Course Description
This is an integrated reading and writing course. It is designed for students who need to develop comprehension of academic text and the expression of ideas in a variety of formats including academic essays and reports. The course is appropriate for students who are preparing to write the GED exams, to enter vocational or career programs at a college level, or to enter the sequence of preparatory courses for university transfer reading and writing work. Reading work in this course will emphasize summing up main points, analyzing points of view and responding critically. Reading material used will be at an introductory college level. Writing work will require students to make use of information, concepts and analyses from their reading work and to employ these in developing academic organization, content and language in their writing.
Course Content
Writing
Where appropriate, students will receive instruction concerning:
- Strategies
- generating ideas and accessing information
- setting purpose and recognizing needs of the audience
- planning design and organizing material
- initial drafting techniques
- obtaining and handling feedback
- redrafting and editing
- proofreading and producing final copy
Standard Written Expression
- mechanics and punctuation (end marks, commas, apostrophes, quotation marks, semi-colons, and capital letters, etc.)
- usage errors (verb forms, agreement, inflections, pronoun reference, and fractured idioms, etc.)
Syntactic and Semantic Control
- sentence construction (simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences)
- sentence variety (use of infinitive phrases, appositives, and other adjectival and adverbial constructions)
- avoiding sentence errors (fragments, run-ons, faulty parallelism, dangling modifiers, etc.)
- use of abstract and specific language
- choice of appropriate words (formality, connotation, precision, etc.)
Reading
Students will receive instruction in the following areas, using reading materials selected from a variety of academic contexts covering a range of topics:
- Identifying main idea
- Differentiating main ideas from supporting details
- Drawing inferences and determining implications
- Distinguishing fact from opinion
- Identifying cause and effect
- Recognizing author's tone, intent, and point of view
- Paraphrasing
- Making generalizations
- Summarizing
- Making comparisons and synthesizing ideas from different sources
- Compiling a brief report based on a lengthy article or book
- Critically evaluating ideas in text
- Conducting library research
- Participating in class discussion
- Developing flexibility in reading speed
- Using context to determine meaning
- Making a short oral presentation
Learning Activities
Classroom instructional mode will vary with instructional goals. Lecture, large-group discussion, small-group discussion and learning activities, cooperative learning, and individual learning activities may be employed.
Lab tutorial and scheduled individual appointment time will be available as appropriate. Student-directed learning outside of the classroom will also constitute a component of instruction.
Means of Assessment
A mastery model of evaluation will be used. Progress will be monitored in an ongoing and cumulative fashion by the instructor, based on written and oral demonstrations of skill. Course credit will be granted on the basis of achievement of course objectives as demonstrated by satisfactory completion of course assignments. Satisfactory progress and undertaking of independent learning are expected. Specific feedback will accompany completed assignments, and more general feedback on progress will be provided periodically by the instructor as appropriate.
A minimum of 40% of the grade is allocated to 3 reading-based papers (minimum of one in-class). No more than 60% of grade is allocated to additional various reading and writing assignments such as quizzes, summaries, paragraphs, journals, responses, tests, debates, oral presentations, etc.
Learning Outcomes
Writing
The aims of this course are for students to:
- develop confidence and experience using the process of writing;
- augment experience and effectiveness at composing a variety of practical writing assignments;
- gain initial experience with forms of writing that promote the development of analytical and critical thinking abilities;
- gain initial experience with the techniques and styles of essays and reports;
- improve awareness and control of the degrees of language formality suitable for different writing tasks;
- improve ability to make appropriate word choices;
- demonstrate growth in ability to create texts characterized by effective unity, organization and support;
- demonstrate growth in ability to convey feelings, ideas and opinions in appropriate written formats;
- demonstrate initial competency constructing multi-paragraph composition.
Reading
The aims of this course are for students to:
- develop and practice effective strategies, skills, and approaches to reading that are directed at the improvement of comprehension of academic text;
- broaden and deepen general as well as content-specific knowledge in order to improve comprehension;
- demonstrate comprehension of text both orally and in written form;
- participate in group discussion and to work cooperatively in an academic setting.
Textbook Materials
Students may be required to purchase a textbook, coursepack, and/or computer disks.