Course Syllabus

ENGL 0980 Writing Basics

Course Description

Recommended for students scoring lower than 17 on the English section of the ACT (and required for those scoring below 11), this course provides a first experience with academic writing and/or a review of the basic components of writing, including grammar, usage, and punctuation. Students learn simple sentence construction and coordination leading to basic paragraph construction. Students learn to respond to written texts and prompts. The course prepares students to succeed in English 1010.

Justification

ENGL 0980 offers students who might not be ready for college writing a chance to brush up on those skills required for success in ENGL 1010, a required course. It offers an opportunity to learn mechanics and usage expected in academic discourse to students from varied backgrounds where the use of standard English has not been the norm.

General Education Outcomes

1. A student who completes the GE curriculum can communicate effectively through writing and speaking. Students will write effective sentences and paragraphs. The goal is for student writing to reach the level of beginning English 1010 students. Students will demonstrate this writing ability on informal and formal writing exercises.

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Students will write coherent sentences and paragraphs.
2. Students will be able to write topic sentences.
3. Students will recognize and correct simple sentence-level errors.
4. Students will recognize and correct punctuation errors.
5. Students will learn to combine sentences effectively to add variety to their writing style.
6. Students will respond appropriately to written and verbal prompts.

Course Content

Students will complete practice writing exercises in and out of class, including sentence combining. Students then learn the characteristics of the English paragraph and practice paragraph construction. Because of the wide range of abilities typically present in this class, each student will be encouraged to work at his or her own pace to master skills.

Both content and instruction will acknowledge and address multiple literacies and linguistic backgrounds. Care should be given to encourage students and not to adopt a deficiency-based assumption about their abilities.