COURSE OUTLINE
A. Date October 7, 1998B. Department English
C. Course Number English 90
D. Course Title Basic Composition and Reading I
E. Course Outline Preparers Stacey Cerwin, Moneera Doss, Matt Duckworth,
Linda Legaspi, Meredith Rose, Joan WilsonF. Department Chairperson Michael Hulbert__________________________
G. Department/Division Dean Suzanne Korey___________________________
A. Hours 3 Lecture hours per week1 Laboratory hour per week (e.g., AcademicComputing Lab, Media Center, Reading Lab,
Writing Lab, Writing Success Project)
B. Units 3
C. Prerequisites Completion of English L with a grade of CREDIT
or completion of City College Assessment Examin English and placement into English 90.
D. Course Description Basic instruction and practice in writing and
reading. Emphasis on reading short selectionsas a basis for writing.
E. Field Trips No
F. Method of Grading Letter grade
G. Repeatability 0
Basic instruction and practice in writing and reading. Emphasis on reading short selections as a basis for writing. (A final grade of D or F does not allow the student to progress to English 92 without the consent of the English Department Chair). [Credits earned in English 90 do not satisfy the graduation requirements in written composition (Area B).]
A. WRITINGStudents will1. Use basic pre-writing techniques &endash; freewriting, brainstorming, clustering. (Emphasis
will be given to developing fluency through exploratory writing.)
2. Discover, gather, and focus information around main points (e.g., outline).
3. Write paragraphs (7-9 sentences) with topic sentences, specific detail and clear
concluding sentences.
4. Write at least six 3-5 paragraph essays, 300-500 words or more.
5. Develop their essays with thesis statements, plans of organization, and paragraphs that
develop main points.
B. READING
Students will1. Explore connections between reading and writing.
2. Analyze essays and articles accurately for their main ideas, development and support,
and logical relationships between ideas.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of works read, with an emphasis upon developing skill in
identifying inferences and distinguishing between literal and figurative levels of
meaning.
A. WRITINGStudents will write expository essays in and out of class. They will begin with personal
writing and move to other forms of exposition, using various types of development.
Students will1. Use idea-generating strategies.
2. Write clear topic sentences and develop paragraphs.
3. Write thesis sentences that can be used as guides for the development of outlines
and essays.
4. Recognize and use patterns of development for paragraphs and essays with
increasing complexity. While these developments may include narration and
description, the primary emphasis will be exposition.
5. Use appropriate supporting details and acknowledge sources.
6. Express ideas logically and sequentially.
B. SENTENCE STRUCTURE, GRAMMAR, AND MECHANICS
Students will give attention to the construction of clear, grammatically-correct, fluent
sentences and will proofread to revise errors in grammar and mechanics.
1. SENTENCE STRUCTUREStudents willa. Demonstrate effective sentence skills such as subject-verb agreement, consistent verb
tense, pronoun agreement, reference, and passive and active constructions.
b. Recognize and write in basic sentence patterns, including simple and compound;
they will be introduced to subordinate clauses.
c. Identify and proofread to correct common sentence misconstructions such as
fragments, run-ons, and comma splices in their writing.
2. GRAMMAR AND MECHANICSStudents will identify and proofread to correct basic writing errors: subject-verb
agreement, consistent verb tense, pronoun agreement, pronoun reference, shifts in person,
apostrophe, end punctuation.
C. READINGStudents will read to improve comprehension by analyzing readings to identify writing
strategies used by professional and successful peer writers.
Students will1. Analyze short essays to find main ideas, supporting details, and transitions.
2. Examine reading selections for content, structure, purpose, and audience.
3. Make accurate inferences.
4. Improve vocabulary.
5. Distinguish between literal and figurative language.
D. CRITICAL THINKINGStudents will1. Use basic critical thinking techniques, such as questioning, evaluating, drawing
inferences, and analyzing reading selections.
2. Distinguish between fact and opinion.
3. Distinguish between general and specific.
A. METHODOLOGY1. Class discussion.2. Brief interactive lectures.
3. Collaborative small-group work.
4. Individual instructor conferences with students.
5. Frequent exploratory writing in class at the beginning of the semester, moving to more
structured writing as the semester progresses.
6. Students with serious problems in basic usage and mechanics &endash; for example,
capitalization, spelling, hyphenation &endash; will be referred to the appropriate campus lab.
B. ASSIGNMENTS1. READINGa. Reading of short essays, newspapers, magazine articles, and occasional short
stories and poems.
b. In- and out-of-class reading comprehension and vocabulary activities using
contextual clues, directed questions, and dictionary exercises provided by the text,
lab, or instructor.
2. WRITINGa. Writing of essays and paragraphs in and out of class, including at least six 3-5 paragraph
essays of approximately 300-500 words each.
b. Revision of essays.
c. Written answers to essay questions.
d. Frequent in-class writing activities.
3. CAMPUS LABORATORYAt least 16 hours of lab work.
C. EVALUATION
1. Assessment of in- and out-of-class writing.2. Assessment of in- and out-of-class reading comprehension.
3. Midterm composition and reading comprehension exams.
4. Final composition and reading comprehension exams.
5. Satisfactory completion of 16 hours of lab work.
D. TEXTS AND OTHER MATERIALS
1. Essay or other short reading anthologies.2. Occasional magazine/newspaper articles, short stories, and poems.
3. Texts to improve writing skills, including rhetorics, handbooks, and work books, which
include paragraph to essay development.
4. Relevant audio-visual materials.
5. A college-level dictionary.
VII. REQUESTED CREDIT CLASSIFICATION
CREDIT/NON-DEGREE APPLICABLE (meets all standards of Title V. Section 55002 (b)).