WRITING COMPONENT GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
Main Goal:
By the end of the Prep year, students will be able to write academic essays (and research papers) at freshman level clearly and accurately at an acceptable speed. They will also have a critical awareness of their writing in terms of unity, content, coherence and linguistic accuracy (grammatical structure and choice of vocabulary).
Objectives:
A) Mechanics
1. Punctuation (use full stop, apostrophe, question mark, quotation marks)
2. Capitalization
B) Process Writing Skills
1. Use invention techniques (free writing, listing, clustering etc.)
2. Make an outline
3. Write the first draft
4. Edit and proofread (self-correction, peer correction)
5. Write the final draft
C) Organization
1. Have a clear understanding of essay organization, including introduction, body paragraph(s) and a conclusion
2. Pay attention to coherence within the sentence, paragraph and essay
3. Write with appropriate essay organization
D) Writing Different Types of Essays
1. Description
2. Narration
3. Process
4. Extended Definition
5. Classification
6. Compare and Contrast
7. Cause and Effect
8. Argumentative
9. Opinion
10. Project Reports
E) Research Paper (ADV Level)
1. Summarize
2. Paraphrase
3. Take notes from a reading text
4. Make an outline
5. Integrate data from library and the Internet material into the research paper
6. Write an abstract
THE WRITING PROGRAM
The Portfolio
As part of the assessment, students are required to keep a portfolio (a folder) that includes the students’ work throughout the term. The assignments that students carry out during the term are gathered in this portfolio. These assignments are different for each level and the requirements are distributed by the class instructors at the end of each term. The below are the definitions of the contents of the portfolio.
A short paragraph of 100-150 words explaining whether or not the portfolio system has helped improve the students’ language skills.
A paragraph of 80-100 words responding to the material that the students have read or listened to in class.
While writing reactions, the students bear the following questions in mind:
1. What is the reading/listening text about?
2. What did I know about the subject before I read/listened to the text?
3. What have I learned?
4. Is there anything I agree/disagree with in the text? Explain.
5. Can I use the information I have learned from the text in real life?
Summarize reading and listening texts the students have been exposed to in class. While summarizing a listening text, students use your notes in careful listening sessions.
Students will write essays either in class or as homework which should show the various stages of the essay writing process. These stages include pre-writing activities such as brainstorming, outlining or listing, first draft (second draft, if necessary) and final product.
Students will carry out one 3-minute long oral presentation in your Listening class.
Students will carry out monthly projects outside class. Each month the Curriculum Office prepares Mini Monthly Project assignments, such as Interviews, Reports, Observations, Oral History Projects etc. These assignments are carried out outside the class and involve some research and interaction with other people. The details are distributed by the class instructors.
At the end of the term, students choose best examples for each type of writing component, and hand in their portfolios to the instructor. The grades are given according to the regular submission of the assignments, the effort put in keeping the portfolio tidy and timely and the improvement students show in writing throughout the term.
Reading – Writing Integration and Theme Based Approach
“To become better writers, students need to become better readers.” (Spack, 1998)
The reading and writing activities are organized around a weekly theme and integrated with two or more reading texts. The aim of this approach is to expose students to different point of views on a particular subject and familiarize them with the topical vocabulary in order to improve the content of their essays.
The Research Paper
The second semester of the Advanced Level Writing Program is virtually devoted to teaching students how to write an Academic Research Paper. Starting from the first semester, Intermediate and Advanced level students practice how to summarize and paraphrase information in a reading text, which are very important skills in writing a research paper. Advanced Level students are taken on library tours and provided with relevant handouts about how to write a Research Paper. (This activity is optional for Intermediate students).