Syllabus
Freshman Composition 101
Fall 06 Resident

Dr. Edward E. Eller	Phone #: 342-1495
Office: Admin 3-28	Office Hours
Email: eller@spock.ulm.edu	Webaddress: www.ulm.edu/~eller/101

Class Texts and Supplies:

The Everyday Writer Academic Writing:  Stepping Stones to the Professions.  Nancy Spiller, Ed., Boston:  Pearson Custom Publishing, 2002. A Flash Drive

Goal #1:  To write coherent and meaningful essays

• which use a variety of development strategies,

• focus on the use of detail to explore a topic,

• are free of grammar, mechanical errors,

• and are of interest to a general reader.

Goal #2:  To read coherent and meaningful essays

• which use a variety of development strategies,

• focus on the use of detail to explore a topic,

• are free of grammar, mechanical errors,

• and are of interest to a general reader.

90-100% A; 80-89.9% B; 70-79.9% C

Semester Topics

Sentence Variety -- Sentence Structure -- Sentence Revision

• Conjunctions -- subordinating/coordinating, conjunctive adverbs, relative pronouns.

• Types of sentences -- comma splices and run-ons/fused sentences -- sentence combining.

• Use transitional devices to improve cohesion.

• Learn the meaning of "well-developed" and how to achieve "development" in your writing.

• Use active, strong verbs, not passive, weak ones.

• Building lists (thick and thin) into your writing. Parallelism. 

Natural Structures -- Find out you already know a lot about writing and the forms that writing take.

Narrative -- Description -- Reflection/Coda

• Fable -- Narrative -- Family Story -- Exemplification -- Analogy -- Listing.

• Understand the difference between abstracts and concretes.

• Realize that abstract ideas need information-loaded prose for support and fulfillment.

• Learn strategies for controlling the structure and content of your paragraph -- general to specific, chronological, by importance, etc.

Formal Structures

• Once ---> Now [a coordinating structure]

• Hindsight / Foresight [a subordinating structure]

• Definitions

• General to Specific

• Contrasting

• Quote--->>Paraphrase--->Elaborate

Final Paper–Show me what you can do; a two hour, in-class writing Monday, December 4 at 3 p.m.

• Write a 500-1000 word essays which explores the personal and public meaning of an abstraction. The essay should:

• Control each paragraph with a well-focused main idea (abstract);

• Conclude each paragraph with a coda taking the reader to the next paragraph;

• Support the ideas with rich concrete and specific detail (minimizing general and abstract statements);

• Use lists, analogies, and active, strong verbs;

• Be cohesive (pay attention to transitions and the arrangement of sentences);

• Display sentence variety with an emphasis on complex sentence structure

• Use a variety of paragraph types and structures, esp. exemplification and fable/family story;

• Be relatively free of grammar/mechanical problems.

Class Policies:

• Papers are accepted late with a 10% deduction for each day late.  On the day the paper is due there is a grace period to the end of the day IF the student attends class.  In other words, if the choice is between turning the paper in later in the day or attending class, attend class.

• Students who don't attend every class period will have such a hard time passing this class.  Students who miss class will be lost when they return, and only if some fellow classmate takes pity to guide them or if them visit me during my office hours will they be able to figure out what is going on and catch-up.

• Documented emergencies will excuse an absence but not excuse a missed assignment more than a day later than the emergency.  Regular doctor's appointments and court dates are not excused absences.  One class period absence for the funeral of a close relative is excused if an obituary is presented to the teacher.

• Plagiarism is not allowed.  I will go out of my way to catch attempted plagiarists.  The first time I catch it, it will fail the essay.  The second time I catch it, it will fail you from the course.  Click here to see a complete definition of plagiarism.