College English I –Sample Syllabus
For Four Essays
(With AEI and AEII combined – other combinations are, of course, possible – see below)
Requirements for Exploratory Essay (should be graded):
Read at least two essays in the unit
Paper: 2-3 pages long (500-750 words)
Rhetorical concept/ Developmental strategy: Process Analysis (Sequencing) ; Stylistic concept: Purpose and audience
Research concepts: Incorporation of quotations; in-text citations and Works Cited (MLA format) (see Handbook).
Grammar concepts: “Punctuation” (see Handbook).
They Say, I Say (TSIS), Introduction, Part 1, and Part 4, Chapter 11.
Week I: Introduction; validation essay; syllabus review; The Little Seagull Handbook, Write, “Writing Contexts” (section W-1); Chapter 1; Reading the World, Part 1, Chapter 1, “On Education,” Seneca (16); They Say, I Say (TSIS), Introduction.
Week II: The Little Seagull Handbook, Writing, “Writing Processes,” “Developing Paragraphs”; Reading the World, Part 2, Chapter 8, “Reading Ideas”; Part 1, Chapter 1, “On Education,” Tzu (8); Douglass (46); TSIS, Part 1, Chapter 1.
Practice prewriting, drafting in preparation for the Exploratory Essay.
Weeks III and IV: Exploratory Essay. Exploratory Essay; Little Seagull Handbook, Write, “Reading Strategies,” “Designing What You Write” (sections W-4, W-2; Reading the World, Part 2, Chapter 9, “Generating Ideas”; Part 1, Chapter 1, “On Education,” Newman (53), Freire (62); TSIS, Part 1, Chapters 2-3 and Part 4, Chapter 11, “Entering Class Discussions.”
Requirements for Analytical Essay: Read at least five essays or 25 pages in the unit
Paper: 4-5 pages long (1000– 1250 words)
Rhetorical concept/ Developmental strategies: Division and Classification; Definition.
Stylistic concept: Bias in language and Logic, metaphor and analogy
Research concept: Note taking; further practice in all previous techniques (see Handbook); Paraphrasing and summarizing; further practice in all previous techniques (see Handbook).
Grammar concepts: Sentences (see Handbook).
They Say, I Say (TSIS), Part 2, I Say.
Weeks V , VI, VII: Critical/Analytical Essay (of a Visual Text and a Written Text): Critical/Analytical Essay I (of a Visual Text): Little Seagull, Kinds of Writing, “Analyses”; Reading the World, Part 2, Chapter 10, “Structuring Ideas”; Part 1, Chapter 4, “War and Peace,” St. Thomas Aquinas (260); image “The Progress of an Aztec Warrior” (265); Delacroix “Liberty Leading the People” (968); Orwell (282); Picasso “Guernica” (271); Part 1, Chapter 11, “Structuring Ideas”; Part 1, Chapter 3, “Law and Government”; DePizan (175); Machiavelli (184); King (202); Tutu (227); Obama (238); TSIS, Part 2, Chapters 4-6 and Part 4, Chapter 12, “What’s Motivating the Writer?
Requirements for Persuasive Essay:
Read at least five essays or 25 pages in the units (“Language and Rhetoric” and “Science and Nature”)
Paper: 4-5 pages long (1000 – 1250 words)
Rhetorical concept: Causal Analysis
Stylistic concept: Tone and stance
Research concept: Analyzing and evaluating web sites; further practice in all previous techniques (see Handbook).
Grammar concepts: Language (see Handbook).
They Say, I Say (TSIS), Part 3, Tying It All Together and Part 4, Chapter 13.
Weeks VIII, IX, X: Persuasive Essay: Little Seagull Handbook, Kinds of Writing, “Arguments”; Reading the World, Part 1, “Language and Rhetoric”; Chapter 7, “Language and Rhetoric,” Pericles (470); Plato (478); Aristotle (489); Chapter 6, “Science and Nature,” Maimonides (397); Carson (419); Gore (454); TSIS, Part 3, Chapters 7-8 and Part 4, Chapter 13, “Reading in the Sciences.”
Requirements for Research Essay:
Read at least five essays or 25 pages in the unit.
Paper: at least 6 pages long (1500 – 1750 words)
Rhetorical concept/ Developmental strategy: Comparison and Contrast
Stylistic concept: Logical fallacies
Research concept: Research techniques; further practice in all previous techniques (see Handbook).
Grammar concepts: Punctuation and Mechanics (see Handbook).
They Say, I Say (TSIS), Part 3, cont’d and Part 4, Chapter 14.
Weeks XI, XII, XIII, XIV: Research Essay: Little Seagull Handbook, Research and Documentation; Reading the World, Part 1, Chapter 5, “Wealth, Poverty, and Social Class”; New Testament, Luke, Chapter 16 (315); Gandhi (332); Part 1, Chapter 2, Plato (89); Walls (summer read); TSIS, Part 3, Chapter 9 and Part 4, Chapter 14 “Reading in the Social Sciences.”
Other concepts to be developed cumulatively throughout the semester (one introduced per unit/ paper)
Purpose and audience
Tone and stance
Logic, metaphor, and analogy
Logical fallacies
Bias in language