College English I – Sample Syllabus
For Four Essays
(with the Exploratory Essay Omitted, no essays combined)
Requirements for Analytical Essay I: Read at least four essays or 20 pages in the unit
Paper: 3-5 pages long (750 -1250 words)
Rhetorical concept/ Developmental strategy: Division and Classification.
Stylistic concept: Bias in language; Purpose and audience (Research concepts: Incorporation of quotations; in-text citations and Works Cited (MLA format); Note taking (see Handbook, section MLA, 93-135).
Grammar concepts: Sentences (see Handbook, section S-1).
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); Reading the World, Part 1, Chapter 1, “On Education,” Newman (53); They Say, I Say (TSIS), Introduction.
Week II: : The Little Seagull Handbook, Write, “Writing Processes,” “Developing Paragraphs” (section W-2); 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, and revising (using the diagnostic essay or as preparation for the first Analytical Essay). The readings on Education can be discussed in class or linked with images from this unit, in preparation for the Analysis of a Visual Text.
Weeks III, IV, and V: Analytical Essay I – Analysis of a Visual 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); TSIS, Part 1, Chapters 2-3 and Part 4, Chapter 11, “Entering Class Discussions.”
Requirements for Analytical Essay II: Read at least five essays or 25pages 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; Paraphrasing and summarizing; further practice in all previous techniques (see Handbook, sections R3 and R4).
Grammar concept: Punctuation (see Handbook, section P).
They Say, I Say (TSIS), Part 2, I Say.
Weeks VI, VII, VIII: 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” (section W-6); 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, section R-1).
Grammar concepts: Language (see Handbook).
They Say, I Say (TSIS), Part 3, Tying It All Together and Part 4, Chapter 13.
Weeks IX, X, XI: Persuasive Essay: Little Seagull Handbook, Kinds of Writing, “Argumentation”(section W-1, W-5); Reading the World, Part 1, “Language and Rhetoric”; Chapter 7, “Language and Rhetoric,” Perecles (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, section R-1).
Grammar concepts: “Mechanics” (see Handbook, section S).
They Say, I Say (TSIS), Part 3, cont’d and Part 4, Chapter 14.
Weeks 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