Course Information

  Click here for access to the BMCC Fall 2024 Academic Calendar, which lists important dates and deadlines for the semester.

Click here to access the course syllabus for Section 0505   Click here to access the course syllabus for Section 1104      

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.

Section 1104: This is a synchronous section of ENG 201. Students are required to attend two Zoom meetings per week. Students are requested to be on camera during weekly Zoom meetings. You are free to use artificial or blurred backgrounds. Section 0505: This is an asynchronous section of ENG 201. There are no weekly Zoom meetings for this course. Aside from the Zoom meetings, these two sections are identical. In both sections, 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 Brightspace platform to take quizzes or submit essays. Your grades will still be recorded in the Brightspace 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  

Discussion boards are the main forums for interaction in an online course. During semester, there will be seven discussion boards. They will take place on the odd-numbered weeks: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13.  For each discussion, you most submit an original post of at least 150 words and a response to a colleague of at least 75 words. The weekly discussions can be accessed in two ways: through the main menu (above) or the page for the week in which the discussion takes place (side menu). 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. Grading Details Class participation via the discussion board makes up a significant percentage of your overall grade (15%). To receive full credit (100%) for each 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 […]

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: YALLV8M3      

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.

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  

Quiz 1:   Thursday 1/28 – Sunday, 9/1             See Short Week for details. Quiz 2:   Monday, 9/2 – Sunday 9/8               See Week 1 for details. Quiz 3:   Monday, 9/16 – Sunday, 9/22           See Week 2 for details. Quiz 4:   Monday, 9/23 – Sunday, 9/29            See Week 3 for details. Quiz 5:   Monday 9/30 – Sunday, 10/6             See Week 4 for details. Quiz 6: Monday 10/7  – Sunday 10/13             See Week 6 for details. Quiz 7: Monday 10/21 – Sunday 10/27            See Week 8 for details Quiz 8 – Monday 10/28 – Sunday 11/3           See Week 9 for details F Final Quiz – Monday, 12/16 – Wednesday  12/18   Note:  Quizzes cannot be made up. Students have an entire week in which to complete each quiz.    

Essay Due Dates Essay 1: Due Sunday, Sun. Sunday, September 22 (See Week 2 for details). Essay 2: Due Sunday,  October 13  (See Week 5 for details). Essay 3:  Due Sunday, October  27 (See Week 6 for details). Essay 4:  Due Sunday, November 24 (See Week 10 for details). Deadlines for revisions will be posted as essays are submitted.    

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 Brightspace course and follow these steps: On the Brightspace homepage, click “Assessment” on the blue navigation bar at the top of the screen. On the dropdown menu, click “Grades.” Click the name of the essay you want to see. When the essay appears, look on the right of your screen. Click the icon that looks like a pencil on a piece of paper. My comments and a link to the grading rubric will appear. See the screenshot for an illustrated directions. OR On the Brightspace homepage, click on the essay you want to see. Click on the link with the name of the essay. Then, click on the icon that looks like a pen and paper, marked 1. How to Check Quiz Answers On the Brightspace homepage, click “Activities” on the blue navigation bar at the top of the screen. Choose the quiz you want to check on from the list of quizzes. Click on “Attempt.”

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.