The English 101 Experiment

What would happen if, instead of composing predetermined assignments, college freshman composition students could compose whatever they want to compose? What if students could set their own deadlines and grade their own work? Find out as Delgado English Professors Mason Joiner and Monica Mankin discuss what happens during The English 101 Experiment.


Mason Joiner is an Assistant Professor of English at Delgado Community College in New Orleans, LA. He moved to New Orleans from Alexandria, LA, in 2010 and received a B.A. from the University of New Orleans and an M.A. from Northwestern State University. Mason is an avid Dungeons & Dragons player and writing hobbyist. He is reverent of many works of writing and seeks to share that admiration with his students.

Mason’s English 101 Syllabus

Monica Mankin is a poet from Southern California. She earned her B.A. in Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside, and her M.F.A. in English: Poetry at the University of Idaho, Moscow. Monica has been a Delgado Community College faculty member since 2011. This line from Robert Frost’s speech “Education by Presence” conveys her teaching philosophy: “I favor the student who will convert my claim on him into his claim on me.”  She makes books, poems, and podcasts, and some of her work can be found online at Blood Orange Review, Connotation Press, im-possiblethink, The Parade at Home, Split Rock Review, and The Turnip Truck(s).

Monica’s English 101 Syllabus