Welcome to English 1301 Week 1 January 18, 2018

WRITE THIS DOWN: English1301jb.wordpress.com

About me BA in English from Texas A&M International University MFA in Creative Writing from University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Pursuing my doctorate here at TTU in English. Previously taught introduction to writing courses and introduction to creative writing classes. (Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, playwriting) Worked on a small indie film last year.

Contact me Contact Information: Instructor: Jennifer Buentello                       Email: Jennifer.buentello@ttu.edu Office: Rm 457  Office hours:  Monday (12:30 p.m.  – 1:30 p.m.) Tuesday (11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.) Thursday (11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.) or by appointment

What To Expect In This Class It’s your responsibility to read the Syllabus and the Discussion Course Policies on Blackboard. Participation grade and Elireview grade links are on Blackboard too.

Course Theme

Course Theme In this section, we will investigate perspectives on video games and culture to explore the rhetorical dynamics of arguments about video games. Video games are a site of continual public argument, as people argue about whether video games harm youth or help them (are they educational, or do they teach violence and sexism?), about racial and gender representation in video games, about diversity of employment in the video game industry, and more. While we are only “dipping our toes” into public conversations about video games, our goal is not to walk away as experts, but rather to practice inquiry and analysis: “listening in” on this continuing conversation to practice summarizing, synthesizing, and analyzing the arguments of others.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING E-MAILS: 1.) I will only answer e-mails from 10 am to 5 pm. 2.) Please e-mail me from your TTU e-mail only. 3.) I will take 24 to 48 hours to respond to e-mails unless you have an emergency. 4.) Before you e-mail, be sure to check the class syllabus, this WordPress site, or even Blackboard. A lot of information you are asking about can be found on these three things. 5.) If you e-mail me, put your section number somewhere in the e-mail.

Here are a few major things you need to know about this class:

Tim Day Lecture mega section 08:00 AM - 08:50 AM Media & Communication Room 00281

Absences can seriously hurt your grade

Absences can seriously hurt your grade Because participation in class activities is important to both your success and your classmates’ success, you are allowed up to 4 absences (for official or personal reasons). (These 4 absences include both lecture and discussion class meetings.) After your fourth absence, your final grade will be penalized half a letter grade (5%) for each absence.

WHAT TO EXPECT IN THIS CLASS Project or Activity Portion of Final Grade: Project 1: Mediated Values Essay (with feedback to classmates) 5% Project 2: Summary Project with Writer’s Memo 10% Project 3: Rhetorical Analysis 25% Project 4: Podcast Episode with Statement of Goals and Choices 20% Project 5: Final Self-Assessment Essay 10% In-Class Participation 10% Eli Review Peer Feedback Participation 20% Note: In order to pass this class, you must complete Projects 1 through 5. Failure to submit these five projects will result in failing the class.

Late penalties All major projects must be submitted in Blackboard by the due date and time listed on the course schedule. If you have trouble submitting your work on Blackboard for any reason, email your instructor and include a copy of your completed assignment, along with an explanation of the technical problem, prior to the deadline for the assignment. As soon as the technical problem has been resolved, you must submit your assignment as usual. Any exceptions to this policy must be arranged with me before the assigned due date and time. Late major projects will automatically receive a letter grade (10%) penalty. If your project is more than 1 class period late, it could receive a total grade deduction of up to 20%. If your project is more than 1 week late, it could receive a total grade deduction of up to 50%. After two weeks, your project will receive a zero.

Late penalties Always backup your electronic files. Best practice is to store digital files in at least two locations. Develop a strategy for consistently and frequently backing up your digital files, whether that is through a cloud service like Dropbox of Microsoft OneDrive, a flash drive, your RaiderDrive account, or another mechanism. A lost file or a crashed computer is not an excuse for late work in this class.

Participation Ten percent of your final grade in this class is calculated through an in-class participation grade. I will calculate this grade based on your participation in in-class activities, including freewriting, small- group work, whole class discussion, coming to class prepared with work assigned, showing evidence of having done the readings, actively listening to each other, and so forth.

Participation If you don’t regularly participate, your grade will drop. Perfect attendance alone is not enough alone to warrant an A for participation. Simple perfect attendance without engaging with in-class activities and while not coming to class prepared will earn you a C- (70%) for participation. This grade will be lower if attendance is poor or if you’re actively not participating (like reading a newspaper, engrossed on your laptop with non-course related websites, etc.)

elireview Eli Review: All assignments should be completed on time. If you do not complete the writing assignments you cannot be included in the review groups or revisions, and thus will lose points from all three assignments.

Any Questions?

For Tuesday, January 23 Found on Blackboard:

Think about the following questions when reading the three articles: 1 Think about the following questions when reading the three articles: 1.) How are the values of these authors shaped and shared through mediated experiences? 2.) How are values shaped by, reflected in, and even challenged by the media?

For next time: See you on Monday, Jan 22, in the 8:00 a.m. mega section. Complete your three readings for Tuesday, Jan 23 Bring a laptop, tablet, or cell phone so we can do EliReview setup if you have any questions.