Precollegiate English: English 10/11

Instructor: Megan Fry

Email: mfry1@niu.edu
Times: 10:20 a.m. - 11:20 a.m.
11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Days: Monday-Wednesday
Meeting Place: DuSable 424
Objective: The objective of this course is to prepare you for college-level writing. To do this, we will
go over the basic building blocks of writing sentences and paragraphs, grammar, punctuation, and
mechanics. We will strengthen your writing skills with both in-class and out-of-class assignments. By
the end of the course, you will be able to write a clear, concise essay on numerous topics and in
numerous genres.
Textbook: Fawcett, Susan. Evergreen: A Guide to Writing with Readings. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
2007.
Assignments:
Intro Assignment pass/fail
Subject, Audience, and Purpose 15 points
Autobiography Paragraph 20 points
Narrative Essay 25 points
Process Essay 30 points
Persuasive Essay Draft 30 points
Persuasive Essay Final 35 points
Intro Assignment: In this assignment, I want you to tell me your expectations and goals for this course.
At least 1 paragraph, no more than 1 page.
Subject, Audience and Purpose In this assignment, you will develop 3 topics you are interested in,
state who the audience would be, and explain the purpose of the topic.
Autobiography Short Essay: In this essay, you will write a short autobiography that describes who you
are as though you were introducing yourself via paper.
Narrative Essay: In this essay, you will write an essay that explains an important
moment/event/decision in your life and the effect it had on you.
Process Essay: In this essay, you will explain the process and development of an event, or you will
provide a how-to guide for a particular process.
Persuasive Essay: In this essay, you will make an argument about an issue that is important to you. You
will then persuade people that your opinion is correct and persuade them to take action about the issue.

Course Schedule (Due Date Announced in Class)

Week

Topic/Reading

Assignment

1 6/13-6/15

Intro: Why We Write

Intro Writing Assignment
The Writing Process chps. 1, 2 Subject, Audience, and Purpose
Exercise

2 6/20-6/22

The Paragraph chps. 3, 4

The Essay chp. 14

Autobiography Paragraph

3 6/27-6/29

Narratives chps. 6, 15 (pg.

210)
100 Miles Per Hour pg. 536

Narrative Essay

4 7/4-7/6

Process chps. 8, 15 (pg.215)

When Greed Gives Way to
Giving pg. 545

Process Essay

5 7/11-7/13

Persuasion chps. 13, 15 (pg.

228)
Build Yourself a Killer Body
pg. 547

Persuasive Essay Draft

6 7/18-7/7/20

Revision Techniques selections Persuasive Essay Final

from Unit 5
Writer's Workshop