English Writing and Composition Course - Academic Writing

Master the conventions of punctuation, including apostrophes for possession and contractions, commas for lists and independent clauses, and colons, dashes, semicolons, periods, question marks, quotation marks, and capitalization.

Learn the capitalization rules for sentences and direct quotations, proper nouns, titles, brand and commercial names, days, months, and abbreviations, plus the pronoun I and official course titles.

Identify common errors such as sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and faulty parallelism, and apply corrections by ensuring complete thoughts, a subject and a verb, and consistent grammatical form.

Explore how paragraphs, the fundamental unit of composition, group related sentences to discuss one subject. They develop from general to specific, follow four to seven sentences, and begin with indentation.

Organize paragraphs by using a topic sentence, supporting sentences, and a concluding sentence to express a clear purpose, maintain unity and proportion, and ensure narrative, descriptive, or analytical writing.

Explore the six steps of the writing process, from selecting a topic and organizing ideas to drafting, reviewing, revising, and proofreading to produce clear, well-structured writing.

Prepare for writing by mastering pre writing, choosing and narrowing a topic, planning a paragraph of five to ten sentences, and using brainstorming methods like lists, free writing, and mapping.

Edit after gathering ideas by selecting the most relevant points, revising and rewriting, and adding new ideas in margins while crossing out unrelated sentences, circles, and lines on your map.

Learn how a paragraph develops one main idea through a topic sentence that states the topic and its controlling idea, guiding all related sentences.

Learn how to develop a paragraph by starting with a topic sentence, adding supporting sentences, and using details, an explanation, and an example to clarify the main idea.

Explore cohesion as the links that connect sentences with linguistic tools to form a meaningful text, and coherence as the overall sense readers perceive (distinct concepts, not interchangeable).

Craft a concluding sentence that ends a paragraph by restating or summarizing the main idea, without introducing new points, and optionally offers advice or makes a projection.

Craft narrative paragraphs with a clear beginning, middle, and end using chronological order and occasional flashbacks. Build coherence with topic sentences and supporting details.

Explore how opinion paragraphs express the writer's opinion, support it with facts, and persuade readers by using transition words and model auxiliaries.

Learn to write comparison and contrast paragraphs by discussing similarities and differences between two subjects, using point-by-point or blocked structures, with clear conclusions and examples.

Learn how to craft problem and solution paragraphs by stating the problem, proposing multiple solutions, evaluating them, and offering a clear recommendation to persuade the audience.

Explore process analysis in writing by outlining how to do something, how events occur, and how sequences repeat, with examples from experiments, weather, and medical tests.

Explore essay structure, thesis statements, and outlines, including introductions, body paragraphs with topic sentences and evidence, unity, and concluding ideas.

Master the argumentative essay by researching thoroughly, analyzing claims, crafting a clear thesis, outlining, drafting with focused paragraphs, handling counterarguments, and polishing language through proofreading.

Learn to craft a focused, specific thesis with an arguable point, test it against alternate views, and apply it to topics like Arctic wolves, college exams, and hybrid cars.

Begin early, read directions carefully, set deadlines, research broadly, note quotes and sources, craft a thesis, gather evidence, outline, draft, revise for transitions and grammar.

Learn to interrogate texts through previewing, asking questions, and analyzing arguments to actively engage with readings, summarize in your own words, outline ideas, and compare with other sources.

Review the assignment sheet and rubric to understand expectations. Read the peer's paper quickly, then again with the rubric, take notes, and offer constructive, supportive feedback.

Engage in practical activities to write paragraphs and study narrative, opinion, explanation, comparison, and problem and solution styles, preparing for advanced essay writing in a separate course.

Practice writing a narrative paragraph by choosing a topic and crafting a topic sentence, then tell events in chronological order using past simple and past perfect at Tangier harbor, Morocco.

Take a clear stance in an opening paragraph, defend it with evidence, and argue that e-books should not replace hard cover books.

Explore contrast and compare paragraphs using topic sentences and linking words. Compare translation and interpreting: interpreting is the oral rendition, time bound; translation renders written texts and can be reviewed.

Explore differences among writing types, with a focus on business writing, which aims to be direct, brief, and purposeful for business audiences such as bosses, coworkers, clients, and vendors.

Craft a cover letter that introduces your resumé, highlights qualifications not in your resumé, and requests an interview, following a four-paragraph structure: introduction, fit, details, and closing with next steps.

Write clear business letters that address customer issues, explain procedures, and use standard formats including date, sender's address, readers address, subject line, greeting, body with paragraphs and bullets.

Craft concise, tailored resumes and cover letters to secure interviews, detailing education and experience with action verbs and quantified achievements on a single page.