All materials, including the written text, handouts, and any information spoken in class or written on the board, are expected to be reflected in your work. Take notes, and study the writing models and handouts. Keep all of the work you do during the course (collected in your portfolio) until after the final grades have been announced. Your final grades will be determined by the following course components: 

• Participation and Portfolio Project: 20%


• Creative Non-Fiction Exam: 30%


• Short Story Exam: 30%


• Final Capstone Paper: 20%

Participation:

This grade includes homework writing assignments completed on time (collected in the portfolio); in-class performance: group/pair discussion, peer review, effort on in-class writing; attendance; and coming to class on time.

• Students must have a positive attitude for learning. If students come with a bad attitude, it can affect the entire mood of the class, so students who project a negative attitude may expect to lose participation points. This includes sleeping in class or focusing on his/her phone while ignoring others. Phones should be used for better engagement in writing/speaking activities, not disengagement.


• Participating in the class means completing the in-class writing activities, speaking in pairs or groups, and participating in the class poetry reading.


• Interacting with classmates in English is a must since students will help each other by giving peer feedback on their writing and also work together to complete in-class or even out-of-class writing assignments.


• Most of the homework assignments will either be started or completed in class. Whatever assignments that are not finished in class must be completed for homework. All homework and classwork assignments should be added to the student’s portfolio.


• All AI tools, including Grammarly or other help tools, are not allowed to be used on homework assignments. Students who turn in assignments with perfect grammar and native-speaker-like idiomatic usage will be suspected of cheating and will receive a zero on their assignment.


• Attendance is mandatory. Students with three unexcused absences or more will fail the course.

Portfolio Project:

Students must create their own “textbook” by collecting all of their class handouts, lecture notes, practice exercises, and homework assignments into one volume of work. This portfolio of the students’ work will be turned in at the end of the semester as the students’ proof for having completed assignments. In addition to completing their portfolio, students must give a final presentation to share their favorite piece of writing from their portfolio with the class. Portfolios will be graded on neatness/organization, completeness, and effort. Presentations will be based on content (originality of the work presented) and intelligibility (how well the listeners can understand the speaker). Students must include a table of contents with dates of assigned work completed.

Creative Non-Fiction Exam:

This first in-class exam is a test of the creative non-fiction modes that have been taught and practiced in class. These include travel writing, features writing, and a personal experience composition. Students will write according to the topic presented on the day of the exam and include an outline to show the structure of their work. Students’ writing will be judged on outline structure, creative introductions, supporting body paragraphs, creative conclusions, and language use.

Short Story Exam:

This second in-class exam is a test of the short story mode that students have learned and practiced in class. Students will create a main character and a few minor characters and plot out a story using the model that was presented in class. Students must create a story based on the topic that will be revealed on the day of the exam. Students’ writing will be judged on pre-writing (plot structure/character development), creative introductions, dialogue and story, creative conclusions, and language use.

Final Capstone Paper:

Students will complete one out-of-class creative writing assignment of their choice, either creative non-fiction: travel writing, a features article, or personal experience essay; or a fictional short story in a genre of their choice. For either assignment they choose must include a typed outline and typed composition, between 2-4 pages double-spaced. Students’ writing will be judged on two different rubrics, depending on whether they choose non-fiction or fiction. For non-fiction, the criteria are outline structure, creative introductions, supporting body paragraphs, creative conclusions, and language use. For fiction, the criteria are pre-writing (plot structure/character development), creative introductions, dialogue and story, creative conclusions, and language use.

• As with homework assignments, all AI tools, including Grammarly or other help tools, are not allowed to be used on this out-of-class assignment. Students who turn in assignments with perfect grammar and native-speaker-like idiomatic usage (especially if it does not match the style they write on the in-class exams) will be suspected of cheating and will receive a zero on this assignment.

There is no textbook to purchase for the class. Students must create their own “textbook” (the final portfolio project) by collecting all of their class handouts, lecture notes, practice exercises, and homework assignments into one volume of work.