This course is specifically intended to give high-intermediate ESL students an opportunity to practice and refine writing skills in the context of the short essay with a focus on increasing fluency and accuracy, thus preparing students for a variety of academic courses.

You will learn through text activities, process writing, peer work in assigned peer groups, and through email and telephone conversations with your instructor.

What you learn in this course will benefit you by giving you the skills needed to succeed in your other course studies. You will be more confident in your knowledge of how to properly structure an essay, how to develop and expand your ideas, how to organize your thoughts and ideas logically, and how to express yourself in writing clearly.

Prerequisite :

ESL 41 requires competency in writing as indicated by the placement test or by teacher recommendation from a previous level.

If you do well in this course, you will be able to:

1. Produce multi-paragraph essays.
2. Use advanced language patterns in their writing. 
3. Write with increasing accuracy and fluency.

Course Grading

A. Participation: 5%
B. Essays (3 essays): 45%
C. Assignments: 20%
D. Essay Exam 1: 3%
E. Essay Exam 2: 13.5%
F. Essay Exam 3: 13.5%

Your final grade will either be "S" or "Satisfactory" or "R" for "Retake."

You must have at least 75% to receive an S. Below 75% is an R.

Your final grade will be based on the following scale:

A	95 - 100
A-	90 - 94
B+	87 - 89
B	83 - 86
B-	80 - 82
C+	77 - 79
C	73 - 76
C-	70 - 72
D	60 - 69
F	0 - 59

1. Participation grade: How do you earn your participation grade in an online course? Every time that you communicate with me, you earn your particpation grade. Remember that you can communicate with me via email or telephone, or you can meet me during my posted office hours. Also, every time you participate with your classmates in the Discussion forums, you earn your participation grade.

2. Assignments: Students will work on Discussion forums on a weekly basis. Students will be graded on all Discussion Forums.  If a student fails to do one, he/she will receive a zero (0) for that forum. Copies of the work posted on Blackboard must be e-mailed to me. Students are not only required to do the forums but also respond to other students' forums. By reading and responding to assignments of others, students will expose themselves to other points of views and other styles of writing.

Students will be given multiple homework assignments every week. The instructions for submitting these assignments are extremely specific--pay careful attention to all instructions.

3. Essays: Writing is a cycle; the first draft is never the last.  You will write numerous essays in this course; you will revise each one until it is acceptable (75 points or more). 

4. Proctored exams: You will take three proctored essay exams this semester. Please read the section on EXAMS for detailed information on proctored exams.

There are 3 exams in this course. You are expected to take your examinations at one of the NVCC campus Testing Centers. Be sure to allow enough time to complete your exam before the Testing Center closes; Testing Centers have specific policies relating to the administration of ELI exams. You will need to take a photo ID, your NovaConnect empl ID number, and the appropriate Exam Pass when you go to the Testing Center.  

For Testing Center locations, hours of operation and policies, click here.

For information on taking exams outside of the metropolitan area, click here.

I am here to help you succeed in this course. Occasionally questions or problems may arise. Here is how to contact me when they do:

E-mail : sharm@nvcc.edu
Telephone : (703) 878-5799.

You may also call me to schedule a meeting in person, either at ELI or my campus office in Woodbridge. 

1. Use your web browser to connect to http://www.nvcc.edu/bbstart. Follow the directions to determine your email, Blackboard and VIVA account user names and passwords.
2. Access your email account and make sure you know how to use it; you will be required to use this account for all course-related email.
3. Log on to Blackboard at http://learn.vccs.edu.
4. Click on this course under "My Courses." Review the entire course to make sure you understand what will be required of you. Then start completing the assignments.

Please note that account generation takes approximately one week from the time of your paid registration. If you cannot log on after one week, contact the IT Help Desk. If you can log on to Blackboard, but your course isn't listed, please contact ELI or your instructor.