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 possible 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 fully asynchronous, online class. You will not succeed in the course if you don't attend the Zoom sessions. On the bright side, they will prepare you well to do your work, and they will be a fun and interesting way to learn and work with other college students like yourself.

This class is labeled "Remote," which means that the majority of the work--other than reading, research, and writing up our projects--will be done in class meetings during Zoom sessions. Attendance is mandatory for our shared Zoom sessions. Make sure the Zoom (remote) meeting time works for you before you commit to the class.

All course materials will be available on D2L/Brightspace, our online course 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 WR121 depends on your ability to access course materials, attend Zoom class, and do work on your device, above all you need the time to finish your work. Be really careful not to take WR121 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!

You will also need working equipment. Make sure you have a reliable network connection (it doesn't have to be high speed) and 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. Some students find that Google Chromebooks or other limited-function tablets are not able to run the software they need for college classes. I do not recommend that you take this class exclusively on your phone. If this is your only option, email me before the term starts, and I will try to help you out. Or...

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:

/library/equipment-for-checkout/#laptops-computer-equipment

You will not need special software, 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, Publisher, and Excel. Here's the link to install it on your device (note: It does NOT work with Chromebooks).

/technology/services/office-365/