Course Title and Sections
English 1A: College Composition and Reading
Sections: D9176 and D9177 (online)
Instructor
Greg Kemble
Contact information
- Canvas Message — This is the best way to contact me, as it helps me keep track of things in Canvas.
- Email: gkemble@yccd.edu
- Voice Mail: (530) 749-3821 —Please make sure your message includes how you’d like me to get back to you.
Note: I’m likely to get a message more quickly though Canvas or email than through voicemail.
Office Location
Marysville Campus: 1100 Building, Room 1179. (Directions)
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.
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.
- Monday 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. (in person, in my office)
- Tuesday: 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. (via Zoom)
- Wednesday: 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. (via Zoom – from my office)
- Or by appointment
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. I do my best to protect these times, but 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.
Textbook
Anna Mills’s How Arguments Work – A Guide to Writing and Analyzing Texts in College.
This course is a “Zero-Cost Textbook” course, which means that we’ll be using a free Open Educational Resources (OER) textbook. (If you’re interested in OER, you can read about the initiative on the California Community Colleges OER page.)
I’ve included the relevant parts of the text within the course, in Canvas, so you shouldn’t need to download anything. (If that changes, I’ll let everyone know through a Canvas announcement.)
However, 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 something comes up that makes me change my mind — you don’t need to download the full PDF, either. You’re welcome to do so, of course, but it’s not required.
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. We’ll address these concepts as they become important in the course.
Time Commitment
English 1A is a demanding course, especially online. 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 let you know, explicitly, that 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 — you should expect to spend an average of 12 hours each week.
Does that sound like a lot? It is! And while I don’t want you to be scared of the course, I don’t want you to underestimate it, either. I am often surprised at how many students expect to be able to do the course in just a couple hours each weekend — or, worse, in a few hours at the end of the semester.
Again, I’m not trying to freak you out. 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 (or still in high school!) and have not yet encountered college-level writing;
- some of you have been away from school for so long that you fear you’ve forgotten much of what you used to know;
- some of you have rich life experiences and have no difficulty writing about complex issues and arguments, whether as workers, parents, or citizens;
- 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, 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 I will do my best to address your particular needs.
But you will need to do your part, too. You’ll need to schedule the time you need to read and respond to challenging texts. You’ll need to check your Canvas Messages and Announcements regularly. You’ll need to keep up with — and keep track of — the work. You’ll need to post and respond to your peers in Discussion Group Assignments. You’ll need to ask questions when you don’t understand something.
Above all: understand that a crucial aspect of a college education is learning how to learn. Be sure that you don’t rely only on me and my instruction; be 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.