Junior Composition and Conversation Fall 2001

This course is designed to help strengthen your writing and speaking skills, giving primary attention to the successful expressive, expository and persuasive writing expected on papers and essay examinations. The different writing modes that you have learned from previous writing courses will be reviewed and practiced again in our class. With the practices of these writing modes, you will learn how to write clear, concise, and well organized English sentences and essays. You also learn how to produce longer papers with strong thesis statements and topic sentences as to write a research paper of mixed writing strategies. The writing modes we are covering this term are narration, text analysis, argumentation and persuasion, plus the one-year research project. Every now and then there will be in-class writings to help you with your writing for examinations. Some lively stimuli, such as songs, animations and movies, as well as various sorts of activities, are also offered.

Since composition and conversation are designed as a combined course, while practicing the diverse writing modes, you will have chances to talk about your ideas and opinions on different topics before, after or during the process of writing. Topics such as role model, unforgettable experiences, changing society, art and culture (movies/concerts/plays), and current issues will be covered. In the activities of conversation, you need to pay as much attention as you do to composition. Your talks and presentations, therefore, should be clear, creative with sense, organized, developed, and of individual style. Critical and independent thinking is definitely involved in every activity we do. After all, our general goal is to make you be self- motivated, but not alone, in writing and speaking. Thus, we will have group work in class and free interaction via email. I hope in this way the class will involve both strict discipline and friendly sharing of ideas and cooperation.

Group work: Early in the semester you will form a peer group, which should meet both inside and outside of class and will communicate through the computer network. Except giving oral presentations of certain topics, making impromptu speaking, you shall listen to your classmate carefully to point out mistakes or find better ways of expression to improve your own writing and speaking. Through peer evaluation of papers and talks, I hope each one of you will learn how to respond to your classmates’ papers critically and comments thoughtfully. We criticize to help improve you as a writer and speaker in this class.

Conferences: During the term, I will ask to meet with you individually or in group to discuss your work in the class and/or to answer any questions you may have. Of course, except these regular conferences, you are always welcome to make an appointment with me, should you need one during the course of the term.

Journals: one entry (2 pages) per week. You can (1) record experiences, observations, thoughts, feelings; (2) respond to your reading, assigned and personal; (3) write about concepts you learn in courses you take; (4) comment your own writing process or speaking abilities by presenting questions, difficulties, or joys you are experiencing with assignments in our class; and (5) discuss different writing styles or ideas about speaking you encounter among your classmates.

Requirements:

You are required to write four papers (3-4 typed pages; MLA format) based on the four aforementioned strategies with several drafts, the first draft of research paper and four journals (one entry per week).

。Attendance is essential. The final grade will be lowered after the third absence, and six absences means failing the course. Three lates = one absence.

。Participation: Bring an active and critical mind to class. Always be ready to speak out in class, or to me out of class, about our topics and the class itself.

。Deadlines: Deadlines are negotiable. But once they are agreed on, you have to keep them. The late papers will not be graded.

。No plagiarism! --Don't copy ideas or passages from others' writing. If you want to revise your old paper, please let me know first.

Grading policy:

composition: 5 of the highest grades of all the papers (including exams); each 20%

conversation: 4 journals 30%; group work/report 20%; individual presentation 30%; class participation 20%