Composition Courses

An English composition course is a requirement in many programs, both academic and vocational, because it develops reading, thinking, and writing skills. These skills are essential to both learning and demonstrating what we have learned.

Currently we offer two composition courses, English 010 (Language Skills) and English 100 (Composition). English 010 is a preparatory course developing grammar and composition skills with short assignments such as paragraph and summary writing. English 100, our first year composition course, introduces students to the fundamentals of good academic writing with assignments such as the argument essay and the documented research essay.

Compostition Courses for SPRING 2012

English 010-01 - Language Skills – Carolye Kuchta

Required Text:
• TBA

English 100-01 – Academic Writing Strategies – Ian Cresswell
This course is about writing in English at the first year university level and thus focuses on writing which informs, explores or persuades. Since composition in this sense draws on various rhetorical strategies and techniques, you will be required to read and analyze different types of writing. You will also be required to think critically, since without that there is little point in writing.

Required Text:
• TBA

English 100-02 – Academic Writing Strategies – Ian Cresswell
This course is about writing in English at the first year university level and thus focuses on writing which informs, explores or persuades. Since composition in this sense draws on various rhetorical strategies and techniques, you will be required to read and analyze different types of writing. You will also be required to think critically, since without that there is little point in writing.

Required Text:
• TBA

English 100-03 – Academic Writing Strategies – Bob Sherrin
My course focuses on six writing aims, three of which will form the basis of your essay assignments. You’ll submit four essays over the course of the term, two of which will be in-class assignments. You’ll also produce three annotated bibliographies to accompany your first three essays. My course also focuses on research throughout the term, and you’ll write your first three essays on a local issue of particular interest to you. The writing strategies you learn are applicable to any writing assignment in any discipline

Required Text:
• Sherrin and Schermbrucker, Aims and Strategies of Good Writing.

English 100-04 – Academic Writing Strategies – Crystal Hurdle
This course focuses on writing which informs, explores, or persuades. You will be required to read and to analyze different types of writing; to think and to write critically and creatively. The course explores language use and abuse, which is the focus of the research paper, as well as academic pop culture.

Required Texts:
• Sylvan Barnet, et al. Practical Guide to Writing with Readings, Can. ed.
• Psychology Today Jan./Feb. 2012
• Print Pack of students’ work, including George Orwell’s essay “Politics and the English Language”

English 100-06 – Academic Writing Strategies – Andrea Westcott
English 100 teaches skills in academic writing for a University audience. The course focuses on essay writing, argument, research skills, and incorporating source material into written texts. In order to get you reading, thinking and writing (in that order!), expect to read assigned material (online and offline) before class, participate and contribute to discussion during class, and work on writing before, during and after class: essays, summaries, journals, blogs, and research essays! The class text is Quick Access: Reference for Writers (4th Canadian ed). The readings will be from my edition of The Mercury Reader (2011) available in the bookstore.

English 100-07 – Academic Writing Strategies – Andrea Westcott
English 100 teaches skills in academic writing for a University audience. The course focuses on essay writing, argument, research skills, and incorporating source material into written texts. In order to get you reading, thinking and writing (in that order!), expect to read assigned material (online and offline) before class, participate and contribute to discussion during class, and work on writing before, during and after class: essays, summaries, journals, blogs, and research essays! The class text is Quick Access: Reference for Writers (4th Canadian ed). The readings will be from my edition of The Mercury Reader (2011) available in the bookstore.

English 100-08 – Academic Writing Strategies – Tim Acton
English 100 (Academic Writing Strategies) is a course on writing clearly and articulately, thinking critically, and researching effectively. This course will help students to understand rhetorical principles (writer, purpose, idea, audience) and to apply those principles to critical reading and academic writing. The course will help students identify and correct individual writing problems, develop critical thinking and reading skills, and practice writing various kinds of essays including a research paper. The required text for Spring 2012 is

Required Text:
• Troyka, Lynn Quitman and Douglas Hesse. Handbook for Writers. 5th. Canadian ed. Toronto, ON: Prentice Hall, 2010. Print.

English 100-09 – Academic Writing Strategies – Dan Munteanu
In rhetorical terms, the focus of this Academic Writing course is the argumentative mode. We will analyze the format of the classical argument and investigate possible argumentative strategies. I will provide sample texts on controversial issues which we will discuss and evaluate. The course also contains a documentation component as well as a writing mechanics one.

Required Text:
• Handbook for Writers: 3rd Canadian Edition by Jane Flick and Celia Millward

English 100-10 – Academic Writing Strategies – Dan Munteanu
In rhetorical terms, the focus of this Academic Writing course is the argumentative mode. We will analyze the format of the classical argument and investigate possible argumentative strategies. I will provide sample texts on controversial issues which we will discuss and evaluate. The course also contains a documentation component as well as a writing mechanics one.

Required Text:
• Handbook for Writers: 3rd Canadian Edition by Jane Flick and Celia Millward

English 100-11 – Academic Writing Strategies – Jenny Penberthy
This section of Academic Writing Strategies will give students an overview of two key academic genres: the persuasive essay and the research essay. Reading a variety of texts, students will examine a range of techniques for understanding and constructing persuasive arguments in an academic context. The course offers fundamental skills for an academic career: clear and grammatical writing, summary of academic texts, and documentation of research.

Required Texts:
• The Capilano Guide to Writing Assignments, 2011 edition
• Graff, Gerald, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst. They Say / I Say. 2nd Edition. New York: Norton, 2008.
• Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Toronto: Anchor, 2004.

English 100-12 – Academic Writing Strategies – Jen Read
English 100 section 12 will focus on learning how to write, think and research critically and effectively. We will cover the summary, critique, documentation, critical thinking, argument and the research paper.

Required Texts:
• Brundage, David and Michael Lahey. Acting on Words. 3rd ed. Toronto: Pearson, 2010.
• Print Pack of readings

English 100-13 – Academic Writing Strategies – Ryan Knighton
In English 100 we will gather and exercise a variety of rhetorical strategies specific to our two primary genres: the personal essay, and the research essay. We will find our models for these strategies within essays by writers such as Martin Luther King Jr, David Suzuki, marni Jackson, George Orwell, and others. As well, significant attention will be given to the abstractions of media, neighbourhood and the rhetoric of citizenship. We will also cultivate a critical language and method for writing about literature through the study of a film, to be selected by the class from a short list.

Required Texts:
• TBA

English 100-14 – Academic Writing Strategies – Ryan Knighton
In English 100 we will gather and exercise a variety of rhetorical strategies specific to our two primary genres: the personal essay, and the research essay. We will find our models for these strategies within essays by writers such as Martin Luther King Jr, David Suzuki, marni Jackson, George Orwell, and others. As well, significant attention will be given to the abstractions of media, neighbourhood and the rhetoric of citizenship. We will also cultivate a critical language and method for writing about literature through the study of a film, to be selected by the class from a short list.

Required Texts:
• TBA

English 100-15 – Academic Writing Strategies – Ryan Knighton
In English 100 we will gather and exercise a variety of rhetorical strategies specific to our two primary genres: the personal essay, and the research essay. We will find our models for these strategies within essays by writers such as Martin Luther King Jr, David Suzuki, marni Jackson, George Orwell, and others. As well, significant attention will be given to the abstractions of media, neighbourhood and the rhetoric of citizenship. We will also cultivate a critical language and method for writing about literature through the study of a film, to be selected by the class from a short list.

Required Texts:
• TBA

English 100-16 – Academic Writing Strategies – Kim Minkus
In this course students will explore academic writing through a variety of exercises that emphasize reading, discussion and research. By the end of the course students will have acquired the skills necessary to construct a soundly researched, properly cited and coherently argued essay. As part of the pathway to the research paper, students will explore their community and their place within that community. Students will be asked to write about themselves and how they hope to make positive changes within their own living, learning and creative communities. Topics of discussion will include reading, book forms, online communication, writing as creation, social-networking, gender, citizenship, and the media, amongst others.

Required Texts:
• Coupe, Rosemary, et al. The Capilano Guide to Writing Assignments. North Vancouver: Capilano University, 2011. Print.
• Henderson, Eric. The Active Reader. 2nd ed. Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2012. Print.

English 100-20 – Academic Writing Strategies – Angela Deziel
In this section of Academic Writing Strategies, we will analyze and evaluate different rhetorical strategies used in a variety of media forms (print ads, commercials, articles, speeches, documentaries, etc). The primary purpose of the course is to introduce students to academic essay writing (summary and critique, research paper) and to help them develop the necessary skills to produce effective, well-written essays at the university level. The course lectures will emphasize grammatical and well-reasoned expository writing, essay organization, preparation of research papers, and proper acknowledgement of sources. Course readings will include essays (which will be analyzed according to principles of effective writing), instructions on the writing process and documentation methods, and an overview of grammatical principles. Workshops will focus on identifying and correcting common grammatical errors and will offer students the opportunity for intensive practice in essay-writing skills. This will include frequent written exercises in the development of composition skills.

Required Texts:
• Joanne Buckley’s Checkmate: Pocket Guide
• Course Pack (photocopied exercises and assignments, and reading materials)

English 100-21 – Academic Writing Strategies – Carlos Reyes

Lady Gaga: 15,309,619 followers on Twitter (as of November 3, 2011)
Barack Obama: 10,926,035 followers
Stephen Harper: 177,787 followers
How many followers do you have?

Enabling communication between masses of individuals, every medium creates affinities and animosities, thereby forming and dissolving communities over time. Which party’s political advertisements do you find the most persuasive? Are you a Gaga-fan or a Gaga-hater? What communities do you belong to because of the music you listen to, the TV shows you watch, or the video games you play? Are you a MySpace or a Facebook person? Or have you resisted joining any social networking sites altogether? In the course of studying how various media (including film, digital media, and advertising) create some communities while eroding others, we will practice a variety of techniques for understanding as well as constructing persuasive arguments about the powers and dangers of contemporary mass media.

Required Texts:
• Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2009.
• Graff, Gerald and Cathy Birkenstein. They Say / I Say. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2010. (Edition without readings)
• Kennedy, X.J., Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Marcia F. Muth. Writing and Revising. Boston: Bedford, 2010.
• Kolker, Robert. Media Studies: An Introduction. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
• Petracca, Michael and Madeleine Sorapure. Reading Popular Culture, New York: Penguin, 2011.

English 100-70 – Academic Writing Strategies – Kim Minkus
In this course students will explore academic writing through a variety of exercises that emphasize reading, discussion and research. By the end of the course students will have acquired the skills necessary to construct a soundly researched, properly cited and coherently argued essay. As part of the pathway to the research paper, students will explore their community and their place within that community. Students will be asked to write about themselves and how they hope to make positive changes within their own living, learning and creative communities. Topics of discussion will include reading, book forms, online communication, writing as creation, social-networking, gender, citizenship, and the media, amongst others.

Composition Courses

Compostition Courses for SPRING 2012

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