ROYAL UNIVERSITY OF PHNOM PENH

INSTITUTE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
Bachelor of Arts in English

Academic Year: 2020 - 2021

COURSE SYLLABUS
Course Title Writing Skills 201
Course Code WS201 No. of Credits 3
Pre-requisites Common Course
WS 201
(Code) (Code)
Course Coordinator(s)
Email Telephone No.
Other Course
Qualification
Teacher(s)/Lecturer(s)
Core Course  Compulsory  Elective 
Course Type
Offer in Academic Year 1st Semester  2nd Semester 

1. COURSE DESCRIPTION
Writing Skills 201 is designed to better students’ success and retention in academic writing at the
university level – Upper-intermediate level. The course comprises four different types of
academic essays: 1) narrative essay; 2) cause-and-effect essay; 3) compare-and-contrast essay;
and 4) argumentative essay. Students will learn writing strategies for these types of essays.
Students will improve writing proficiency through multiple drafts of each essay type and peer
reviewing and editing activities. Students will also undertake quizzes, progress tests, portfolios, a
major assignment, and a semester exam.

2. COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, learners should gain the following knowledge:
 Recognize structures of four types of essays – narrative, comparison, cause and effect and
argumentative essay
 Recognize academic words, sentence structures, and coherence and cohesion in each type
of essay
 Describe four types of academic essays – narrative, cause-and-effect, compare-and-
contrast, and argumentative essay
 Write different types of essays, i.e., narrative essay; comparison essay; cause and effect
essay; and argumentative essay with correct word choice, sentence structures, and
punctuation
  
At the end of the course, learners should be able to use the following skills:

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  Plan the outline of four types of academic essays – narrative, cause-and-effect, compare-
and-contrast, and argumentative
 Create ‘hooks’ and ‘thesis statements’ for different essays effectively
 Compose different sentences and paragraphs using appropriate sentence connectors
 Research various sources for writing academic essays appropriately
 Use technological tools to facilitate the practice of writing multiple drafts
 Review, edit and revise multiple drafts of essays effectively
 Construct and produce appropriate and standard academic essays, i.e., narrative essay;
cause-and-effect essay; compare-and-contrast essay; and argumentative essay
 Assess the quality of the four types of academic essays effectively

At the end of the course, learners should develop the following attitudes:
 Develop a positive conception of writing as both a process and a product
 Demonstrate a positive attitude toward working with peers or in the groups
 Illustrate active peer-reviewing and peer-editing
 Show a high spirit of teamwork and collaboration

3. COURSE OUTLINE

Course Outline
Session/Week Topic/Lesson/Activity Required Reading
1 Introduction to WS201 Classes commence
Creating an account for Google Classroom
Monitoring and trial of online accounts
Discussing what characteristics of a good writing
2 A process writing
Moving from paragraph to essay
Introduction to comparative essay
3 Comparative Essay Writing
Patterns of Organization
 Block method
 Point-by-point method
 Parallel Organization of Supporting
Information
Text analysis and modelling
 Studying a comparative essay
 Developing a comparative essay
 Supporting Information
4 Comparative essay writing – Drafts 1 & 2
 Brainstorming and outlining
 Writing draft 1
 Peer-feedback: reviewing and editing
Language Focus
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  Connectors of comparison
 Word Associations
 Using Adverb Clause
5 Comparative essay writing – Draft 3 & Final
draft
 Teacher’s feedback
 Revising and submitting final draft
6 Cause-Effect essay writing
Structure of the essay
 Focus-on-causes
 Focus-on-effects
Text analysis and modelling
 Studying a cause-effect essay
7 Text analysis and modelling
 Developing a cause-effect essay
 Supporting Information
Cause-effect essay writing – Drafts 1 & 2
 Brainstorming and outlining
 Writing draft 1
 Peer-feedback: reviewing and editing
Language Focus
 Connectors of cause-effect essays
 Wordiness & Redundancy
 Collocations
8 Cause-effect essay writing – Draft 3 & Final
draft
 Teacher’s feedback
 Revising and submitting final draft
9 Argumentative essay writing
Understanding the essay
 Arguing pro and con
 Convincing the reader
Text analysis and modelling
 Studying an argumentative essay
 Developing an argumentative essay
Supporting Information
10 Understanding argumentation
 Developing arguments
 Developing counterarguments and refutation
 Logical fallacies
11 Argumentative essay writing – Drafts 1 & 2
 Brainstorming and outlining
 Writing draft 1
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  Peer-feedback: reviewing and editing
Language Focus
 Choosing models
 Using the if-clause
 Citing sources
12 Argumentative essay writing – Draft 3 & Final
draft
 Teacher’s feedback
 Revising and submitting final draft
 Portfolio Presentation
13 Mid-Term Test
Narrative essay writing
Structure of a narrative essay
 Introducing a structure of narrative essay
 Introduction: identifying hooks; writing a
thesis statement
 Body: chronological order or time order and
transitional sentences
 Conclusion: moral, prediction, or revelation
14 Narrative essay writing – Drafts 1 & 2
 Brainstorming and outlining
 Writing draft 1
 Peer-feedback: reviewing and editing
Language focuses:
 Connectors and time relationship words
 Adjective clauses
 Word associations
Using collocations
15 Narrative essay writing – Draft 3 & Final draft
 Teacher’s feedback
Revising and submitting final draft
Text analysis and modelling
 Reading comprehension
 Outlining practice
Adding supporting information
16 Make-up classes

17 Make-up classes

18 Exam preparation

19 Examination

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4. ESSENTIAL DOCUMENTS:
 Core Texbook
Boardman, A. C. & Frydenberg, J. (2008). Writing to Communicate 2: Paragraphs and Essay
(3rd ed.). New York: Pearson Education, Inc.
Folse S. K., Vokoun, A. M., & Solomon, E. V. (2014). Great writing 4: Great essays (4th ed.).
Boston, MA: Heinle Cengage Learning.
IDEA. (2007). The debatabase book: A must-have guide for successful debate (3rd ed.). New
York: International Debate Education Association.
Slaght, J., Harben, P., & Pallant, A. (2004). English for academic study: Reading and writing
source book. Reading: Garnet Education.

 Additional Reading Materials

(To be confirmed)

5. TEACHING AND LEARNING ACTIVITIES

 Blended learning method: a combination between in-class and online learning
 A process writing approach: developing, reviewing, editing and revising multiple drafts
 Text modelling, joint construction and independent practice (genre-based approach)
 A practice-oriented approach

6. STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES
 Creating an account of “Google Classroom”.
 Reading materials in the textbook and online.
 Posting and responding to questions for discussions in the Discussion Forum.
 Developing, reviewing, editing and revising multiple drafts of essays.
 Monitoring one’s own learning, i.e., active participation in online discussions, writing
practices in class, evaluating own learning progress.
 Submitting multiple drafts of essays according to the due dates.

7. COMPUTER OR SMART DEVICE REQUIREMENTS

You need to have an up-to-date browser, operating system and some additional software
programs on your computer or applications on their smart devices (e.g. smart phones,
tablets, etc.) to attend the online platform. You will be given access code in order to
register the course in the online learning platform, Google Classroom. Documents will be
available as Microsoft Word, PDF, video, image, or link forms.

8. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
 Tech Support
If technical assistance is needed during the orientation or to report a problem, students can
contact each respective lecturer for assistance.
 Additional Student Resources

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There are many services on campus to help you achieve success in your courses. You can go to
Self-Access Centre (SAC) at IFL, Hun Sen Library at RUPP or online documents.

9. COURSE COMMUNICATION
 Announcements
Announcements will be posted in Google Classroom on a regular basis. They will appear on
their Google Classroom Stream and/or will be sent directly through preferred method of
notification from Google Classroom. Please make certain to check them regularly, as they will
contain any important information about upcoming lessons, exercises, quizzes, journals, major
assignment, or class concerns.

Once you log in Google Classroom, you will be able to contact anyone through Gmail. Make
sure you check the notifications and Gmail frequently.

 Question Forum
In online courses, it is normal to have many questions about things that relate to the course, such
as clarification about lessons, exercises, journals, major assignment, and other assessments.
Please post in “Stream” Site as an open forum, and you are encouraged to give answers and help
each other.

 Discussion Forum
Please post some discussions in the Stream, which you can access by clinking Sharing box in
Stream in the course navigation links. Please be remembered that each lecturer will also post
some discussions, and you are encouraged to give thoughtful and well-written answers (at least 5
sentences) as much as possible. You can also receive 1 extra credit point for the course (up to 10
points maximum).

10. COURSE PARTICIPATION POLICY

Participation is essential to your success in this class. In this blended learning course, you are
required to participate just as if you were in a face-to-face course. This means that in order to get
full credit for participation, you will have to complete your discussion, lesson assignments,
quizzes and other requirements on a timely basis. Consistent failure to participate in class and
online activities will result in WS201 subject failure.

Policy for Success

 Attendance
To succeed in this course, students must attend scheduled class period regularly. If students must
miss classes due to authorized university and/or workplace activities, personal problems such as
illnesses, accidents, and social events, to name some problems, students must inform and provide
the lecturer with necessary documents prior to class. Students are allowed to be absent for four
sessions (6 hours) with leave granted and two sessions (3 hours) without leave granted for the
whole semester.

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  Class Participation
Students are expected to read lessons and materials in the textbook and online before each
session in order to actively participate in online and in-class discussions and practices.

 Late Work
Late work will not be accepted. Assignments will not be available to submit after the deadline. If
you have an extenuating circumstance, please contact your lecturer by private message before the
assignment is due to make alternate arrangements.

11. PLAGIARISM AND CHEATING POLICY

Academic Honesty/Student Conduct
As a student at IFL, students are expected to read and follow the guidelines and policy.
 Not CHEAT or PLAGIARIZE. PLAGIARISM means using another person’s words or
ideas as your own without proper documentation. Any cheated action or plagiarized work
must be resulted in ZERO scoring.
 Not interfere in other students’ Google Classroom account.
 Not let any other student to copy any of your work.

 Failure to follow this policy will result in disciplinary action, which can affect your academic
standing at IFL.
 Remember, this Blended Learning platform is a learning community, so take special care to
be a respectful and thoughtful member when posting the questions and sharing thoughts.

12. ASSESSMENT METHODS

Assessment Task Score (%) Related to ELOs

Class Participation 5
Homework 5
Quizzes 5
Portfolio 10
Major Assignment 15
Mid-Term Test 20
Semester Exam 40

12. DESCRIPTION OF ASSESSMENT TASKS

Course Assignments

Important Dates
The due dates for your assignments can be found after being posted, but please be aware that
YOU CANNOT UPLOAD ASSIGNMENTS AFTER THE DUE DATES. In addition, the reminders
will be posted prior to the due dates in the “Recent Activity” site.

Weekly lessons and essay writing assignments

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Each week you will need to complete the following:
 Reading the weekly lesson. This will be available before the class starts.
 Posting in the weekly Discussion Forum.
 Responding to other students’ posts in the Discussion Forum.
 Completing the lesson assignments in each course lesson by the due dates.

Essay writing assignments: Each assignment should be-

 at least in about 500 words ,
 typed,
 double space of 12-point font size
 Times New Romance.

Each essay will be graded on content, spelling, punctuation, grammar, and format. Please make
sure that each essay writing type is complete and clear. You will receive maximum of 10 points
for each essay.

Major Assignment
Argumentative Essay will be chosen as a major assignment task. This task is an independent
work by following a process writing approach, i.e., completing multiple drafts.

Grading Scale
Letters Percentage GPA
A 85-100% 4.00
B 80-84% 3.50
C 70-79% 3.00
D 65-69% 2.50
E 50-64% 2.00
F 49% and below 1.50

Rubric and Holistic Scoring

In order to understand what is expected of you for each assignment, please check out the
RUBRIC – a table that details the requirements of each assignment and the benchmarks for
success – attached to each ASSIGNMENT for the grading criteria. Also, some assignments will
be used holistic scoring.

Extra Credits
You can earn up to 10 extra credit points for each relevant and well-thought responses to
questions in the DISCUSSION FORUM.

Grades
You can view your grades using the GRADEBOOK button in the course navigation links. Please
check your grades regularly to make certain that all of your assignments are received. If you

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have any question about grading, please contact each class lecturer. Please do not post your
personal concerns in a discussion forum.