English 201 / For Students
Policies
Attendance Policy
Expectations for Student Learning
Attendance Policy
Attendance is expected at each class session. English 201 is a low-enrollment course that gives you the chance to interact on a deep intellectual level with your instructor and classmates. When you are absent, you can't just "get the notes" -- you miss out on the benefits of careful attention to your ideas and work, and your classmates miss out on your insights and help as well. Reading and writing are social acts, and the community formed in your class, both among the students and between the students and the instructor, has a lot to do with your development as a writer and the quality of your work. To get the most from your English 201 experience, you must plan on being in class, on time, and prepared for every class session. Check with your instructor for his or her specific attendance policy, which will also be clearly defined in the syllabus.
Expectations for Student Learning
All English 201 sections fulfill the university's Communication B requirement. As such, students in the course are expected to develop and demonstrate advanced skills in critical reading, logical thinking, and the use of evidence; the use of appropriate style and disciplinary conventions in writing and speaking; and the productive use of core library resources specific to the relevant discipline.
In addition, English 201 has an identity that is historically and conceptually
independent of the university's General Education program, and it has objectives
for student learning that go beyond Communication B. Specifically, English
201 is a course where students actively and critically engage with writing
as a process of discovery, where they learn to effectively incorporate their
reading into their writing, and where they develop facility in struggling
and playing with the English language itself. Students are expected to work
and perform at an intermediate college level in all three of these areas.
1. WRITING AS A PROCESS OF DISCOVERY
First, English 201 is a course in which students practice and improve their
writing through writing -- a lot of writing. Students can expect to write either
during or for nearly every class meeting; and they can expect to work on their
main papers (typically 3-5 formal essays of varying length spaced across the
semester) through an extensive drafting process. This process requires that
students approach writing as a practice of invention, discovery, and change;
it requires that they constantly revise, or re-see, their papers throughout
the course of writing them; and it requires that they share their evolving
work at various points with their peers and instructor, incorporating feedback
from those exchanges and conscientiously helping their classmates do the same.
The Communication B requirements call for at least two papers to be worked
on through such a process; most English 201 sections do this for three papers
or more and often require as many as three "public" drafts for each paper:
a first draft for peers, a second draft for peers and/or instructor, and a
final draft for the instructor. Frequent writing and constant revision are
the golden way of English 201.
2. READING AS AN INVITATION TO WRITE
Second, English 201 is a course in which students learn to use reading, often
of complex academic texts, as a springboard for their own writing and to use
their writing as a way to respond to their reading.
Significant amounts of
reading, of course, are incorporated in the drafting process described above
- students will be expected to actively and carefully read their own and their
peers' papers in order to facilitate revision. But most English 201 sections
also assign a fair amount of other kinds of reading, sometimes as much as
50-75 pages per week of published academic prose. Often this reading is difficult. Students are expected to read required texts thoughtfully and on
time. Such reading can play an important part in class discussions,
and students who don't read assigned texts on time and with care will find
it difficult to participate in class discussions. Sections of English 201
vary widely in the amount, genre, and content of the reading they require
-- but all English 201 courses strive to integrate the reading of sophisticated
texts into the writing process.
3. THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AS A BEAST TO STRUGGLE WITH AND PLAY WITH
Finally, English 201 is a course in which students practice and improve their
control over the English language itself, especially their control over the
kinds of "standard" written English prose generally found in academic settings.
For many students, Intermediate Composition is the last writing class they
will ever take; by the time they finish the course, they should be able to
produce written English prose of high quality: clear, intelligent, polished,
and free of distracting grammatical errors.
They should be managing increasingly complicated sentence structures and formulations. They should be comfortable with the conventions of academic writing specific to the discipline(s) they are writing in. But they should also be willing and able to critically analyze those conventions, to take risks with language, to experiment and play with it, to develop a broad repertoire of writing styles and practices with which they can effectively and responsibly think and act in the multiple situations they will find themselves in as adults.
Professor Michael Bernard-Donals - Chair
Professor Jane Zuengler - Associate Chair
Professor Jacques Lezra - Director of Graduate
Studies
Professor Sherry Reames - Undergraduate Director
