hello everyone and welcome to Alabama A&M university this is English 101 also called freshman composition I'm your instructor Miss Jones I will be uh walking you through the writing process and learning some other things in this course just a little bit about me I am from the great state of Ohio I attended the Ohio State University I received my associates degree in journalism um I attended Alabama A&M university and graduated with my bachelor's degree in community ation class of 1994 yes indeed and then I received my Master's Degree at the University of Alabama in Huntsville now I haven't always been a teacher I had another career prior to this and that was a radio station program director and operations manager um I did some uh morning Joy morning programs afternoon programs I was DJ editing everything that has to do with radio I did it um and I still continue to uh do voiceover work and I also do program um production and I currently produce a program for uh WJ wocg radio station and it's a program called American tapestry and I have been an instructor here at Alabama A&M since 2007 it's been a little while it feels like it was just yesterday to me but it's been a little bit so let's talk a little bit more about the course this class is delivered asynchronously this means means we don't meet at a set time we don't ever log on to meet unless of course you have a question you want to ask me and in that case we'll set up a zoom meeting for it but we don't meet for this class um during the week at any particular time all of your cours workk is online and you will complete it weekly and submit it online so let's talk about a weekly class schedule so your new module or the module that you're beginning with will open on Mondays at 3:00 a.m. your assignment due dates are Sunday night at 11:59 p.m. that's pretty typical most instructors have that as the due date however I've built into my class uh a little bit of a grace period so let's say for example something happens and you don't submit your assignment at exactly 11:59 p.m. on Sunday well I'm giving you a three-hour grace period um if you can get it in by 3:00 in the morning on Monday which is 11:59 is Sunday the very next minute at midnight it's Monday so if you can get your assignment in sometime by 3:00 I'll grade it like you turned it in on time and I won't deduct any points I do have a late policy but I'll discuss that a little bit later on in the video but just know that if you missed the 11:59 deadline you still have a little wiggle room to turn the assign assignment in oops didn't want to go back to that also most of the content in this module on how you'll be um How we'll be discussing writing and what happens is there'll be videos there'll be readings um you'll be instruction guidelines there'll possibly be some discussion posts but the most important thing that you've got to understand about this class is you have to read do not simply jump into the class and straight to the assignment and Skip everything else that's in there because all the videos all the content all the readings that I have with for you to do help you do the assignment when you skip all those things and you turn the assignment in and you don't get the grade you're looking for I can almost guarantee that you probably didn't look at anything else in the module and that's why your grade looks that way so carve out time to read through the module so that you understand what's going on let me tell you a little a little quick thing here I am in school to so just like you guys are using Blackboard and trying to navigate things and get a system together so am I and I'm now that I'm on the student side um I understand but the work still has to get done let's talk about the assignment submission and deadline policy so I already told you that if you submit your assignment 24 hours past the due date um you get a grace period I'm not not taking any points off but if you go anywhere from 2 to 6 days beyond the due date then you're going to get a full letter grade drop for the assignment and I will be only giving limited feedback well why are you giving Miss limited feedback Miss Jones well I have a schedule for how I'm grading and when I'm turning these assignments back to you some assignments you may get are graded immediately so those are things like quizzes that the syst can automatically grade but since this is a writing class and it's writing intensive I have to evaluate your writing to give it back to you and so I have a schedule for how I'm grading your assignments so it's not an immediate turnaround so if you turn your assignments in late or the later you turn your assignments in the least amount of feedback um is what you're going to get not CU I don't want to is cuz I'm on a time schedule and so it's going to be important for you to do your very best to meet the deadline if you submit an assignment 7 days or more beyond the due date we're talking about a week and more then you're going to get two full letter grade drops and you're still responsible for knowing the content because more than likely it is tied to the next assignment that you're going to do so this gives you some room to move in uh with your assignments so it'll also help you plan how you're going to handle your assignments so again limited feedback writing is grading intensive I can't just look at an essay and just put a grade on it now I have rubrics that I will use to grade your assignments but you still need time to um I need time to evaluate your writing to give you feedback on say hey this is working or I like this here or let's try this so again limited feedback when you submit your assignments in late another thing that tends to happen is sometimes students will submit their assignments but you do it incorrectly it's going to be important for you to make sure that you read your assignments and proofread them before you submit them I'm giving you very specific instructions on how the assignment is supposed to be submitted I also give you a specific instructions on how the formatting on the paper should look it should be MLA formatting which is double spacing you submit something that's single spacing you're automat a atically losing points so it's going to be imperative for you to follow the assignment instructions as I've given them to you which leads to you must read in order to understand what you're being asked to do in the class if you submit it that way and it's incorrect um I will give you feedback but it's going to delay your grading so I would prefer that when you're submitting assignments that you do not share link links with me don't share Cloud Drive links with me and I make sure that your document is a Word document not a Google Document not Pages not a screenshot I need you to submit a Word document if you happen to have Pages uh which is a Apple uh software um if you have Google Docs each one of those software uh software companies have it where you can download the document and save it as a Microsoft Word document or convert it that's your responsibility if I get an assignment it's not converted it's an automatic zero and I'm moving on so please make sure you take the time to find out how your assignments need to be submitted now documentation is important because sometimes things happen you can get sick you can have an accident God forbid other things can happen and you might be late you might be later than you intend to be um and in that event I need to have documentation that will allow you to make up that assignment so I'm only going to give extensions on assignments provided that I have a documented um excuse and those you are able to gain by going to laser fish Cloud on your dashboard and submitting a um a documented excuse which means your your note from your doctor or wherever ever you've been is what you submit you can um the great thing about laser fish cloud is that you can put in all the names of all of your professors and it's a one and done you put all your professors names on the excuse you're asking for you send it off and then on the professor's side I will receive the approved and you will too I will receive the approved uh excuse so don't directly send me your doctor's excuses or things like that you have to submit them in laser fish cloud again um don't send screenshots make sure that there is a number on your um information because I will call to make sure that the documentation is legitimate so let's talk more specifically about the class this class is about the writing process now it's a repeat for some of you um because it's going to feel a little bit like oh it's high school all over again um and this is the wrong number that shouldn't be that one right there I got the wrong number I'm going to change this right here while I am talking to you all I put the wrong thing on there it's not going to let me change it okay won't let me change it I should say uh 10 well that's completely wrong too okay there I fixed it should sayg 101 that's that's us um we're talking about the writing process and so what that process and what that means is we're going to go through how to to generate ideas how to develop your thoughts you're going to have a chance to really work on your thesis statement work on some of those grammar um issues and sentence structure issues that you know you have but we're going to work on ways to improve them and um make your writing clear not perfect but clear so you're going to look at a different uh different writing techniques in order to help you write you're also going to be strengthening your critical thinking skills by reading others reading other papers and trying to um not copy verbatim but emulate what items are in those other essays and and works that you read and also actively engage in revising your work now this is a tough one for most students because you once you written something you don't want to go back and look at it again you do not want to go back and I don't want to revise it however revision is what helps you improve your first thoughts are never your best thoughts you're um messing around with it or trying to Wrangle with your thoughts or ideas for like a day or two those still aren't the best ones you haven't refined it yet so I want you to not be afraid of being actively revising your your writing and what's important even above all of this is that your writing reflects your ideas don't copy other stuff or don't AI your paper because that's not you I don't know about you but I don't want anybody else speaking for me I can speak for myself very fine thank you very much and I would much rather have that and see that in your writing and work through improving that then something that you've pulled off the internet that you don't really care about your writing is a reflection of you and your ideas and your thought processes and that's what I'm looking for from your papers that she'll be submitting in this class okay final bits of information for you um my office hours are listed here on the slide they're also posted in the syllabus and in the module um please email me directly at jody. Jones aamu.edu emailing me or sending me a message in Blackboard is not going to work I do not see those messages I don't look for them so it's much better for you to directly email me at that email address I can't stress that enough please do so and then I also have a cell phone number here but I'm also going to include a remind in the course and there'll be a place for you all to sign up and I'll have a video about what you need to do that as a means of getting in contact with me now if I get messages from you or text messages or voice messages from you after 8:00 in the evening I'm not going to answer them till the next day because I got stuff to to do and like you I'm in school I got homework to do and so if you send me a message after 8:00 I probably won't get to it till the next day but I promise you it'll be the first thing that I deal with um in the morning when I get to my office so I am looking forward to a great semester um with you again if you have any questions don't hesitate to email me at jodie. Jones aamu.edu and go Bulldogs