Second Year Composition

Textbook: Write to be Read, William Smalzer; Cambridge University Press.

Aims:
-to practice writing full compositions, especially narrative, descriptive and discursive essays.
-to improve writing skills by writing as much as possible.
-to learn to gather ideas and organise them, then draft, redraft and edit a piece of writing.
-to learn how to appreciate and criticise one own and others?writing.
-to use writing to communicate.
-to write in a variety of genres, e.g. letters (formal & informal), reviews, reports, journals.

Course content:
Students learn the skills of gathering and organising ideas, planning, drafting, revising and rewriting texts. This means plenty of reading and above all writing (mostly as homework), but also a lot of planning, discussion and peer evaluation in class. There will also be error correction and remedial language work as required. A wide a variety of writing genres are covered. Students are also asked to keep a journal, which I read at mid-term and at the end of the semester. This course involved a lot of work out of class, and students unable to carry out all the writing assignments required risk failing the course.

Evaluation: will be based mainly on homework assignments (45%), but also journals (15%), exams (30%), and attendance (10%).