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I want to extend a warm hello to all of you who signed up for this online section of EWRT 1A. My name is Rebecca Board Liljenstolpe, and I have been teaching at De Anza since 1998. I look forward to getting to know each of you and facilitating our online learning community.
This summer we will be delving into the topic of advertising, studying just how powerful an influence it has in our lives. We'll begin by looking at ourselves and the ways we might be influenced--knowingly or not--by the constant barrage of media messages we encounter every day. Each of us strives to be unique, and our consumer choices often reflect our personalities and interests. But to what extent is your self-expression authentic and how much of it is manufactured by persuasive advertising? You might stop for a moment and just take a look at the clothes and shoes you have on now. How many logos can you find? Look around the room you are in. How many brand names can you see? What about the logo--and the ad campaign associated with it--on the computer you are using at this very moment? Have you ever stopped to think about why you buy what you buy and what messages these choices communicate? In addition to exploring these questions, we will spend some time analyzing specific print and television advertisements, and we will devote a lot of attention to analyzing marketing tactics used to sell products to specific audiences. The next six weeks should be interesting and fun, and you will certainly have many opportunities to read, discuss, and write your way through the course. Welcome to the class!
In order to complete some assignments, you will need Quicktime, RealPlayer OR Windows Media Player. These software programs can be downloaded free from the internet and enable you to access streaming video from your browser, and most newer PCs and MACs come with them already installed. One of your assignments the first week will be to insure you have this software installed on your computer. Please let me know if you need help!
Course Requirements
WRITING: 150 points
You will be turning in two essays to CATALYST. These Essays will be due July 8 and 27th
GROUP PROJECT: 100 points
You will complete a group project and turn it in at the end of the quarter.
QUIZZES: 60 points
We will have weekly skills checks (6 total) to insure you are doing the reading in the Online Guide to Grammar and Writing. These writing quizzes are each worth 10 points and will be due no later than Saturday at 11:55 PM each week, and they can not be made up once they have closed. The due dates are intended to motivate your study and insure you are doing the reading in advance of your essay's due date. NOTE: There will also be a forum devoted to The Online Guide to Writing and Grammar, so if you have any questions about this work or about writing in general, post them here
CLASS PARTICIPATION: 90 points
We will be building our online community in the CATALYST forums, where we will hold class discussion of the course material every week. You'll be given discussion topics related to the readings and writing assignments, and you will be expected to post your thoughts and read the comments of others to demonstrate your active engagement in the class. Plan on posting 3-6 comments every week. If you post 2 original comments and reply to 4 posts, you will earn 100% or all 90 points!!
Be aware that CATALYST tracks your participation for me. It logs each time you enter and exit the system, tracks which pages you visit and for how long, in short, it is like Big Brother watching where you go and what you do in the online classroom. I will be able to tell how many days you log in, whether or not you are reading the lectures, and how long you spend doing so. Oftentimes students beg for extra credit (which I do not give BTW) at the end of the quarter, and when I research their profile, I discover they never spent any time on the class. If you want to take this class seriously and pass, be sure you log in often and participate, participate, participate.
You should feel comfortable contacting me via email or through yahoo instant messager. My IM name is r_stolpe, and I will be available for IM office hours Wednesdays from 8:30-9:30 PM . I do not have scheduled on campus office hours during the summer session, but I may meet you by appointment if you feel more comfortable discussing your writing in person. It is often beneficial to review a writing assignment before you turn it in for a grade, so consider sending me drafts for comment. I am really friendly and want to help you!
Please note: I will be on vacation to Yosemite from July 12th-19th. We will still have class, and I will check in while away, but I will be less accessible during that week.
My Online Work Hours: I work mostly in the late evening because I have two small children at home: While these two keep me busy for sure, I do check my email in the mornings, throughout the day when possible, and in the evenings after 9 PM. I can not guarantee I will respond to emails over the weekend, but you can be assured that I will respond to you within 24 hours during the week.
Plagiarism Policy
Because I respect the opinions and ideas of others, I am strongly against cheating and stealing and will uphold a strict plagiarism policy. PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING STATEMENT VERY CAREFULLY:
Students who submit the work of others in whole or in part will receive a zero and may fail the course if the plagiarism continues. It is the student's responsibility to cite sources and avoid sloppy research. Do not use phrases and sentences that you did not create unless you place them in quotation marks and attribute them to their author. Not one sentence, not one paragraph, nothing! Think carefully. Resist the temptation to pillage the web for content to fill your papers because plagiarism is easy to spot, especially for a writing teacher, and I unfortunately encounter it every quarter. Don't be next!
If you feel you need to do some research but are not sure how to quote an author or document your sources, ASK FOR HELP. There are also several useful resources on the web. You can start by checking out
Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing from The Online Writing Lab at Purdue or
The Bedford Guide
Course Outline
Weeks 1 & 2 Under the Influence: What We Buy
Skills Check Deadlines 7/5 and 7/12
Self-Reflection Paper Deadline 7/8
Weeks 3 & 4 Under the Influence: Why We Buy
Skills Check Deadlines 7/19 and 7/26
Ad Analysis Paper Deadline 7/27
Weeks 5 & 6 Under the Influence: Group Project
Skills Check Deadlines 8/2 and 8/8
Projects due 8/8
First Week's Assignments
Summer 1A Writing Assignment #1 |
