Diane HarrisSummer 2008 English 98
Imperial ValleyCollegeOffice Phone: 355-6171
Office #1716(across from the tennis courts)Home Phone: 351-9107
Office Hours: by appointment email:
website: Find: Diane Harris
Class Syllabus
Objective: To improve your reading, critical thinking, and writing skills. At the end of this course, you should be able to write a short essay with a clear thesis statement, relevant and direct topic sentences, an engaging introduction and conclusion, supporting details, logical organization, effective transitions, vivid and precise word choice, sophisticated syntax, and relatively few errors in sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, mechanics, or spelling. This is a class to review and improve these skills. We will be concentrating on grammar, mechanics, paragraph construction and short essays.
Required Text: Along These Lines: Writing Paragraphs and Essays, by Biays/Wershoven 4thSuggested resource: Thesaurus
online resource:
Attendance: You will be dropped after 2 absences. If you are 15 minutes late, you will be marked absent. If you come in late, do not interrupt the class proceedings. Come in, find your seat, and get your class materials out quietly. The last day to drop with a W is July 15. If you have 2 absences after July 15, you will receive an F for the semester grade.
Assignments:
Homework/Class work10%
Quizzes/Journal/MyWritingLab15%
Essays(4)40%
Essay Revisions (You must turn in all previous drafts to receive credit) 10%
Final Essay Exam25%
90-100 = A80 – 89 = B70 – 79 = C60 – 69 = D59 or below = F
Homework/Class work: Homework includes draft revisions, grammar exercises, readings, paragraph writings, etc. Class-work will be individual or group activities. You will be required to keep a writing journal. Forums on MyWritingLab will count as a journal entry.
Quizzes/Journal: You will have announced and unannounced quizzes each week. You will also be required to complete quizzes, journal entries, and assignments on the MyWritingLab website.
MyWritingLab: You will be required to log on to MyWritingLab to complete writing assignments, diagnostic tests and review. Your exercises will be due each Thursday. Your student access code to set up your account on MyWritingLab is provided with your textbook. If you buy a used textbook, you will have to buy an access code for MyWritingLab separately.
Course ID: Harris544374WCourse Title: Basic English Composition
Section Title: Engl 98 30079
Diane HarrisSummer 2008 English 98
Imperial ValleyCollegeOffice Phone: 355-6171
Office #1716(across from the tennis courts)Home Phone: 351-9107
Office Hours: by appointment email:
website: Find: Diane Harris
Class Syllabus
Objective: To improve your reading, critical thinking, and writing skills. At the end of this course, you should be able to write a short essay with a clear thesis statement, relevant and direct topic sentences, an engaging introduction and conclusion, supporting details, logical organization, effective transitions, vivid and precise word choice, sophisticated syntax, and relatively few errors in sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, mechanics, or spelling. This is a class to review and improve these skills. We will be concentrating on grammar, mechanics, paragraph construction and short essays.
Required Text: Along These Lines: Writing Paragraphs and Essays, by Biays/Wershoven 4thSuggested resource: Thesaurus
online resource:
Attendance: You will be dropped after 2 absences. If you are 15 minutes late, you will be marked absent. If you come in late, do not interrupt the class proceedings. Come in, find your seat, and get your class materials out quietly. The last day to drop with a W is July 15. If you have 2 absences after July 15, you will receive an F for the semester grade.
Assignments:
Homework/Class work10%
Quizzes/Journal/MyWritingLab15%
Essays(4)40%
Essay Revisions (You must turn in all previous drafts to receive credit) 10%
Final Essay Exam25%
90-100 = A80 – 89 = B70 – 79 = C60 – 69 = D59 or below = F
Homework/Class work: Homework includes draft revisions, grammar exercises, readings, paragraph writings, etc. Class-work will be individual or group activities. Forums on MyWritingLab will count as a journal entry.
Quizzes/Journal: You will have announced and unannounced quizzes each week. You will also be required to complete quizzes, journal entries, and assignments on the MyWritingLab website.
MyWritingLab: You will be required to log on to MyWritingLab to complete writing assignments, diagnostic tests and review. Your exercises will be due each Thursday. Your student access code to set up your account on MyWritingLab is provided with your textbook. If you buy a used textbook, you will have to buy an access code for MyWritingLab separately.
Course ID: Harris760255WCourse Title: Basic English Composition
Section Title: Engl 98 30082
Diane HarrisSummer 2008 English 98
Imperial ValleyCollegeOffice Phone: 355-6171
Office #1716(across from the tennis courts)Home Phone: 351-9107
Office Hours: by appointment email:
website: Find: Diane Harris
Class Syllabus
Objective: To improve your reading, critical thinking, and writing skills. At the end of this course, you should be able to write a short essay with a clear thesis statement, relevant and direct topic sentences, an engaging introduction and conclusion, supporting details, logical organization, effective transitions, vivid and precise word choice, sophisticated syntax, and relatively few errors in sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, mechanics, or spelling. This is a class to review and improve these skills. We will be concentrating on grammar, mechanics, paragraph construction and short essays.
Required Text: Along These Lines: Writing Paragraphs and Essays, by Biays/Wershoven 4thSuggested resource: Thesaurus
online resource:
Attendance: You will be dropped after 2 absences. If you are 15 minutes late, you will be marked absent. If you come in late, do not interrupt the class proceedings. Come in, find your seat, and get your class materials out quietly. The last day to drop with a W is July 15. If you have 2 absences after July 15, you will receive an F for the semester grade.
Assignments:
Homework/Class work10%
Quizzes/Journal/MyWritingLab15%
Essays(4)40%
Essay Revisions (You must turn in all previous drafts to receive credit) 10%
Final Essay Exam25%
90-100 = A80 – 89 = B70 – 79 = C60 – 69 = D59 or below = F
Homework/Class work: Homework includes draft revisions, grammar exercises, readings, paragraph writings, etc. Class-work will be individual or group activities.
Quizzes/Journal: You will have announced and unannounced quizzes each week. You will also be required to complete quizzes, journal entries, and assignments on the MyWritingLab website. Forums on MyWritingLab will count as a journal entry.
MyWritingLab: You will be required to log on to MyWritingLab to complete writing assignments, diagnostic tests and review. Your exercises will be due each Thursday. Your student access code to set up your account on MyWritingLab is provided with your textbook. If you buy a used textbook, you will have to buy an access code for MyWritingLab separately.
Course ID: Harris820585WCourse Title: Basic English Composition
Section Title: Engl 98 30088
There will be no late or make up essays, exams, homework, quizzes, etc. If I give you an overnight assignment, it is due at the beginning of the class. After that, it is late. Do not give it to me during the class period. If you know you will be absent on a day when something is due, tell me BEFORE the day of the class and it may be possible to make other arrangements. If you tell me AFTER the class, I cannot help you.
Participation: I will be watching you. This includes completing assignments in class, working on your own or together in groups, asking and answering questions. Chatting, going to the bathroom, sleeping, doing other homework, etc. is not good participation, right!! But you already know this.
Paragraphs and Essays: You will be required to write essays in class and for homework. Paragraphs will also be assigned to develop different rhetorical patterns. Some writing assignments will be completed on MyWritingLab. Assignments will require an outline with the initial draft.
Paragraph and Essay revisions: You will be required to write a 2nd and, for some assignments, a 3rd draft. All revisions must be typed and all previous drafts stapled to the current draft. MyWritingLab assignments will also require revisions. Assignments will be due on Mondays.
Final Essay Exam: The 5th essay will count as your final. The topic will be assigned. You will choose one topic out of a choice of two or three to write your final composition. I will be looking for the successful use of organization, sentence construction, paragraph construction and the proper use of rhetorical pattern. By this I mean contrastive, descriptive, definitive, etc.
Tutors are available in the Reading/Writing lab. Wait until I have graded a paper, then come and ask me what the tutors should help you with. Do not give them your paper to revise the whole thing. (That is one of the benefits of MyWritingLab online assignments. You will complete exercises for review and receive evaluation immediately.)
Cheating and Plagiarism: Bad!! Bad!! Bad!! Do I really have to say it? Do not turn in duplicate copies of your classmate’s homework or essays. Do not turn in information copied off of the Internet. If you are cheating, you will receive a zero for the assignment.
Class Contacts: Name ______Phone ______
Class Contacts: Name ______Phone ______
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, comments, or complaints. Don’t get overwhelmed, but just concentrate and keep me informed of your state of mind. Remember that in a summer session, time flies. So get a good night’s sleep, eat your Wheaties, and get ready to rock n’ roll.
Any student with a documented disability who may need educational accommodations should notify me or the Disabled Student Programs and Services (DSP&S) office as soon as possible.
DSP&S HealthSciencesBuilding, Room 2117 (760) 355-6312
**English 98 Schedule
Week 1 / Class Introduction, syllabus, etc.; Diagnostic samples; Purchase textbook, Set up MyWritingLab accountChapter 27--Punctuation: The Period and the Question Mark
Chapter 28--Punctuation: The Comma
Chapter 14--The Simple Sentence
Chapter 15--Beyond the Simple Sentence: Coordination
MyWritingLab: Diagnostic Tests: Sentence Grammar; Punctuation & Mechanics; Usage and Style; Basic Grammar; Part 1: Getting Started
Week 2 / Chapter 1 –Writing a Paragraph
Chapter 8 – Definition
Chapter 16—Avoiding Run-On Sentences and Comma Splices
Chapter 17--Beyond the Simple Sentence: Subordination
MyWritingLab: Part 2 The Paragraph; Part 3 Paragraph Development
Week 3 /
Chapter 11—Writing an Essay
Chapter 12—Different Essay Patterns—Definition and Description
Chapter 18--Avoiding Sentence FragmentsChapter 35--Sentence Variety
In class Essay #1Definition with outline (3 paragraphs)
Homework: Essay #2 typed with outline Ch 8 DescriptionMyWritingLab: Part 4 The Essay
Week 4 /
Revision Essay #2 (Turn in both 1st draft and the new draft)
In class Essay #3 with outlineCh 6-Comparison/Contrast
Chapter 12--Different Essay Patterns-Comparison/Contrast
Chapter 29—Punctuation: The Semicolon and the ColonMyWritingLab: Part 5 Sentence Improvement
Week 5 /
Revision Essay #3
Chapter 12--Different Essay Patterns-NarrationChapter 21--Correcting Problems with Modifiers
Essay #4 with outline Ch 4 Narration
MyWritingLab: Part 6 Sentence BasicsRevision Essay #4
Week 6 / Chapter 13--Writing from Reading
Chapter 34--Word Choice
MyWritingLab: Diagnostic Post-Tests
Essay #5/Final Essay with outline (25% of your grade)
**Subject to Change
If necessary, changes can be made based on time constraints and if your writing shows other areas that need to be addressed.
Happy Writing
Imperial ValleyCollege suggested exit standards for English 98 Basic English Composition
Topic Sentence and Thesis Statement—Student shows an ability to generate a topic sentence and write a thesis statement.
Organization—Student can write an essay demonstrating essay structure. Paragraphs are well supported and contain no off-topic sentences.
Development—Student generates support using major and minor details.
Paragraph Skills—Student writes paragraphs that demonstrate adequate development, unity of subject material, coherence, and use of appropriate transitions.
Rhetorical Modes—Student uses logical organization for various modes, such as narration, description, definition, and comparison.
Research—Some outside information (possibly article/review)
Critical Thinking—Student demonstrates some examination of support from sources other than student’s experience.
Sentence Structure—Student can edit for sentence structure problems. Student can apply editing corrections to sentence structure problems.
Punctuation—Student shows no consistent errors with usage of the comma and period despite occasional errors.
Spelling, Diction, and Audience—Student demonstrates a moderate command of proper spelling and word usage.
Verb tense, Form, and Subject-Verb Agreement—Student shows command of simple subject-verb agreement, tense, and verb forms.
ESL interference—Student can write essays with only some ESL interference and show adequate ability to edit for ESL errors.