Information for Troy Myers' Summer 2009 English 302 Online

For those who are already enrolled:

The two required textbooks for our course are:

Jacobus, Lee. A World of Ideas.7th edition. Bedford St. Martin's. ISBN: 0312434448.

Cooper, Shelia and Rosemary Patton. Writing Logically, Thinking Critically. 5th edition. Longman. ISBN: 0321414314.

In a pinch, you can probably get by with the edition just previous to the ones I've ordered, especially with the Cooper Patton, though the exercise answers and page numbers will be off; best to get current editions...both books are well worth their cost.

This rest of this page serves to provide information for students who are either registered in or who are interested in registering in Professor Myers' online English 302. The actual link to the online class site as well as the necessary password to access the site will be given to registered students at our orientation.

One MANDATORY orientation, 2 hours long, will be held in room RS-311 on the Sacramento City College Campus. The orientation is on Tueday, June 9th, from 5:30 to 7:30. ALL students, those enrolled and those attempting to add, must attend at this time. No exceptions.

At this time, I will require proof of prerequisite completion. For this class, that means a grade of C or better in English 300. If you took 300 at a college outside our district or you do not have Los Rios transcripts showing a passing grade in 300, a pre-orientation meeting with a counselor at SCC will be necessary to evaluate your transcripts. You may be enrolled in my class, but you will be DROPPED at orientation and your seat given away if you cannot provide proof of pre-requisite in hard copy. Every student is also required to sign an honor code at this time. If you feel at all inclined to cheat, take someone else's course; better yet, drop out until you are ready to do your own work. I use turnitin, a powerful professional online service to catch plagiarism. You cheat, you fail. No enrolled student will be allowed to stay without proof of prerequisite in hard copy. No exceptions. The same goes for any trying to add or any on the wait list.

Students who have no experience with the basic Web environment (sending email, sending attachments, using word processing software and Web browsers) should not attempt this class.

This is a class in advanced argumentative college writing, and for those of you who are enrolled and would like to get an early start, I suggest getting our texts from the bookstore and reading ahead; we read nearly all of the Cooper/Patton book and this is a good place to start; from Jacobus, among others, we read essays by Plato, Bacon, Marx, Freire, Nietszche, Woolf, Douglass, and King.

The texts are available at the campus bookstore or are at several online retailers. They do not need to be purchased before our orientation, though a reading assignment will be required immediately. A good MLA handbook is also recommended, though much of that content is online.

Any questions should be directed to my email at myerst@scc.losrios.edu.

For those who wish to add this class:

If you've read this far and are still intrigued...keep trying to register if you can't get in now. I've had full classes where someone drops and another student adds on the phone the week before orientation. Stay on those phones.

This class does tend to fill and attract many petitioners, as is true for all 302's. Online learning requires some computer skill and lots of discipline and dedication. If you are comfortable online and have some motivation as a learner, you are free to show up at the orientations, with your proof of pre-req. as detailed above. Only rarely am I able to take all my adds, but I am almost always able to take some. But remember, as I become truly redundant, I won't allow anyone to stay and try to add without proof of pre-requisite; no exceptions.

If you don't get into my class, one place to look for other online classes is at http://www.cvc.edu; this site lists online classes all over California. You may have more luck there. I use it myself to find online courses and programs.

Best of luck.

Troy Myers