Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

This is an introductory academic reading/writing course, so we'll be thinking, reading, and writing to prepare you for upper-division academic work: a bit of research, a bit of critical thinking, a bit of reading, a bit of writing.

It will take time, and the rules for late work and attendance may be very different from those you experienced in secondary school (aka high school), if you're coming from there.

It is not a "Web" or remote online class. It's an in-person class on campus (Cascade). You will not succeed in the course if you don't attend most of the class sessions. On the bright side, being in class will prepare you well to do your work, and it will be a fun and interesting way to learn and work in person in real time with other college students like yourself. You can also get the structure and support you need in your first real college writing class, which is important!

This is not a lecture class--you will be working with others, thinking, learning about how to structure and shape writing that is generally about the world and texts--not as much about you/yourself, though we'll do a fair amount of reflective writing.

Welcome to class!

This class is labeled "On Campus/In-Person" which means that the majority of the work--other than reading, research, and writing up our projects--will be done in class, in person. You will definitely have to bring some of your class work with you on paper, though many assignments may be submitted online (on D2L/Brightspace, PCC's online course system).

All course materials will be distributed on paper in class, but they'll also be available on D2L/Brightspace, our learning management system at PCC. When each new term starts, you can access D2L for each class you've registered for by clicking on the computer icon in the upper right of your MyPCC page. Or you can go to http://online.pcc.edu and log in the same way you log in to MyPCC. You'll see links to all the courses you're registered for that use D2L. Enter and enjoy!

Since your success in our class depends in part on your ability to access course materials, attend in-person class, and do work on your device, above all you need the time to finish your work. Try not to take writing classes along with other demanding classes in the same term, especially if you need to improve your skills significantly or are uncertain about how you'll handle it. Time is important! If you can, make this the only academic class you take in a term. PE classes go really well with Writing classes, I find!

You will need working equipment. Make sure you have some sort of device to do work on, a reliable network connection (it doesn't have to be high speed), and ensure that your devices work well enough to help you do the reading, complete required projects, and access course info. It's so difficult to depend on borrowed devices for this. It is also enormously difficult to do the work on a phone. 

You can borrow devices from the PCC library: webcams, microphones, laptops, and tablets. Do it BEFORE the term starts so you get best choice--a laptop is better than a tablet or Chromebook, but you can only borrow laptops for a few weeks at a time, I believe. Find out here now, before the term starts:

https://www.pcc.edu/library/equipment-for-checkout/#laptops-computer-equipment

You will not need any special software for this class, and the Google tools are free, but I strongly recommend that you get hooked up with PCC's free access to Microsoft Office 365. It's a cloud-based way to access Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. It's especially important to do this if you have an Apple device--they don't play well with Microsoft Word or Google Docs. Install the Office 365 suite before class starts. Begin here: 

https://www.pcc.edu/technology/services/office-365/

Otherwise, we'll spend the time working together in class, discussing, doing a little reading, writing, and critical thinking, and practicing skills you'll need in your working life, in your personal life, and especially in future classes you take at PCC.