Course Objectives:
This course will help you develop skills in academic research and writing. Specifically, you will learn to avoid plagiarism, find and analyze scholarly sources, develop in-depth persuasive research papers and use the conventions of Edited Standard Written English and MLA.

Liberal Education Requirements:
Clear and logical thinking: Analyze, synthesize, evaluate, and interpret information. Construct and support hypotheses and arguments. Integrate knowledge and experience to arrive at creative solutions.

Effective communication: Read and listen with comprehension and critical perception. Write in a precise, concise, well-organized manner. Gather information from printed and electronic sources. Document the information correctly.

Computer literacy: Use a word processor to produce a well-formatted academic paper. Navigate electronic databases for academic research. Understand and apply the features of a word-processing document.

Required Course Materials:

Texts:
•  Faigley, Lester. The Brief Penguin Handbook. 3rd ed. New York : Pearson, 2009.
•  Gibson, William A., and Kenneth C. Risdon. College Writing: Assignments and Exercises. 11th ed. Boston : Pearson, 2006.
•  Stern, Linda. What Every Student Should Know About Avoiding Plagiarism. New York : Pearson, 2007
•  Articles posted on UMD's Library Online Course Reserves; you will need latest version of Adobe Acrobat to view these files.

Other materials needed:

• Money on your U card for printing during computer labs (5 cents per sheet)
• Two file folders (one supplied by instructor)
• A stapler (all assignments—papers, review questions, lab exercises, etc.,—need to be stapled)
• A small three ring binder for organizing research materials
• A jump drive (recommended)
 
Course Policies:
Preparation, Participation, and Student Conduct: This is your class; the more you put into it the more you will get out of it. Hence, expect to devote an average of 6 hours outside of class per week to reading, researching, drafting, and revising. Classes are far more rewarding for students when everyone is prepared to participate. To maintain an atmosphere that cultivates learning, I expect students to treat both me and their classmates with respect and will not tolerate behavior that substantially or repeatedly interrupts either the lecture or student learning. Disruptive behavior can include but is not limited to ringing cell phones, text-messaging, watching videos, listening to music, playing computer games, checking email, or surfing the Internet on your computer at an inappropriate time. Please read UMD's Student Conduct Code
at some point.

Attendance: Required. As work produced in class will not be accepted at a later time, you must attend class to receive credit for quizzes and in-class/in-lab activities which—combined with other exercises—comprise 20% of your total course grade. Please be aware that I frequently give pop quizzes that cannot be made up. You are allowed to miss two class periods (lecture or lab); however, more than two missed classes or habitual tardiness will adversely affect your final grade and excessive absences (6 or more) may be grounds for failure. If you must miss class, please notify me via email. To find out what you missed during your absence, consult your syllabus and contact a classmate (not your instructor) who will communicate the assignment, share notes taken during class, and get handouts to you. It is your responsibility to get the assignment.

Deadlines: Assignments are collected at the beginning of the class period on the day they are due. If you turn in the assignment later in the class period or later the same day, it is counted as one day late. Expect to lose points. Although the total number of points deducted is at my discretion, assignments generally lose 10% of their value (i.e., one letter grade) each day they are late. Be aware that I will not accept work that is more than a week late; you will simply receive zero credit for that assignment. Get into the habit of saving your work in multiple places—a jump drive, external hard drive, or e-portfolio—as equipment failure will not constitute an acceptable excuse for late work.

Academic Honesty: All work done for this class must be your own—don't cheat. When using someone else's ideas or words, you must give that person credit to avoid plagiarism. We will discuss appropriate documentation in class, and I am available to answer all your questions. Please be aware that presenting another person's work as your own could result in failing this class as well as being subject to further disciplinary action by the University. Plagiarism and cheating are unacceptable. At some point, please read UMD's Academic Integrity Policy.

Special Needs: If you have a disability, either permanent or temporary, which might affect your performance in this class, please inform me at the start of the semester. Methods, materials, or testing will be adapted as required for equitable participation.

Grading: For each assignment, you will receive handouts that provide instructions for that assignment as well as the grading criteria for it. In general, your work will be graded based on its development (the quality of the argument), organization, style, format, and mechanical correctness. You can check your course grade throughout the semester on eGradebook. Please contact me if you have questions about your grade on an assignment.

Tutoring: You may want to work with a writing tutor during the semester. UMD offers two places for you to get such help. The first is the Writing Workshop located in Lib 142, where graduate students who teach WRIT 1120 are available to work with you. Simply stop by during posted tutoring hours. The second place to see a tutor is in Campus Center 40, where undergraduate peer tutors are available.

Course Assignments:
Your major written assignments for the course and their point values are listed below. In order to avoid software compatibility problems when you use different computers on campus or at home, you are strongly encouraged to use Microsoft Word to process all your written work. All work should be printed on a high-quality printer.

Paraphrase	50 points
Research Topic Proposal	100 points
Critical Analysis	100 points
Comparison/ Contrast	100 points
Classification	100 points
Research Paper--Working Draft *	000 points
Final Research Paper	250 points
Computer Lab: In-class Exercises and Assignments, ePortfolio	100 points
Daily Work: Quizzes, Participation, Attitude, and Peer Review	100 points
Final Exam	100 points

*While I do not assign points to this paper, you do recieve important feedback from me and other students; if you fail to turn in the paper at the appointed time, you will lose 20% of your final grade on that paper.

To receive an “A” in this course, all your work—including daily exercises and computer lab assignments—must be consistently excellent.

“A” writing meets all the grading criteria in a superior way.
“B” writing meets some of the criteria in a superior way, but falls short on others.
“C” writing is competent but generally needs work in some or most categories.
“D” writing needs substantial work in most or all areas.
“F” writing does not meet the terms of the assignment.

Because the point totals for each item listed may vary due to the needs of the class or the pace at which we move through the material, point totals for some items will be converted to percentages. For example, if the work in the computer labs totals 170 points rather than the 100 it has been assigned, you would divide the total points you received by the 170 to determine the percentage for that grade. If you earned 145 of the 170 points, your score would be 85 out the 100 points available.

Portfolio Requirements:
To recieve a final grade in WRIT 1120 you will need to save the original coies of all your graded papers as the Writing Studies Department keeps them on file for a semester. In addition, all the papers you write must also be uploaded into ePortfolio so be sure to keep an electronic version of your essays in a safe, findable place (e.g., a jump drive, external hard drive, etc.).