Instructor: Rebecca L. Busker
Office: C247
Phone: 403-1906
Email: rbusker@parkland.edu
AIM ID: lucycereta
Office Hours: TBA

All About the Course, or what have I gotten myself into?
Welcome to ENG101.  The focus of this course is to improve your writing skills, with emphasis on formulating, developing, and supporting a position, writing to an audience, organizing ideas, and conveying them in clear and precise language.  We will be developing those skill by writing a variety of papers and projects, focusing on the process of developing and refining ideas, planning and drafting an essay, and revising and polishing that essay.

We will be using a cultural studies approach in the papers; that is, we will be looking at various aspects of our culture, such as ethics, gender, race, sexual orientation, family, politics, and many other things, through cultural artifacts, such as movies, comic books, television, and web sites.

This particular section of ENG101 has an extra "hour" of support built in.  You'll be receiving extra guidance and one-on-one attention.  The way I've built this into the course is through the use of on-line technologies.  What this means is that you will need to plan into your schedule time to get to an internet computer twice a week, generally between Monday's class and 11:59PM Tuesday, and Wednesday's class and 11:59PM Thursday.  See the schedule for more information. The use of on-line discussion will allow you to get more feedback and help not only from me, but from your peers as well.

For this class, you will not need a book.  I am happy to recommend some handbooks if you feel one will be useful to you, but we will largely be relying on the internet for readings and other information.  What you will need is the following:

• Access to an internet connected computer at least twice a week, and access to a computer with a word processor for writing papers.
• An email account that is accessible both on and off campus.  Your Parkland email is fine.
• Computer disks or some other method of getting files from one computer to another.

You may want to have a binder or folder in which to keep handouts.

All About this Site, or what does all this stuff mean?
This web site is your "home base" for the semester.  It contains:

• Contact information for the instructor.
• The materials required for the course.
• The policies for the course.
• An outline of the course work and grade distribution.
• A schedule of readings and weekly assignments, and links to some readeings.
• Groups for the weekly discussion (that is, your discussion partners).
• Paper assignments.
• A link to our class WebBoard (where the discussions will take place).

All About Me, or what does that stuff in bold mean?
My name is Rebecca Busker, and I'll be your guide for the semester.  I'm an English instructor here at Parkland College.  I'm also something of an internet geek (actually, I'm an all-around geek, as you will no doubt discover).

To get the important stuff out of the way first, I'm just as happy for you to call/address me as "Rebecca."  If you're not comfortable with that, "Dr. Busker" will do.  Please just be aware that "Mrs. Busker" is my mother, and I will forward all emails addressed thusly to her.  

If you want to see me outside of class, my office is at Parkland College, C247.  It's a good idea to arrange a meeting in advance, although if you happen to be on campus, you're certainly free to drop by.  The phone number above is my office number.  The only time I absolutely guarantee to be available by phone is during my office hours, although again, it never hurts to try at other times.

The single best way to get in touch with me is through email.  Although I again only promise to answer email during my office hours, I am on-line quite a bit.  I will endeavor to answer all emails within 24 hours Monday through Friday, and within 48 hours on weekends.  If at any point I am going to be out of touch for longer than 24 hours M-F, I will let you know.

I've also included my AOL Instant Messenger ID.  If you're not familiar with AIM, this chat software can be used whether you're an AOL member or not.  It comes with most newer forms of Netscape, or can be found here.  I will be logged in to AIM during my office hours.  I'm frequently logged in at other times as well, although I reserve the right during non-office hours to ask you to contact me later.  I do strongly urge you to take advantage of this: things that take 2 or 3 emails (and thus 2-3days) to deal with can be more easily answered in a 5 minute chat.

Now, about those office hours.  These are the hours every week that I guarantee I will be (a) in my office and (b) on-line and paying attention to my email and AIM.  These are not the only hours I will be available, but they are the hours that, barring emergency or illness, I will definitely be available.  On rare occasions, I may make adjustments to those hours, or announce that I will be available only on-line, so keep an eye on your email.  Please note that if you call or message me and I do not answer, I'm probably just getting a drink or something, so you should try again in a few minutes.