Teaching College English Composition
Summary
All instructors have their own style of teaching, so when asked to create my course into a shareable format using SoftChalk, I was a bit daunted because I thought that my style would not transfer to anyone else's. It seemed too specific.
This may still be the case; however, I attempted to organize the material in a general process-writing approach flexible for multiple teaching styles.
The course opens with an explanation of the Rhetorical Situation: purpose, audience, and style. Purpose and audience take up little room, but "style" goes into detail about the dos and don'ts of writing for a formal audience. Style discusses not only Formal Standard English, but it also discusses point of view in relation to rhetoric and literature writing.
From the Rhetorical Situation, the course moves on to the Writing Process: prewriting, drafting, organizing, and revising (including a discussion between the differences of editing and proofreading).
From the Writing Process, the course moves into the parts of an essay and how to organize those parts. There is discussion about outlining and writing a working thesis statement, essay map, and topic sentences. I have included examples and activities that students can complete in analyzing effective thesis statements as well as writing detailed supporting paragraphs.
The final page discusses the introduction and conclusion. Students and instructors may find it odd to end with this part of the essay. However, as I explain in the material, introductions and conclusions are the hardest paragraphs to write, so they should be saved for the end of the process when the writer has a clearer understanding of their essay topic and organization.
Every page is accompanied by images that provide a visual representation of the concepts, and several sections also contain video links. The videos either come from my material or are public videos found on YouTube.
In this document, instructors will find best practices for online teaching, a sample Syllabus, and sample essay assignments with rubrics. Some instruction is included with those assignments and are very basic so instructors can make any necessary changes to match their personal teaching styles.
To the right under the "Handouts" Sidebar, you will find a Sample Syllabus, a Tentative Schedule that follows my 16-week online course, grading rubrics for Discussions and Journals, and an explanation about Professional Correspondence.
The presented material is not an exhaustive course compilation by far, but it provides the general concept behind a beginning college-level writing course.
All of this material I use in my online composition courses. They have been tweaked over the years, and I hope you find them as useful as I and my students have.
Keri Bjorklund De Deo
English Faculty
Sheridan College
Sheridan, WY