English 101 is the primary transfer-level English composition course. It is designed to help a student develop increased competence in writing which is lively, informative and carefully structured; increased competence in research techniques and documentation; increased competence in critical thinking and reading. This 3-unit course is fully transferrable to both UC and CSU.

The focus of this section of English 101 is looking closely at the world around us in fresh and different ways. We have a lot of assumptions about the nature of life, the universe, and everything, but many of our ideas are things we have never really challenged or even thought about. We beleive a lot of things because we have been told them, and we sometimes just accept what we are told. Consider that one of the most defining beliefs in many people's lives is religion. How many people know and will sometimes fight to the death the idea that Hinduism is the one true religion or that Christianity is the one true religion or that the Native American Church is the one true religion? Now, how many of those people believe this just because their parents told them, "You are a Hindu? You are a Christian? You are a member of the Native American Church?" Stop and consider how many people there are in the world. There are that many perspectives about what is true and real in the world. Based on different backgrounds, different experiences, different strengths/weaknesses, different imaginations, there are billions of "truths" in the world, and our job, in college/university, is to try to understand and be able to articulate more and more of them.

This semester you will be expected to look incredibly closely at everything from video games to Barbie dolls. You'll chart past and current trends and speculate on the future, all the while trying to analyze the significance of this stuff that seems so common and insubstantial but which actually is the material signaling many of our values and ideas.

This is not a class in personal beliefs or opinions or abstractions or vague, general thoughts. It is a course in concrete details, examples, incidents. You WILL make a number of claims about the world and the things in it this semester.

What I will always require you to do is to back up those claims with evidence.

NOTE: there is a prerequisite for this course. You must either have completed English 28 (or its equivalent) with a grade of "C" or higher, or you must be placed into English 101 as a result of the assessment test.
For more information, please contact the counseling staff at LAHC.

General Nature of the Course

This course functions very much like a correspondence course; the chief difference is the electronic environment and your relatively immediate access to your instructor (me). Also instead of students submitting work on paper, assignments are submitted, commented upon and returned via e-mail; lecture material, course deadlines, assignment information are available via the internet.

Lectures: There are a series of online Lectures on topics related to your reading and writing. Be sure to read the lecture material for each week listed because this should help you to understand what some of my expectations and special concerns are about your reading and writing.

Class Schedule: You will need to regularly keep track of assignment (reading and writing) due dates by referring to the Class Schedule. It is up to you to keep up with assignment deadlines. I highly recommend that you bookmark the Schedule page.

Essays: Much of your grade is based on your written assignments. There are detailed instructions on how to produce and submit essays on the class Writing Assignments page. Read over this material very carefully; there are requirements on length, file format, MLA format, etc. that you need to know. Specific paper topic instructions can be reached through the links on the Class Schedule page or the Writing Assignments page.

Class Discussions: The rest of your grade will be based on class discussions of certain questions relating to the readings. Discussions will be conducted with the entire class on an ETUDES message board (more information is available on the Discussions page). Be sure that you read this page thoroughly so that you can earn maximum discussion points.

Student Learning Objectives

Student who complete this course successfully should, minimally, be able to

Student Responsibilities

Your responsibilities for this course are really the same as those of any student taking any course with the following addition: you have to keep reminding yourself what is required (assignment dates, rules, etc.) because you don't have an instructor in the front of a room reminding you every class.

Here is the Webster's definition of plagiarize:

to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source

intransitive senses : to commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

Realize that if you are caught plagiarizing, you will fail the assignment with no chance to revise it. There are no exceptions. If you are unsure what constitutes plagiarism, contact me.

If you do not agree to all of the above requirements, do not take this course.

Required Texts

NOTE: there actaully are textbooks that are used in the conventional sixteen-week course. However, I have found that the time it takes students to get the books does not work well in this eight-week, accelerated format. Often the class is half way over before students get the texts, and by then students are hopelessly behind.

With that in mind I have included key handbook items (how to develop an effective thesis; how to recognize logical fallacies; how to do a formal sentence outline, etc. in the lectures themselves. Be sure to read those carefully.

Some readings which we will be discussing will be available in the Resources section of Etudes (on Etudes click "Resources" on the NAV bar, then select "Readings"); some, such as the Purdue OWL site (which has information about MLA format, how to put together a research paper, how to document correctly), are available online. Insturctions on where readings are found and occasional links to these are on our Class Schedule page.

One reading, however, is not available online, though it can be purchased online or found at a local public library. This is absolutely required:

You will read (and we will discuss) the entire novel near the middle of the semester. I recommend you start reading it early, and it is a good idea to take quick notes on what happens in each chapter so that you can find things for the discussions.

Required Software (and Hardware)

You do need some sort of browser (such as FireFox or Chrome or Safari), an e-mail program and word processing software. You will need to check your laccd e-mail account periodically (all broadcast announcements go to those accounts), but it is easy to have that e-mail forwarded to your personal e-mail account (which is often more reliable). Instructions on forwarding from the laccd e-mail are on the LAHC website.

You will need to be able to open/read .pdf files; the readings on Etudes are stored as .pdf documents. This should not be a problem because Adobe Reader is a free download (and is likely on your computer already). Newer versions of Word actually open .pdf documents. NOTE: do not try to take this course on a tablet or on a smartphone. If you do not have your own laptop or desktop, use one at the college library, at a public library, at a friend's or relative's. The volume of word processing and the need for MLA formatting (a college/university standard) make a computer a must for this class.

For essays I use Word, so you do need some software that will allow you to save your files as .doc, .docx or .rtf documents (most do). I can also read .pdf.

DO NOT send me files via Google DOCS. Yes, Google is convenient, but the required MLA format is often lost in Google DOCS, and papers not in the corrrect format will not be accepted.

There is no reason for you not to use Word. Every student in the LACCD has access to Word 365 for FREE. Click here for information on accessing the free Student Version of Word 365. You can also set up (and forward) your student e-mail here; Announcements to the Class go to your school e-mail account, so you must either look at that regularly or have the mail forwarded to your private e-mail account.

More on how to submit your essays, how to set up your papers in MLA format, etc. can be found here on our Writing Assignments page.

Grading

Each assignment will receive a point score; letter grades are based on percentages (90-100% = A; 80-89% = B; etc.); for example, if a discussion is worth 20 points possible, and if you score a 16, then you have scored 80% which equals a B for that assignment. At the end of the semester, your overall score will be converted into a percentage of the points possible for the entire course to determine your letter grade for the course. Grades will be available for view on Etudes. I keep your official gradebook on an Excel sheet, but if you find any discrepencies on the Etudes Gradebook, please let me know.

For more information about what constitutes an "A" paper (or not), click here.

And for specific information on extra credit, revisions, essay requirements, visit the class Writing Assignments page; for more details on how to score high on class discussions, visit the class Discussion page.