Spring Semester Syllabus

Sean Allan
English for Non-Majors
Spring Semester 2008 (97)

Office: 121 DFLL
Office Hours: Monday 2-3, Tuesday 11-12, Wednesday 2-3, Thursday 2-3, Friday 12-1

This course is an extension of the Fall Semester Course. You do not, however, have to have taken my class last semester to succeed in this class. If you are new, you should familiarize yourself with the Fall Semester syllabus available at the course website. If you are a continuing student, the general rules for the course are the same as they were in the Fall.

Grade Breakdown:
Oral/Aural Exams: 25%
Attendance/Participation: 25%
Three Major Papers: 25%
Midterm and Final Exams: 25%

Course Materials
Patterns Plus
Way Ahead (with CDs)
--both are available at Bookman Books near the campus main entrance. Tell them you are in my class.

Smaller Writing Assignments: The smaller writing assignments are part of your attendance and participation grade. Many smaller writing assignments will simply be summaries or reactions to Patterns Plus essays or other essays assigned for class. On occasion you will be asked to write a short paper on another topic.

Larger Writing Assignments: The paper topics are as follows. Paper 4 is an argument paper. You will argue to support the opposite of what you actually believe about a topic. Paper 5 is an argument and definition paper. You will take a concept that is hard to define (like “love” or “evil” or “freedom”) and attempt both to define the concept and assess the concept’s importance through argument. Paper 6 is an analysis paper. You will talk about a conceptual metaphor and describe how that metaphor affects the way that people think.

Oral/Aural practice: The first hour of each class is dedicated to Way Ahead. You will work through a chapter in groups. When you are done, there is a discussion topic assigned for you. You may converse freely about the topic in English, but you will write some brief notes about what each group member says. Each week I will call ten students up to the front of the class. Those students will have more intensive oral and aural practice, usually in the form of storytelling and listening to stories. Each student should expect to come to the front of the class three times during the semester. It is important not to miss class when it is your day to participate in the intensive oral/aural practice.
When we have exhausted Way Ahead, your groups will be given other speaking/listening assignments. Remember to study Way Ahead outside of class and use the CDs to cover the material that you cannot cover in class.

Sentence Patterns, Argument, and Rhetoric; Exams: The second hour is a lecture and discussion. I will show you two sentence patterns each week. You should learn these patterns and start including them in your English prose. We will also discuss how to make an argument and how language affects the people who read it. “Rhetoric” is the technical term for the study and use of language to affect an audience. Your exams will cover the sentence patterns that we study and any discussion that we have about argument and rhetoric. The exams will also cover vocabulary and idiomatic expressions learned in the third hour.

Aural Training and Media: The third hour is dedicated to media consumption. Usually we will watch an episode of The Simpsons, but there are other possibilities. The media will sometimes be accompanied by Chinese subtitles and sometimes not. Always make an effort to listen to and understand the English. I develop a vocabulary list based on each episode; you will be expected to learn the vocabulary. I also develop a list of idiomatic expressions (sentences in English that have special, non-denotative meanings); you are expected to learn these expressions to help you with your practical conversation and comprehension skills.

T.A.s
The course teaching assistants will grade the smaller writing assignments and help me keep a grade book for each course. The teaching assistant in your class will help me during the oral/aural training hour. She will help the students work through Way Ahead chapters, or she will help me with the more intensive oral and aural practice with a select group of students each class. The T.A. for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday is Kathy; the T.A. for Thursday and Friday is Sunny.

Itinerary
If your class misses a day, you should still try to do the work assigned during that week. Check the course website for vocabulary. When there is a vacation during the week, the class will make up the vacation day and the next week’s materials at the next class.

Week One
Introductions
Simpsons episode with subtitles; vocabulary discussion

Week Two
Sentence Patterns: Semicolons and Independent clauses
Rhetorical terms defined.
Argument defined.
Simpsons episode, English only; idiom discussion

Week Three
Sentence Patterns: Independent Clauses and Colons; Sequences Without Conjunctions
Argument example
One paragraph sample argument due
Paper 4 topic due
Read “The Beekeeper” in Patterns Plus
Simpsons episode with subtitles; vocabulary list

Week Four and beyond are forthcoming.