A combination of instructional methods will be used in order to balance instructional efficiency with individual student needs. Small group instruction, individual assistance (in lab tutorial or scheduled appointments) and student directed learning will be selected where appropriate and possible.
The student will be expected to maintain regular attendance and progress and to undertake independent learning as directed. Regular feedback and information progress reports will be available from the instructor.
- Strategies
- generating ideas and accessing information
- setting purpose and recognizing needs of the audience
- planning design and organizing material
- initial drafting techniques
- obtaining and handling feedback
- redrafting and editing
- proofreading and producing final copy
- Standard Written Expression
- mechanics and punctuation (end marks, commas, apostrophes, quotation marks, semi-colons, and capital letters, etc.)
- usage errors (verb forms, agreement, inflections, pronoun reference, and fractured idioms, etc.)
- Syntactic and Semantic Control
- sentence construction (simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences)
- sentence variety (use of infinitive phrases, appositives, and other adjectival and adverbial constructions)
- avoiding sentence errors (fragments, run-ons, faulty parallelism, dangling modifiers, etc.)
- use of abstract and specific language
- choice of appropriate words (formality, connotation, precision, etc.)
The aims of this course are for students:
- To develop confidence and experience using the process of writing;
- To augment experience and effectiveness at composing a variety of practical writing assignments;
- To gain initial experience with forms of writing that promote the development of analytical and critical thinking abilities;
- To gain initial experience with the techniques and styles of essays and reports;
- To improve awareness and control of the degrees of language formality suitable for different writing tasks;
- To improve ability to make appropriate word choices;
- To demonstrate growth in ability to create texts characterized by effective unity, organization and support;
- To demonstrate growth in ability to convey feelings, ideas and opinions in appropriate written formats;
- To demonstrate initial competency constructing multi-paragraph compositions.
A mastery model of on-going evaluation will be used. A student will have completed the course when he/she has demonstrated through satisfactory completion of exercises and assignments that the course objectives have been achieved.
Where formal tests of specific skills are used, mastery will be defined as a score of 80 percent or more.
Progress will be monitored on a regular basis by the instructor in consultation with each student.
Students may be required to purchase a textbook.