Requirements

 

English 282 is a workshop-based course that involves extensive group work. Consequently, your success—as well as the success of your group—relies on consistent, timely attendance and active participation in class activities. I expect students to come prepared for each class session, with assigned readings and assignments completed. Students should plan to ask questions, develop ideas, share work-in-progress, compose, and respond to their peers’ work. Like all skills, speaking in class, presenting draft work, providing critiques, and interacting in groups become easier with practice, particularly in an environment where we respectfully consider all ideas.

Our lab classroom setting necessitates some ground rules:

  • Students should switch off and stow their cell phones before class begins.
  • Students will not type when somebody is addressing the class.
  • Students will not text, check email, electronically chat, update their social networking status or surf the web during class, unless instructed to do so.
  • Students should refrain from sitting on desktops, which cannot support human weight.
  • Students cannot bring food or drink into the lab

I assess participation each class period; students receive full points for thoughtfully responding to activity prompts and producing required work. Lack of engagement in class activities, inadequate preparation, and failure to adhere to classroom rules will substantially lower your participation grade for the course.

You will complete three projects: a collaborative revision of an existing website; a public service campaign that incorporates alphanumeric text, images, and video; and a showcase that critically reflects upon work produced for the course. Because effective composition involves revision, students will submit multiple drafts of each project, and they will have the opportunity to revise select work after receiving a grade. During class, you will receive commentary on your work from both your peers and me. You may also seek feedback from consultants at the Odegaard Writing and Research Center or the CLUE Writing Center in Mary Gates Hall.

Throughout the term, students will complete sequences of short assignments connected to each project. Short assignments require you to identify and critically analyze sample web texts, present ideas-in-progress, create visual prototypes, and consider how to revise from feedback. Short assignments are graded on a credit/partial credit/no-credit basis. Work that meets minimum content requirements and demonstrates thoughtful engagement with the assignment prompt will receive full points.

As part of the website revision project, groups will develop a pitch that details their planned site changes and provides a mock-up of the altered site design. Groups will deliver their pitches, answer audience questions, and gather feedback on their site revision plans before composing the first draft of Project 1.

Individual students will produce a visual factsheet that they will later incorporate into the PSA campaign project. The visual factsheet serves as a micro-version of the PSA campaign. It also allows students to discover common PSA interests as they decide whether to author their PSA campaign individually or collaboratively.

English 282 uses a workshop format—students share ideas and work-in-progress with small groups or the full class. Peer critique allows authors to receive and revise from comments before submitting projects for a grade. Moreover, the process of assessing others’ draft projects encourages critical reflection on one’s own work. Students should expect to give and receive critiques of all project drafts, site redesign pitches, visual factsheets, and select short assignments. I assess peer critiques on a credit/partial credit/no credit basis, with full points awarded for complete, thorough, and substantive commentary.

 

Policies

 

Since short assignments form the basis of in-class work, I will not accept these assignments late, nor will I allow students to reschedule their site redesign pitches. Projects are due at the time indicated; work submitted after the due date and time will be considered late. Failure to submit required drafts and participate in in-class peer review will result in a 10-point deduction from the final project grade, as the ability to consider and revise from feedback is an essential component of the course. Late final drafts will receive a 10-point deduction per day late, including weekends and holidays. All point deductions will apply to work revised and resubmitted for a new grade. Please note that I will not accept late optional revisions. I will make exceptions to the lateness policy only in cases of documented illness or family emergency.

Technology glitches do not constitute valid excuses for lateness. To avoid problems, you should save frequently while working and you should back up work saved to a hard drive on a USB drive or an online file archive (Dropbox, iCloud, UW Google Drive). You are responsible for uploading the correct version of all web assignments.

English 282 adheres to the University of Washington’s policies on academic integrity, which prohibit unacknowledged use of another’s content or ideas. When you draw upon or reproduce sources, make clear to your audience that you are incorporating others’ work by placing quotation marks around exact words, noting the creator’s name whenever you quote, describe, summarize or paraphrase, and captioning audio and visual content with creator and title information.

Failure to credit sources may result in a failing grade for the assignment, a failing grade for the course, or other disciplinary action by the university’s Committee on Academic Conduct. Our course textbook contains information on when and how to cite sources. We will use MLA format, which requires in-text parenthetical citations and a list of works cited.

English 282 does not provide a “C” or “W” credit. However, I will assign “W” credit to students who complete all course projects.

If you need accommodation of any sort, please let me know so that I can work with the UW Disability Resources for Students Office (DRS) to provide what you require.

 

You must have a UW Net ID, a working email account and a way to access the course website and Canvas tools. All assignments will be distributed via the course website, and you will submit class assignments to Canvas. I also expect to communicate regularly with you—and for you to communicate with each other—via email.