COURSE SYLLABUS
English Composition II
【BEN301-03 : 英三B - F組】
[September 14, 2006 – January 14, 2007]
SoochowUniversity
Objectives:
Two objectives are set for this course:
1. To help students apply important skills of grammar, punctuation, and usage to writing.
2. To help students learn and apply principles of effective composition.
3. To help students master the traditional five-paragraph essay and variations of this essay.
Conduct of the Class:
This course assumes that writing is a continuous process. Therefore, students must write regularly and revise continually if they are to become good writers. In other words, students learn to write by writing. Since the writing process involves three stages: planning, drafting, and revising, emphasis will be placed on hand-on practice. In addition, a spirit of inquiry and active participation in class discussions are also important.
Requirements:
1. Attendanceof classes.
2. Participation in class discussions.
3. Completion of the assignments.
Evaluation:
Grading will be determined based on the quality of the following areas:
1. Class attendance (Anyone with more than three absences from class will receive a failure grade.);
2. Quality of written assignments (40%);
3. Quality of mid-term and final examinations (60%).
Textbooks:
Required:
Langan, John. College Writing Skills. 6thed. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2005.
Muller, GilbertH., and HarveyS.Wiener. The Short Prose Reader. 10thed. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 2000.
Oxford Collocations: Dictionary for Students of English. Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, 2002.
Strunk, William, Jr., and E.B.White. The Elements of Style. 4th ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2000.
Suggested:
I. Grammar, Usage, and Rhetoric
Alexander, L.G. Right Word Wrong Word: Words and Structures Confused andMisused by Learners of English. Essex, England: Longman, 1994.
Arnaudet, MartinL., and MaryEllenBarrett. Paragraph Development: A Guide for Students of English. 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Regents/Prentice Hall, 1990.
Day, Susan, and McMahanElizabeth. The Writer’s Resource: Readings for Composition, 4thed. New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1994.
English Usage. London: Harper Collins Publishers Ltd., 1992.
Hacker, Diana. A Writer’s Reference, 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martin’s Press, 1995.
Harris, Muriel. Prentice Hall Reference Guide to Grammar and Usage, 2nd ed. Englewood, NJ: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1994.
Kramer, MelindaG., GlennLeggett, and C.DavidMead. Prentice Hall Handbook forWriters, 12th ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1997.
II. Prose
Decker, RandallE., and Schwegler, RobertA.Decker’s Patterns of Exposition 14. New York: HarperCollinsCollege Publishers, 1995 .
Muller, GilbertH., and HarveyS.Wiener. The Short Prose Reader. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1994.
Vesterman, William. Essays for the '80's. New York: Random House, 1992.
III. Dictionaries
The BBI Dictionary of English Word Combinations. Taipei, Bookman Books, Ltd. (書林), 1997.
Collins Cobuild English Dictionary. London, Harper Collins Publishers, 2006.
Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. New York,CambridgeUniversity Press, 2006.
Dictionary of Contemporary English. New Edition. Essex: Longman Group UK Limited, 2006.
王文昌，【英語搭配大詞典】[A Dictionary of English Collocations]，中央圖書出版社，1997。
【文馨活用英漢辭典】 [Wen Shin’s Multiuse English-Chinese Dictionary]，文馨出版社，1994。
張道真，【現代英語用法辭典】，五南圖書出版公司，1991。
IV. Dictionaries & Encyclopedias on CD-ROMs
Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary.New York,CambridgeUniversity Press, 2006.
Collins Cobuild Dictionary on CD-ROM. New York, Harper Collins Publishers, Ltd., 2006.
Collins Cobuild English Collocations on CD-ROM. New York, Harper Collins Publishers, Ltd., 1995.
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. New York, Pearson Education Limited, 2006.
Microsoft Encarta Reference Library, Seattle, Microsoft Corporation, 2007.
V. Web Sites:
＠Process of Writing
Paradigm Online Writing Assistant.
Purdue Online Writing Lab.
＠Writing Summaries
＠Clarity and style
Purdue Online Writing Lab.
＠Sentence parts and patterns
HyperGrammar, University of Ottawa
Writer’s Guide, University of Victoria
Writer’s Workshop, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Class Activity Calendar
[September 14, 2006 – January 14, 2007]
Session Date Topic/Assignment
1 09/14Introduction to writing & writing process
2 09/21The first step in essay writing (I)
Reading: Chapter 1 On Writing (1)
3 09/28The first step in essay writing (II)
4 10/05The second step in essay writing (I)
Reading: Chapter 1 On Writing (2)
5 10/12The second step in essay writing (II)
6 10/19The third step in essay writing (I)
Reading: Chapter 1 On Writing (3)
Assignment 1 Due
7 10/26The third step in essay writing (II)
8 11/02 The fourth step in essay writing (I)
Reading: Chapter 1 On Writing (4)
Assignment 1 Revised Due
9 11/09Mid-term Examination (In-class Examination)
10 11/16The fourth step in essay writing (II)
Reading: Chapter 2 On Reading (1)
11 11/23Four bases for revising essays (I): Unity
Assignment 2 Due
12 11/30 Four bases for revising essays (II): Support
Reading: Chapter 2 On Reading (2)
13 12/07Four bases for revising essays (III): Coherence
Assignment 2 Revised Due
14 12/14Four bases for revising essays (IV): Sentence Skills (1)
Reading: Chapter 2 On Reading (3)
15 12/21Four bases for revising essays (IV): Sentence Skills (2)
Assignment 3 Due
16 12/28Four bases for revising essays (IV): Sentence Skills (3)
Reading: Chapter 2 On Reading (4)
17 01/04Four bases for revising essays (IV): Sentence Skills (3)
Assignment 3 Revised Due
18 01/11Final Examination (In-class Examination)
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