ENGLISH 105: Academic Writing

Instructor: Sanja Garic-Komnenic

Office: on Collaborate Classroom by appointment
E-mail: Use the email feature of the course Home Page
Course description:
The objective of English 105 is to develop critical reading, critical thinking, and critical
writing skills essential for success in university-level courses. To achieve these
goals, you will read, summarize, and analyse non-fiction prose; you will learn to
present your ideas in a well-organized, clear, and persuasive manner. You will also learn
research strategies and the conventions of quoting, paraphrasing, and acknowledging
sources to write a research essay. The course is structured as an online workshop with
emphasis on group work, peer review, and discussion.

Text:
You will need the following textbook for this course:
A Sequence for Academic
Writing / Laurence Behrens &Leonard J. Rosen – 7th ed. Pearson. Longman, 2018.
You will also need a good dictionary and a thesaurus, for example, The Concise Oxford
Dictionary and Roget's Thesaurus.

Evaluation:
Online discussion 25%
Summary essay 15%
Analysis essay 20%
Research essay 25%
Final exam 15%

You must complete all assignments and the final exam in order to pass the course.
This includes mandatory participation in online discussions.

Participation Mark:

As you can see in the table above, 20% of your mark is based on your course participation.
This comprises your participation in discussions, exercises and the peer-review exercises.
Details of assignment requirements are in the Weekly Assignments section of the course
site. You will not be marked for each individual participation exercise. Instead, I will
evaluate your overall participation at the end of the course. However, I will post my
general comments on the weekly discussions in the COMMENTS ON THE DISCUSSION
folder. For the most part, I won't specifically comment on individual postings.

To earn an Excellent mark (85%-100%) in participation, you need to participate fully and
punctually in all participation activities. Although discussion postings aren't evaluated for
grammar specifically, your postings should be easy to read and understand. Regarding the
Peer Feedback Exercises, to achieve an Excellent mark, meet all peer review deadlines and
give detailed, constructive feedback that pays attention to the specific criteria for each
assignment.

To earn a Good (65%-84%) mark in Participation, you mostly do the "Excellent"

participation above, but maybe just not all of it, all the time. (E.g. You do not post
comments on other participants' postings one or two times. Some improvements are
needed in your punctuality, clarity, focus on the topic, and level of peer feedback offered,
etc.)

You will not normally get below a Good for Participation, if you participate according to
the criteria above. However, if you do miss one peer feedback exercise or more than one
discussion exercise without a valid excuse (e.g. medical note or special circumstances
cleared with instructor ahead of time), or if you do not regularly post comments on other
people's postings, this will drop your mark below the Good range. Missing multiple peer
feedback and/or discussion exercises will drop a mark below the Adequate range.

Grade scale:

A 90-100% B+ 77-79% C+ 67-69% D 50-59%

+
A 85-89% B 73-76% C 63-66%
F < 50%
A- 80-84% B- 70-72% C- 60-62%

COURSE OUTLINE

Week
May. 8-14 Course introduction
1
Argument v.
Counterargument
Week “Our bronze age coronation
May 15-21
2 rites seem to speak to a
modern love of the sacred"
by Tom Holland
Week Summarizing Graphs,
May 22-28
3 Charts, and Tables
Week May 29 –
Paraphrasing
4 Jun. 4
 Summary:
“They can survive just Essay 1 due
Week
Jun. 5-11 fine’: Bernie Sanders says on Sunday,
5
income over $1bn should Jun. 11
be taxed at 100%”
Argument Synthesis:
Animated film
Week Meneath: The Hidden
Jun. 12-18
6 Island of Ethics (2021
NFB) by Terril Calder.

Week Argument Synthesis: Ethos,

Jun. 19-25
7 Logos, Pathos
Film Analysis:
Week Jun. 26 -
Meneath: The Hidden
8 Jul. 2
Island of Ethics
Essay 2 due
Week Analysis
Jul. 3-9 on Sunday
9 Peer Review
Jul. 9
Week Locating, Mining, and
Jul. 10-16
10 Citing Sources
What’s So Funny? The
Week
Jul. 17-23 Science of Why We Laugh
11
by Giovanni Sabato
Research and Citation
Week
Jul. 24-30 Citing Sources
12
Peer Review
Essay 3 due
Week Jul. 31 – on
Research Essay Due
13 Aug. 4 Wednesday
Aug. 2
Week
Final Exam: Aug. 10-11, online
14