This course is designed to introduce NTU students to university-level English. We will begin by learning about what Jane Aaron calls “features of academic writing”; we will then learn important guidelines about key skills including integrating sources and documenting sources. If it can be arranged, we will also request a visit from a librarian to learn more about academic resources available here at NTU. But we will also ask how, and why, these skills and resources could be useful for us. We will accordingly read and discuss a series of texts (including speeches, newspaper articles, films, and interviews) that are mostly centered on specific sites in Taipei and elsewhere in Taiwan. Students will have a chance apply the skills they have learned through critical responses to these texts and, near the end of this course, through a group presentation.

Students are expected to attend regularly, to read with care and curiosity, and to bring an open mind to course assignments and class discussions. We will reflect on our previously held commonsense ideas and test them against our course readings.