Intoduction
to College Composition—English 131
Hi
folks. Welcome to English 131. My name
is Dr. Elaine McKeand and I will be your instructor
this term. I have been teaching here at
the college for over twenty years and I am one of those lucky people who enjoy my
job. I still look forward to each new
semester because it’s an opportunity to meet many new people who want to
perfect their writing skills. Some
students are very nervous and some students enter an English course bursting
with confidence. Regardless of your
level of fear or excitement upon entering this course, let me reassure
you: Good college writing is made
possible through good, critical thinking.
If you think richly and well, your writing will surely reflect this. Now, because you have chosen a course which
is 95% online, I’d like to give you some helpful information before the
semester begins.
The first
thing I’d like to say is that an online class offers its rich rewards. You can complete a semester’s worth of work
in the comfort of your own home and at your own computer. But an online course also requires some a
good degree of computer literacy. If you
are concerned about whether or not you’ll be comfortable with the technological
side of this course, take the self-test on the HFCC UCompass
login page:
http://henryford.ucompass.com. Click
the “Student Resources “ link and then read “Is
on-line for you?” This should assist you
in making a decision about your level of competency and comfort with the
computer. Additionally, you need to set
aside time each week to complete your online work. I have developed a rather rigorous, but I
think rewarding, program of study but you need to make a time commitment to the
course. In this type of course
especially, you will come away enriched to the extent that you expend your best
efforts.
Because the
course is 95% online, that leaves 5% of your time which I’ll ask you to spend on
campus. I will ask you to complete your
midterm and final exam in a proctored environment on campus. You will go to the Learning Resource Center,
on the main campus in Room C. In these
sessions, we will accomplish a couple of tasks.
First, I will give you a writing topic and ask you to write your best
college essay response so that I have a writing sample from you. Additionally, we will review the basic
rudiments of the UCompass system. I will familiarize you with the menu,
particularly important components of it such as the Discussion Board and how to
post on it, the Writing Corner and how to submit papers electronically. Here, you might find the following website
helpful: http://adm.hfcc.edu/~pkim/HowtoUseUCompass.htm. This will
familiarize you with how to successfully submit assignments. And don’t forget to click the box that says,
“Submitted for a grade” so that I will see it.
In order for this to be properly accomplished, you will always submit
papers in either Microsoft Word or “rich text format” (RTF). If you don’t have a word processing program
on your computer, you may download a free Microsoft Word compatible program at
this website: http://download.openoffice.org/
If you need to contact me, you can reach me at
emckeand@henryford.ucompass.com. (If you send emails through free email
accounts such as Hotmail or AOL, I will not be receiving them because UCompass software will filter them out in order to protect
the system from spam or viruses.)
Please be
aware that you will not be given access to your online class until the first
day of regular classes. At that point,
you will log into UCompass using your WebAdvisor username and the four digit mmdd
of your birthday as your password.
(Don’t use the year…If your birthday is January 3, your password is
0103. And Voila! Welcome to English 131. The first menu item you will see when you log
into our course is the Announcement button.
Always click on that as you enter the course because this is where I’ll
keep you updated on all matters pertinent to our course, like due dates,
helpful hints, fun facts, and occasionally just encouragement.
If you have
any technical difficulties either as you enter or at any point in the term,
please click on the Tech Support link on the UCompass
login page and here you will see the emails and phone numbers of the technical
staff who can offer you expert and timely help.
As I’ve
said, I think you’ll really enjoy this class, but come prepared to chat us up and write a lot.
The text I have chosen for the course is The Bedford Reader, 10th
edition by X.J Kennedy, Dorothy M. Kennedy and Jane E. Aaron. I have ordered copies for you at the College
Bookstore, but if you can find it less expensively on line, that’s a bonus.
I look
forward to meeting with you online and to reading your great college thinking
this term.