DEPARTMENTAL COMPOSITION STANDARDS

California State University, Bakersfield
Composition Standards


English 100: Critical Thinking and Writing

Prerequisite: A total English Placement Test score between 142 and 154 OR a grade of C- or higher in English 80 or 90.

To advance to English 110, students must earn a grade of C- or higher in English 100.

To be eligible for a C- in English 100, students must earn a C- or higher on at least one in-class writing assignment and a C- average on all other course assignments.

Course Description: Study of rhetorical patterns as critical thinking strategies to help students develop effective college-level writing skills. Frequent short papers in a variety of essay modes are assigned, and the fundamentals of grammar, usage, punctuation, and spelling are reviewed as necessary. Tutoring is required with this course.

Course Goals
At the end of ten weeks, students in English 100 should be able to do the following:
1. read and write literally, interpretively, and analytically or critically;
2. recognize the differences among thesis statements, topic sentences/main ideas, and supporting details/evidence;
3. understand how the thesis statement, topic sentences, and supporting details work together;
4. recognize a writer’s tone and how it informs a text’s statements; this includes analyzing diction and syntax;
5. begin to recognize how a writer’s choices affect and inform the text;
6. summarize the main and supporting points contained in an article or essay on a particular topic;
7. write essays that are logically organized, well developed, coherent, and mechanically sound;
8. recognize bias in readings;
9. synthesize ideas from various sources;
10. incorporate quotation, summary, and paraphrase, using in-text documentation;
11. use a handbook;
12. recognize plagiarism;
13. revise and edit their own writing using standard, edited American English.

If time permits, instructors should incorporate, but are not limited to, the following goals:
1. identify a text’s ethos, logos, and pathos appeals;
2. introduce rhetorical strategies as appropriate;
3. detect logical fallacies;
4. understand how evidence can prove a statement true (i.e., claim, support, and warrant in Toulmin logic).

Minimum Reading Requirements
All of the writing assignments should move from reading to writing.

Sustained Silent Reading (SSR): Fifteen minutes of each class period should be dedicated to guided reading of a full-length book at least once a week. Students should choose their own books; instructors should read with them. Informal written responses to the readings, such as journal entries, should be a part of this exercise. Reading strategies––such as think aloud, chunking, annotating, highlighting, key words, T charts, and “Say, Mean, Matter”––should be used to teach the following:
• identifying main idea, both stated and unstated;
• identifying supporting details;
• identifying patterns of organization;
• distinguishing between fact and opinion;
• determining tone, mood, and bias;
• detecting errors in reasoning;
• determining underlying assumptions.

Minimum Writing Requirements
A diagnostic prompt is available and can be accessed from the online Composition Handbook.

Three one-paragraph summaries of readings.

One three-to-four-page documented synthesis (may be informative or argumentative) using three to four sources provided by the instructor. Using familiar sources helps the instructor and the students readily identify and address issues of plagiarism. You may ask students to get one to two sources on their own, but this assignment should focus on students’ ability to synthesize and document information, not research it.

Three to five two-to-three-page essays, at least two, but no more than three, of which must be written in class and at least one of which is an argument.

The Common Essay: The Common Essay is an in-class exam given to English 100 and/or110 students mid-quarter. The Common Essay serves a dual purpose: to insure that all composition instructors are normed with one another in reference to grading and to provide students with a contest opportunity. The norming and grading process may vary depending on the number of faculty involved.

Instructors may choose to count the Common Essay as either one of two mandatory in-class essays, as a replacement grade for one of the two in-class essays, or simply as a writing experience that counts towards participation or homework percentages. Instructors should indicate on their syllabus how they intend to factor the Common Essay grade into the course grade.

Instructors will receive a detailed Common Essay package, including the essay prompt and further instructions, from the Common Essay Coordinator.

Writing Workshops
Required: A MyWritingLab online workshop is required for this course. The workshop consists of the following 10 topics that students work on outside of class at their convenience:


prewriting
supporting details
thesis statements
developing the thesis
pronoun agreement
using parallelism
fragments
fused sentences
subject-verb agreement
the comma

This requirement is 10% of the overall course grade. To receive full credit, students must master approximately one topic per week, for a total of ten topics by the end of the quarter. To demonstrate mastery, students must earn a score of 80% or higher on both the Recall and Apply sections for each topic.

Instructors may deviate from the order and schedule of topics for individual students and/or for the class as a whole, so long as students are required to master the given ten topics throughout the quarter. For example, an instructor may require that all topics be completed earlier than the last week of class or that students work on fragments before parallelism or that an individual student work on a specific topic, and so on.

Instructors may use their own discretion when calculating grades for students who fail to master all ten topics or fail to master them by the deadline so long as these students are not given full credit.

Instructors who deviate from the schedule will have to self-monitor students’ progress by requiring students bring in their “student detail” page from the MyWritingLab site for each topic.

Instructors should also use the OASIS Referral Forms to require students who need additional help to get individual, drop-in tutoring.

Students who are registering to MyWritingLab for the first time need to register and create a user profile using the code packaged with their Ouick Access textbook and a course identification number provided to instructors by a MyWritingLab spokesperson. However, some students may have already registered to the site in a previous class. In this case, students can use their previous code so long as the code has not expired. Codes expire approximately one year after activation. Students who still have an active code simply need to login, click on “join a different class,” and follow the directions from there.

Instructors should schedule class time the first or second week of classes to help students register to the site. Instructors will also need to provide Brooke Hughes and/or Randi Brummett with an approved class roster by the third week of classes. Indicate on the roster any students who have switched classes, dropped, or added your class.

Instructors will then receive weekly updates indicating each student’s progress, and instructors should actively monitor and promote the lab to encourage maximum participation.

Note: To avoid double enrolling students in the MyWritingLab, please inform students that they should not be enrolled in Humanities 277.1 while also enrolled in English 100. Probationary students instead may choose Advancing Academic Confidence (General Studies 157), Improving Academic Fitness (General Studies 102), or My Reading Lab (Humanities 277.2/477.2).
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You are responsible for completing 10 MyWritingLab topics in conjunction with your English 100 class. This requirement is worth 10% of your overall English 100 grade. To receive full credit, you must master at least one topic per week, for a total of ten topics by the end of the quarter. To master a topic, you must earn a score of 80% or higher on both the Recall and Apply sections for each of the following MyWritingLab topics:

prewriting
supporting details
thesis statements
developing the thesis
pronoun agreement
using parallelism
fragments
fused sentences
subject-verb agreement
the comma

You will be held responsible for these new skills every week in your writing. Since this is an online workshop, you can work on these topics outside of class at your convenience, so long as you master approximately one topic per week, for a total of ten topics. This means that if you wait until the end of the quarter to complete all ten topics, you will not receive full credit and your essay grades may suffer.

You will need a MyWritingLab workbook, which you can purchase from Reprographics; your access code, which is packaged with your Quick Access text; and the following course identification number:

Course ID#--####

A time will be scheduled during your first or second week of class to help you register to the site and create your user profile, and you will need your MyWritingLab code and course identification number to do this. If you have already registered to the site in a previous class, you do not need to register and create a new user profile. Instead, you will need to login to the site, click on “join a different class,” and follow the directions from there.

For additional information on MyWritingLab, view the power points at the following Web sites:

How to register for MWL
http://www.csub.edu/mwl/updated mwlreg.ppt
How to switch classes in in MWL
http://www.csub.edu/mwl/mwlswitchclass.ppt
How to get around MWL for English100
http://www.csub.edu/mwl/mwleng100.ppt

Note: If you exhaust a topic before mastering it, let your instructor know, and he or she will have it “unlocked” for you.

Note: To avoid double enrollment in MyWritingLab, students should not be enrolled in Humanities 277.1 while also enrolled in English 100. If you are enrolled in Humanities 277.1, please let your instructor know immediately.

Note: Instructors should contact Brooke Hughes (bhughes@csub.edu) or Randi Brummett (rbrummett@csub.edu) for help registering students to the site or for problems or questions regarding codes, exhausted topics, or any other concerns. When reporting an exhausted topic, instructors need to provide the students name, class, and instructor.