker 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 Prepositions 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 • Sentences Quiz 10/5 • Forum Debate 10/5 • Does Your Paper Sail the Seven Cs • Constructing Sentences Lecture 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 Sentence Errors Lecture • How to Persuade and Influence People Lecture • Persuasive Essay Prewriting 10/12 Week 8 – 10/13-10/19 • Fallacious Reasoning Lecture • Punctuation Lecture • “Name the Logical Fallacy: COVID-19 Edition” by Charlotte A. Moser • Punctuation Quiz One 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 • Sources Quiz 11/2 • Does Your Paper Sail the • The University Library Presentation Lecture • Finding Good Sources Lecture 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? Sun. 12/7 COURSE EVALUATION Final grades will be calculated according to the following criteria: • Essay #1 10% • Essay #2 15% • Persuasive Research Essay--Common Assignment 20% • Short Writing Assignments 15% • Daily Grades 15% • Participation/Attendance 10% • Final Examination Essay 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 ACADEMIC DISHONESTY Students found to be committing academic dishonesty (cheating, plagiarism, or collusion) may receive disciplinary action. Students need to familiarize themselves with the institution’s Academic Dishonesty Policy available in the Student Catalog & Handbook at http://catalog.lit.edu/content.php?catoid=3&navoid=80#academic-dishonesty. 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 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 Instructor Availability: I teach for LIT completely online and do not have an office on campus. I am available via email (amjones7@lit.edu) or text message (409-679-3324). You may email me any time, but please limit text messages to between the hours of 7am and 8pm. I try to get back to students within 24 hours unless it is the weekend. 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. Late Policy: All unexcused late work will receive a zero. Students must tell me at least twenty-four hours before the due date if they are going to miss work. Once they have confirmation from me, students will be able to turn in assignments on the following makeup days: • If the assignment was originally due Sunday, the assignment must be turned in by the next Wednesday. • If the assignment was originally due Wednesday, the assignment must be turned in by the next Sunday. The assignment must only be turned into Blackboard. Once the student turns in the assignment, they must immediately e-mail me, or I will not know to look at the assignment. Students who turn in late assignments but do not notify me will not get the chance to have their assignments regraded. Approved late assignments will be regraded for full credit. Students who turned in assignments late may not get detailed feedback on how to improve their assignments. 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 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. AI Policy: While I do admit AI can offer valuable assistance in various aspects of paper writing, it should only be used to complement human creativity, critical thinking, and content knowledge. Using AI to complete any of the assignments in my class will not be allowed. If a student is suspected of using AI, the assignment will receive a zero. If a suspected student turns in a second assignment using AI, the student must meet with the program director and will receive a failing grade for the semester. Diversity and Inclusion: LIT wishes to create a safe and understanding environment for students of all genders, ethnicities, religions, sexualities, and backgrounds. Literature in particular is a landscape full of authors with various personalities and cultures. I personally embrace diversity of thought and opinions. In class discussions, I want to be sure that everyone has the chance to voice their thoughts on a matter without unnecessary judgment. However, slurs or jokes pointed at minority groups are unacceptable, even if the student is a member of that group. I expect all students to treat each other and themselves with respect in my classroom. Students will read works that are challenging and controversial in this class. Please ensure classroom discussions remain civil.