Review for College Writing

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

COMPETENCIES

1. To provide students with opportunities to review and practice principles of grammar and mechanics and apply them to writing clear, error-free sentences, paragraphs, and essays. The review will include:

1. The students demonstrate a command of the grammar principles by completing workbook exercises, quizzes, and paragraph and essay assignments. 

A. Basic Grammar

A. Exercises in the basic grammar of sentences.

B. The students accurately identify subjects and predicates.

C. Exercises in the Parts of Speech

B. Parts of Speech:  Verbs, Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives, Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions, Interjections

A. Verbs:  The students accurately incorporate verb forms into effective sentences while demonstrating command of Person, Number, Tense, Voice, and Mood.

B. Nouns:  The students accurately incorporate common, proper, and collective nouns into effective sentences.  Students demonstrate understanding of singular and plural nouns; possessive forms of nouns; and the appropriate application of articles with nouns.

C. Pronouns:  The students incorporate pronouns into effective sentences while demonstrating mastery of antecedents, personal and possessive pronouns, indefinite pronouns and relative pronouns.

D. Adjectives:  Students accurately incorporate adjectives into effective sentences and show mastery of the three adjective functions:  describing, identifying, and quantifying nouns and pronouns.

E. Adverbs:  The students accurately incorporate adverbs into effective sentences while demonstrating mastery of adverb forms and their functions of modifying verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.

F. Prepositions:  Students incorporate prepositions into effective sentences to convey relationships between nouns, pronouns, or other words in a sentence based on space, time, or compound prepositions.

G. Conjunctions:  The students accurately incorporate conjunctions into effective sentences to demonstrate mastery of coordination, correlation, and subordination.

H. Interjections:  The students accurately incorporate interjections into sentences to convey emotions.

C. Mechanics

A. Exercises in the proper punctuation of sentences and in correct spelling.

D. Punctuation:  Periods, Commas, Semi-colons, Colons, Question Marks, Exclamation Points, Apostrophes, Dashes, Hyphens, Quotation Marks.

A. Students will write sentences that display mastery of the appropriate application of these punctuation devices.

E. Spelling: Basic rules of spelling, commonly misspelled words, homonyms. 

A. Students will write sentences that show their mastery of spelling by avoiding frequent spelling errors.

F. Sentence Structure

A. The students will write effective sentences that demonstrate mastery of the grammar required for simple, compound, complex, or compound-complex development.

B. Students will be able to identify and avoid sentence fragments, fused sentences, and comma splices.

2. To provide students with opportunities for learning the steps in the writing process and for applying that knowledge to paragraph and essay composition.

2. Students will be able to apply the appropriate strategies throughout the various stages of the writing process.

A. To have students generate raw material for writing on a chosen or established topic.

A. Students will brainstorm by writing down thoughts and associations in a list, or in cluster form, or in free writing form.

B. To have students focus on selected material for development of paragraphs and essays.

A. Students will group related items/details from the brainstormed material.

B. Students will select and label groups.

C. To have students learn the function of topic sentences in paragraphs.

A. Students will formulate generalizations to fit groups of items/details.

D. To have students understand the function of a thesis statement for an entire essay.

A. Students will formulate ”umbrella” assertions to generalize for groups of ideas.

E. To have students learn to use a scratch outline to reflect the organization of paragraphs and essays.

A. Students will outline with thesis statements, topic sentences, and supporting details.

F. To have students learn to write a rough draft based on a scratch outline.

A. Students will write rough drafts for paragraphs and essays.

G. To have students confer with an instructor and/or peer about a draft with a view to revision.

A. Students will meet with an instructor to review drafts of papers and to discuss appropriate improvements in organization, development, and articulation of ideas.

H. To have students learn to revise their own writing.

A. Students will edit their own writing to assure good thought structure, appropriate style, and proper format, grammar, and usage.

3. To provide students with opportunities for learning how to write complete and well-developed paragraphs.

3. Students will write paragraphs for such purposes as description, comparison or contrast, persuasion, and division/classification.

A. To have students learn the logical structure of a paragraph.

A. Students will know that paragraphs are constructed with topic sentences, sentences  of supporting details, and concluding sentences.

B. To have students learn the function of a topic sentence for focusing and limiting thought in a paragraph.

A. Students will know how to write clear topic sentences that present the central idea of a paragraph.

C. To have students learn the importance of supporting ideas and specific details for developing paragraphs from their topic sentence.

A. Students will know to build upon a topic sentence’s assertion with additional sentences of explanation and concrete, specific details.

D. To have students learn the role of a concluding sentence.

A. Students will know how to write concluding sentences that summarize and restate the idea contained in the topic sentence.

E. To have students learn the necessity of writing paragraphs that are coherent and clear.

A. Students will be able to write paragraphs that employ the appropriate logical and formal transitional devices.

B. Students will know to express their thought in clear sentences.

F. To have students learn the importance of correct grammar, punctuation and spelling.

A. Students will write paragraphs that avoid errors in grammar, sentence structure, punctuation and spelling.

4. To provide students with opportunities for learning how to write complete and well-developed essays in the basic four or five paragraph structure.

4. Students will write essays for such purposes as description, comparison and contrast, persuasion, and division/classification.

A. To have students learn the logical structure of an essay.

A. Students will know how essays are constructed with an introductory paragraph, supporting body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

B. To have students learn the purposes of introductory paragraphs.

A. Students will write introductory paragraphs that present the general subject, attract the readers’ attention, state the thesis, and may sketch the major points of the essay.

C. To have students learn the function of a thesis statement for presenting the controlling idea of an essay.

A. Students will know how to write essays founded on clearly stated theses.

D. To have students learn to write clear, distinct and well organized supporting paragraphs.

A. Students will write essays with body paragraphs whose focus comes from a clear topic sentence and whose development supports the generalization of the topic sentence.

E. To have students learn to write with adequate support and specific details.

A. Students will write body paragraphs that include concrete and specific details, examples, and clear precise language for explanation.

F. To have students learn to write concluding paragraphs.

A. Students will write essays with brief concluding paragraphs to summarize and restate the essay’s logic and to make a final statement.

G. To have the students learn to write essays correct in grammar, sentence structure, punctuation, spelling, and format.

A. Students will edit and proofread essays to eliminate error and to insure the highest level of quality in the final draft.

5. To provide students with opportunities to respond to models of writing and to use these sources in their own work.

5. Students will use and document at least one source in class discussions or in a writing assignment.

A. To introduce students to the concepts of working with sources.

6. To provide students with opportunities to develop essays using the computer.

6. Students will revise and/or edit drafts using the computer.

A. To have students learn to revise and/or edit and format documents using the computer.