Course Description:
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 for both teacher and students, the improvement in English writing and the awareness of the importance of correctness are the reachable goal. To improve English grammar and basic writing mechanics, there will be instructions, frequent practices, 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 writing.
Some students are impatient with the conventional writing tasks and have difficulties in developing a readable style of writing; they are confined to the sentence as the main field of struggle and concern. To make a grammar-based course 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.
週次 授課內容 課程主題 課程內容(教材/活動) 1 Course Introduction / Paper Format / Technical Instruction Unit 1: ＜Comprehension to Grammar and Writing＞ 群英網與JoinNet實地操作練習 2 Unit 2: ＜What is a sentence?＞ 2-1. The parts of speech (word form) 2-2. Simple, Compound, and Complex Sentences 1. Discussion: Questions for Aesop's Fables – “The Miller, His Son, and Their Ass” 2. Journal 1: Free-writing Trial 3 2-3. Recognizing subjects and verbs a. Common Errors: Sentence Fragment 1. Quiz 1: Analysis of newspaper headlines to distinguish sentences from non-sentences 2. Exercise: Common Errors: Fragment 4 Unit 3: ＜Clauses＞ a. The comma splice and run-together sentence a. Types of dependent clauses b. Punctuation of clauses 1. Quiz 2: Common Errors: comma splice 3. Exercise: Identifying Dependent Clauses 5 Unit 4:＜Agreement and Pronoun Reference＞ 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 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 7 Unit 6 ＜Ranking Sentences in Order＞ Comprehension to the Writing Video(Part 2) 1. Quiz 4: Common Errors: The Past Perfect Tense 2. Exercise: Picking up the unsupportive sentences 8 Unit 7:＜Contracting long sentences＞ a. Gerunds b. Participles a. Single-word adjectives b. Appositional forms a. –ing b. –ed 1. Exercise: Narrative sentences from short stories 2. Practice: Avoiding split infinitives 9 Midterm Exam 10 Unit 8:＜Practicing basic types of embedding I＞ 8-1. Noun clauses 8-2. Relative clauses (who, which, that) as adjectives 1. Exercise: Noun clauses 2. Exercise: Relative clauses (who, which, that) as adjectives 11 Unit 9:＜Practicing basic types of embedding II＞ 9-1. Adverbial clauses (when, if , because) 9-3. Participial phrases (-ing, -ed) 1. Quiz 5: Noun Clauses, Adverbial clauses, and Adjective Clauses 2. Exercise: Adverbial clauses (when, if , because) 12 Unit 10 Topic Sentences and Concluding Sentences Comprehension to the Writing Video(Part 3) 1. Quiz 6: Participial phrases 2. Exercise: Looking for the Topic Sentence 3. Exercise: Writing the Concluding Sentence 13 Unit 11 Summary and Paraphrase 1. Exercise: Summary 2. Exercise: Paraphrase 3. Exercise: Inversions 14 Unit 12:＜Linking Sentences＞ 12-1. Coordinating sentence with and, but , for, or, and so 12-2. The semicolon and colon 1. Exercise: Coordinating sentence elements with and, but , for, or, and so 3. Exercise: The semicolon and colon 15 Unit 13:＜Consolidations＞ 13-1Coordinate Consolidations 13-2Subordinate Consolidations 13-3Avoiding Redundant Fillers 1. Quiz 7: Coordination 2. Exercise: Avoiding Empty Fillers 16 Unit 14 ＜Thesis Statement＞ Comprehension to the Writing Video(Part 4) 1. Exercise: Evaluating the Thesis Statement 17 Unit 15:＜Quoting＞ 1. Exercise: Looking for the Wrong Quoting 2. Journal 2 18 Final Exam
1. Independent Clauses
2. Dependent Clauses
1. Agreement of subject and verb
1. Verbals
c. Infinitives
2. Position
2. Suffixes signifying attachment
9-2. Appositions
3. Exercise: Appositions & Participial phrases
