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ENGL 0501
Advanced English Skills

0 Credit

Description

This course emphasizes skills in writing sentences, paragraphs, and short essays. By the end of the course, students are able to write effective application letters and short critical essays about literary selections.

Delivery Method

Web-based.

Prerequisites

Grade 10 English, ENGL 0401 or equivalent. Placement can be made on the basis of an English Assessment.

Note: Students should obtain an English Language and Writing Assessment form and have their skills assessed to make sure they start with the course best-suited to their needs. The form is available on the TRU-OL website and from Student Services.

Objectives

  • To develop the British Columbia ABE Advanced English core skills.

Course Outline

Unit One

  • Use the Essay Writing Skills with Readings textbook efficiently.
  • Apply principles of effective writing and use the first and second steps in essay writing.
  • Apply several pre-writing techniques.
  • Analyse a story.
  • Complete exercises on subject and verb forms.
  • Revise, edit, and rewrite compositions.
  • Write a short story based on a personal memorable experience.
  • Write a summary of a short story.
  • Write a paragraph about the skill or art of story writing.
  • Place major and minor details in logical order.
  • Write a thesis statement.

Unit Two

  • Apply the "Third and Fourth Bases for Writing and Evaluating Essays."
  • Apply the "Four Bases for Revising Essays."
  • Distinguish between narrative and expository writing.
  • Correct sentence fragments, run-on sentences, misplaced modifiers, dangling modifiers, and faulty parallelism.
  • Write two paragraphs.
  • Write an essay using examples.
  • Write sentences that contain connecting words or phrases.

Unit Three

  • Use comparison and contrast effectively in essay development.
  • Use cause and effect effectively in essay development.
  • Identify and use figures of speech that make or imply comparisons.
  • Learn effective literary terms/devices.
  • Write with correct pronoun agreement, pronoun reference, pronoun point of view, pronoun types, adjectives, and adverbs.
  • Analyse a personal essay.
  • Correctly use apostrophes, commas, colons, semicolons, dashes, hyphens, parentheses, quotation marks, and capital letters.
  • Write a review, a "backgrounder,"or an analysis of bias and balance in televised investigative reporting.
  • Edit, revise, and rewrite essays.

Unit Four

  • Format a paper.
  • Follow rules for abbreviating and writing out in full.
  • Apply the following literary terms to literature: foreshadowing, characterization, plot, theme, conflict, symbolism, irony, and mood.
  • Write one argumentative essay.
  • Write five literary analysis paragraphs about a novel.
  • Edit and revise an essay and paragraphs at a higher level.
  • Do preliminary planning for writing an analytical essay in the next unit.

Unit Five

  • Plan and write a paragraph.
  • Write a literary essay on Of Mice and of Men.
  • Use a library to do research (optional).
  • Correct or avoid errors related to commonly confused words, slang, pretentious wording, clichés, and wordiness.
  • Vary your sentence patterns.
  • Edit, revise, and rewrite one paragraph and one essay.

Unit Six

  • Revise, edit and rewrite better essays.
  • Write a literary essay on a play.
  • Write either a rhetorical mode essay or a unit theme orientated essay on handling adversity.
  • Distinguish between connotation and denotation.
  • Practice your editing skills.
  • Prepare for the final exam.

Maximum Completion

30 weeks.

Required Text and Materials

  1. Langan, John and Sharon Winstanley. Essay Writing Skills with Readings. 6th Edition. McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 2011.
    Type: Textbook, ISBN: 978-1-259-02418-4

Note: Students enrolling in this course will receive a textbook reprinted by the publisher. The ISBN number will differ from the one noted above.

  1. Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. First published in 1937. Penguin, 1993.
    Type: Novel, ISBN: 0-14-017739-6
  1. Taylor, Drew H. The Baby Blues. Talonbooks, 1999.
    Type: Novel, ISBN: 0-88922-406-4

Additional Requirements

A computer with Internet is required.

Open Learning Faculty Member Information

An Open Learning Faculty Member is available to assist students. Primary communication is through Blackboard's "Mail" tool or by phone. Students will receive the necessary contact information when starting the course.

Assessment

In order to successfully complete this course, students must obtain at least 50 % on the final mandatory examination and 50 % overall. It is strongly recommended that students complete all assignments in order to achieve the learning objectives of the course. The total mark will be determined on the following basis:

Assignment 1 12.5%
Assignment 2 12.5%
Assignment 3 12.5%
Assignment 4 12.5%
Assignment 5 12.5%
Assignment 6 12.5%
Final Exam 25%
Total 100%