Academic Writing 101

Autumn/Fall 2021

Instructor: Emre Çetin Gürer

Email: cgurer@ku.edu.tr
Office Hours: Tuesday 08.30 – 10.30 a.m. or by appointment

Course Description:

ACWR 101 makes use of a content-based approach to initiate students into the conventions of
academic language and discourse. The ACWR 101 course will be conducted online, and
students will be able to access all class materials through a number of different online
platforms. In addition to the online interaction, the course supports students with written and
verbal feedback sessions. While emphasis is placed on developing writing through a process-
based approach, other linguistic and critical skills are also covered. Students are expected to
improve their reading and writing abilities so that they can produce clear, linguistically
accurate, sophisticated discourse suitable in a variety of academic settings. Ultimately, students
are expected to develop their independent, authoritative, individual academic “voice.”

In the ACWR 101 Course, students will:

• develop a process-based approach to academic writing;

• acquire a basic knowledge of and ability to use APA documentation, including
in-text citation and a reference page;
• organise and express ideas in a manner appropriate to audience and purpose;
• familiarise themselves with strategies for different kinds of writing;
• accurately employ the tools of paraphrase and quotation;
• present their writing in a format appropriate for formal academic writing that uses
academic vocabulary and employs high standards of grammar, usage and
mechanics.

Course Theme:

In this course, we will reverse the ordinary question “What time is it?” and ask, “What is
time?” Time is a very simple and familiar theme. It is also one of the hardest to understand
and explain. We all rely on a certain sense of time. Without a general agreement on time, we
would not be able to meet in this class or break for lunch. Our clocks tell approximately what
the chronological time is at a given place on Earth. So far as we do not forget to set our
watches according to our time zone and keep up with the daylight-savings, we rarely worry
about time itself. But that which we take for granted can hide more than it reveals. The way
 we perceive, measure, and manage time let us see our societies and ourselves from an
unconventional lens. The historical and geographical differences in relating to time
demonstrate the cultural mediations and historical constructions of our sense of time. While
such sense changes even personally from moment to moment, it is hard not to rely on an
objective sense of time. We will explore time in this tension and discuss questions of
objectivity, permanence, direction and others as we open ourselves into experiencing it while
reading and writing.

Overall Course Requirements and Grading:

Essay 1 Final TBA

Essay 2 Final TBA
Attendance TBA
Participation TBA
Homework and Class Tasks TBA

Required Course Materials:

All required readings and course materials will be uploaded to Blackboard

Detailed Policy on Late Essay Submissions:

Students may hand in late essays, but the student’s grade will be deducted by 5 points for each
day late. Essays submitted five days after the deadline will not be awarded a grade. An
instructor may accept late essay submissions, but the instructor is not obliged to read, or provide
feedback on work that is excessively late. Official excuses and medical reports will not be
accepted for essay due dates. If you are not able to hand in an essay due to an emergency
situation, please contact your instructor as soon as possible.

Essay Submissions

Essay 1 Final and Essay 2 Final must be submitted on Blackboard via Turnitin. Instructors will
not accept essay submissions via email.

Student Assignment Agreement

Please be aware of the Koç University Student Assignment Agreement for all homework
assignments, class tasks and essay submissions. When submitting your work online, you are
agreeing to the following:
I hereby accept that only the below listed sources are approved to be used for ACWR 101
assignments:
(i) Coursebook (Readings)
(ii) All material that is made available to students via Blackboard for this course, and
(iii) Notes taken by me during lectures.
I have not used, accessed, or taken any unpermitted information from any other source. Hence,
all effort belongs to me.

*You MUST copy and paste the Student Assignment Agreement to each Essay Submission*

Online Semester:

The ACWR 101 Course will be completely online this semester. Our primary platform for all
class materials and assessment uploads will be Blackboard.

If you have never used Blackboard, you should contact:

Koç Office of Learning and Teaching (KOLT) kolt@ku.edu.tr OR elearning@ku.edu.tr
The helpful KOLT team are always happy to provide training and/or assistance to you.

If you have computer/system problems during the semester, you should immediately contact:
Koç IT Remote Services through IT-Track-it it@ku.edu.tr

Please note: Contacting IT-Track-it should be your first priority if any system or internet
problem occurs when attempting to submit assessments or graded tasks.

Plagiarism and Collusion Policy:

Plagiarism is presenting someone else's words or ideas as your own, without proper reference.
Any student found plagiarising or colluding in writing assignments may fail the assignment, fail
the course, and/or be referred to the university's disciplinary council. This may result in
suspension from the university.
Work is considered to be plagiarised when:

• You copy someone else's writing and do not put it in quotation marks and identify
the source.
• You take someone else's writing, change some of the words, and do not identify
the source.
• You take someone else's ideas or sequence of ideas, put them into your own
words, and do not identify the source.
 • Someone else writes your assignments or changes your writing and thus
creates a false impression of your abilities.

You engage in collusion when:

• You receive unauthorized help with your writing by paying or otherwise

inducing another person to do the writing for you.

Grading Scale:
· A+ = 100 – 97% B+ = 86 – 83 % C+ = 76 – 73 % D+ = 66 – 64 %
· A = 96 – 90% B = 82 – 80 % C = 72 – 70% D = 63 – 60 %
· A- = 89 – 87% B- = 79 – 77% C- = 69 – 67% F = 59 – 0%

Grade Disputes:

As a student, you have the right to petition for the reassessment of one or multiple course
assignments. If you believe that an assignment has been unfairly or inaccurately graded, please
follow these instructions:

1. Make an online appointment with your instructor as soon as possible once the grade has
been posted in order to discuss your concerns.

2. During your online meeting, ask the instructor to explain how the assignment was graded
in terms of Content, Organization, and Language/Mechanics or other grading criteria.
Clarify with your instructor whether your grade was penalized due to late submission,
failure to comply with certain instructions, failure to meet the goals for the assignment, or
for any other reason. If you have difficulty understanding your instructor’s explanation,
ask for the explanation in written form. If you remain unsatisfied with your instructor’s
explanation of the grade, then proceed to step 3.

3. Send a detailed petition via email to Merve Dalyaprak in the CSSH Dean’s Office –
mdalyaprak@ku.edu.tr

4. If you have concerns about multiple assignments, include a separate petition form for
each assignment you request to be reassessed. You may NOT fill out a petition asking
for all course assignments to be reviewed.

5. Keep in mind that your assignment grade and your final grade in the course may go up,
down, or remain unchanged as a result of the reassessment process.
6. These petitions will only be accepted within seven days after the grade has been posted
to discuss the grade(s) in question.