Thursday, August 7, 2008

Essay #1 - Example Essay

Tuesday, September 2 - Plagiarism
Thursday, September 4 - An Introduction to Writing, pages 3-22
Tuesday, September 9 - The Writing Process, pages 23-50
Thursday, September 11 - The First and Second Steps, pages 51-76
Tuesday, September 16 - The Third Step, pages 77-102
Thursday, September 18 - Writing the Rough Draft
Tuesday, September 23 - The Fourth Step, pages 103-138
Thursday, September 25 - Four Bases for Revising Essays, pages 139-164
Tuesday, September 30 - Conferencing
Thursday, October 2 - Conferencing
Tuesday, October 7 - Final Draft of Example Essay is due

Due Dates for final drafts of each essay

Tuesday, October 7th - Example essay
Tuesday, October 21st - Comparison and contrast essay
Tuesday, November 4th - Definition essay
Tuesday, November 18th - Division and classification essay
Tuesday, December 9th - Five-page essay

Grading

ESL 202 final grades will be determined on the basis of the following:
  1. Homework assignments................10%
  2. Example essay................................10%
  3. Comparison and contrast essay...20%
  4. Definition essay..............................20%
  5. Division and classification essay...20%
  6. Five-page essay..............................20%

TOTAL.......................................................100%

An editing test will be offered near the end of the semester for failing or near-failing students for extra credit. Passing students may take the editing test as an additional assignment, but not for extra credit. All students have the option to refuse the test.

Plagiarism in ESL 202

1st act of plagiarism - You will be given a written warning with a reminder of the plagiarism website. Your essay grade will be reduced by 25%.

2nd act of plagiarism - You will be given a 0% for your essay. You will be given the opportunity to discuss the matter with me in my office. If you do not take this opportunity, the director of the ESL Institute will be notified.

3rd act of plagiarism - You will be given a failing grade for ESL 202. You may request a hearing to contest the accusations and punishment. Please refer to Chapter UWS 14 "Student Academic Disciplinary Procedures" for more details.

Late Assignment Policy

  1. Students must turn in their assignments at the beginning of class on the due date.
  2. If a student is absent on the day an assignment is due, he or she may send it with another student or email it to me.
  3. If an assignment is received after the day it is due, it will NOT be accepted and it will be scored as a 0%.
  4. If an assignment is received after class is over on the same day, the grade will be reduced by 10%.

Attendance and Participation Policy

  1. Students must attend classes on time (11:00 Tuesdays and Thursdays).
  2. Students are allowed 2 absences.
  3. 1% of your final grade will be deducted for each absence after two.
  4. If a student is more than 5 minutes late to class, he or she will be marked 1/2 day absent.
  5. If a student is more than 15 minutes late to class, he or she will marked absent for that class.

Course Goals

By the end of the course, students of ESL 202 (Fall 2008) should be able to:
  • Explain the importance of the writing process
  • Write a comparison/contrast essay, definition, and division/classification essay using all steps of the writing process
  • Write one five-page essay on one of the three essay types listed above
  • Locate and correct poorly written sentences, especially in the areas of punctuation, capitalization, sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and agreement of subjects and verbs
  • Apply their newly acquired writing and grammar skills in and outside the classroom environment
  • Demonstrate a higher confidence level when writing essays in English compared to their confidence upon entering the course

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Course Description

This course is designed to develop students' English proficiency in the areas of writing and grammar. The main focus of this course will be on developing essays and complex sentence structures. Students will be working on both process and product writing, with more class time spent on the former.