Course Syllabus

Independent Study in Idaho

ISI Website | indepst@uidaho.edu | 208-885-6641

ENGL 102 Writing & Rhetoric II

Sponsoring Institution: Lewis Clark State College

3 Credits

Instructor Information

Instructor Jennifer Anderson

Course Instructor: Jennifer Anderson

Your course developer is Jennifer Anderson, an English professor at Lewis-Clark State College. She received her bachelor’s degree in English/Creative Writing from Lewis-Clark State College and her master’s degree in Creative Writing from the University of Idaho. Over the past seventeen years, she has taught a variety of courses at the University of Idaho and Lewis-Clark State College, including Composition, Research Writing, Introduction to Literature, Publishing Arts, and Creative Writing.

Course Description

Welcome! Our course theme is how modern technology affects our lives and the way we live. You will read a variety of essays that focus on the internet, social media, email, video games, smartphones, and more. You will think critically about the ideas presented in these texts, how they relate to you individually as well as to the larger culture, and write about those ideas in a range of college-level essays, including argumentative, analytical, research-based, and reflective essays. In short, in this class, you will critically examine the digital world and your role within that world while also practicing the fundamental academic skills essential to English composition and research writing.

Course Learning Outcomes

In successfully completing this course, students will meet the outcomes of English 102:

  • Continue to demonstrate competency in the outcomes for English 101.
  • Locate, identify, and participate in academic discourse.
  • Read critically, synthesize, and evaluate information.
  • Use a variety of research tools (databases, the Internet, etc.) to locate appropriate information sources.
  • Develop a focused research topic or project.
  • Conduct a review of the literature for a specific topic.
  • Understand what constitutes evidence in a particular discipline.
  • Use valid evidence to support claims.
  • Understand and use APA and MLA citation styles to organize and document multiple-source essays.
  • Understand and demonstrate the ethical responsibility of the research writer to explore multiple perspectives on a topic and to cite sources and report findings accurately.

General Education Learning Outcomes

English 102 is part of the Written Communication area of the General Education Core at Lewis-Clark State College and is a GEM course for all Idaho public institutions. Students completing this course for transfer to an institution outside of the state of Idaho should check with their academic advisors for how it will transfer to their institution.  Upon successful completion of this course a student will demonstrate the following competencies:

  • Use flexible writing process strategies to generate, develop, revise, edit, and proofread texts.
  • Adopt strategies and genres appropriate to the rhetorical situation.
  • Use inquiry-based strategies to conduct research that explores multiple and diverse ideas and perspectives appropriate to the rhetorical context.
  • Use rhetorically appropriate strategies to evaluate, represent, and respond to the ideas and research of others.
  • Address readers’ biases and assumptions with well-developed evidence-based reasoning.
  • Use appropriate conventions for integrating, citing, and documenting source materials as well as for surface-level language and style.

Prerequisite:  English 101 or placement.

Required Materials

To keep costs down for students, all texts are Open Education Resources (OERs), which are free. I've provided links to the two main texts here. Other short, required readings are located in the Modules. 

Course Rules and Requirements

Assignment Guidelines

  • Most short assignments ask you to read something substantial in one of your texts and submit a written response to what you have read. You will also complete various tasks related to specific writing assignments as well as a quiz on MLA/APA format.
  • Keep all drafts and save everything to a drive. This ensures that if an assignment comes up missing, you will always have an extra copy. I recommend using the cloud.
  • All final drafts must be word-processed and double-spaced. Use Times New Roman 12 pt font.
  • If you fail to hand in any major writing assignment, or do not make a good faith effort to succeed at a major assignment, you will automatically earn an F. There is no reason for receiving an F in this course, unless you simply do not attend class or fail to hand in the required work.

Grade Information

There are a possible 870 points for this course.

There are four major writing assignments (600 pts). Here is an overview of the major assignments (more detailed descriptions will follow in the modules.)

WA 1: Rhetorical Response (MLA): Length 4-5 pages = 100 pts

WA 2: Webpage Analysis (APA): Length 4-5 pages = 150 pts

WA 3: Research Project (MLA or APA): Length 8-10 pages = 250 pts

WA 4: Reflection Essay (MLA): Length 3-4 pages = 100 pts

You will also be graded on your completion of short assignments/quizzes (270 pts):

Here’s an overview of these assignments:

  • Lesson 1: Intros/syllabus review 10 pts
  • Lesson 2: Post-reading response (Alter) 10 pts
  • Lesson 3: Post-reading response (Lanier) 10 pts
  • Lesson 4: Believing/doubting game 10 pts
  • Lesson 5: Reading WTG/ATG 10 pts
  • Lesson 6: Fallacies 10 pts
  • Lesson 7: Tentative thesis 10 pts
  • Lesson 8: Summary (Lanier’s text) 10 pts
  • Lesson 9: Rhetorical response rough draft 10 pts
  • Lesson 11: Post-reading response (Wojdynski & Bang) 10 pts
  • Lesson 12: Describing your webpage 10 pts
  • Lesson 13: Tentative thesis 10 pts
  • Lesson 14: Scholarly source 10 pts
  • Lesson 15: Webpage analysis rough draft 10 pts
  • Lesson 17: Research topic 10 pts
  • Lesson 18: Identifying bias 10 pts
  • Lesson 19: Annotated bibliography 35 pts
  • Lesson 20: Outline 25 pts
  • Lesson 21: Research paper rough draft 10 pts
  • Lesson 23: Post-reading response (Carr) 10 pts
  • MLA/APA quiz 30 pts
  • Total: 270 pts

Course Policies

Policy on Plagiarism:

As a writing instructor, I assume that you will do honest work and that you will work with me on improving writing that is your own. But since plagiarism is a serious matter, it is important to explain what plagiarism is and what the consequences are.

What Plagiarism is (Two Basic Forms):

  1. Using someone else's work as your own without citing the source. This includes direct copying, rephrasing, and summarizing, as well as taking someone else's idea and putting it in different words.
  2. Not indicating directly quoted passages or ideas even while citing the work as a general source.

What the Consequences of Plagiarism are:

If a paper involves plagiarism of the second kind (less serious), I may ask you to rewrite the paper, using correct forms of documentation. If a paper involves the first kind of extremely serious plagiarism, you will automatically receive a failing grade for the course as well as face additional academic penalties in accordance with LCSC’s Student Code of Conduct.

I may demonstrate that a paper involves plagiarism in two ways:
1. By identifying the source.
2. By showing the discrepancy of style between previous papers and the paper in question.

A Note about AI/Chat GPT: Generative artificial intelligence (AI) software is a rapidly emerging tool that students may be interested in using. If doing so, students are expected to adhere to the same standards as the Code of Conduct statement on plagiarism. Presenting generative AI software content as your own is a violation of academic integrity. If you use generative AI in your work, you must indicate that you have done so.

A final word on plagiarism: I understand the occasional temptation to plagiarize—but I am surprisingly good at recognizing plagiarism. My basic message is DON'T DO IT. When you need something from another person's work—an idea, a powerful statement, a set of facts, or an explanation—cite