Instructor: Susan Yonker | Email: syonker@swccd.edu | Office: 33-101B | Phone: (619) 421-6700 x5939
English 115 provides instruction and practice in reading and writing expository, analytical, and argumentative essays. It emphasizes textual analysis, writing analytically, logical reasoning, research techniques, information literacy, and documentation, and it includes drafting, revising, and editing written work.
The course requires a minimum of 5,000 words of formal writing, including at least two essays of 750 words or more, an analytical essay of five to ten pages using outside sources and documented according to MLA guidelines, and practice with timed writing.
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Develop and apply varied and flexible strategies for generating ideas as well as for drafting and revising essays.
Assess and apply a variety of rhetorical strategies and stylistic choices in writing unified, well-organized essays with arguable assertions and effective support.
Apply a variety of critical reading strategies to interpret, analyze, and evaluate a range of texts for context, content, style, and rhetorical merit with a consideration of tone, audience, and purpose.
Locate, interpret, analyze, and evaluate primary and secondary source materials.
Effectively summarize, paraphrase, quote, integrate, and cite source material to support arguments and avoid plagiarism.
Describe and apply editing and proofreading techniques to ensure a level of grammar consistent with the minimum college-level writing standards set forth by the Southwestern College English Department.
Please refer to the Southwestern College English 115 Course Outline for the official wording of the course description and objectives.
Students who successfully complete this course will be able to:
Evaluate the effectiveness and validity of written arguments and assess the effectiveness of rhetorical strategies used by authors.
Compose well-developed argumentative and analytical essays, incorporating appropriate rhetorical strategies and properly cited sources.
This course will engage with emotionally and intellectually challenging content. I will do my best to make our course a space where we can engage bravely, empathetically, and thoughtfully with this content.
I encourage you to contribute your ideas about the content freely, but at the same time, remember to show respect for others. This means that racist, sexist and other slurs and demeaning comments are not permitted, even if quoting directly from a text.
Finally, please let me know if a reading, a comment, etc. makes you uncomfortable.