Houston Community College
Intensive English Program, Northeast College
Northline Center
Syllabus for Level IV Composition
Spring 2011
Instructor:
Course:
CRN:
Time:
Office Hours:
Telephone:
Email:
Dr. Julie Cote
ESOL 0354 Advanced Composition
76029
9:00 -11:30 a.m. Tuesday/Thursday Room 222
TTH 2:00-2:30
713-718-8181
julia.cote@hccs.edu
Textbook: Great Essays (Great Writing 4) by Folse, Muchmore-Vokoun, and Solomon/ (HoughtonMifflin, 2010).
Course Description: This course concentrates on elements of organization, form, style, rhetoric, and
sophisticated language use. Students are required to produce well-ordered, well-substantiated
paragraphs with topic sentences and multi-paragraph essays containing thesis statements.
Course Objectives: The student should be able to write a well-organized, substantially fluent,
grammatical multi-paragraph essay with an appropriate thesis statement based on a concise outline.
These essays will exhibit familiarity with the following modes of development: narrative, comparison,
cause-effect, and argumentative.
Attendance Policy: The HCCS policy is that if a student is absent for 12.5% of the time (4 class
days during a 16 week semester), she or he may be dropped from the course. The student is
responsible for all work missed while absent. If you are more than 15 minutes late, you are
considered absent. You must return from lunch and breaks on time. Attendance is marked beginning
the first official day of classes, not the day that you register/enroll.
Tardies: Being on time is very important in the United States. If you arrive more than ten minutes
late, you will be counted tardy. (3 tardies=1 absence) If you are more than fifteen minutes late, you
will be counted absent. A student who is tardy may sign the roll at the end of class. A tardy student
who fails to sign the roll will be counted as absent. You must sign the role sheet in order to
receive credit for being in class. Excessive tardies, either individual or as a class, are an
interruption of instruction. Official tardy count is recorded as follows: three tardies (or early leaves)
count as one class absence.
Make-up Policy: It is very important that you come to class. If you miss an in-class
composition day, you may make up the composition the next class day. Please be
aware that the topic you receive for the make-up composition may not be the same one
your classmates received. There will be no make-ups for other work except in cases of
extreme emergencies. You must call the office at 713-718-8181 if you have an emergency.
Scholastic Dishonesty: Do not copy the words or ideas of another writer without giving credit
to your source. Copying another person’s writing is called “plagiarism” and is a form of
cheating. A student who cheats will be given a grade of zero for that assignment. Multiple
instances of cheating may lead to being dropped from the course.
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Disability Support: Any student with a documented disability (e.g. physical, learning,
psychiatric, developmental, vision, hearing, etc.) who needs to arrange reasonable
accommodation must contact the Disability Support Services (DSS) Counselor at the beginning
of each semester, Faculty members are authorized to provide only the accommodation
requested by the DSS Office. Ms. Kim Ingram is the Northeast College’s DSS counselor. Her
telephone number is 713-718-8420.
NOTICE: Students who repeat a course for a third or more times may soon face significant
tuition/fee increases at HCC and other Texas colleges and universities. Please ask your
instructor about opportunities for tutoring/ other assistance prior to considering course
withdrawal of if you are not receiving passing grades.
Recording Devices: “Use of recording devices, including camera phones and tape recorders,
is prohibited in classrooms, laboratories, faculty offices, and other locations where instruction,
tutoring, or testing occurs. Students with disabilities who need to use a recording device as a
reasonable accommodation should contact the Office for Students with Disabilities for
information regarding reasonable accommodations.
Cell Phones and Electronic Devices: All cell phones and any electronic devices
must be turned off during class. If the phone or device rings/beeps/makes noise
during class, I will hold it until class is over. Turn off your cell phone before you
enter the classroom. Talking and text messaging on the cell phone are not allowed
during class time. The only reason you should be disturbed during class is for a
real emergency. If you must be reached in an emergency, the person should call
the Intensive English office. Someone will come to get you out of class. Laptop
computers, iPods, and any other electronic devices must be put away while you
are in class.
Classroom policy: I am extremely allergic to perfumes, colognes, hairsprays, lotions, and
cigarette smoke. Please do not wear any to class and do not smoke directly before class or on
a break. I may ask you to leave class if I cannot breathe you. This will count as an absence or
early leave.
Student Conduct: Sleeping in class is disrespectful. If you sleep during class,
you will be asked to leave. This will count as one absence.
Grading Criteria:
Journals
In-Class Compositions
Final Essay
Grading Scale:
90-100=
80-89=
70-79=
Below 70=
20%
60%
20%
A
B
C
IP or F
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Journals
You will be required to keep a journal for this class. Your journal will be a place for you to
practice using your written English. You will write two journal responses a week, each about 150
words long (300 words total per week).
Journal Writing will begin Week Four and end Week Thirteen. You will have a total of
twenty journal entries: 10 free-writes and 10 assigned topics. I will collect your journal and read it,
but I will not correct every grammar mistake. The purpose of the journal is to practice writing in
English. The more you practice, the better your writing will become. I will collect the journals on the
journal due dates listed in your course calendar.
Journal Response One: The first journal response is a free response. You may write whatever
you wish for this entry. There are no assigned topics for the free response.
Journal Response Two: This is an assigned topic. You must write a response to the given topics
below.
You may hand-write or type your journal responses. Please double-space and use a 12 point font
(Ariel or Times New Roman). Most of the journals will be written outside of class; however, there
may be days where you will have time to work on them in the lab.
Assigned Journal Topics
Week 4:
Why are you in this class? What do you hope to achieve?
Week 5:
What is something you do well?
Week 6:
What is something you dislike about yourself??
Week 7:
What is something you are optimistic about?
Week 8:
What is something you are pessimistic about?
Week 9:
If you could sit down for an hour with President Obama, what advice would you give
him?
Week 10:
If money were no object, what kind of job would you most like to have? Why? What
would be the worst job?
Week 11:
Do you buy lottery tickets? Gamble? Why or why not?
Week 12:
Do you like to read? Why or why not? If you do, what sort of books do you prefer?
Why?
Week 13:
Go back to your first journal. Did you accomplish what you hoped to? Why or why
not? What is the most important thing you have learned this semester?
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IN-CLASS COMPOSITION PROCEDURES
Level IV Composition
1. Students will work on the pre-writing and outline/rough draft in class on Tuesday.
2. Essays will be hand-written in class on Thursday. Computers will not be used for inclass essays (There is too much temptation to use translation websites. I need to see
how well you write without help). You may use a book dictionary, but you may not use
an electronic translation device when writing the final draft.
3. For Compositions 1-3, if your grade on the second draft is 79% (C) or lower, you must
rewrite the paper or you will get a 0 for the grade. I will average the first and second
draft grades to calculate your final essay score. Papers that earn an 80% or higher do
not have to be rewritten. There will be no re-write for Composition 4.
4. Rewritten essays may be typed or hand-written. If I think you used a translation device
or got outside help on your essay, your essay will receive a grade of zero.
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ESSAY REQUIREMENTS
Presentation of completed work is extremely important in the academic and work environments.
Essays written for this class must follow the below requirements:
 Essays must be written in blue or black ink and double-spaced (skip lines)
using one side of the paper.
 All essays must be handed in with pre-writing and outline/rough draft(s)
 The final copy should contain no crossed out words or messy corrections
(“white-out” is acceptable).
 All essays should contain the student’s first and last name, the date, the
name of the course, and the instructor’s name. Multiple Pages should be
stapled together.
Turn in (in the following order)
Final Essay
Outline/Rough Draft
Prewriting
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Level IV Composition
Course Calendar
Spring 2011
Course Content: The instructor may make additional assignments and/or change assignments
during the semester.
Week 1
1/18 & 1/20
Evaluation Essay, Introduction to course
The Writing Process, p. 35
Week 2
1/25 & 1/27
Unit 1: Exploring the Essay
Example Essays, pp. 1-20
Week 3
2/1 & 2/3
Unit 1: Exploring the Essay
Writing the Introduction, pp. 19-27
Writing the Body, Using an Outline, pp. 28-32
Writing the Conclusion, p. 33
Week 4
2/8 & 2/10
Unit 2: Narrative Essays
What is a Narrative Essay? pp. 37-40
Example Narrative Essays, pp. 41-48
Language Focus: Developing Sentence Variety, pp. 49-52
Week 5
2/15 & 2/17
Unit 2: Narrative Essays
Developing the Narrative Essay, pp. 53-61
In-Class Comp #1: Narration
Journal Check #1 (Weeks 4&5 due)
Week 6
2/22 & 2/24
Unit 3: Comparison Essays
What is a Comparison Essay? pp. 62-64
Example Comparison Essays, pp. 65-70
Building Better Sentences, Connectors, pp. 71-74
Week 7
3/1 & 3/3
Unit 3: Comparison Essays
Developing Ideas for Writing, pp. 76-80
Brainstorming, pp. 77-82
Week 8
3/8 & 3/10
Planning with an Outline, pp. 80-81
In-Class Comp #2: Comparison
Journal Check #2 (Weeks 6, 7,&8 due)
3/15-3/17
Spring Break: No Class
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Week 9
3/22 & 3/24
Unit 4: Cause-Effect Essays
What is a Cause-Effect Essay? pp. 84-85
Example Cause-Effect Essays, pp. 85-90
Developing Cause-Effect Essays, pp. 90-94
Week 10
3/29 & 3/31
Unit 4: Cause-Effect Essays
Language Focus: Connectors for Cause-Effect Essays, pp. 95-97
Wordiness, pp. 98-100
Developing Ideas for Writing, pp.102-103
Week 11
4/5 & 4/7
Unit 4: Cause-Effect Essays
Prewriting: Clustering, p. 104
Planning with Outline, p. 105
In-Class Comp. #3: Cause/Effect
Journal Check #3 (Weeks 9, 10, &11 due)
Week 12
4/12 & 4/14
Unit 5: Argumentative Essays
What is an Argumentative Essay? pp. 108-109
Example Argumentative Essays, pp. 110-112
Counterargument and Refutation, p. 113
Week 13
4/219 & 4/21
Unit 5: Argumentative Essays
Counterargument and Refutation, pp. 114-115
Developing an Argumentative Essay, pp. 115-118
Journal Check #4 (Weeks 12&13 due)
Week 14
4/26 & 4/28
Unit 5: Argumentative Essays
Writing Pro and Con Thesis Statements, pp.120-121
Avoiding Faulty Logic, p. 121
Avoiding Plagiarism, pp. 123-124
Week 15
5/3& 5/5
In-Class Comp #4: Argumentative (no rewrites)
Final Exam Review: review all essay types
Week 16
5/10
Final Exam Essay
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