Course Information

Click here for access to the BMCC Fall 2022 Academic Calendar, which lists important dates and deadlines for the semester.

Click here to access the course syllabus.

This is a Zero Textbook Cost course, which uses OER (Open Educational Resources) in lieu of a textbook. All required materials can be accessed in the Weekly folders.

Please visit the Blackboard home page for your section and access the E-learning Orientation on the gray navigation panel. This is a mandatory assignment and should be completed by the end of the first week. A 20-question quiz at the end of Week 2 will include material from the Orientation.

Click here to create an account with Commonlit. This is a zero textbook course (ZTC), and many of the assignments will come from this interactive website. Please create your student account right away so that you do not miss any assignments. Your class code is:  6WNW87K The name of the class is: Introduction to Literature Fall 2022. Thank you for your cooperation.

This is an asynchronous online course. There are no Zoom meetings nor in-person sessions. Each week, you are responsible for completing all the tasks on each weekly page. The tasks are varied and include reading, listening, viewing, and discussing activities. Each week begins on Monday and ends on Sunday. From time to time, you will be directed or linked back to the Blackboard platform to take quizzes or submit essays. Your grades will still be recorded in the Blackboard grade center. Be sure to check on your progress during the semester. Professor Conway can always be reached by email a cconway@bmcc.cuny.edu  

Even in an online course, lively discussions are at the heart of an interesting class. These are the main forums for interaction in an online course and are also the primary means of showing your presence in the class.  Our discussion forums are different than most because you will be interacting with students from all my ENG 201 sections, not just your own. This is a big community! The weekly discussions can be accessed in two ways: through the main menu (above) or through the page for each week (side menu). Directions and prompt appear when you click on the discussion board. Discussion Board Etiquette Please respond in full sentences in correct English (not in texting language). Please use upper and lower case. Disagreement with the opinions of others is fine–even encouraged—but please show respect for fellow classmates in your responses.  

Class participation via the discussion board makes up a significant percentage of your overall grade (20%). How to receive full credit (100%) for each weekly discussion board. Submit your first post by Friday of each week at the latest. This is worth 80% of the weekly grade. Respond to the post of one other student by Sunday. This is worth 20% of the weekly grade. Make sure your first post is at least 150 words in length. Make sure your response to another student is at least 75 words. Comments such as “Nice post” or “I agree” are friendly but will not receive credit. Make sure you post in the week in which the discussion was assigned. For example, post your Week 3 response during Week 3. A few other notes about discussion board grading The highest grade an original post can receive if it is submitted on the weekend is 75% Posts submitted as attachments will not be opened. Discussion boards cannot be “made up.” This is because once a discussion has closed, there is no one in the forum with whom to discuss anything. Understand that if everyone posted on the weekend, there would be no ongoing discussion during the week.      

The High Cost of Plagiarism Plagiarism will be dealt with firmly. A student who plagiarizes will receive a permanent grade of zero (0) for the essay or discussion in question. All essays will be submitted through Turnitin, which features plagiarism detection capability. Suspected plagiarism, even if it passes the Turnitin detection function, will be turned over to the Student Life Manager for Student Conduct and Academic Integrity. If you hope to pass this class, do not plagiarize. Every student is required to view the short plagiarism video in order to have a complete understanding of what plagiarism is. This will preclude the excuse that anyone has “accidentally” plagiarized.

Essay Due Dates Essay Introduction due:  Sunday, October 2  (See Week 5 for details). Essay First Draft:  Sunday, October 23  (See Week 8 for details). Research Summary due:  Sunday, November 6  (See Week 10 for details). Essay Final Draft due: Sunday, November 20 (See Week 11 for details ). In order to be reviewed all essays must contain a signed Academic Integrity Pledge. Below the Work Cited page, please type the following and type your full name. I hereby pledge that the information in this essay is my own original work and that all phrases or quotes taken from other sources have been correctly identified via quotation marks/in-text citation. YOUR NAME

Quiz 1:   Wednesday, 1/25 – Sunday, 1/29   See Week 1 for details. Quiz 2:   Monday, 1/30- Sunday 2/5            See Week 3 for details. Quiz 3:   Monday, 2/6 – Sunday, 2/12          See Week 4 for details Quiz 4:   Monday, 2/13 – Sunday, 9/19        See Week 5 for details Quiz 5:   Monday 2/27 – Sunday,          See Week 7 for details Quiz 6 – Midterm Monday, 10/17 – Sunday, 10/23    See Week 9 for details Quiz 7:    Monday, 10/24 – Sunday, 10/30   See Week 10 for details Quiz 8 – Final Thursday, 12/15 – Sunday, 12/18  See Final Exam Week for details Note:  Quizzes cannot be made up. Students have an entire week in which to complete each quiz.    

BMCC Grading System A A- B+ B B- C+ C C- D+ D D- F 93 – 100 90 – 92 87 – 89 83 – 86 80 – 82 77 – 79 73 – 76 70 – 72 67 – 69 63 – 66 60 – 62  

How to View Instructor Comments on Written Work It is very important that you review instructor comments on your graded essays. This way you can correct errors and do better on future essays. To see your grades, navigate back to your Blackboard course and follow these steps: Navigate to Essay Submission Links on Blackboard. Go to the Essay you want to review Click on VIEW/COMPLETE Click on the blue tab that says VIEW. When you get to your essay, you will see my comments on the essay itself. Then, on the right-hand side, click the icon that looks like a piece of paper with a pencil on top of it (the third blue icon down). My written comments to you will appear in a small window to the right of this. Above this, you can click to listen to my Voice Comments. How to Check Quiz Answers Go to TOOLS Click on MY GRADES Scroll down to the quiz you want to review and select. Under CALCULATED GRADE, click the blue score. The quiz will open and show answers.

Zoom Office Hours: Tuesday and Wednesday, 11:00 – 12:00 Tuesday Link https://bmcc-cuny.zoom.us/j/85294501969?pwd=b2ZlNEZoUTFzbkpkL2JrMVRMRkFkQT09 Wednesday Link https://bmcc-cuny.zoom.us/j/84762842637?pwd=OE55N0gxNnNEd25JK1Vna2Nzdis3Zz09  

The Writing Center supports writing across the curriculum by working with students and faculty to maximize the effectiveness of writing projects and student awareness of best practices. Tutors work with all students who have writing projects, including those from the Social Sciences, Critical Thinking and Writing Intensive courses. Click this link to access BMCC’s Online Writing Center for help with writing for your English course.

Help with Sentence Structure Run-on sentences, comma splices, and sentence fragments are the most common errors in essays. Please review the quick guide below for correcting these mistakes in sentence structure. For correcting run-on sentences and comma splices, review this PDF file. For correcting sentence fragments, click this link for a short video. Sentence Structure and Grammar Exercises Click this link to access the OWL at Purdue Writing Center “Sentence Structure” Page. On the navigation panel on the left of the screen, you can choose from a number of lessons and practice exercises.