Syllabus Sections
Publish Date
01/09/2013 18:14:38
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:
- 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.
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:
- 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.