English 4993: English Capstone Experience              Spring 2010     NSU-BA         Mercer

 

Some of the details on this syllabus apply only to students whose Capstones are supervised by Dr. Mercer. Be sure you know the specific requirements of your own Capstone supervisor.

 

WAYS TO REACH ME:

Postal address: Dr. John Mercer, NSU-BA, 3100 E. New Orleans St., Broken Arrow, OK 74014

Office: BA G-280                              Office phone: 918-449-6541

Office hours (all times are p.m. unless labeled otherwise):                          

Mon. 11:30 a.m.-12:50, 4:00-5:00

Wed. 3:00-4:20, 7:20-7:40

Tues. & Thurs.  5:30-7:10, 10:10-10:30

Fax for faculty in Building G: 918-449-6571 (Faxes must include cover sheet with my name.)

Mailbox: Box 4 in G-261 (Give items for my mailbox to staff assistant in hallway G-267.)

E-mail: mercer@nsuok.edu or mercer25@att.net (NSU e-mail is forwarded to ATT account.)

 

CATALOG DESCRIPTION: “The student will design and complete a major [writing or internship] project. Required of all Bachelor of Arts English majors. [May be taken as an advanced English elective by English Education majors.] Prerequisite: 90 hours, including at least 30 in the major and approval of the project by the faculty [Capstone supervisor]. Course by permission only.”

 

AVAILABILITY:  This course is currently offered on the Broken Arrow schedule every Fall,  Spring, and Summer.  

 

SUPERVISING ENGLISH FACULTY MEMBER: I can supervise up to three (3) students’ Capstones per semester. If you want me to serve as your Capstone supervisor, please talk with me about your project as soon as possible, preferably during the semester before your Capstone. Otherwise, you may work with any full-time NSU English faculty member who agrees to sign your Application for Capstone Experience and supervise your project.  Let me know if you need my help in finding a faculty supervisor for your project. 

 

TYPES OF PROJECTS:  Capstone projects should demonstrate mastery of the skills you have learned as an English major.  Your faculty supervisor will determine whether a particular project is appropriate.  The most common types of projects are as follows:

 

(1)   Internship: Serve an unpaid internship related to your future career interests.  Your internship might be in business, publishing, politics, law, education, or some other field. The minimum total time required for a Capstone internship is 100-150 hours for the semester, or 7-10 hours per week for 15 weeks.  If you’re interested in interning in the NSU-BA Writing Center, please contact Writing Center coordinator Monique Idoux (449-6060 or 449-6519; idoux@nsuok.edu).  The writing centers at TCC Metro and Northeast campuses also welcome NSU Capstone interns.  To document your work in any internship, compile a portfolio of items such as the following:

a.       a detailed log of time spent and tasks performed week by week

b.      artifacts that reflect the work you did during your internship

c.       journal entries or reflections concerning your activities and what you have learned from them

d.      a letter written by the on-site supervisor of your internship

 

(2)   Research paper: Write a research paper on an approved topic related to language and literature or some other field of interest to you.  All research should be properly documented in MLA form.

 

(3)   Practical manual: Write a manual of information that will be useful to you and/or to a particular audience.  Possible topics might include how to apply for (or succeed in) a particular type of graduate or professional education (such as law school or library school), how to fulfill a particular role or task (such as how to serve as primary caregiver for a cancer patient, raise twins, or start a preschool), or to what extent it is feasible to enter a career in a particular field (such as college English teaching).  Depending on your prior knowledge of the topic, your manual may be based primarily on research (20 pages minimum length), your own experience (40 pages minimum length), or a combination of the two (about 30 pages minimum length).

 

(4)   Creative writing: Write original fiction, drama, poetry, or essays.  Most students who choose this type of project write one or more short stories, or the beginning of a novel, totaling at least 40 pages.  You may build on previous writing, but more than half of the writing must be done in the semester you are enrolled in the Capstone.  Ms. Susan Semrow (449-6000, ext. 3616; semrow@nsuok.edu) of the NSU Tahlequah faculty may possibly be able to supervise your fiction-writing Capstone if you ask far enough in advance.  In general, however, we discourage students from choosing creative-writing projects because it is difficult to find faculty members who feel qualified to supervise them.      

 

PAGE LENGTH OF PROJECT: In general, a creative-writing project (in prose) that does not involve research should be at least 40 double-spaced pages, using a standard-size font (such as Times New Roman 12, in which this syllabus is formatted).  A research project should include at least 20 double-spaced pages of your own writing (not counting long quotations or bibliography).  The number of pages in a portfolio to document an internship will vary.  Be sure that you and I agree in advance on the expected length of your particular project.

 

APPLICATION FOR CAPSTONE EXPERIENCE: The Application for Capstone Experience is posted on my faculty Web page for this course and elsewhere on the NSU Web site.  Before submitting your application, discuss possible topics with me and/or with your Capstone supervisor and get approval for your topic. Complete the application form, including a description of your project, and submit the form to your Capstone supervisor no later than the first week of the semester in which you are enrolled. If someone else is your Capstone supervisor, please let me know who it is during the first week of the semester.

 

CHANGE OF PROJECT OR TOPIC: Many students are unhappy with the Capstone project or topic they initially choose.  You must start work on your project at the very beginning of the semester (or before) to determine whether your project or topic will work for you.  If you think you may need to change your project or topic, discuss the problem with your Capstone supervisor as soon as possible and, if you decide to change, submit a new Application for Capstone Experience.

 

CONFERENCES:  If I agree to be your Capstone supervisor, you are required to have at least four (4) monthly conferences with me in person (or, if necessary, by telephone) about your project (asking questions, discussing problems, reporting work completed and work remaining, and especially getting my feedback on drafts of work completed), sometime during January, February, March, and April. Before each conference, if you have a substantial number of draft pages for me to read, please submit them in hard copy (or, with my approval, by e-mail attachment) by 10:30 p.m. on the Thursday before your conference.  Failure to have these required conferences will be reflected in the final course grade.

 

BETWEEN CONFERENCES: If you have problems or questions between conferences, please see or telephone me during office hours or communicate with me by voicemail, fax, or e-mail at any time.  (See WAYS TO REACH ME above.) 

 

PROCRASTINATION: In this or any other independent-study project, procrastination is your worst enemy.  Discipline yourself to work on your project consistently throughout the semester.  If you procrastinate, you will probably end up having to drop the course or being disappointed with your course grade.

 

DISABILITIES: If you have a disability and need special accommodations in this course, please tell me when you submit your Application for Capstone Experience or at the very beginning of your Capstone semester.

 

AMOUNT OF TIME SPENT: You are expected to spend as much time on your Capstone project as you would on a traditional three-hour upper-level English course: a total of at least 100 to 150 hours during the semester, or about 7 to 10 hours each week for 15 weeks.  Keep this requirement in mind when designing your project and when budgeting your time throughout the semester.

 

MANUSCRIPT AND DOCUMENTATION FORM: In general, follow the form prescribed in the new MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th ed. (2009). Double-space your paper, use a standard-size font (such as Times Roman 12, in which this syllabus is printed), and leave one-inch margins on all four sides of the page. In the upper right of each page, including the first page, insert a “header” consisting of your last name followed by one space and the page number. Depending on the nature of your project, you may either use the standard MLA four-line heading in the upper left of the first page or provide a title page. If your project requires documentation, use MLA form unless we agree on some other style of documentation that is more appropriate for your project.

 

COMPLETE DRAFT: To have adequate time to make revisions and receive the best possible grade, please submit a complete draft of your Capstone project in hard copy no later than 10:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 22.  Although you may submit a complete draft as late as 10:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 29, doing so will give you no more than 2 days to make revisions.   Early in the week after you submit your complete draft, please meet with me for a scheduled conference to discuss the revisions I want you to make.  It is unlikely that you will be able to make an A in the course unless you have submitted a complete draft and made the suggested revisions.

 

PROJECT DEADLINE: The finished project is due in hard copy no later than 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 5, the last day of classes before “student study days” and final-exam week. If possible, hand your project to me in person. Be sure to keep a copy of your project.

 

LATE PENALTY: If you have a legitimate reason for not submitting your project on time, to avoid penalty you must make other arrangements with me in advance. Otherwise, the grade for a late project submitted after 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, May 5, but no later than 9:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 13, will be lowered one letter (10%). No project will be accepted after May 13.  

 

WITHDRAWAL FROM CLASS: If you drop a class by January 26, you will receive a 100% refund of tuition.   If you drop a class after January 26, you will receive no refund.  If you drop a class by April 14, you will automatically receive a W.  If you drop a class after April 14, you will receive a W if you are passing or an F if you are failing at the time you drop.  If you have not been having monthly conferences and making reasonable progress on your Capstone project, you should drop the course by April 14 to avoid receiving an F.  If you cannot submit the final project by May 5 (or May 13 with late penalty), you should drop the course and take it another semester. The last day to drop a class is May 7.

 

FINAL COURSE GRADE: I will assign a letter grade to your finished project based on content (adherence to topic, clarity, originality, organization, thoroughness of development, and success in its own genre, such as short story, research paper, informative manual, or portfolio) and on form (adherence to required minimum length, manuscript form, and correctness of grammar and mechanics). Your Capstone grade will be posted on the NSU Web site as part of your semester grade report.

 

Grades on the Capstone can be interpreted as follows:

A = outstanding, superior

B = above average, good

C = average, satisfactory

D = below average, barely acceptable

F = failing, unacceptable

 

FINAL PROJECTS:  Although I will mark errors and make comments on your complete draft, I will not mark your final project or return it to you. The Department of Languages and Literature uses the completed Capstones to assess our undergraduate English program. Keep a copy of the final project for yourself.