This course is intended for students who need practice in basic grammar and usage, sentence structure, punctuation, summarizing and paragraph writing. A variety of skills will be developed, including vocabulary expansion, idiomatic expression and correct usage, effective sentence structure, and writing coherent and complete paragraphs. This semester we will also put another different element in the syllabus: creative writing. There will be an in-class vocabulary quiz each week, so the students have to get prepared before coming to class. Each student will have to read a novel of his/her own choice and submit four summaries (divisions decided by the student) this semester even though these book summaries will not be graded.