Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Develops upper-intermediate writing skills. Reviews the writing process with descriptive/narrative, process, and comparison/contrast essays. Improves verb tenses, sentence types, punctuation, and spelling patterns. Introduces adverb and adjective clauses, reported speech, passive voice, and gerunds and infinitives. This is the third course of a five-course sequence.

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

1. Use writing to reflect and clarify thinking and to develop fluency.
2. Apply linguistic knowledge to clearly communicate through writing in professional, civic, and academic situations commonly encountered in the U.S.
3. Apply critical thinking to writing with an understanding of one’s own cultural filter, using concepts learned in a multi-cultural environment; apply cultural understanding learned in class to examine and appreciate the writing of others.
4. Use the accepted patterns of organization and clarity common to professional and academic writing in the U.S.
5. Use a multi-step process to plan, revise, and edit written work, including tools (e.g., dictionary, thesaurus) and sources to support writing.

Write a clear, well developed five-paragraph essay with an appropriate introduction and conclusion and a clear thesis statement.

A. Essays

Write a minimum of five essays, the majority of which are satisfactory*, including:

1. in-class essays
2. out-of-class essays
   * explanation of satisfactory attached
3. an essay not tied to a particular rhetorical style. Some suggestions include:

• personal statement
• cover letter
• letter of interest
• simple English Wikipedia/eHow
• journals (e.g. responses to writing or other media)
• advice column (e.g. problem anonymously submitted and everyone solves)
• how to be successful in Level 6 for incoming students
• self reflection on in-class activity

B. Optional assessment strategies

• a request to an instructor/employer for letter of recommendation
• resume/CV
• emails (e.g. formal, informal, or for specific purposes such as political)
• a review on Yelp or other online review
• constructive course evaluations
• volunteer applications
• dispute of a parking ticket
• an incident or accident report at work

A. Grammar and Mechanics

Phrases and Clauses:

1. review sentence patterns
2. use simple, compound and complex sentences
3. use adverb clauses of time, reason, and contrast
4. use prepositional and transitional phrases
5. identify and correct sentence fragments, run-ons, and comma splices

Emerging competency:

1. recognize adverb clauses in the conditional (real)
2. recognize adjective clauses
3. recognize noun clauses and reported speech

Verbs and Related Structures:

1. use simple present, simple past, simple future, present continuous, past continuous, present perfect and present perfect continuous tenses competently
2. use transitive, intransitive and linking verbs competently
3. use passive voice effectively
4. use modals (present and future) and related words correctly

Emerging competency:

1. recognize past perfect and past perfect continuous tenses
2. recognize future continuous, future perfect and future perfect continuous tenses
3. recognize two-word verbs
4. recognize perfect, progressive and passive modals
5. recognize gerunds and infinitives

Other Parts of Speech:

1. use pronouns, adverbs, prepositions of place and time, coordinating conjunctions, count and non-count nouns, comparative and superlative adjectives, adjectives of quantity, and articles with common nouns competently

Emerging competency:

1. recognize nouns as modifiers, participial adjectives, adverbs of cause/effect, and transition words

Mechanics:

1. understand and use basic punctuation (periods, commas, question marks and quotation marks)
2. understand and use colons, semi colons, exclamation marks, and hyphens
3. identify and use capitalization, margins, and paragraph indentation
4. use spelling rules and common spelling patterns

B. The Writing Process

1. use prewriting skills, including brainstorming, group discussion of topics, narrowing a topic, and outlining
2. revise and edit multiple drafts
3. organize paragraphs correctly, using a thesis statement, topic sentences, supporting details, coherence and unity
4. use correct format for papers

C. Rhetorical Styles

1. competently use the following rhetorical styles in essays: descriptive/narrative; process, and comparison /contrast

D. Critical Thinking Skills

1. use supplemental readings to obtain ideas and vocabulary for writing assignments
2. avoid plagiarism
3. distinguish between narration, description
4. identify topics of equal class for comparison or contrast
5. develop an awareness of audience and purpose
6. distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information

Explanation of Satisfactory Essays

A satisfactory essay includes the following:

1. selection of a topic worthy of adult communication
2. originality with awareness of audience
3. an introductory paragraph
4. a clear thesis statement
5. appropriate topic sentences
6. adequate paragraph development
7. a concluding paragraph
8. unity and coherence
9. seventy percent grammatical accuracy in these areas: verb tense, verb form, sentence form, agreement, word form, word choice, and word order, and punctuation; grammatical errors in other areas should not interfere with comprehensibility
10. level and audience-appropriate vocabulary
11. level-appropriate transitions
12. sentence variety

In addition to the above general criteria, the following specific criteria will be used:

A satisfactory in-class essay

1. is one and a half double-spaced pages or more
2. includes development that is at least 70 percent as thorough as satisfactory out-of-class essays

A satisfactory out-of-class essay

1. is the equivalent of one and a half typed double-spaced pages