Course Description, Goals, Requirements

Catalog Course Description

A Distance Education composition course emphasizing exposition, analysis, argument, and Internet research techniques. Extensive writing practice based upon reading culturally diverse short stories. Class meetings arranged online through Internet. As least three (3) class meetings on campus. CSU; UC (CAN ENGL 2)

Overview/Prerequisites

This distance education course is designed to improve your skills in English Composition in preparation for ENG 102, 103, 104 or any course you will take that requires writing at the college level. To be ready for ENG 101 you should be at an advanced level of English; in other words, if English is not your primary language, you are likely to have difficulty with some of the concepts discussed in this class. You should have successfully completed ENG 100, completed the ESL program, or tested successfully into this class.

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Course Goals and Methods

Goals

This course will consist of reading, analyzing, discussing, and, ultimately, writing about the readings assigned for the class at a college level.

SLOs

• Critically analyze and evaluate primary and secondary sources
• Display college-level academic writing skills
• Critically analyze and evaluate the subtext of assigned readings
• Demonstrate college-level reading of primary text material
• Discuss and analyze examples of differences in cultural and gender perspectives in assigned reading selections
• Demonstrate basic word processing and computing skills, as well as online research techniques
• Demonstrate understanding of published analysis of assigned readings

The fundamentals of the writing process will be stressed, but individual styles and tastes will not be discouraged. That means you will be responsible for understanding how an author gets his or her message across and how one analyzes literature. You will be required to substantiate your analysis clearly from text, but there is not necessarily one correct answer. The method by which you discuss these works will be the most important aspect of your grade. You will, of course, do a lot of writing in this class, including several timed essays, some out-of-class papers, and a final research paper. The most important goal for you as a student in this class is to become familiar with writing at a competent level.

Method

Overview
My job is to give you the tools to create pieces of writing that reflects your thoughts, your attitudes and your research. We will be reading a series of short fiction pieces, as well as discussing various analytical approaches. If you are on-line, you must get involved in chat room discussions and pay attention to message board postings. We will use the MLA format for all papers, including the quoting of sources, as well as demonstrating your understanding of published analysis. Out-of-class essays are expected to be typed, double-spaced, and as neat as possible and on time. See Paper Format presentation for details.

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Required Texts

• Dictionary of American English

Required Materials

• Computer
• Internet access utilizing a major browser such as Safari, Firefox or Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.+.
• Microsoft Word or Pages for Mac
• Student e-mail address

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© T. T. Eiland, January 1998-2016
Last modified: January 30, 2016