Required Texts:

Anthony Bourdain, ed.  The Best American Travel Writing, 2008.  New York:  Houghton Mifflin, 2008. 

Hacker, Diana.  A Writer's Reference.  7th Edition.  Boston:  Bedford-St. Martin's, 2011.

MacDonald, Sarah.  Holy Cow.  New York:  Broadway Books, 2004. 

Osborne, Lawrence.  The Naked Tourist.  New York:  North Point Press, 2006. 

Writing Assignments:

More detailed prompts will be handed out with each individual project, but below is a brief overview of the course as a whole: 

• Starting the second week of the course and continuing until early November, everyone will maintain a weekly “travel” blog in which they explore Roanoke College and their experiences there as though RC was a very distant and very foreign land.  This assignment is designed to give you the opportunity to engage in regular and risk-free exploratory writing that may feed into your more formal work.
• Each of you will be responsible for doing “deep-web” research relating to one of our readings.  Your posting of your research will be due no later than 5 P.M. the day before the reading is discussed in class.
• Your first project will be an individual essay in which you analyze one of the essays or chapters that we’ve read, exploring the connections between yourself/your family and EITHER the narrator or the culture being explored.
• Your second project will be a digital narrative constructed by a group based on one of the blog entries made by someone in your group.
• Your final project will involve researching the connections between travel and education.  More particularly, this essay will try to answer the question:  What are we seeking?  The best answers will explore the ways in which travel and leaving for college overlay one another. 

Logistics:

Some details you should know: 

• All blog entries are due at noon each Sunday.  Blog responses are due no later than midnight on Monday.  Late entries or responses will not be accepted.  Blog entries and responses will be graded separately on the following scale:
• 90-100% = A
• 80-89%   = B
• 70-79%   = C
• Below 70% = F in the course
  • All drafts, papers and projects are due at the times listed on the syllabus, or, when class days are listed, at the beginning of class.
  • Late drafts and late final papers/projects will be downgraded one third of a grade for each day they are late. 
  • A failure to turn in a first draft before the polished draft is due, or the failure to turn in a polished draft before the peer-response date will lead to an F on that paper/project. 
  • A failure to turn in a final draft within seven days of the due date will result in an F in the course. 

The usual excuses—malfunctioning computers, broken alarm clocks, annoying roommates—will not be accepted.  You’re an adult now:  fulfill your academic commitments (and if you fail to do so, accept the responsibility).

All formal papers and drafts must be typed and should fulfill the usual standards for margins, formatting, and spacing.  Excessive grammatical or spelling errors in the final draft (more than one per one hundred words) will result in a lowering of the paper grade.  Keeping this in mind, if problems like these should become an issue in your writing, please talk to me as soon as possible so that we can determine a course of action which will benefit your progress not only in this course, but throughout your academic and professional careers.

Course Requirements:

Blog Entries                                              10%

Blog Responses                                          5%

Deep Web Research                                    5%

Paper #1                                                    20%

Group Digital Narrative                             15%

Paper #2                                                   20%

Peer Responding                                       10%

Quizzes                                                      5%

Participation                                                5%

ePortfolio Components                               5%

Attendance:

Because learning is a collaborative process, attendance for this course is required.  More than two absences will result in the final grade for the course being lowered by one third of a grade for each additional absence.  If excessive absences (more than four) occur, a student will receive a written warning, after which an additional absence will lead to him or her being dropped from the roster.  (Excessive tardiness can lead to students being marked absent.  Be on time.) 

If you do miss class for some reason, be certain to contact someone to make sure you understand what occurred in class that day, and what is due for the next class.  If you miss class on a day when work is due, you MUST provide WRITTEN evidence of illness in order to receive full credit for that day's work.

There are also several days—marked on the syllabus—where we will take part in small-group peer responding.  Attendance on these days is absolutely mandatory.  Nothing short of a visit to the hospital for heart surgery should keep you out of class on these days. 

If indeed you lose a lung and do end up on the operating table on these small-group responding days, your first priority when you awake from surgery is to call my office (x 2380) and leave a message.  A failure to attend class on these days without an extremely good excuse or a failure to call me prior to class when you must miss on these days will be seen as a lack of investment in the work of the course, and could lead to dismissal.  

The Writing Center:

The Writing Center @ Roanoke College, located in the Goode-Pasfield Center for Learning and Teaching in Fintel Library, is a place where writers working in any academic discipline, at any level of competence, and at any stage of the writing process meet with trained peer writing tutors in informal, one-on-one sessions focused on writing.  The Writing Center is open Sunday through Thursday from 4 to 9 pm.  You may simply stop in, or schedule an appointment ahead of time by going to MyRC: Academics and looking for the Writing Center Schedule link.  If you have questions, email the Writing Center at writingcenter@roanoke.edu or call the CLT at 375-2247. 

Academic Integrity:

I cannot stress enough the necessity of citing ideas and words (using the appropriate format) which are not your own.  A failure to do so constitutes plagiarism, is a violation of Roanoke College policy, and could result in a hearing for academic misconduct and possible expulsion.  If you have any doubts or questions about something you are writing, please check with me or another reliable source. 

Cell Phones and Electronic Devices

Cell phones, pagers, laptops and other electronic devices must be turned off and placed in your backpack prior to entering the classroom unless otherwise directed.  Anyone caught using such a device in class or in the halls while class is going on will surrender it for the next twenty-four hours (or longer, if it’s a weekend or I’m otherwise not on campus).