Welcome to Essay Writing, which is, as the name suggests, a skills course designed with the specific focus of improving your skill in crafting academic essays.

The aim of this course is continued development of students' English writing skills. In addition to time spent on vocabulary, style, and structure, this course includes learning about and using language corpora. Having written a total of seven essays that will constitute his or her writing portfolio, each student should complete this course with both the knowledge and confidence to create various types of high-quality academic essays.

If you would like (for some inane or perhaps insane reason), here is the course syllabus for your reading pleasure. Of course, I reserve the right to amend it, so please treat this as a guideline.

For those of you that have taken courses from me, you will recall that we have had no textbooks, and in the present course we will also have no textbook. Class material will be available on both Dropbox and Google Drive, and feel free to download, save, print, or otherwise use it. I seldom make paper handouts, but if you prefer paper, please take care of printing files yourself.

You might be wondering about the course requirements. Not wanting to scare people away, I have wisely included them way, way, way down at the bottom of the page in 2-point font. Actually, you will find them hiding down below, but just not in 2-point font. Let's cover some admin things, just for fun.

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Hereafter you will find a reasonably detailed synopsis of the various class meetings ("sessions") that we will enjoy this term.

Sure, you were about to ask, right? That, Good People, is a sextant, a very necessary tool for navigation in the pre-GPS age.

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Session #1 (April 12) — Introduction; Paper Format; Word Advice 

As often happens on the first day of class, we'll be speaking in somewhat general terms about our course and some of the topics therein. First, note that this course includes all four skills that appear in academic work: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. There are, of course, certain requirments for this course, as is true for every course; please scroll down to the specific courrse requirements for your enlightenment.

Homework:

Session #2 (April 19) — Paragraph Structure 

In the second half of our session this afternoon, I'd like to provide a brief introduction to corpus linguistics. Because this is a large and growing area in our field, I've opted to add a separate page to only begin to scratch the surface. Follow this link to our resource page with some information on corpus linguistics.

Homework:

Session #3 (April 26) — Paragraph Structure; Punctuation; Corpus Analysis Workshop 

In the second half of our session this afternoon, I'd like to provide a brief introduction to corpus linguistics. Because this is a large and growing area in our field, I've opted to add a separate page to only begin to scratch the surface. Follow this link to our resource page with some information on corpus linguistics.

Let's begin with a look at the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), which comes to use courtesy of Brigham Young University in the US. You will recall that I mentioned a series of very helpful YouTube videos on using this corpus, the first of which is at this link.

Homework:

Session #4 (May 10) — Topic Sentences 

Here's hoping your Golden Week was enjoyable, everyone! Today we will spend most of our time looking in depth at topic sentences, which are crucial in constructing effective paragraphs. You will recall that each topic sentence should fulfill two functions, stating the topic and then controlling or limiting it.

Class Material:

Note that we have changed the due date for your name paper, which you will hand in on (or before) May 24.

Session #5 (May 17) — Clauses & Conjunctions 

OK, Gentle Students, today we will look some at clauses and how to avoid some common errors.

Class Material:

Session #6 (May 24) — Transitions & Flow 

This morning I would like to have you good people consider how your fine paragraphs work together. Recall that we spent some time on topic sentences, with which you should all be quite comfortable. Those will, of course, begin your magnificent series of paragraphs, but those paragraphs must fit together into a coherent entity that will be transparent both to and for your reader.

and for your reader.

Class Material:

Homework:

Session #7 (May 31) —  Documentation; Corpus Followup 

In today's session we will spend about half of our time looking at documentation skills, which you should employ in your Cause & Effect paper. As you will know from class, we will be using APA format for our references; this particular format is by far the cleanest and most consistent (in my humble opinion).

We will also delve some into the world of corpus analysis today.

Class Material:

Session #8 (June 7) —  Cause & Effect 

Good morning, everyone. Today our class will be devoted to considering cause-and-effect papers, which are an important tool in the writer's arsenal.

Class Material:

Session #9 (June 14) —  Consultations 

This class will be devoted to consultations with individuals. While I am working with another student, you are to use your time to work on your cause-and-effect paper.

During class today, please complete the usage worksheet below. We will check this before we finish today.

Class Material:

Session #10 (June 21) —  Persuasion 

In our class today we will diving into the world of persuasive writing. Your task, of course, is to craft a paper on one side of an issue that convinces your reader (me) that your position on that particular issue is the correct one.

To help you on your journey:

Your homework is to begin working on your masterpiece, which will be due on ... well, I'll let you persuade me.

Session #11 (June 28) —  Refutation 

As I mentioned last week, in your persuasive paper it is important (dare we say crucial?) to briefly address the other side of your topic. In doing so, you provide yourself the opportunity to (a) demonstrate that your knowledge of the issue is balanced and (b) refute the other side's point(s) to an extent. Of course, this ultimately functions to make your paper more persuasive.

A second point for your consideration today: As you're crafting your magnum opus, consider using the strength of corpus data to enhance your work. One source is, of course, your basic dictionary, which will provide you with concise definitions, examples of usage (to an extent), as well as synonyms and antonyms. If you google your search term using "define [term]", you'll find several online dictionaries, among which the Free Online Dictionary and Merriam-Webster are quite useful. For a more extensive set of examples, you would do well to consult some of the corpora available online; I would suggest BYU's corpus resources.

 Class Material: 

Session #12 (July 5) —  Consultations 

Good day, everyone. Today in class you will have time to work on your persuasive papers, which should be progressing. I will be returning some papers and providing feedback, so while I am doing so, you are to be working on your masterpiece.

Recall that I mentioned how important support is for your persuasive paper. Please include at least five sources (not Wikipedia!), and you are expected to use correct format for the reference section (where you list your sources). Please see the example papers from our earlier classes.

Session #13 (July 12) —  Abstracts 

Readings & Homework:

Session #14 (July 19) —  Corpus Workshop

Today we will be looking at an area of growing importance in linguistics which you might, I suspect, find useful both in your writing and in your teaching. Have you ever wondered, for example, about the difference between and among see, look, and watch? Have you ever been asked about those differences? How could you investigate that? We have a way, Good People, of course.

Readings & Homework:

Session #15 (July 26) —  Class Summary

Readings & Homework:

1. Regular and active participation in class. I expect you to be physically present and mentally engaged. Questions? Always good, as are opinions, comments, and even random thoughts you have. (10%)


2. A series of essays that will include the following:
• Self-introduction (10%);
• Name paper (15%)
• Contemporary Japan paper (15%)
• Cause-and-effect paper (15%)
• Persuasive paper (15%)
• Refutation paper (10%)
• Reflection paper (5%)


3. An exit interview with Dr. Elwood to discuss your essay portfolio (10%)