Syllabus
Writing Skills III

Writing Skills III

DEVW-0330

Spring 2013
01/14/2013 - 05/12/2013

Course Information

Section 006
Lecture
TTh 13:30 - 14:50
PIN1 708
Brian Yansky

Section 015
Lecture
MW 12:00 - 13:20
SAC1 1315
Brian Yansky

Office Hours

No office hours have been entered for this term

Course Requirements

 

WRITING SKILLS III(0030) SYLLABUS/ spring 2013

 

No required text. I will use myskillstutor.com computer based instruction and many, many handouts.

 

Course Requirements:

 

 

Required Textbook:  No textbook. I’ll give you lots of handouts and you’ll do assignments on skills tutor online

 

Course Requirements:

 

  1. Essays--70% of grade: You will write and revise each essay.  You will receive two grades for each essay. Thefinal will count as two grades. Essays turned in late will lose 10 points on a 100 point scale.  If you don’t revise an essay, I take the first grade and subtract ten points.  The final is worth 30%.

 

2. Grammar Tests--15% of grade: There will be three grammar tests and a final

 

3. Class Attendance/participation & Homework --5% of grade. If you miss more than three classes, you can be dropped from the course.  Since attendance is part of your grade, let me know if there was a good reason you missed class so I don’t penalize you for an absence.

 

4. Journals--10% of grade: You will be required to write forty (40) journals over the course of the semester. Turn in three journals each week.

Readings

 

Handouts--no required text

Course Subjects

 

Brian Yansky

email: byansky@austincc.edu

voice mail: 223-8117/cell 917-4993

Office: PIN 1022 /SAC 1224

Office Hours:  PIN: TTH 11-12 & 3-3:30

SAC: MW 11-12

I am also available by appointment.

 

WRITING SKILLS III (0330) SYLLABUS/ spring 2013

 

Required Textbook:  No textbook. I’ll give you lots of handouts and you’ll do assignments on skills tutor online.

 

Course Requirements:

 

  1. Essays--70% of grade: You will write and revise each essay.  You will receive two grades for each essay. Thefinal will count as two grades. Essays turned in late will lose 10 points on a 100 point scale.  If you don’t revise an essay, I take the first grade and subtract ten points.  The final is worth 30%.

 

2. Grammar Tests—15% of grade: There will be three grammar tests and a final

 

3. Class Attendance/participation & Homework --5% of grade. If you miss more than three classes, you can be dropped from the course.  Since attendance is part of your grade, let me know if there was a good reason you missed class so I don’t penalize you for an absence.

 

4. Journals--10% of grade: You will be required to write forty (40) journals over the course of the semester. Turn in three journals each week.

 

 

Week 1

student profile

department syllabus

entrance essay

into of syllabus/ class schedule

introductions

grammar diagnostic

 

Week 2

NO CLASS MONDAY: MLK DAY 1/21

grammar diagnostic review

Essay 1

journal

essay structure

prewriting  techniques for essay #1

ESSAY 1: Narrative Essay Week 3

 

Week 3

subjects/verbs

prewriting

introductions

words frequently confused

ESSAY 1 DUE

 

Week 4

comparison/contrast practice

introductions

thesis and essay map

subject and verb worksheets

modifier problems

ESSAY 1R DUE: Week 5

ESSAY 2: Comparison/Contrast  Week 6

 

Week 5 

Essay 2

words 2

topic sentences and body paragraphs

verb tenses

ESSAY IR DUE

 

Week 6

All about verbs

Verb practice

Body paragraphs

GRAMMAR TEST 1: Verbs

ESSAY 2 DUE

 

Week 7

Research essay #3: persuasive mode

words 3

conjunctive adverbs

coordinating conjunctions

transitions

conclusions

MLA

ESSAY 2R DUE Week 8

 

WEEK 8

research

words commonly confused

subordinating conjunctions

group work on essay 3

            ESSAY 2R DUE

 

 

SPRING BREAK: MARCH 11-17

 

WEEK 9

Essay3 in-class work on documentation

Sentence Boundary Problems

Transitions

Paragraph development

Midterm practice

ESSAY 3 DUE

GRAMMAR 2: Sentences

 

WEEK 10

MIDTERM IN-CLASS (counts as Essay 4)

ESSAY 3R DUE Week 11

 

WEEK 11

Capitalization

Apostrophes

Quotation marks, italics

Revision Essay 4

ESSAY 3R DUE

 

WEEK 12

Revision techniques

More revision work

Commas

Direct/Indirect quotes

Words

ESSAY 4R (midterm) DUE

 

WEEK 13

Grammar Review

GRAMMAR 3: Capitalization & Punctuation

 

 

WEEK 14

FINAL WRITING REVIEW
FINAL GRAMMAR REVIEW
FINAL GRAMMAR TEST

 

WEEK 15

WRITING FINAL—ESSAY 5

 

WEEK 16  MAY 9 is final day of class:

 

REVISIONS OF FINAL ESSAY & Conferences. You will have the opportunity to revise your final essay for a second grade in class. Students will be allowed fifty minutes.

 

Homework assignments by week:  DUE ON SECOND CLASS DAY OF EACH WEEK.

 

( 2) HOMEWORK: Skillstutor assignment

 

(3)HOMEWORK:  handout Read “Salvation” by Langston Hughes and answer questions

 

(4)HOMEWORK: Skillstutor assignment

 

(6)HOMEWORK: Skillstutor assignment

 

(7) HOMEWORK Reading—answer questions

 

(9) HOMEWORK: Skillstutor assignment

 

(11) Reading/Summary

 

(12) HOMEWORK: Skillstutor assignment

 

 

In addition to the above homework, you will write forty journals over the course of the semester. To keep up you should complete about three journals each week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Student Learning Outcomes/Learning Objectives

Course Description
Writing with an emphasis on different methods of developing compositions. Advanced review of grammar, sentence structure, punctuation, spelling, and words often confused. Emphasis on planning, writing, and revising of assignments. Individualized and group instruction in a classroom or workshop setting. Course Goals: To prepare students to write confidently and effectively in college-level credit courses and to pass the writing portion of the TSI. Prerequisites: Grade of C or better in DEVW 1403 OR placement by a Written Essay Score of 5 and one of the following Writing objective scores: COMPASS 44-58; CPT 64-79; ASSET 36-39.

Course Rationale
Students who have not passed the writing portion of the Texas Success Initiative must enroll and participate in a developmental writing course until they satisfy the TSI writing requirement. Students who do not comply with the TSI developmental education requirements may be withdrawn by the College from all college-level courses with a grade of "W."

Course Objectives
After completing this course, the student should be able to:

engage in writing as a process;

identify audience and purpose to determine tone, vocabulary, and content;

focus essays with a clear lead-in and a thesis statement, using an essay map when appropriate;

develop unified body paragraphs using sensory detail and specific examples, and use different strategies for organizing body paragraphs;

develop coherent essays, and use transitional devices to guide the reader;

evaluate the writing of others for effectiveness;

present an argument in such a way that a reader who is ignorant of the topic or hostile will be compelled to listen; recognize the misuse of evidence and logical flaws;

avoid plagiarism and collusion; engage in research online and in the library; become familiar with MLA documentation, research outline, paraphrasing and citing direct quotations; and

use simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences; and

develop proofreading strategies to be able to proofread writing for the following errors: apostrophes in contractions and possessives; commas with conjunctions; comma splice, run-on, and fragment errors; subject-verb agreement; pronoun reference; quotation marks and capital letters; manuscript form; and commonly confused words.