Syllabus:
Instructor:
Term:
Time:
Room:
Office:
Office hours:
E-mail address:

English 344 (Research Writing)
Martin Maner
Spring 2008
TTh, 2:15-3:55 PM
033 Millett
441 Millett
TTh 1:00-2:00 PM and by appointment at other times
martin.maner@wright.edu

Texts:

Gibaldi, Joseph. The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: MLA, 2003.

Maner, Martin.  The Research Process.  New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000.

Date

Topic (Key reminders and key classes are marked in bold.)

Reading

Tue
4/1

Introduction; class policies; diagnostic quiz; personal schedule handout.
[You must have up-to-date WSU usernames and passwords for this course.  If you have not done so, open an account immediately by visiting the computer help desk in the library.]
Note: bring The Research Process to every class meeting.

(All page numbers refer to The Research Process unless otherwise indicated.  Complete the assigned readings and exercises before coming to class.)

Thu
4/3

Overview of research writing and introduction to course.
Discuss diagnostic quiz; review the basics.
Discuss choosing a subject.
Distribute handout on fonts and line spacing in MLA format.

Distribute Diagnostic Library Exercise.
Distribute personal schedule handout.

Work on your paper topic in the library.
xiii-xx.

Tue
4/8

Overview of research writing and introduction to course.
Discuss qualities of a good thesis.
Discuss sample first page, due in seven days.

1-28

Thu
4/10

Discuss Exercise 3--Statement of Topic (pp. 26-28, due in one week).
Hand in Diagnostic Library Exercise
Hand in personal schedule.
Prepare ungraded Exercise 2 (Research Process pp. 11-12). 
[Note: If I feel that class preparation is poor, I will sometimes collect ungraded exercises, assigning points for being prepared and demerits for being unprepared.  They can, therefore, affect the course grades.]
Before Tuesday's class, take the online tutorial ("Finding and Evaluating Sources" and "Gathering Information Online") at http://www.wright.edu/~martin.maner/eng344.htm

361-73.
Take the online tutorial before Tuesday's class or you will not be admitted.  (Do not prepare any written work; just "click through" the tutorial and do the problems in your head.)

Tue
4/15

Class will begin with a quiz over the Web tutorial you visited at http://www.wright.edu/~martin.maner/eng344.htm
(Do "Finding and Evaluating Sources" and "Gathering Information Online." Additional links to these two portions of the tutorial are listed in "Resources" at the end of this syllabus.)
Discuss finding sources.
Take the tutorial before you come to class or you will not be admitted.  (Do not prepare any written work; just "click through" the tutorial and do the problems in your head.)
Turn in a sample first page, MLA format.  [See guidelines in Class Policy #2, below.  See also MLA Handbook, page 320.]

47-114.

Thu
4/17

 Discuss finding sources.
Hand in Exercise 3--Statement of Topic (pp. 26-28, graded exercise)
(Note: Please do not hand in a topic statement that you've scribbled at the last minute.  Approximately twelve hours of careful library work are necessary to do a good job on this seemingly simple exercise.  If you have not spent that much time in the library, it will show.)
You may download a template for the "Statement of Topic" at
http://www.wright.edu/~martin.maner/rptemp.htm

Fri
4/18

Last day to drop without a "W."

Tue
4/22

Discuss finding and developing the topic. 
Basic MLA mechanics.
Prepare ungraded Exercise 1 (Research Process p. 11).
Discuss ungraded Exercises 1 and 2 (Research Process pp. 11-12). 
Second try: if I marked your first attempt unsatisfactory, turn in a sample first page, MLA format.

Review pp. 1-28 (already assigned); 361-73.

Thu
4/24

Prepare ungraded Exercise 5 (p. 28).
Catch up and review material covered so far.
Discuss generating an argument.

Tue
4/29

No regular class meeting.  Instead, I will have individual conferences in my office, based on the sign-up schedule circulated in class.  Meet me in 441 Millett at the time you signed up for.

Tue
5/6

Carefully study the sample papers. 
Prepare ungraded Exercise 6 and 8 (p. 46).
Discuss Exercise 11--Writing a Prospectus (p. 124, graded exercise, due in one week).
Circulate sign-up sheet for individual conferences.
Third try: if I marked your first and second attempts unsatisfactory, turn in another sample first page, MLA format.
[If you have not been able to turn in a correctly formatted first page by now, it is unlikely that you will be able to meet the more complex course objectives.  Please note that May 12 is the last drop date.]

29-46; 180-93; 205-16; 231-43; 249-67.

Thu
5/8

Discuss gathering information.
Discuss writing a short plan.
Discuss Exercise 9--Finding Sources (pp.112-14, graded exercise, due near the end of the course).
Circulate sign-up sheet for individual conferences.

115-24; 125-52.

Tue
5/13

Writing, organizing, and revising the rough draft.
Prepare ungraded Exercise 17--Drafting Skills (pp. 295-300).
Discuss paraphrasing and do warm-up exercises. 
Discuss Exercise 12--Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting (pp. 150-51, due in twelve days).
Distribute MLA warm-up bibliography exercise--ungraded exercise, due in one week.
Hand in Exercise 11--Prospectus (p. 124, graded exercise)  Note: Your preliminary bibliography need not be annotated, and your prospectus will not be graded on MLA format.

268-320.

Thu
5/15

MLA format--I.
Parenthetical documentation.
General appearance of MLA format.
MLA mechanics.
Discuss topic outline (ungraded but required--due with preliminary draft of paper) and formal sentence outline (counts as graded exercise, due with final draft of paper).
Discuss Exercise #15--Citing and Listing Sources--(pp. 217-21, graded exercise, due in nine days).

153-79; MLA Handbook 77-138, 237-81.  Bring MLA Handbook to class.

Tue
5/20

MLA format--II
List of works cited. 
Listing books.
Listing articles.
Listing Web pages and other electronic sources.
Endnotes.
Turn in and discuss ungraded MLA warm-up exercise.
Hand in Exercise 12--Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting (pp. 150-51, graded exercise). 

MLA Handbook 139-235. Bring MLA Handbook to class.

Thu
5/22

Hand in Exercise 15--Citing and Listing Sources (pp. 217-21, graded exercise).
Do Exercise 18--Revision--in class with a classmate (p.320, ungraded exercise, to be handed in) 
Research paper preliminary draft due (10 typed pages minimum, including bibliography), plus topic outline (1-2 pages. long), plus photocopies of at least a page from each of three sources paraphrased and one source quoted in the paper. Mark the photocopies clearly to show which portions are paraphrased or quoted, and which pages of your paper contain the quoted or paraphrased portions.  I will not be able to give preliminary draft credit without the accompanying marked photocopies and the outline, so please do not forget these items!
Note: The preliminary draft should NOT be a "rough draft."  It should be a polished, well edited draft, normally one or two drafts BEYOND the "rough draft" stage.
Turn in a topic outline (discussed pp. 273-78) with the preliminary draft.  Although this outline is ungraded, it is a mandatory exercise.  (See "Mandatory Exercises" near the end of this syllabus.)

Bring MLA Handbook to class.

Tue
5/27

Peer evaluations
Do Exercise 18--Revision--in class with a classmate (p.320, ungraded exercise, to be handed in)
Discuss Exercise 19--Editing--ungraded exercise, due in one week.

Thu
5/29

Editing
Discuss sample sentences in class
Preliminary drafts handed back with instructor's comments
Hand in Exercise 9--Finding Sources (pp. 112-14, graded exercise)

321-59.

Tue
6/3

Editing
Special problems in research writing
Review the rules for topic outlines and sentence outlines
Do Exercise 19--Editing--before class (p.350, ungraded exercise)

Thu
6/5

Course evaluation
Overview of final exam
Question-answer review for final exam
Turn in research paper final draft (10 typed pages minimum, plus bibliography.  Turn in preliminary draft with final draft.) 
Turn in formal sentence outline (discussed pp. 303-07; counts as one graded exercise).

Thu
6/12

Final exam, 3:15-5:15 (in the usual room)

Evaluation

Completion of preliminary draft

   5%

Graded exercises (Statement of Topic; Prospecuts; Finding Sources; 
Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting; Citing and 
Listing Sources; Formal Sentence Outline.  Drop the lowest grade.)

 30%

Research paper--final draft

 40%

Final exam

 20%

Participation and attendance

   5%

Attendance
Your attendance grade will be based on the following scale: 0-1 absence, A for attendance; 2 absences, B for attendance; 3 absences, C for attendance; 4 absences, D for attendance; 5 absences, F for attendance; 6 absences, automatic F for the entire course.  Absences during the first week of class will not be excused for any reason, and there are no routine "excused absences" in this course other than the one absence allowed before the attendance grade begins to drop.  Each set of two tardy arrivals will count as an additional absence.  If you arrive after attendance has been taken, it is your responsibility to tell me at the end of the class that you are present; I cannot later make retroactive changes to the attendance record.  If you do not like this attendance policy, you may design any attendance policy you wish and set up excused absences in advance, but you must submit your attendance policy for my approval by the end of the first week of classes.  If you tend to miss class or frequently arrive late, you may prefer to waive this 5% credit.  You must do so during the first week of class, and then these points will be distributed across other requirements.  After the first week of class, please do not give me any excuses for absences unless you provide documentation to show that a genuine emergency has taken place--such as a subpoena for a court appearance or a funeral notice for a family member with documentation to show your relationship to the deceased.  Finally, note that the portion of the grade for "Participation and Attendance" will be reduced for rude and distracting behavior (such as talking to a neighbor, web-surfing during a lecture, or leaving immediately after a quiz or roll call).

Computing Course Grades
Course grades are computed by multiplying weighted percentages times the numerical value of letter grades, using the following equivalents: A = 4.0,  A- = 3.8,  B+ = 3.2, and so on.

Preliminary Draft Credit
The grade for turning in a preliminary draft is either A or F.  To earn the "A" credit for turning in a preliminary draft, your paper must be handed in on time at the beginning of the hour on the due date; it must meet the minimum length requirement; it must contain complete parenthetical citations and a complete list of works cited; and it must be submitted with photocopies of exactly four pages from four different sources used in the paper.  These photocopies must contain three paraphrases and one direct quotation from the source material, and they must be clearly marked to show where in the photocopy the borrowed passages occur, and where in your paper the borrowed passages occur.  If your work fails to meet any of these requirements (by being, for example, only a few minutes late , only a few words short of the minimum length, or with unmarked photocopies that force me to search through every page of your paper), it will receive a grade of F.  This deadline policy is designed to reward students merely for meeting basic obligations and to enable me to conduct prompt evaluations.  Once deadlines and minimum criteria have been established, they must be enforced consistently.  If you prefer to waive this 5% credit, you may do so during the first week of class, and these points will be distributed across other requirements at that time.

Mandatory Exercises
You may choose to "drop" an exercise by not turning it in.  However, graded exercises 3 (Statement of Topic) and 11 (Prospectus), along with the topic outline and formal sentence outline are all mandatory course requirements.  They must be handed in to pass the course, even if you must complete them late and receive no credit for them.  (See Class Policy #1, below.)

"Writing Intensive" Component Grades
Two grades are submitted for this course: a grade for the course itself, and a grade for the "writing intensive" component.  The writing intensive grade is "pass" or "fail," and you must attain a C or better in the course in order to receive a "pass" for this component.

Assistance on Papers
I am happy to meet with you individually for assistance, but administrative work may force me to miss office hours occasionally.  Making an appointment a day ahead of time is always advisable.

CLASS POLICIES

1.  Papers, prospectuses, at-home exercises, etc. are due at the beginning of the class period on the due dates indicated above.  I will evaluate preliminary drafts submitted after the deadline, but no "preliminary draft credit" will be given for them.  Late exercises will receive no credit, so if you must miss class on a due date, be sure to fax me a copy of your exercise.  (See Class Policy #9, below.)  Late final drafts of the paper will be subject to the following reductions: work turned in after the beginning of class but by 4:30 PM on the due date will be penalized 5 points (on a 100-point scale).  For each day or portion of a day thereafter, the penalty will be 10 points per day.  Also, note that repeated late arrivals will lower your attendance and participation grade.

2.  Papers shorter than the assigned minimum length will receive grade reductions of 5 points for each unit of 100 words by which they fall short.  Please do not try to evade the length requirement by fooling around with large fonts and margins.  A page using proper MLA format should have 1" margins on all sides, 1/3" line spacing, 27 lines to the page (unless over-ridden by widow and orphan control), plus a page header.  Properly formatted MLA templates are available at 
<http://www.wright.edu/~martin.maner/rptemp.htm>. 
For graduate students enrolled in ENG 544, the minimum lengths for the research paper drafts are 15 pages (preliminary draft) and 20 pages (final draft).

3.  I will not give a make-up final examination unless arrangements have been made before the regularly scheduled examination has been given.

4.  Assistance on written work (including exercises) should be limited to the instructor, library reference personnel, and Writing Center personnel.  Your papers for this course must be exclusively your own and exclusively for this course.  You may not submit a previously submitted paper, nor a paper simultaneously submitted for another course  Exercises are to be done individually; you may not collaborate on them with classmates.  Automatic penalty for any form of plagiarism (defined as passing off the work of someone else as if it were your own): F for the course, written notification of the Office of Judicial Affairs and the English Department Chair.  The code of academic conduct at Wright State may be reviewed at http://www.wright.edu/students/judicial/integrity.html.

5.  I normally do not grant "I" grades, since they usually cause more problems than they solve.  If you miss an assignment, your grade will be computed on the basis of the work you completed, with the missing assignment counted as a zero.

6.  Please do not ask me what you missed.  You are responsible for making arrangements with a classmate to supply you with information about classes you missed.  If questions remain, see me.

7.  Mid-course changes in the syllabus (assignments, readings, grading policies) are sometimes necessary, though I will always try to provide sufficient advance notice of such changes.

8.  My office is 441 Millett, telephone 775-2639.  You may leave messages for me with the department secretaries at 775-3136.  Another convenient way to have individual conferences is via e-mail.  My e-mail address is listed at the top of the syllabus.  I check my account daily, Monday through Friday.  Note, too, that this syllabus is posted on the Web at <http://www.wright.edu/cola/Dept/eng/maner/maner.htm>.

9.  Sending a fax copy to meet a deadline is acceptable. The departmental fax number is 775-2707.  However, it is your responsibility to follow up the fax transmission by calling 775-3136 to confirm that the fax copy was received.  You should always "chase" a fax copy with a regular printed copy as soon as possible, since fax copies are flimsy and often only semi-legible.  You may also submit assignments as e-mail messages or attachments in Word format, but you are responsible for knowing how to do this.  For example, if your e-mail software cannot handle attributes such as underlining, the absence of underlining will be treated as an error.  (It is unreasonable to expect your instructor to format your work and then grade it on the basis of his own corrections.)

10.  Work slipped under my office door during class will be considered late and will receive an F.  If you must miss class but wish to turn in a printed copy for credit, you must have the date and time recorded by an English Department secretary in 470 Millett in order to demonstrate that it was turned in on time.

11.  Since the early weeks of the course are focused mainly on getting started in library research, you will have accumulated only a few percentage points of graded credit by the time the last drop date arrives. Probably the best way to estimate your likely performance in this course is to ask yourself the following questions:  a) Have I spent at least 8 to 12 hours of well directed work for this course during the opening weeks?  b) Have I become familiar with the essential research tools such as bibliographies, indexes, online resources, and library catalogs?  c) By the time the drop date arrives, have I found and listed virtually all the available English-language sources relevant to my topics? d) Has a diagnostic quiz over English skills indicated that my grade is likely to be limited to C or lower?  (Diagnostics are available on request.)

12.  Due to the continuing decline of courtesy in American life, it is necessary to mention some things that should normally go without saying.  a) It is rude to e-mail someone anonymously, using only a screen name.   b) It is rude to leave voice mail messages without identifying yourself.   ("I am a student in your morning class" is not adequate self-identification.)  c) Unless there is a genuine emergency, it is rude to bring a beeping watch, or cell phone, or other digital device to class without turning it off first. If there is a genuine emergency requiring you to have your cell phone turned on, you should tell the instructor in advance that the class may be disrupted.  d) It is rude to bring a child to class with you without asking for the instructor's permission.

Resources

Online Research Tutorial (in two parts): 
http://www.wright.edu/~martin.maner/eval01.htm (Finding and Evaluating Sources) 
http://www.wright.edu/~martin.maner/act06.htm(Gathering Information Online)

Guide to Essential Tools for Research in English Literature:
http://www.wright.edu/~martin.maner/essential_tools.htm

Using Search Engines to Find Web Resources:
http://www.wright.edu/~martin.maner/search_engines.htm

Online Resources for Research Writers:
http://www.wright.edu/~martin.maner/eng344.htm

Links to Resources in Literature and the Humanities:
http://www.wright.edu/cola/Dept/eng/lit_links.htm

E-Mail Links:
         Martin Maner
         Piper Martin (Humanities Librarian)