Introduction

Overview

Schedule

Requirements

Grading

Policies

Writing Tips

Resources

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Instructors
Dr. Dornisch
Dr. Frye

Class Times
T TH 11:00-12:20am

Class Location
Life Science 137

Office Address
Life Sciences 152-C

Office Hours
T TH 10:00-11:00 Or by appointment

Office Phone Number
299-4290

E-mail
mdorn@liu.edu
nancy.frye@liu.edu

Honors Course
Writing Across the Curriculum Course

Course Requirements

Participation            20%
Journaling               20%
Article Summaries      5%    
Paper Drafts             5%          
Research Paper        50%
TOTAL:                    100%              

Daily activities (attendance, preparedness, participation in whole-class and small group discussion, activities).  Learning is an active process.  So, a considerable portion of your final grade depends on your participation in daily activities. Daily activity will be assessed at the end of each class session on a scale from 0-4 as described below:

  • A - Student actively participated, was prepared, and added substantively to the class discussion
  • B - Student actively participated, appeared prepared, but did not add new insight
  • C - Student appeared to be prepared, but didn't actively participate -- or actively participated, but didn't appear to be prepared
  • D - Student was in class, but didn't actively participate
  • F - Student did not attend class session

Note: It is important to note that active participation is measured by your contributions to class discussion as well as your attentiveness in class. If, for example, you are reading for other classes, doing homework for other classes, and text messaging on your phones, we are able to recognize that from where we sit and we consider that in our grades.

Outside of class discussions with a peer or a group of peers. This assignment has two goals. The first goal is for you to have a chance to communicate using different types of technology. The second goal is for you and a fellow classmate to help each other to understand the assigned reading. Have a brief (10 minutes or so) conversation with a classmate about the class reading using one of the technologies listed below. Make sure that, throughout the course of the semester, you use each of these technologies at least once. This conversation should focus on understanding the article in English. Go over points that you had difficulty understanding. Assessment on this assignment will be based on your blog discussion. You will use the following technologies for these discussions:

  • In-person discussion
  • Phone discussion
  • Instant messenger (text only - Google IM)
  • Instant messenger (audio only - Skype)
  • Instant messenger (combination of text and audio - Skype)
  • Skype (video - Skype)

Journals.  Students will be asked to keep a journal (using Google Documents) that responds to peer-reviewed journal articles assigned in the schedule.  For each day the class meets, students are expected to have journaled about all required readings. 

For each journal entry:

  • First, describe in your own words what the “take home” message of the article is. This should be presented in no more than 1-3 sentences, and should be phrased so that a person not taking this course would understand the ideas of the article.
  • Second, think about what implications this article might have for future research. In particular, think about where we can go from here. For instance, what new questions do you have about communication tools after reading this article? Do you think the findings or ideas from this article might not apply to some groups of people or topics? Why or why not? As you address how the readings might suggest a direction for future research projects, your answer should be in the form of one or two questions, or one or two predictions, and a few sentences explaining how they relate to the article.

Additionally, once a week, your journals should include a reflection on the discussion you had outside of class with your peer(s).  The idea is that now that you’ve had a chance to use this tool for communication, it is your chance to reflect on the experience and tell us your thoughts. Your journal entry should address each of the following questions:

  1. To what extent were you comfortable or uncomfortable using this technology? What was it that made you feel comfortable or uncomfortable?
  2. What did you find difficulty about communication using this technology? (Note that your response to this question should not address problems that you might have had with the technology.)
  3. What types of topics do you think you’d be comfortable discussing using this technology?
  4. Who (e.g., friend, coworker, acquaintance) might you feel most comfortable communicating with using this technology? Why?

Journal responses are due by 10am on the day of the class session. NO JOURNAL ENTRIES WILL BE ACCEPTED LATE.

Assessments are as follows:

For journals that address the journal articles:

  • A - the explanation is nicely summarizes the article and poses a new direction for research that stems from the article, AND does not simply recap the findings of the article
  • B - the explanation goes superficially beyond the article, but the direction either isn't that new or different from the article, or it's not related to the findings of the article
  • C - the explanation is in the student's own words, and matches with the article, but the entry is primarily summary
  • D - the explanation is not in the student's own words or does not match with the article
  • F - there was no blog entry by 10am on the day the reading is due

For journals discussing the use of technology:

  • A - student addressed all 4 questions posed in the assignment description
  • B - student addressed 3 of the 4 questions posed in the assignment description, but not all of them
  • C - student addressed 1 or 2 of the 4 questions posed in the assignment description, but not all of them
  • D - student reported that he/she talked with a partner using one of the technologies, but did answer any of the 4 questions posed in the assignment description
  • F - there was no blog entry by 10am on the day the technology blog was due

Research Paper.  For the research paper, different sections will be due at varying intervals. Note that the drafts of these sections are worth 2 points each. The better your draft and the better you follow directions, the better your feedback for revising for the final paper.  Descriptions of each individual assignment and an overall description of the research paper are provided below:

The final research paper will be assessed as follows. Each item (bullet/sub-bullet) in the assignment description for the Final Paper is worth 2 points. You will earn a "0" if you did not do that bullet/sub-bullet of the assignment. You will earn a "2" if you completed the bullet/sub-bullet with a very high quality response. You will earn points in between for differnt quality responses. Please remember that doing good quality drafts will provide you with good quality feedback that will help you when revising for the final paper.