Course Title
English 1A: College Composition and Reading
Sections
This syllabus applies to three sections of English 1A: D9229, 9230, and 9231. All three sections are online.
Instructor
Greg Kemble
Contact information
Whenever possible, please contact me through Canvas, using the “Inbox” in Canvas’s main menu. It’s much easier for me to keep track of our conversations that way.
If you’re not able to contact me through Canvas, though, here are some alternatives:
- Email: gkemble@yccd.edu (As I said, it’s easier for me to keep track of things in Canvas, so please only use this when you need a response more quickly than usual.)
- Office Phone: (530) 749-3821 (please leave a voicemail)
Note: I don’t spend a lot of time in my office, so I’m likely to get a message more quickly though Canvas or email than by voicemail.
Student Hours (via Zoom)
I call these “student hours,” rather than “office hours,” because I want to be sure you understand that they are scheduled for you, not for me. Please don’t hesitate to take advantage of them.
Further, if you are not available at the times listed, please contact me to set up an appointment. I’m happy to find a time that works for your schedule — even if that means connecting in the evening or on a weekend.
- Mondays 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.
- Wednesdays 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.
- Thursdays 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.
You are welcome to drop in at any of the above times, but I recommend that you contact me to set up an appointment even for scheduled student hours. Though I do my best to protect these times, I am sometimes required to attend meetings or other appointments.
Here’s the link for the Zoom room: Student Hours
Conferences
A few times throughout the semester — usually to discuss a draft of your essay — I will schedule a Zoom conference with you. We’ll use the same Zoom link that as we do for Student Hours.
Office Location
1100 Building, Room 1179.
I am rarely in my office, though, so (as I mentioned above) student hours and conferences will be held on Zoom.
Textbook
This course is a “Zero-Cost Textbook” course, which means that we’ll be using an Open Educational Resources (OER) textbook. (If you’re interested in OER, you can read about the initiative on the California Community Colleges OER page.)
This is the first time I’ve used a free, OER textbook, so I’ll be sorting out how best to use it in the class. I should be able to include the relevant parts of the text in Canvas, so you shouldn’t even need to download anything. (If that changes, I’ll let everyone know through a Canvas announcement.)
If you’d like a copy of the full text — it’s a good book! — you may either download the full PDF (for free) or buy a paper copy at the book’s LibreTexts page. (Hover over the blue “Downloads” button for options.)
[Just to be clear: you are not required to buy the textbook. Further, we won’t read the whole book, so — unless I discover that I can’t embed the text in our course’s modules — you don’t need to download the full PDF, either. You’re welcome to, of course, but it’s not required.)
[Updated 8/16/22] Somehow I forgot to include the name and title of the text: Anna Mills’s How Arguments Work – A Guide to Writing and Analyzing Texts in College. (The above link still works, and (as I said) I’ll include the important chapters as we go. But I should have named the book.)
Course Description
Here’s the description of English 1A that you’ll find in the Yuba College catalog:
An introductory course offering instruction in expository and argumentative writing, appropriate and effective use of language, close reading, cogent thinking, research strategies, information literacy, and documentation. Focus on the recursivity of writing processes and integrating reading, writing, and speaking skills. Students will write a minimum of 6000 words.
If you don’t already have a lot of experience with college or with college-level writing, some of that might not make a lot of sense yet. That’s okay — that’s why you’re here! Don’t let the fancy words intimidate you.
On the other hand, English 1A — especially the online version! — is a demanding course. I don’t want you to be scared of it, but I don’t want you to underestimate it, either.
Time Commitment
As I just said, English 1A is demanding. That’s not just because English professors are mean (though we may be). We’re required to follow rules and policies that the state of California has set for us.
One of those policies is to make sure we include the following information in our syllabi:
English 1A is a 4-unit course, which translates to:
- Total hours for the course: 216
- In-class (“lecture”) hours: 72
- Out-of-class (“homework”) hours: 144
Of course, these numbers are for face-to-face courses, so the 72 hours of “lecture” obviously doesn’t apply in quite the same way for our class. But you should expect something similar — an average of around 4 hours per week working through the online content, and another average of around 8 hours a week doing outside work (reading, writing, and research).
Does that sound like a lot? It is! I am often surprised at how many students expect to be able to do the course in just a few hours each weekend — or, worse, in a few hours at the end of the semester.
Again, I’m not trying to scare you here. Lots of people succeed in the course! But it’s important that you understand what’s expected of you so that you can plan your semester accordingly.
Are you ready?
Requirements for placing into English 1A have changed, due to changes in California state law; placement is now mostly based on high school Grade Point Average (GPA).
This means that our class will include students with a wide range of reading and writing skills, and a wide range of expectations:
- some of you are just out of high school and have not yet encountered college-level writing;
- some of you have been away from school for a number of years and fear that you have forgotten much of what you used to know;
- some of you are masters of a language other than English, but struggle with English;
- some of you are just sure that, for whatever reason, you’re not good writers.
I will do my best to meet you at whatever level you find yourself. Of course, online instruction and assignments are relatively set, and it’s impossible for personal interactions to be 100% customized for each member of the class; there just aren’t that many hours in a day. But when I respond to your assignments, I will do my best to address your particular needs.
But you will need to do your part, too. Please read my comments carefully, and ask questions when something is not clear.
Above all: understand that one aspect — probably the most important aspect — of college is learning how to learn. Don’t rely only on me and my instruction; make sure you also seek answers on your own. There are a lot of good writing resources out there (I’ll point to several of them throughout the course, including later in this syllabus). The more you pursue questions on your own, the more useful my help — and the help of teachers in future courses — will be.
Next up: Learning Outcomes
As I mentioned earlier, I’ve broken this syllabus up into several parts so that it’s not just one long, overwhelming document. The next section is about Learning Outcomes.