ENGL+2050+Self-Staging+Description+and+Policies

**Self-Staging:** **Oral Communication** **in Everyday Life** **Dr. Lori Wilson Snaith ** **Office: TLC 3137 ** lsnaith@westga.edu //**Course Description and Classroom Policies **// **LEARNING OUTCOMES of ENGL 2050** Students will--
 * Spring 2018 ENGL 2050 **
 * be able to identify, analyze, and practice the various discursive modes involved in everyday self-presentation.
 * demonstrate the ability to appropriately adapt their oral communication to specific purposes and audiences.
 * learn and practice techniques of effective conflict resolution, collaborative working, and the presentation of self in a variety of professional and personal contexts.
 * study and discuss contemporary theories of communication.
 * learn how to express themselves more precisely and articulately by expanding their vocabulary and leading/participating in a variety of discussions in many contexts.


 * REQUIRED TEXTS AND MATERIALS **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Snaith, Lori Wilson. //Self-Staging: Self-Aware Communication in Everyday Life.//
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 18.6667px;">This is a workbook that UWG Publications and Printing copies and binds for my Self-Staging classes


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">COURSE EVALUATION **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">You must complete all your assignments in order to pass this course:
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">First presentation: 10%
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Group presentation: 15%
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Midterm impromptu speech: 10%
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Final presentation—Two-Minute Recitation: 15%
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Vocabulary mastery--three tests (two individual; one with your Group): 10% (cumulative)
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">"Vocabulary Enthusiast" project: 10%
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Argumentation Analysis and Response Essays (2) : 5% each; 10% cumulative (hard copies only)
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Collaborative Group Essay: 10% (in hard copy)
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Daily assignments, workbook assignments, and participation: 10%


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">ATTENDANCE **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">In this course particularly, your attendance and participation in every class meeting is essential to your success, and to the progress of your classmates. Moreover, the nature of our class work demands a high level of concentration and student interaction; I want to create the most conducive environment possible in order for every student to excel. Therefore, I will only allow THREE absences without penalty to your grade.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Every absence after your third one, however, will result in a 5-point decrease in your **final average**.

**<span style="background-color: #e7eafa; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">In order to discourage chronic lateness, I count each late arrival to class as half an absence. **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">If you're absent on the day of a graded exercise (vocabulary test, presentation, interview, lab, etc.), you will not have the opportunity to make up the assignment.

**<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">I will dismiss from my classroom students who either fall asleep, **  **<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">don't bring their materials, or who bring them but haven't read them. **  **<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">I will count these students absent for the day. **  **<span style="color: #008000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Don't test me on this. Seriously. **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Select an interesting fact/event that you've learned recently, and prepare a FIVE minute presentation in which you teach us about your topic, and tell us how it is relevant to us. You'll be the expert on this topic, so do your research homework! Plan on a minute of question-and-answer at the end of your presentation.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">FIVE-MINUTE PRESENTATION **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Your topic must: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">1) add to our body of college-level knowledge <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">2) interest you intensely <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">3) lead you to consult at least three scholarly sources

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;"> In your proposal (check our website for its due date) type a brief description of your topic-- two paragraphs will do--and list the three scholarly sources that you have consulted in selecting the focus and facts connected to your topic. Also, explain what you think its relevance or interest will be to your classmates.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">This proposal is a piece of professional writing: format it carefully according to MLA requirements, and take it to the University Writing Center (call for an appointment: (678-839-6513) to consult with a tutor to make sure you submit a good piece of writing.


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 18.6667px;">Reduce Ambiguity on Presentation Day! **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;"> If you plan to use visuals, include a description of them in your proposal, but please bear in mind that this assignment requires that you foreground your own self-staging skills instead of depending too much on graphics.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 18.6667px;">Plan to write your essay early so that you can rehearse it aloud several times so that you can present without reference to any script whatsoever; brief note-cards are fine, but don't over-load them or over-depend on them.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 18.6667px;">I’ll be considering your timing, evidence of research and college-level analysis, diction, poise, and posture.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;"> On presentation day: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">-- plan to dress professionally. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">-- you must hand me a perfectly MLA-formatted Works Cited page listing your three scholarly sources (first-page headings are not necessary; just the regular header in the top left corner. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;"> Again, plan ahead to take a draft of your Works Cited document to the University Writing Center in order to assure that it's flawless.


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">GROUP ASSESSMENT AND COLLABORATION **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Several of the projects in class will require you to work with other students, and some will require you to assess other students in their degree of success/competency. I expect, therefore, that you will work with each in a constructive, respectful, and rigorous environment, sharing ideas and expertise for the benefit of the group as a whole. Part of your responsibility in this class is to help each other improve, and this means that you must point out your classmates’ strengths as well as their areas of weakness in order that every student might grow in his or oral communication skills. I expect you to deliver your feedback in an honest and tactful manner.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">In this assignment, you'll put your presentation skills (posture, diction, projection, lateral-thinking, poise under pressure, connection to your audience, and general //joie de vivre//!) to a slightly more rigorous test by picking a topic out of a hat, and immediately delivering a one-minute minute presentation on the subject.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">MIDTERM IMPROMPTU PRESENTATION **


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">[[file:Midterm Presentation--impromptu topics.doc|LIST OF TOPICS]] **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Don't worry! You'll have had plenty of practice before this midterm activity just by developing your Self-Staging skills out in The Real World, and you can prepare by rehearsing all the topics (see link, above).

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">**VOCABULARY ENTHUSIAST ASSIGNMENT** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 18.6667px;">Twice this semester, you will submit THREE lists of twenty vocabulary words, their part of speech, and their definitions--you'll see page blanks for this assignment in the back of your workbook.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 18.6667px;">Each list of twenty words must come from a different class (you may choose Self-Staging as one of the three classes); you may glean your lists from the same three classes for both submissions, if you'd like. Finally, you must procure the professors' signature and ask them to date each of your vocabulary pages that your created from their classes.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 18.6667px;">Refer to your course syllabus for due dates.


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">RECITATION ASSIGNMENT **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">For part of your Final Exam, each student will recite a different two-minute excerpt (around 15-20 lines), which he or she will choose from any LITERARY text: poetry, non-fiction (speeches, essays), lines from plays, novels, short-stories. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Your text MUST come from classic, canonical texts.

**<span style="background-color: #f5eafa; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">In an academic sense, the "canon" means the great works of literature...the "best" or "most important" or "most representative" works of literature which anchor the study of English and American literature. You may also choose English translations from canonical texts from great World literature, ** **<span style="background-color: #f5eafa; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">such as a passage from Plato, Ovid, Confucius, Voltaire, Achebe, etc. **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">In order for you to have the advantage of preparing for this assignment as thoroughly as possible, early in the semester you will submit a proposal for the text you'd like to memorize.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">I will assess your recitation according to the following criteria:
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Coherence and logic of your oral introduction of the text to the class: what's the relevance of this text to your classmates? Why is it worth listening to?
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Basic presentation skills (i.e. can everybody hear you? Are you articulating each and every word clearly? <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">).
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Enthusiasm and audience connection:
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Did you recite this piece with spirit--//passion//, even--demonstrating a clear understanding of each and every line with appropriate subtext?
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Did you sustain eye-contact with your classmates?
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">How well did you overcome your nerves and deliver an interesting, enriching, pleasant—maybe even fun—recitation?
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Did you know your text so well that you didn't even seem to be calling upon your memory in order to deliver the recitation?

//**<span style="background-color: #fae1c4; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">I’m looking for __performance__ here, not solely rote memorization. **//

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">CHECK OUT [|**THIS LINK**] for more information and examples of how to deliver an excellent recitation.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt; text-align: left;">**ARGUMENTATION ANALYSIS ESSAYS**

//**<span style="background-color: #e1fcda; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">These essays are formal writing assignments, and I expect college-level attention **// //**<span style="background-color: #e1fcda; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">to not only content, but also spelling, sentence structure, and originality of ideas. **// <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">-- Your topic assignment for each of these essays is to choose and watch carefully one of the five-minute courses in **any** of the ten categories you'll find on the website [|Prager University] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 18.6667px;">, and write an analysis that. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">-- Length requirement: 1-1/2 to 2 pages (typed, double-spaced, proofread, MLA formatting, stapled--not paper-clipped!).

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">--I'm looking for competent (excellent, even!) college-level writing (double-spaced, 12-point font including headers, spell-checked, and proof-read for clarity and logical flow), and I will assess each of your essays according to the rubric below.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">-- See your syllabus for due dates.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">--You may revise the first response essay for additional credit; if you opt to do so.


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">ASSESSMENT OF YOUR ARGUMENTATION ANALYSES AND RESPONSE ESSAYS **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">With the Learning Outcomes of this project in mind, I will grade each of your submissions according to the following criteria:

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">A (90-100)--Thoughtful, insightful, compelling writing; they're also well-worded and spell-checked, and demonstrate that you've taken time to think seriously about the substance of our course discussions. I will reserve grades of 95-100 for essays that smoothly integrate a word from our ongoing vocabulary-building lists, and which show intellectually-honest engagement with the material.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">B (80-89)--Your essays respond capably to the course material, and they articulate an original insight about the various topics, with appropriate tone, word-choices, with no distracting patterns of error in writing. B-level journal entries might not be compelling, but they go beyond surface-level responses, and they're generally insightful and well-written.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">C (70-79)--C-level essays adhere to all of the assignment’s requirements; they focus on a course-related topic, provide competent analysis regarding its relevance to your own experience beyond the classroom. They contain minimal that undermine the coherence of your ideas.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">D (60-69)--A grade of D on any essay results from: a) failure to adhere to assignment’s requirements; b) inadequate response to the course material; c) a lack of analysis and/or mere repetition of factual details about the topic; d) pervasive grammatical and /or mechanical errors that interfere severely with coherence.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">F (50-59)--A failing grade is the result of two or more of the problems listed above under “D.”

**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">LATE WORK POLICY **
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">I do not accept any late work; I know this is a tough policy **<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">...however, being late with your class work hinders your own progress as well as that of your classmates, especially in a class of this nature. I define a "late assignment" as one that you have not given to me (not left in my drop-box, but physically placed in my hands) before I leave campus on the day the assignment's due.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;"> **Non-Engagement** <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;">The USG and UWG have become concerned with “Non-Engaged” students – those whose level of interest and engagement in the learning process is not optimal, and is thus setting them up for failure.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;"> In order to help students perform to the utmost of their abilities, <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;">professors must identify and report non-engaged students to Student Services  <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;">and other appropriate university offices, in order to assure timely intervention  <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;">and support. I hope I won't have to report anyone in this class as “non-engaged”; <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt; text-align: center;"> let's work together to assure your success in this course!


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 20pt;">And Finally... **
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">Please **<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">[|**click on this link*] <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">[|*] **<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;"> to a document that the University of West Georgia requires that we include on every syllabus; ****<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;">do read it over carefully, ****<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14pt;"> as it touches upon matters that will affect your college career. **