This course will emphasize learning through interactive instruction. Students will involve themselves in the discussion, analysis, and production of various writing activities. Under the instructor’s direction, students will integrate the results of primary and/or secondary research activities with appropriate language and structural principles in a number of writing situations. Additionally, instructors will respect the principle and values advocated by instructors within the Faculty of Child, Family and Community Studies. Students may be requested to write in response to textbook and program material, film or video scenarios, field trips and other experiential situations in the workplace. Other methods include lectures, group discussions, and presentations by resource people with field-related expertise.
Course content will be drawn from the following areas:
I. Tasks (Written and Oral)
- Reports: field-research, progress reports on client contact, informational, problem/solution, minutes, agenda
- Brief
- Letters and Memos: application, transmittal, to the editor
- Resume
- Summary/Comparative Summary
- Bibliography
- Employment Interview Skills
- Meeting Skills
- Oral Presentations
II. Compositional Strategies
- Topic development
- Brainstorming
- Free and pre-writing
- Revising
- Editing - self or peer
- Research
- Comparison, cause/effect, analogy, definition
- Argument and analysis
- Summary.
Communications 1110 has been developed to meet the communications requirements of specific programs within the Faculty of Child, Family and Community Studies.
I. General Skills
The student will be able to:
- write in standard English;
- demonstrate communicative competence through successful completion of writing tasks.
II. Specific Skills
The student will be able to:
Writing Skills
- use correct language fundamentals in all written assignments: punctuation, spelling, grammar;
- write effective sentences (clear and concise);
- write well-developed paragraphs;
- demonstrate skill at developing unity, coherence, and emphasis in professional prose;
- quote, paraphrase, and note sources accurately;
- present a conventional bibliography.
Rhetorical Skills
- write appropriately for single and multiple readers (laypersons, supervisors, court personnel);
- prepare written documents using language conventions consistent with appropriate field-related standards and practices (tone, diction, voice);
- use field-appropriate style of documentation.
Analytical Skills
- seek out and select appropriate sources for assignments;
- use college library sources effectively;
- analyze research for relevant data;
- recognize and avoid plagiarism.
Collaborative Skills
- collaborate effectively with other students;
- interact appropriately with peer editors or readers, and participants at meetings.
III. Specific Writing Tasks
The students will be required to successfully complete writing tasks selected from the following list:
- extract and summarize the main points from field-related articles;
- develop an effective application letter and resume;
- develop both a chronological and a functional resume;
- compose an informative report on workplace/practicum site;
- write effective correspondence in a variety of relevant situations consistent with field-related standards and practices;
- demonstrate the ability to develop and compose an agenda;
- demonstrate the ability to record and compose accurate minutes of a meeting;
- compose a brief on a contemporary issue for an identified and real audience;
- compose an informative brochure for a field-related organization; and
- demonstrate the ability to develop and produce academic research papers.
IV. Specific Oral Tasks
- Apply basic rules or order in formal meetings;
- Present motions in meetings.
To pass CMNS 1110, students must demonstrate the ability to write in standard English and demonstrate communicative competence in relation to the designed writing purposes, audiences and tasks in the social services field.
Evaluation will be based on this general breakdown:
| Comparative Summary | 20% |
| Letters | 20% |
| Job Package | 10% |
| Brief | 30% |
| (Covering Letter) | 5% |
| (Progress Report) | 5% |
| Preparation and Participation | 10% |
| 100% |
No single text is applicable for all career programs or for all course objectives. However, a handbook and/or exercise book is required. The following are examples of possibilities:
- The Brief English Handbook. Dornan & Dawe (2001)
- When Writers Write. Kathleen MacDonald