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Required Texts and Supplies

• English Skills with Readings, 6th ed., John Langan, paperback,
  ISBN 0073215171
• A college-level dictionary approved by the instructor
• An email account and computer access to the Internet
• A "Collected Works" notebook for turning in assignments

Weekly Syllabus

(Subject to revision to meet changing conditions, or at the discretion of the instructor)
Download Academic Calendar 2006-2007 (PDF)

Week 1: 8/16-8/18

• Transition week

• Introduction: course philosophy, requirements, texts, etc.
• Go over syllabus and expectations for class
• In-class prewriting and outlining activities
• Write simple paragraph about best/worst job
• HW: Buy textbook; read and work through "An Introduction to Writing" pp. 3-19, and "The Writing Process" pp. 20-34

Week 3: 8/28-9/1

• Selected activities on "The Writing Process" pp. 20-34
• Introduction to "The First and Second Steps in Writing" pp. 49-87
• Sentence skills: "Paper Format" pp. 454-458
• HW: Read and work through more selected pages in "The Writing Process" and "The First and Second Steps in Writing"

Week 4: 9/4-9/8

• Review homework and continue with "The Writing Process" and "The First and Second Steps in Writing"
• Sentence skills: "Fragments" pp. 369-385
• HW: Complete "Fragments"; complete work on the explanations and activities in "The Writing Process" and "The First and Second Steps in Writing"

Week 5: 9/11-9/15

• Review homework and begin "The Third Step in Writing" pp. 88-109
• Sentence skills: "Run-Ons" pp. 386-401
• "Providing Examples" pp. 185-196
• HW: Complete "Run-Ons"; do Activities on pp. 100-109; read "Introduction to the Readings" pp. 587-592 and "Rudeness at the Movies" pp. 706-713, then do Reading Comprehension Questions and one of the purple writing assignments that follows each reading selection
• Paragraph Writing Assignment: write an Examples paragraph as described on pp. 190-196

• Review homework and read and discuss Examples papers
• Continue class work on selected activities in "The Third Step in Writing"
• Begin "The Fourth Step in Writing" pp. 110-143
• Study/practice for test by doing Review Tests on pp. 382-385 & 398-401
• Combined Mastery Tests 1 & 2 (Fragments and Run-Ons)
• HW: Complete selected activities and tests in "The Third Step in Writing" and "The Fourth Step in Writing"; rewrite Examples paragraph as needed

Week 7: 9/25-9/29

• Final draft of Examples paragraph due
• Review homework and complete additional selected activities in "The Fourth Step in Writing"
• Sentence skills: "Commonly Confused Words" pp. 525-535
• "Explaining a Process" pp. 197-209
• HW: Complete "Four Bases for Revising Writing"; read "Anxiety: Challenge by Another Name" pp. 651-658, then do one of the purple writing assignments that follows the reading selection
• Paragraph Writing Assignment: write a Process paragraph as described on pp. 202-209

Week 8: 10/2-10/6

• Read and evaluate Process papers
• Sentence skills: "Standard English Verbs" pp. 402-411, "Irregular Verbs" pp. 412-419, and "Subject-Verb Agreement" pp. 420-426
• Special skill: "Using the Dictionary" pp. 504-513
• HW: Complete sentence skills material covered in class; rewrite the Process paragraph as needed

10/9: Columbus Day

Week 9: 10/9-10/13

• Final draft of Process paragraph due
• Guest lectures by Dasan Ahanu, Visiting Artist-in-Residence
  "Writing Personal Experience"
  Learning language and personal expression through spoken word poetry

Week 10: 10/16-10/20

• Review assigned sentence skills
• "Examining Cause and Effect" pp. 210-220
• Study/practice for test by doing Review Tests on pp. 409-411 & 418-419
• Combined Mastery Tests 3 & 4 (Verbs)
• HW: Work through "Capital Letters" pp. 459-468, "Apostrophe" pp. 472-480, "Quotation Marks" pp. 481-488, and "Comma" pp. 489-498; read "Do It Better!" pp. 641-651, then do one of the purple writing assignments that follows the reading selection
• Paragraph Writing Assignment: write a Cause-and-Effect paragraph as described on pp. 215-220

Week 11: 10/23-10/27

• Review assigned sentence skills
• Read and evaluate Cause-and-Effect papers
• Sentence skills: "Adjectives and Adverbs," "Misplaced Modifiers," and "Dangling Modifiers" pp. 440-453
• Study/practice for test by doing Review Tests on pp. 467-468, 479-480, 487-488, & 497-498
• Combined Mastery Tests 5 & 6 (Capital Letters and Punctuation)
• HW: Complete the sentence skills covered in class; rewrite the Cause-and-Effect paragraph as needed

Week 12: 10/30-11/3

• Final draft of Cause-and-Effect paragraph due
• Sentence skills: "Other Punctuation Marks" pp. 499-503, "Using the Dictionary" pp. 504-513, "Improving Spelling" pp. 514-520, and "Vocabulary Development" pp. 521-524
• "Describing a Scene or Person" and "Narrating an Event" pp. 261-286
• HW: Complete the sentence skills covered in class; read "Rowing the Bus" pp. 598-606 and "A Drunken Ride, a Tragic Aftermath" pp. 722-736, then do one of the purple writing assignments that follows each reading selection
• Paragraph Writing Assignment: write a Descriptive paragraph as explained on pp. 266-274 or write a Narrative paragraph as described on pp. 280-286

Week 13: 11/6-11/10

• Read and evaluate Descriptive or Narrative papers
• Sentence skills: "Effective Word Choice" pp. 536-541
• Introduction to "A Quick Guide to Research" pp. 339-352
• HW: Do the final activity in "A Quick Guide to Research" on pp. 352; rewrite the Narrative or Descriptive paragraph as needed; read "Joe Davis: A Cool Man" pp. 613-622, "Old Before Her Time" pp. 658-668 and "The Most Hateful Words" pp. 693-699, then do one of the purple Writing Assignments that follows each reading selection

Week 14: 11/13-11/17

• Final draft of Narrative or Descriptive paragraph due
• Review the research activity
• Review the comprehension questions on the three reading selections, and work through the discussion questions that follow "Joe Davis: A Cool Man"
• "Comparing or Contrasting" pp. 221-237 and "Writing the Essay" pp. 311-338
• In-class prewriting for the Comparison-Contrast essay, using one of the paragraph writing assignments that follow the selection or one of those on pp. 231-237
• Study/practice for test by doing Review Tests on pp. 540-541
• Combined Mastery Tests 7 & 8 (Word Use)
• HW: Complete the Comparison-Contrast essay that was begun in class; do Parts 1 and 2 of the Sentence-Skills Diagnostic Test on pp. 355-360 as practice for upcoming achievement test

Week 15: 11/20-11/24

• Read and evaluate Comparison-Contrast papers
• Conference with instructor on papers written to date and in-class rewriting of earlier papers in light of the four bases
• Sentence Skills Achievement Test
• HW: Rewrite the Comparison-Contrast essay as needed; read "Let's Really Reform Our Schools" pp. 668-676, then do one of the purple Writing Assignments that follows the reading selection

Week 16: 11/27-12/1

• Comparison-Contrast essay due
• Review the questions for "Let's Really Reform Our Schools"
• Turn in "Collected Works" notebook of completed homework to the instructor
• Final exam review

12/4-8: Final Exams

Grading

• Paragraph Writing Assignments (4): 25%
• Combined Mastery Tests (4): 10%
• Sentence Skills Achievement Test: 10%
• Comparison-Contrast Essay: 20%
• Final Exam: 20%
• Homework: 10%
• Participation: 5%

Course Descriptions and Goals

English Fundamentals II provides students with further review of sentence skills and writing skills. Writing effective sentences through use of parallelism, exact word choice, concise language, similes and metaphors will be covered. Solving common sentence problems such as run-ons, comma splices, fragments, and subject-verb agreement will also be practiced. Basic grammar will be taught so that problems with pronoun-antecedent agreement, pronoun case, reflexive and intensive pronouns, irregular forms of the past tense, comparative and superlative forms of adjectives can be mastered. Paragraphs of classification, definition and argument will be written. Understanding essay structure and writing introductions and conclusions in various ways will be emphasized.

In your classes here at the college, you are in training to become a professional in your chosen field. An important part of being a professional is consistently doing the work you're supposed to do every working day. In your job, your responsibilities will include coming to work each day, arriving on time, and completing your assigned tasks by the date they are due. During your time here at St. Aug's, you have similar responsibilities, which you should meet in a professional manner.

By the end of this class, you should have a firm grip on writing skills at the sentence and paragraph level; write different kinds of paragraphs, especially classification, definition and arguments; and take on the responsibility for your own progress through self-assessment and peer review.

Course Objectives

1. To recognize and correct run-on sentences and comma splices.


2. To recognize and correct sentence fragments.


3. To avoid subject-verb problems with be, have and do; when words come between the subject and the verb; with indefinite pronouns as subjects; when the verb comes before the subject, or with the relative pronouns who, which and that.


4. To avoid illogical shifts in tense, person, number, discourse, or voice.


5. To identify and correct dangling and misplaced modifiers.


6. To use regular and irregular verbs in the past tense.


7. To use the present perfect and past perfect tenses, and to use past participles as adjectives.


8. To identify nouns and form their plurals.


9. To identify pronouns and solve problems with pronoun-antecedent agreement.


10. To form comparatives and superlatives of adjectives and adverbs.


11. To write classification, definition and argument paragraphs.


12. To write introductions and conclusions for an essay.


13. To develop essays in different ways as practiced in the paragraph types written for class during the semester.

Attendance and Coursework Policy

1. According to college policy, students are allowed four unexcused absences for the course. Before the midterm point, a fifth unexcused absence will result in the student being dropped from the class. After the midterm point, each further unexcused absence will result in one full point being deducted from the student's final grade. Absences that are verified as excused will not result in any penalty. Student athletes must provide a schedule of practices, away games, etc. that might interfere with their attendance in class, or any absences will count as unexcused.


2. Students are expected to be in their seats when the class starts. If you arrive over ten minutes late to class, you will be counted as tardy. Two tardies will equal one unexcused absence.


3. It is the responsibility of the student to see the instructor about make-up options if you miss in-class quizzes or tests.


4. Students are expected to turn in all work on the due date. If an assignment is going to be late, you must discuss the situation with the instructor ahead of time. Each day late that an assignment is turned in, it will be automatically reduced a letter grade; after four days, it will automatically receive an F.


5. If a student must leave class early, he or she must let the instructor know at the beginning of class.


6. Cell phones are prohibited during class time. If your cell phone goes off in class, you only get one warning; after that, it belongs to the instructor.


7. Students are expected to be both attentive and respectful of their classmates and instructor. Attentive and respectful behavior includes the following:
   
   
   • Listen attentively to both the instructor and questions/comments by students.
   
   
   • Give the class your full attention; do not work from other classes; do not listen to CD/MP3 players; turn off all cell phones and/or beepers; do not talk with other students.
   
   
   • Do not leave and return while the class is in progress. If you need to use the bathroom or get a drink of water, do so before you walk in the door.
   
   
   • Food is a distraction and will not be allowed. You may bring in water to drink, but no sodas or sports drinks; other classes have to use the room after us, and we need to keep it as clean as possible.
   
   

The Writing Center

Please use the Writing Center, only two doors down from our classroom. It is there to help you, and there are student tutors who can give you additional help with grammar and writing topics that are difficult for you. Each of you should take advantage of this free service, but if a special note is made on your assignment that you need to go to the Writing Center on a regular basis, it is because the instructor is concerned that you will not be successful in this class without some additional one-on-one assistance, and it is a requirement for your success. All you do is go to Boyer 306 and set up an appointment time. If you do not take advantage of this opportunity, then you may have problems passing this class with a grade of C, which is necessary to proceed to your next required English class.