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Continued from
http://eslbee.com/academy:
Advanced Composition for Non-Native Speakers of English is an eight-week class
extending from January 17 through March 14, 2010. This class is designed for
advanced level (550 TOEFL) English students preparing for university studies or
university entrance exams. The goal of the class is successful academic
writing. Over a period of eight weeks, participants will write a series of
essays such as giving instructions, cause or effect, comparison or contrast, and
persuasion, much like the essays in this student's site, Sports.
In addition, participants in this class will practice fluency through
frequent responses to both issues and others' essays, much like the discussion
in THIS
THREAD (used with permission).
To enroll, all candidates for this class will be expected to write a
self-introduction and include a photo similar to my self-introduction and photo HERE.
For more information, check the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
below.
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Frequently Asked Questions - FAQs
Who should take
Advanced Composition (Comp101)?
Advanced Composition
(Comp101)
is designed for non-native speakers of English who have never taken a formal
English Composition Course and who have TOEFL scores of 500 or more (or
possibly, for those aspiring to TOEFL scores of 500 or more). Non-native
speakers of English with TOEFLs of 500-550+ have benefited enormously by taking
Advanced Composition
because almost always their English composition skills permit them to place directly into most English speaking
universities without having to take additional classes in remedial writing.
What is the objective of
Advanced Composition (Comp101)?
The goal of
Advanced Composition (Comp101)
is
successful academic writing. Participants in
Comp101
will write a series of organized academic essays similar to the
essays in this student's site: Sports.
For those about to write the Test of Written English (TWE) or begin university
studies requiring academic essays in English, Comp101
is a good choice for preparation to enter an English speaking university
setting and participation in English speaking university classes after that.
The goal of
Advanced Composition (Comp101)
is to provide both course materials and feedback through which participants will develop a solid foundation in academic writing.
How much time does it take weekly, and how many weeks
does it take to complete the Comp101 course?
For the maximum benefit of all participants,
Advanced Composition (Comp101)
has structured deadlines and due dates, and
participants should be prepared to devote at least five hours weekly (minimum)
to accomplish all course activities in eight weeks.
Grades are earned for all quizzes and writing assignments, and due dates are set
as they are set in a face-to-face university classroom. If a quiz or
writing assignment due date passes, it will not be possible to "make up"
the assignment. Regarding the
number of hours required
per week, please do the math: This Sports
site was written in a 15 week University Composition course that met in a
computer lab five days a week or 75 hours. To devote the same number of
hours of study in eight weeks would require nine hours of study a week.
What is the cost to take Advanced Composition (Comp
101)?
The cost is $120 USD, subject to change. The duration of
this course is eight weeks. Payment is
through PayPal or credit card in your own currency (below).
What is the structure of the course?
Advanced Composition (Comp101)
is divided into eight weeks
containing resource materials, quizzes, essays, and forum discussions.
Resource materials contain "how to" information and are followed by frequent
quizzes focusing on local aspects of writing such as sentences
(identification and combining), adjective clauses, appositives,
parallel structure, etc. Local aspects of writing are presented by degree
of relevance and difficulty.
Essays are also written in order by degree of difficulty: Giving Instructions,
Cause or Effect, Comparison or Contrast,
and Persuasion. The main focus of the essays is on
organization and content, which I call global in nature. It is
important to write the essays in order because they are arranged by degree of
difficulty and are cumulative. Finished essays are always posted online
for other class participants to read and respond to. Responding to other
participants' essays is always engaging, so the forum discussions are generally
the favorite assignments throughout the course period.
All resource materials are followed by online exercises and
quizzes. Resource materials also contain "how to" information for writing
various essays, and the essays themselves are always followed by peer review,
revision, and grades through which class participants can monitor individual
progress.
How
are the essays graded?
All essays go through at least two stages. First, the
essay topic and organization are submitted for review. Second, course
participants write their essay and upload it for detailed revision
and grading. At this stage, "local" errors are highlighted or
corrected, the paper is graded using the
ESL Composition Profile
(PDF file will open in new window), and the paper is returned for final revision
and posting within the course room forums. (Note: I revise and grade
each paper only once.)
How do I enroll?
To enroll, please write self-introductions of at least 200 words.
When registration begins, you will be sending your self-introductions and
square photos to
Erlyn Baack,
so to know who you are writing to, I have included my self-introduction and
photo
HERE. The audience for your self-introduction
and will be other class
participants, so please include information about your
home country, first language, present location, experience learning English, composition classes,
writing goals, or any other information
you would like to share with other course participants. Please write at least 200 words for a good
self-introduction.
(NOTE: This course is CLOSED to outsiders, so the
information you provide will be available ONLY to other course participants.)
After I receive your 200 word self-introduction and square photo, I will enroll
you and send your login and password, and you can, of course, change your
password. DETAIL:
It is NOT POSSIBLE to take this class using a HOTMAIL or LIVE email account.
(They treat announcements from the online course room as spam, and there is no
way to fix that.) Any other email account will work.
Who is teaching this course and what are the
qualifications of the teacher?
The course and all the materials at
ESLBEE.COM are by Erlyn Baack,
resume
here. In short, I am a graduate of the University of Colorado Graduate
School of Education with a Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction,
emphasis ESL, and I have been teaching university level composition classes at
ITESM, Campus Querétaro, Mexico, since 1995. Before that, I taught
composition and other ESL classes at two community colleges in Denver, Colorado,
USA.
What if I have other questions?
For questions not answered on this page, please send them
to Erlyn Baack at http://eslbee.com/email.htm.
Or, for announcements about registration dates, subscribe to ESLBEE.COM News
at
http://eslbee.com/cgi-bin/subscribe.cgi.
Thank you.
Erlyn Baack
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Payment and Refund Policy: No
payment is required for the first two weeks of
Advanced Composition (Comp 101). After participating in course activities for two
weeks, prospective participants may either drop or continue. To
continue,
payment is made on Monday of the third week of class, and after that, there are no refunds.
Contact Erlyn Baack
to get started. |
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