Required Text Diana Hacker. The Bedford Handbook for Writers.
New York: St Manin's Press, 1998.
[Workbook, available at Bookstore, is optional]
*This course has a web page with a class bulletin board and several
useful reference links.
Students will be writing all the time. During the first half of the
semester, two papers per week totaling ten essays (300-400 words) will
be required, one of which will be revised; during the second half of
the semester, a series of longer essays {700-900 words), which will
be revised in full, will be required. In addition, there will
be two in-class writing assignments: a mid-term exam and a final exam,
as well as quizzes in grammar and mechanics. Late papers are
strongly discouraged.
Essays are to be typed, double-spaced, with 1" margins and stapled.
You must submit two copies of each paper at the beginning of class on
the date due. Students are expected to follow the MLA standard, which
will be discussed in class. Class Participation is mandatory.
Much of the work that will be done in Logic & Rhetoric involves
considering/analyzing student papers in class. Students should be aware
that anything that they write is subject to class discussion.
All students are expected to contribute frequently and constructively
to class discussions. The quality and frequency of your contributions
to class discussion will factor heavily into your final grade for the
course (See grading, below).
Attendance
Attendance is required in all Composition courses. Students are encouraged
to attend all classes, but they are allowed to miss three classes, which
they are urged to save for religious observance, illness, etc. Students
who exceed their three allowed absences will suffer increasingly severe
grade penalties. It is the student���s responsibility to find out what
was discussed and assigned in any class that he or she is unable to
attend. You will be expected to submit anything that is assigned on
a day that you were absent on time, barring a medical or personal
emergency.
Logic & Rhetoric Writing Portfolio Students should
keep a portfolio of all written work, including essays, in-class assignments,
and quizzes. You are expected to bring this portfolio to class
and to any conferences scheduled with me.
Conferences Students are required to attend at least two meetings
with the instructor during office hours. These will be formally scheduled,
and discussed later in the semester. Moreover, you are encouraged to
see me during office hours at any time.
Grading Your final grade in the class will be based on your take-home
essays and revisions, exams, participation in class discussion, and
grammar quizzes. Due to the nature of the Logic and Rhetoric class,
there is no precise numerical formula for arriving at a final grade.
However, expect class participation to count for 20-25% of your final
grade.
Plagiarism and Academic Integrity Edited from Columbia's
Official Statement on Plagiarism: In making clear Columbia's policy
on plagiarism, it is not feasible here to include the numerous forms
that plagiarism might take. It is useful, however, to list several obvious
varieties in order to dispel any confusion about what the College will
not tolerate:
1. Submitting essays, or portions of essays, written by other people
as one's own.
2. Failing to acknowledge, through proper footnotes and bibliographic
entries, the sources of ideas essentially not one's own.
3. Failing to document paraphrases, ideas, or verbatim expressions not
one's own.
4. Collaborating on an assignment or examination without specific permission
from the faculty member to do so.
Plagiarism has become increasingly common with the increase in information
available on the internet. Please be aware that borrowing even a phrase
that is not your own from a book, newspaper, essay, magazine, or internet
text without proper citation is considered plagiarism. Students who
plagiarize receive a zero for the assignment in question and in most
cases a failing grade for the course. Logic and Rhetoric instructors
are required to contact the student's Dean if he or she is suspected
of plagiarism.