Itinerary for Weeks 6-15

Sean Allan’s “English for Non-Majors”

--The grading standard has changed. The weight of each course component is now equal.

Participation: 25%
Writing: 25%
Grammar Exams: 25%
Oral/Aural: 25%

Itinerary for Weeks 6-15
If class is canceled for one of the weeks, have the work prepared the next week. (If there is no class for you on Week 10, then complete both the Week 10 and Week 11 assignments for Week 11)

Week 6
Patterns Plus
“The Jeaning of America…” 36-40
“Daughter’s Doll…” 40-43
“The Delhi” 43-46
Way Ahead
End of Unit 3: Suggestions and Politeness
--Listening Drill
Due: Paper 1 Analysis and Conclusion
Grammar: Subject/Verb Agreement

Week 7
Exam, except for Monday’s class (Monday’s class: do the reading for Week 8)
The Exam will cover the following: Independent and dependent clauses; coordinating conjunctions; prepositional phrases; fragments; run-on sentences; parts of speech; doubling the final letter; commas; semicolons; colons.
Due: Paper 1 Rewrite (typed and correctly formatted)

Week 8
Patterns Plus
“The Hiroshima Museum”
“Mail”
“My Father”
“Overindulgence” 53-61
Monday class: Exam
Way Ahead
Unit 4: Shopping and Spending Habits
--Listening Drill
Due: Paper 2 Introduction
Grammar: Standard English Verbs; Regular and Irregular Verbs

Week 9
Patterns Plus
“Hush, Timmy…” 61-65
“The Sounds of the City” 72-75
Way Ahead
Unit 4: Suggestions
--Listening Drill
Due: Paper 2 Observation
Grammar: Shifts in Time; Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers

Week 10
Patterns Plus
“Trash Talk” 83-85
“Boomtown, U.S.A.” 87-89
Way Ahead
Unit 5: The Airport, Directions, Requests
--Listening Drill
Due: Paper 2 Analysis and Conclusion
Grammar: Verbal Phrases; Parallel structure

Week 11
Patterns Plus
“The Internet Instills Family Values—Really” 94-97
“My Mother Never Worked” 105-110
Way Ahead
Listening Exam (Different from the one in the book)
Grammar: Words Often Confused

Week 12
Patterns Plus
“Brain Power” 122-124
“Eggs, Twinkies and Ethnic Stereotypes” 134-137
Way Ahead
Unit 7: Jobs
--Listening Drill
Due: Paper 3 Introduction
Grammar: Sentence Patterns; Shifts in Person

Week 13
Patterns Plus
“Secrets of Man’s Unspoken Language” 140-145
“Dogs and Cats” 151-153
“Good Girl, Bad Girl” 155-157
Way Ahead
Unit 8: In My Opinion (*important for oral exam)
--Listening Drill
Due: Paper 3 Summary
Grammar: Dash, Punctuation Marks, Underlining, Exclamation Point

Week 14
Patterns Plus
“Neat People vs. Sloppy People” 159-162
“Conversational Ballgames” 162-167
Way Ahead
Unit 8: In My Opinion
--Listening Drill
Due: Paper 3 Analysis and Conclusion
Grammar: Shifts in Time; Review

Week 15
Patterns Plus
“Brewing Beer” 181-183
“The Right Way to Eat and Ice-Cream Cone” 185-187
“The Cook” 187-188
Oral and Aural Exams
Grammar: Clichés, Wordiness, Etc.; Review


Paper 2: Observation and Analysis
--For Paper 2 you will look at something that interests you. If you are interested in how children play, you could observe children at a playground. If you are interested in the night markets, you could observe how people behave at a night market. If you are interested in how people behave in public transportation, you could observe people in a bus or on the MRT.

In the first part of the paper, the introduction, you will explain what you decided to observe. Tell the reader what you will observe and why you will observe it.

In the second part of the paper, you will describe what you saw. “Some children shared their toys; some did not.” Be specific about what you see and hear. Are the night market vendors nicer to some people than others? Do young people remember to give up their seats to the elderly on the subway? Do people on the bus talk to strangers?

In the final part of the paper, you will analyze what you saw. What did it mean? If you observed that people on the bus do not look each other in the face, here you would try to explain why you think people do not look each other in the face. After the analysis, you will write one short paragraph in which you explain why your observation and analysis is important. “It is important to watch children play because if we understand children better we can help them grow up to become healthy adults.”

Paper 3: An Analysis of Gender
--For Paper 3 you will discuss some aspect of gender—what it means to be a man or a woman—at length. It could be something basic, like “Why do women talk more than men?” It could be something very sophisticated, like “What does androgyny say about gender?” It could look at the division between what is “male” and what is “female”: “Why is it wrong for a man to ‘act’ like a woman?” “Why are gay men considered ‘not men’ and gay women considered ‘not women’”?

The paper should be an expression of your informed opinion, and the paper should concentrate on a social science perspective. No one wants to read you write, “It’s wrong to be gay because it makes other people feel uncomfortable;” you could write, “Homosexuality makes heterosexual people uncomfortable because….” You will talk about your experience with the topic, what you think about the topic, and what questions other people should ask about the topic.
In the introduction, you will describe your topic and explain why you chose it. In the summary of the paper, you will describe your thoughts and your observations about the topic. In the analysis of the paper, you will talk about the importance of the topic and the questions that the topic raises (e.g. “Are men born to act like men, or are they taught to act like men?”)

You are free to discuss your own experience with the topic, and you are free to interview people. If you were made fun of in school because you weren’t “manly” enough, you could talk about your experiences. If you want to interview a gay or straight friend about topics in homosexuality or heterosexuality, you may discuss the interview in your paper.

Only I will read your paper, so if you want to talk about a topic that you wouldn’t want to share with other students, you don’t have to worry.