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.

Other materials _______________delete this line if there is no other materials.

To pass this course, you must complete all assignments and achieve a minimum of 750 points (75%). Simply receiving 750 points will not be enough if you do not complete all of the assignments. Because course feedback is of utmost importance, you are also asked to complete the course evaluation.

Because many of the assignments involve discussion or collaboration with your classmates, it's important that everyone follow the same schedule. Assignments are due by the end of the week unless otherwise noted. I consider 11:59 p.m. Sunday to be the end of the week for this course. Some assignments require completion on a specific day of the week; these deadlines are noted in red. If your work is late (and you have not made prior arrangements with me), a grade penalty of 10% each day may be enforced.

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.

2. 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). 

3. 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.

Last Updated: August 1, 2011