ENG 301
ADVANCED WRITING SKILLS
 Course Outline
SCHOOL: English Studies

DEPARTMENT: English Studies

COURSE TITLE: Advanced Writing Skills

COURSE DESCRIPTION FOR CATALOGUE:
This course teaches skills required for reading, writing and thinking critically at an advanced level. special focus is given to writing effective arguments within and across the disciplines.

PURPOSE OF COURSE:
University transfer
[X]
 External Examination
College Diploma or Certificate
[X]
 Recreation/General Interest
College Degree
[X]
 Interest (non-credit)
[X]

PRE-REQUISITES: ENG 120 plus third year standing

CO-REQUISITES: None

HOURS PER WEEK: Lecture 3

SEMESTER HOUR CREDITS: 3 credits

SEQUENTIAL COURSE(S): None

OTHER COB COURSES HAVING CONTENT OVERLAP: None

COURSE DEVELOPED [x] / REVISED BY:

(1)
 J. Donnelly
Date: May, 1997
(4)
 P. Anderson
(2)
 C. Burrows
Date: May, 1997
(5)
 V. Ferguson
(3)
 A. Horton-Wallace
Date: May, 1997
(6)
 A. Lawlor
GENERAL OBJECTIVES

On completion of this course students will be able to:

  1. critique passages with specific and integrated writing styles;
  2. recognize the integration of writing types, and the effect of such integration in specific passages, and the connection between such integration and the writer's purposes;
  3. assess various types of claims, appeals and warrants, especially value judgements and systems, warrants and their underlying assumptions;
  4. identify the implications of common and more sophisticated types of bias and fallacies, that reflect reader manipulation and values merchandizing;
  5. write critically, analytically and persuasively in response to materials and situations within and across disciplines.
CONTENT
  1. Elements of reading and writing skills focussing on and including:
    1. the target audience
    2. the thesis
    3. tone
    4. development/support of various types
      • analogies
      • definition
      • expert testimony
      • hypothetical cases
      • illustration and example
      • personal experience
      • statistics
    5. claims and warrants of various types
      • claims
        • causal
        • factual
        • policy
        • value
      • warrants
        • analogy
        • authority
        • cause and effect
        • generalization
        • sign
        • value
    6. inferential meaning
    7. integration of writing types
      • argumentation
      • description
      • exposition
      • narration
    8. summarizing
    9. argumentation and its strategies including bias, combined types of bias, fallacies, appeals, warrants, values, implied intentions.
      • bias
        • emotionally charged language
        • euphemisms
        • generalizations
        • slanting
        • stereotyping
      • fallacies
        • ambiguous terms and phrases
        • insufficient evidence
        • irrelevant evidence
        • no real evidence
        • unwarranted assumptions
      • implications
        • connotations
        • explicit vs implicit
        • inferences (reading between the lines)
  2. Guidelines for writing the critical essay:
    1. format/structure
    2. interpretation
    3. technical analysis
    4. content analysis
    5. judgement/evaluation
    6. documentation
      • APA
      • MLA
  3. Overview and analysis of the nature of argument across various disciplines, such as the arts, education, social and natural sciences, business and technology. Various writing elements typifying specific disciplines:
    1. content and structure
    2. language
    3. tonal variation
    4. archetypal images and symbols
    5. claims and appeals
    6. fallacies
EVALUATION

There will be no final exam for this course.

Theme writing
15%
Quizzes, in-class assignments etc
15%
Short critiques & critical essay
40%
Major paper (proposal/position paper)
30%
Total value
100%