| Credit- Not degree applicable | | Effective Quarter: Fall 2019 | I. Catalog Information
| EWRT 211 | Preparatory Writing Skills | 5 Unit(s) |
| | Requisite/Advisory: None. Pass-No Pass (P-NP) course. Lec Hrs: 60.00
Out of Class Hrs: 120.00
Total Student Learning Hrs: 180.00 Develops the abilities necessary for college-level writing by introducing students to critical thinking via text-based analysis. Essay construction including thesis statements and paragraph organization and development, as well as focusing on the mechanics of writing, such as sentence-level skills will be covered. |
| Student Learning Outcome Statements (SLO)
| | | Demonstrate ability to respond critically to one’s own and others’ experiences and ideas. |
| | | Develop clear sequential relationship between and central argument/controlling idea and supporting ideas in writing. |
| | | Demonstrate evidence of strong synthesis, argumentation, analysis, and/or problem-solving skills in writing. |
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II. Course Objectives | A. | Analyze a variety of college-level texts with a focus predominantly on expository and argumentative writing. |
| B. | Develop analytical ideas and topics for essays. |
| C. | Compose and support thesis statements for analytical essays. |
| D. | Develop clear sequential relationship between central argument/controlling idea and supporting ideas in writing. |
| E. | Identify and practice writing for different audiences and purposes. |
| F. | Develop and demonstrate a variety of rhetorical strategies to develop strong analysis in essays. |
| G. | Demonstrate writing as a multi-step process including attention to planning and revision. |
| H. | Practice composing organized, developed, analytical essays that increase in complexity. |
| I. | Demonstrate appropriate grammar usage and mechanics. |
III. Essential Student Materials IV. Essential College Facilities V. Expanded Description: Content and Form | A. | Analyze a variety of college-level texts with a focus predominantly on expository and argumentative writing. |
| 1. | Texts from a wide range of perspectives representing different genders, socio-economic classes, sexual orientations, religious beliefs, ethnic backgrounds, political positions, and ages. |
| 2. | Texts of varying complexity |
| 3. | Texts with a variety of rhetorical purposes and audiences which may include essays, arguments, stories, novels and poems. |
| B. | Develop analytical ideas and topics for essays. |
| 1. | Practicing a variety of pre-writing strategies - free-writing, journal writing, brainstorming, clustering |
| 2. | Participating in class discussions and activities to generate material |
| C. | Compose and support thesis statements for analytical essays. |
| 1. | Learning the relationship between controlling idea and supporting points |
| 2. | Gathering different types of evidence |
| 3. | Presenting examples and details |
| 4. | Acknowledging alternative positions |
| D. | Develop clear sequential relationship between central argument/controlling idea and supporting ideas in writing. |
| 1. | Developing the thesis statement/controlling idea |
| 2. | Organizing sentences and paragraphs in a logical order |
| E. | Identify and practice writing for different audiences and purposes. |
| 1. | Writing for different communities (i.e. fellow students, the wider campus community, a local newspaper, a congressperson, a potential employer) |
| 2. | Learning to compose for different purposes (i.e. writing to explore, writing to explain, writing to persuade) |
| F. | Develop and demonstrate a variety of rhetorical strategies to develop strong analysis in essays. |
| G. | Demonstrate writing as a multi-step process including attention to planning and revision. |
| 4. | Planning and organizing |
| 5. | Getting feedback (peer review) |
| 7. | Editing and proofreading |
| H. | Practice composing organized, developed, analytical essays that increase in complexity. |
| 1. | Beginning with assignments that are more concrete (summaries, narratives, short analysis papers, letters to the editor) |
| 2. | Moving towards more complex writing tasks that require abstract or analytical thinking (argumentative, synthesis, and analytical essays) |
| I. | Demonstrate appropriate grammar usage and mechanics. |
| 1. | Practicing different strategies to compose proper sentences. |
| 2. | Identifying, with the instructor's guidance, frequent errors and ways to correct them |
| 3. | Proofreading for recurrent usage and sentence-level errors. |
VI. Assignments | A. | At least five essays in an instructor-designed sequence |
| 1. | At least three of the essay assignments based on the reading of appropriate texts with basic quotation and in-text citation included and requiring basic analytical skills |
| 2. | Of these five essays, at least two short essays written under teacher supervision in the classroom. |
| B. | The final must be the portfolio, which consists of: the reflective essay, an in-class essay that has not been revised, and an analytical essay that can be revised. |
VII. Methods of Instruction | | Lecture and visual aids
Discussion of assigned reading
In-class essays
In-class exploration of Internet sites
Quiz and examination review performed in class
Homework and extended projects
Collaborative learning and small group exercises
Collaborative projects
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VIII. Methods of Evaluating Objectives | A. | Assessment of student incorporation of instructor feedback in revisions of current essay and application of revision strategies to subsequent assignments. |
| B. | Completion of homework, quizzes, journals, assigned postings to class websites and other means of evaluating student responses to class topics and readings. |
| C. | Presentations, group work, class discussions and other activities designed to assess students' participation in the class and with other students. |
| D. | Assessment of student writing in the three essays submitted in the final portfolio, which serves as the class final and is evaluated according to the current Portfolio Guidelines approved by the English Department and available from the Portfolio Coordinator. |
IX. Texts and Supporting References | A. | Examples of Primary Texts and References |
| 1. | Atwan, Robert. America Now, 12th ed. Bedford St. Martin's Press, 2017. |
| 2. | Birkenstein, Cathy & Gerald Graff. They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, 4th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2017. Print. |
| 3. | Gillespie, Sheena and Robert Singleton, Eds. Across Cultures, 8th ed. Pearson, 2010. |
| 4. | Goshgarian, Gary. The Contemporary Reader, 11th ed. Pearson, 2012. |
| 5. | Hirschberg, Stuart and Hirschberg, Terry, Eds. One World, Many Cultures, 10th ed. Pearson, 2018. |
| B. | Examples of Supporting Texts and References |
| 1. | Lundsford, Andrea. The Easy Writer 6th ed. Bedford/St. Martin's, 2016. |
| 2. | A college level dictionary such as Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. 11th Edition. Merriam Webster, 2003. |
| 3. | "Capital Community College Guide to Grammar and Writing" - http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
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| 4. | University of Minnesota. Writing for Success. University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing edition, 2015. https://open.lib.umn.edu/writingforsuccess/ |
| 5. | "Purdue's On-line Writing Lab" - https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/ |
| 6. | Ramsey, Chauna. Conventions 101: A Functional Approach to Teaching (and Assessing!) Grammar and Punctuation. Open Oregon Educational Resources, 2016. |
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