| Dept/Number/Title:
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ESL 115 - Principles of Academic Writing
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| Credit:
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3 hours
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| Contact hours:
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3 hours
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| Prerequisite:
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Students take ESL 115: 1) upon successful completion
of the prerequisite course ESL 114; or 2) if they proficiency out of ESL
114. In order to fulfill the university undergraduate rhetoric requirement,
students may not proficiency out of this course.
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| Relation to other courses:
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ESL 115 is the final course in the undergraduate
sequence of required courses (ESL 113,114 and 115). This course is the
second of two courses (ESL 114 and 115) for non-native speakers of English
which fulfill the university's undergraduate Rhetoric requirement. They
are therefore equivalent to Rhetoric 105 and SpeechComm 113 in the native
speaker Rhetoric track.
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| Audience:
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Non-native speaker degree-seeking undergraduate
students and international exchange students enrolled at UIUC.
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| Textbook:
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None.
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| Abstract:
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This course is an "all-skills" course which focuses
principally on developing students ability to use academic sources to write
multi-paragraph essays.
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| Course contents:
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Major writing assignments of this course include:
. annotated bibliographies related to research paper
The course discusses American academic writing in
terms of its general characteristics (directness, clarity, conciseness)
and its structure (including the thesis statement, specific support, organization,
unity, coherence, and cohesion). Common rhetorical patterns are reviewed.
The conventions of writing in various academic disciplines are discussed
and analyzed. A strong emphasis is placed on developing effective strategies
for writing source-based papers in the academic environment. Critical thinking
skills in reading and writing are developed through the analysis of various
types of writing. Readings are used as a stimulus for discussion of a topic
and/or as a source of support in writing assignments. The library research
paper is the major project in this course. The research process is team-taught
with an instruction librarian at the Undergraduate Library. Students learn
how to choose a focused topic, develop a thesis statement, and to find
and evaluate library materials to use as support in their writing.
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| Type of work:
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Students do a variety of individual, pair, small
group and whole class activities, which are supplemented by home work assignments.
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| Grading basis:
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Letter grades are based on performance of students
in class assignments and participation in class. A passing grade for this
course is a grade of C- or higher.
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