Summer I 2026
Base Integrated Reading & Writing
INRW 0373-2B3 Summer III 2026 Class times: Online, June 1 – August 14 Location: Blackboard INSTRUCTOR CONTACT INFORMATION CREDIT 3 Semester Credit Hours (3 hours lecture, 0 hours lab) MODE OF INSTRUCTION Online PREREQUISITE/CO-REQUISITE: AFTER Jan. 11 2021 Scores ● College Readiness Classification, CRC, score of 910-944 AND ● Diagnostic level of 1 to 3 AND ● Does not have an essay score AND ● Co-enrollment in INRW 0173 BEFORE Jan. 11 2021 Scores ● TSI Reading score of 339 or below OR ● TSI Writing score of 339 or below AND ● ABE is below 4 AND ● Four or lower on the essay AND ● Co-enrollment in INRW 0173 COURSE DESCRIPTION Integration of critical reading and academic writing skills. Successful completion of this intervention if taught at the upper (exit) level fulfills TSI requirements for reading and writing. COURSE OBJECTIVES Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to Instructor: Esther Courville Email: ecourville@lit.edu Office Phone: 409-247-5235 Office Location: Technology Center, Room 112B Office Hours: By appointment only for summer 1. Locate explicit textual information, draw complex inferences, and describe, analyze, and evaluate the information within and across multiple texts of varying lengths. 2. Comprehend and use vocabulary effectively in oral communication, reading, and writing. 3. Identify and analyze the audience, purpose, and message across a variety of texts. 4. Describe and apply insights gained from reading and writing a variety of texts. INRW 0373 Master Course Syllabus Approved May 2021 5. Compose a variety of texts that demonstrate reading comprehension, clear focus, logical development of ideas, and use of appropriate language that advance the writer’s purpose. 6. Determine and use effective approaches and rhetorical strategies for given reading and writing situations. 7. Generate ideas and gather information relevant to the topic and purpose, incorporating the ideas and words of other writers in student writing using established strategies. 8. Evaluate relevance and quality of ideas and information in recognizing, formulating, and developing a claim. 9. Develop and use effective reading and revision strategies to strengthen the writer’s ability to compose college-level writing assignments. 10. Recognize and apply the conventions of Standard English in reading and writing.. REQUIRED TEXTBOOK AND MATERIALS All required reading materials are provided by instructor in Blackboard. ATTENDANCE POLICY Attendance in this online class is based on your digital presence and your mental participation in my class, including interacting with me in email, in assignments, and in synchronous meetings. You will receive an email from me through Starfish, LIT’s student monitoring system, if you do not have a digital presence in class. I can also monitor how often you log on to Blackboard, so please be mindful to log on often to check for class updates and assignments 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 before this class day) ASSIGNMENTS (Due on this Date) Week 1 -Introduction to college- level reading and writing: What is rhetoric? -Comprehending literary texts: the rhetorical situation & triangle -rhetoric intro power point -rhetorical triangle power point -everyone’s an author -self-introduction post --readings discussion -rhetorical appeals discussion Quiz 1 Week 2 -Comprehending literary texts: author’s craft -Comprehending literary texts: close reading -chosen reading -author’s craft power point -close reading power point -Informal journal response journal -reading comprehension discussion -Quiz 2 -Quiz 3 Week 3 -Writing about readings: rhetorical analysis of non-fiction -Writing about readings: critical analysis of fiction Test 1 -rhetorical analysis power point -sample rhetorical analysis -critical analysis power point -an Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge -non-fiction analysis journal -ethos, logos, pathos exercise -short story analysis journal Test 1 Week 4 Writing about readings: critical analysis of poetry - Analyzing poetry power point -Selected poems -poetry analyses journals -Quiz 4 -Quiz 6 Week 5 Writing about readings: using secondary sources in papers -sources power point -secondary vs. primary sources exercise Week 6 The writing process: Prewriting, brainstorming, research, and critical thinking Midterm -brainstorming power point -research log journal -informal topic proposal discussion board Midterm test Week 7 The writing process: Outlining, thesis statements, and synthesizing sources -thesis statement power point -basic outline -thesis statement discussion board and submission -formal proposal Week 8 The writing process: Proposal writing, source implementation, and drafting -Sample proposal -source integration power point - detailed outline submission -very rough draft submission Week 9 The writing process: complete revisions -revision power point -revision submission Week 10 The writing process: Peer reviewing and tutoring “-peer review power point -online peer-review submission Week 11 The writing process: MLA formatting and proofreading -MLA power point -MLA quiz -submit works cited page Week 12 The writing process: Final drafting -final paper submission -Final paper due: August 14th -final drafting power point COURSE EVALUATION Final grades will be calculated according to the following criteria: • Attendance--20% • Reading assignments--20% • Writing Assignments--20% • Tests--20% • Final Exam essay --20% 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-minimumcomputer-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. 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 SUBMITTING ASSIGNMENTS REQUIREMENTS 1. You must have access to a device that is reliable and can connect to reliable internet access. The device must also allow access to the course material. 2. If you do not have access to WI-FI at home, it is your responsibility to find another source of internet access via LIT campus, a public library, cellphone hotspot data, a coffee shop, your high school campus (if you are dual credit), etc. 3. If something happens to your primary device, it is your responsibility to find another device to work with via a public library, the computer lab at LIT, etc. I have had many students successfully submit assignments on cellphones. 4. You may not use WIFI errors or device errors as an excuse for turning something in late when there are several alternatives you can take. 5. If you have a technical problem with Blackboard, you MUST contact the Blackboard help desk. Their contact information is located on the home page when you first sign onto Blackboard. You should also shoot me an email immediately. 6. You will not get full credit for submitting something late if you notify me of a technical difficulty AFTER the due date. 7. You won’t succeed in this course if you don’t check your email and Blackboard announcements daily. MRS. COURVILLE’S RESPONSE TIME 1. I only return calls that leave a voicemail. Please leave a detailed message with your name, your number, the class you are in, and your concern. I will call you back as soon as I am back in my office which may be the following day or the following Monday if you left a voicemail on a Friday afternoon. 2. The best way to reach me is through my LIT email, ecourville@lit.edu 3. I usually respond to emails well within the required 24-hour window. On weekends and holidays, I may respond later than 24 hours. Feel free to send me a follow-up email if I have not responded to your first one. Sometimes emails can slip through the cracks. LIT EMAIL 1. Not communicating with me because your LIT email is not working is not a valid reason for not responding to my emails, or for not emailing me. The IT department can help with any issues like this. 2. You are welcome to email me screenshots of what you need help with. 3. Please email me as soon as you get into the blackboard course so that I can ensure your email is up and running. 4. When you email me, please provide your full name and your course name and section so that I can better assist you. BLACKBOARD MESSAGES 1. Check the Send to Email box above Blackboard Messages textbox if you want a faster response. 2. If you use Blackboard Messages to contact me, and I don’t respond within 24 hours, send the same message to my LIT email. BLACKBOARD ANNOUNCEMENTS 1. Announcements in Blackboard are posted to the Announcements webpage that you see when you log into class. Read them. They may pertain to schedule changes, homework changes, etc. 2. Announcements are also emailed to your Blackboard email, which you can check at My LIT. TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENTS 1. Use Chrome or Firefox as your browser. Edge and Safari do not work well with Blackboard. 2. If you do this class’s assignments on a cell phone, a tablet, or a netbook, make sure you are seeing all assignments as they are presented on a desktop computer. 3. Not having the correct technology or internet is not a valid excuse for not doing assignments or tests. The IT department can assist you with these types of issues. STUDENT BEHAVIOR EXPECTATIONS 1. Keep in mind that each student comes from a different cultural background and brings with her or him a different set of beliefs and values. 2. As a result, students may disagree on various topics during class discussions. 3. Disagreements lead to critical thinking, scholarly debates, and learning only when each member of the class respects the different opinions of others. 4. Disrespect for others or me will not be tolerated. If I feel you are disrupting the learning/teaching environment, I will tell you that you must leave. Your attendance for that class day will not be counted. If this happens a second time, you will be reported and/or removed from the class. 5. Your emails and all communications with me should be respectful. With that in mind, you need to remember email etiquette by addressing me politely, objectively telling me your concern, and closing out the email. You should also have a subject line in your email and tell me your whole name with your class. DUE DATES 1. All assignments have due dates. In-class work cannot be made up unless you have an excused absence. Late homework will only receive full credit if you have an extenuating circumstance that you have communicated to me. Any other late homework assignments will receive a partial grade of 60% or less. Late work that is turned in incomplete will most likely receive 0 credit depending on the severity of incompletion. 2. Making up missed work is not a guarantee to bring you to a passing grade, even if you have made up all of your assignments. 3. Late work MUST be submitted no later than a week before finals start. 4. Late work that is submitted will not be marked or commented on with feedback, and I will not have late work graded immediately. I will have late grades inputted by two weeks. 5. *Calendar is subject to changes regarding specific due dates and small assignments. GRADING POLICIES 1. Homework assignments are completion grades, but if you put in an obviously low amount of effort into it, do not meet the requirements, or do not complete it, you will receive partial credit. 2. Missing assignments will be given a 0. 3. All grades are recorded in Gradebook on Blackboard. 4. It is the student’s responsibility to make sure their grades on their assignments match their grades in Blackboard Gradebook. 5. Grading rubrics are available on large assignments. 6. I do not mark specific grammar, punctuation, spelling, usage, and style errors on writing assignments, but if there is an abundance of these errors and they lead to a lack of overall language clarity, I will note it on the assignment and doc points from the assignment grade. 7. I provide a list of writing errors that will lower students’ writing assignments’ grades. 8. If you have problems with the types of errors above, we can discuss what those errors are, how to identify them, and the best ways to correct them. 9. This is a student-led discussion of their own writing. 10. I do not recommend that you use programs like Grammarly to fix your errors. 11. All writing assignments must use correct academic style, grammar, punctuation, spelling, and usage, and MLA formatting. It is the student’s responsibility to know, or find out, what these requirements are. I will provide all the resources you need to find out how to adhere to these writing conventions. 12. All writing assignments’ topics must be approved by me before you start your writing assignments. All of your writing must be completely objective unless otherwise stated by me, so I recommend steering away from highly emotional topics such as abortion, political parties, religious matters, etc. unless you have a logical, unbiased argument. 13. Homework CANNOT be submitted via Blackboard messages or via email unless I have given you permission to do so. If you randomly send me late work via email and do not submit it on Blackboard, you won’t get credit for the assignments. 14. If you submit the wrong assignment, you must contact me asap so that I can delete your attempt and let you resubmit. You must tell me by at least an hour after the original deadline in order to receive full credit for resubmitting. If you do not tell me that you submitted the wrong document, you will receive a 0 for the assignment since it is equivalent to not doing it at all. Once you resubmit the correct document, you either will have late points deducted or receive full credit depending on when you resubmitted. It is very important to double and triple check that you are submitting the right documents for these reasons. 15. Grades on individual assignments and final course grades are NOT negotiable. You may not email me asking me to change a grade or “let you pass.” Your grade and how many points you earn is your responsibility. You can, however, email me if you see a clerical error in the grade, and I will quickly make that change. 16. You may NOT submit links to homework in the place of actual documents. The reason for this is because students can make changes to their document if they have submitted links, and they usually forget to grant access to me. I will not chase anyone down for resubmission of documents that were originally submitted as Word or GoogleDocs links. You will receive a 0 for the assignment, and you will get credit for it once you have submitted the proper document. 17. There are no regrades or retakes. 18. I do not drop assignments. 19. All homework assignments will be graded no later than a week after they were due unless I have an extenuating circumstance. If homework will take me more than a week to grade, I will communicate this to the class with reasoning. Using AI on your papers will slow the grading process down since it requires investigations. ACADEMIC HONESTY AND PLAGIARISM POLICIES 1. Academic honesty is expected on all assignments. See LIT student handbook for more information about academic honesty and the penalty for breaking academic honesty. 2. I do not tolerate plagiarism or deception of any sort. This includes using AI to write your writing assignments. You are allowed to use AI to brainstorm topics for papers and edit grammar mistakes, but I do not recommend the latter. I use several AI checkers to check for the use of AI. If your work shows heavy ai-use across multiple checkers indicating that you did not complete the majority of the work yourself, you will receive a 0% on the assignment without the chance to make it up. If you do this a second time, you will be reported to the department chair, and you will not be able to submit any further assignments until you have met with her. 3. Plagiarism is submitting someone else’s work, either published or not, as your own, and is not allowed. 4. You also may not use your own work from a previous class in my class, even if it was my class. You may not work together on assignments unless I have granted permission. 5. You may not allow anyone else to do or significantly alter your work. If you need extra help beyond what I have given you, you can take advantage of the writing tutoring provided through our institution. 6. Patchworking together from the internet is also plagiarism. 7. All writing assignments are submitted to a plagiarism checker in Blackboard to be reviewed for plagiarism, but this is not the only method I use to check for plagiarism. 8. Students who plagiarize may receive a 0 on the entire unit and may receive an F for the entire course. 9. If you use AI grammar checkers, it may make your essay indicative of heavy AI-use. Be careful. 10. Most of the essays that have heavy AI-use end up failing anyway for lack of requirements met. 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