This is a basic English grammar and writing course for college students. The goal of a basic writing course are generally practical, namely, the development of a readable style that will serve, later, for writing assignment in college courses. This course, therefore, hope to prepare students for stepping into the advanced writing training with confidence from both the improvement of grammatical usage and the awareness of the importance of correct writing.
Sincerely, although to reach the goal of enabling students to write grammatically correct sentences in a short-term course would be too challenging to achieve for both teacher and students, the improvement in English writing and the awareness of the importance of correctness could be the reachable goal. To improve English grammar and basic writing mechanics, there will be instructions, frequent practices, quizzes, and assignments to help students write readable and grammatically acceptable English. The awareness of the importance of correct grammar means, first, to understand that writing for expression is as important as for being read, and second, to know how to scan the others' sentences and re-scanning those of students themselves. Thus the awareness begins with reading and identifying the parts of speech in sentences, goes through seeking out the grammatical errors, and complete with searching for the correct usages and revising for their own writings.
Some students are impatient with the conventional writing tasks and have difficulties in developing a readable style of writing; they are confined to the sentences as the main field of struggle and concern. To make a grammar-based course more attainable, the reading materials, exercises and assignments include the texts from fables, newspaper articles, lyrics of popular songs, and written passages of accomplished writers. By frequent practices in English grammar and writing, this course aim to help students learn how to control certain troublesome features of written English, enable students to rid themselves of most of their grammatical errors, and shift in their attitude toward writing, a more confident air that would waft in their future study of English writing.
Tentative Working Syllabus
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Week |
Focus |
Quiz & Assignment |
Reading & Sentence Analysis |
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1 |
Introduction to the Course Unit 1 Comprehension to the Writing Video 【Classroom】
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2 |
Unit 2: ＜What is a sentence?＞ 2-1. The parts of speech (word form) 2-2. Simple, Compound, and Complex Sentences 【Classroom】 |
1. Quiz 1: Questions for the Writing Video 2. Journal 1: Free-writing Trial |
Aesop's Fables - "The Miller, His Son, and Their Ass" |
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3 |
2-3. Recognizing subjects, verbs, and complements |
1. Exercise: Analysis of newspaper headlines to distinguish sentences from non-sentences 2. Exercise: Common Errors - Fragment
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F. Scott Fitzgerald - "People Act" |
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4 |
Unit 3: ＜Clauses＞ 1. Independent Clausesa. The comma splice and run-together sentence 2. Dependent Clausesa. Types of dependent clauses b. Punctuation of clauses |
1. Quiz 2: Common Errors: comma splice 3. Exercise: Embedding words •a. wh- words •b. that •c. if, although, whether, etc. •d. prepositions |
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5 |
Unit 4:＜Agreement and Pronoun Reference＞ •1. Agreement of subject and verb•2. Agreement of pronoun and antecedent •3. Reference of pronouns |
1. Exercise: Analysis of deliberate fragments by accomplished writers 2. Exercise: Common Errors: Two Verbs
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"A ‘Poor Aunt' Story(Part)" |
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6 |
Unit 5:＜Tense, Voice, Mood＞ •1. Tense •a. Three principal parts of a verb •b. Using past perfect tense ("had") •2. Tense and mood •3. Active and passive voice |
1. Quiz 3: Common Errors: Agreement 2. Exercise: Common Errors: The Subjunctive Mood
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"If" by Bread |
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7 |
Unit 6 Ranking Sentences in Order 【Classroom】 |
1. Quiz 4: Common Errors: The Past Perfect Tense 2. Exercise: Ranking Sentences in Order |
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8 |
Unit 7:＜Contracting long sentences＞ •1. Verbalsa. Gerunds b. Participles c. Infinitives•2. Position•a. Single-word adjectives •b. Appositional forms 2. Suffixes signifying attachment•a. -ly •b. -ing •c. -ed |
1. Exercise: Narrative sentences from short stories or well formed sentences from student papers 2. Exercise: Avoiding split infinitives |
"Brown Sugar" by The Rolling Stones |
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9 |
Midterm Exam 【Classroom】 |
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10 |
Unit 8:＜Practicing basic types of embedding I＞ 8-1. Noun clauses 8-2. Relative clauses (who, which, that) as adjectives
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1. Exercise: Noun clauses •a. As subjects •b. As complements •c. As objects of prepositions 2. Exercise: Relative clauses (who, which, that) as adjectives a. After subject b. At the end of sentence |
"The Birth, Rise, and Fall of Junitaki Township" (I) |
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11 |
Unit 9:＜Practicing basic types of embedding II＞ 9-1. Adverbial clauses (when, if , because) 9-2. Appositions9-3. Participial phrases (-ing, -ed)\
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1. Quiz 5: Noun Clauses and Adjective Clauses 2. Exercise: Adverbial clauses (when, if , because) a. At the beginning of sentence b. At end of sentence 2. Exercise: Appositionsa. After subject b. At end of sentence 3. Exercise: Participial phrases (-ing, -ed)\ •a. Before subject At end of sentence |
"The Birth, Rise, and Fall of Junitaki Township" (II) |
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12 |
Unit 10 Topic Sentences and Supporting Ideas 【Classroom】 |
1. Quiz 6: Participial phrases 2. Exercise: Writing the Topic Sentence |
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13 |
Unit 11 Summary and Paraphrase
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1. Exercise: Summary and Paraphrase 2. Exercise: Inversions |
"Blowin' In The Wind" by Bob Dylan |
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14 |
Unit 12:＜Linking Sentences＞ 12-1. Coordinating sentence elements with and and or 12-2. Coordinating sentence with and, but , for, or, and so 12-3. The semicolon and logical connectives |
1. Exercise: Coordinating sentence elements with and and or a. Subjects b. Predicates c. Prepositional phrases 2. Exercise: Coordinating sentence with and, but , for, or, and so 3. Exercise: The semicolon |
"Castro Revisits Harlem"
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15 |
Unit 13:＜Consolidations＞ •13-1Coordinate Consolidations •13-2Subordinate Consolidations •13-3Juxtaposition Consolidations |
1. Quiz 7: Coordination 2. Exercise: Coordinate, Subordinate , and Juxtaposition Consolidations |
Sherlock Holmes-"The Science of Deduction"
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16 |
Unit 14 ＜Introduction to Thesis Statement＞
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1. Exercise: Writing the Thesis Statement |
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17 |
Unit 15:＜Quoting＞ •1. Dialogue •2. Direct quotation Indirect quotation |
1. Exercise: Common Errors - Looking for the Wrong Quoting 2. Journal 2 |
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18 |
Final Exam 【Classroom】 |
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