Course Overview

The focus of this English Composition course is to reinforce and enhance the English proficiency of first-year students in the writing skill area. Students will be writing a lot under guidance throughout the course to develop good writing habits and learn how bad writing habits could interfere with their thought process and therefore their writing process. In the first semester, students will first be learning how to write grammatically correct and meaningful sentences for different readers. Different sentence structures will be introduced allowing students to write with variety. Rules of punctuation will be emphasized for students to realize that punctuation marks are not merely meaningless symbols but actually carry meanings. When students feel comfortable writing sentences at the college level, they will then be guided to composing well-structured paragraphs. Students will be exploring the different parts of a paragraph and finding out the role each part plays in a paragraph. Once they have identified the relationship among the parts, then they are ready to put these parts together to form a coherent and cohesive paragraph. Besides sentences and paragraphs, other modes of writing, such as email communication and business letter, will be introduced based on students’ wants/needs.

Learning Achievement

Students are encouraged to read in English as much as they can outside of class time as reading is one of the most effective ways to improving writing skills. Registering correct sentence structures and building vocabulary useful for writing can be achieved through reading. For this reason, throughout the course, students will have chances to read their classmates’ work and provide feedback as each other's mentors. A variety of activities such as group interactions, pair work, and class discussions are used to introduce new material and reinforce material taught. Students will be learning how to write in English under a fun and interactive atmosphere. By the end of the first semester, students will/should have already developed good writing habits and can write following the “preferable writing approach.”

Competence

Course prerequisites

Students are required to keep a writing journal. They will be writing in their journal everyday starting the first day of class. Students will mostly be writing on something that interests them or occasionally on an assigned topic outside of class. In-class writing can be free-writing, timed writing, writing with a brainstorming session, etc. This course is conducted entirely in English. Students should attend all classes and come to class on time and prepared. Attendance is taken seriously. Students who "need" to be late or absent should notify the instructor at least 2 days in advance. No make-up quizzes or exams are allowed. Late homework will NOT be accepted. Students missing 4 or more classes automatically fail the course. Students who do not complete either Proverb Sharing or Book Review or both are not allowed to pass the course. Cell phones and other electronic devices are not allowed to be used in class unless given permission by the instructor to do so.

Grading Philosophy

Course schedule

Course type

Online Course Requirement

Instructor

JUDY WAI-KEI KWONG

Other information

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