Class Syllabus

Assistant Professor Gary Aldridge

Class No.
Class Time

12323

email

TBD

Office
Office hours

Textbook

Introduction

garald1031@gmail.com
Gunja-gwan 511B
Tue - Fri: 1:15 ~ 1:45
4:00 ~ 4:30
(or by appointment)

First Steps in Academic Writing

Written by Ann Hogue (2008)
Published by Pearson/Longman
Welcome to (EC3-004). Im your instructor, Gary Aldridge.
Please feel free to just call me Gary.
For the next sixteen weeks we will work together with the goal
of helping you learn to craft thoughtful, well written, academic
style paragraphs. Academic writing is a beneficial tool to assist
you to develop critical thinking skills, organize your thoughts,
and present them in a clear manner easily understood by others.
For those of you hoping to someday study abroad, or continue
post graduate studies, this course will be an excellent foundation
point for those admirable pursuits.

"Writing is thinking on paper."

- William Zinsser

Copyright

1. Learn to write proper paragraph format.

2. Sharpen fundamental writing skills,
such as improve sentence structure and use proper punctuation.
Class Objectives

3. Realize the value of constructive criticism through peer evaluation.

4. Write a well-organized and thoughtful essay.
5. Offer a clear foundation for future academic writing.

Method of Instruction

This course will be heavily student centric, meaning students will be expected to do much of the preparation outside of
the classroom. Classroom work will be mainly focused on reinforcing the ideas needed to become an effective writer.
We will focus the first part of the semester on strengthening fundamental writing skills. The second part of the
semester will be focused on applying those writing skills into a polished piece of writing in the form of a short essay. A
major focus of the class will be going over each stage of the writing process, a.k.a. by its acronym P.O.W.E.R.

Students will be expected to turn in their best effort with every assignment.
Students will be expected to actively participate in classroom activities and discussions.
Important Class Policies

Students will be expected to submit all assignments in electronic form by the specified due-date.
Students will be encouraged to pursue topics of interest to themselves.
Students will be encouraged to have an enjoyable time.

Assignments
Quizzes and Exams

Grading Policies

The major assignment of our semester will be to write an essay. This will be towards the end of the semester and
plenty of preparation will go into the process needed to accomplish this task.
There will be two (2) Sejong Writing Tests, four (4) quizzes, one (1) Mid-term Exam, and one (1) Final Exam.

I grade my classes on a Total Point/Class Rank System. What this means is that each student has the same total
possible points. Each student will be offered the same opportunity to put forth the same effort for each and every
assignment, quiz, and/or examination. At the mid-term and end of the semester, I will calculate those points (each
student earned), enter them into an Excel file then rank them. Depending upon the number of students/class, I will
then assign grades based upon where you rank within your class. Obviously, Sejong University has a grading policy
which I must adhere to, and I do so diligently. Diligence is rewarded kindly.

Academic Honesty

Plagiarism will not be tolerated in any form. Students MUST present original work with every assignment. Students
are encouraged to seek out supporting material to strengthen their writing, but they MUST give appropriate credit.
An easy way to do this is by looking at pg. 170/171 in the book which gives a quick explanation of how to use and
punctuate quotations. Also, any text/images/or other copyrighted material may only be used with written permission.

Final Notes
Please feel free to contact me at any time via e-mail, and I hope you enjoy this semester
as much as I know I will.
Best wishes,
g

Helpful Websites

http://lms.sejong.ac.kr

I will use this site to post any important updates or changes to

the tentative schedule.

http://www.m-w.com

On-line English dictionary

http://englishtenses.com

On-line tutorial for English verb tenses

http://sciencedirect.com

Search engine for academic papers

https://scholar.google.com

Another search engine for academic papers

http://search.creativecommons.org

A search engine for creative works which explains the

limitations for usage

http://citationmachine.net

Will help show you how to give proper citations for a variety of
mediums.