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2024 Fall

COMPOSITION II - COM102/5 Fall 2024


Course
Anthony Marais
For information about registration please contact our admissions.

COM 102 develops the writing skills taught in COM 101: It hones the student’s ability to think critically and originally; consolidates their ability to make appropriate stylistic choices with regard to specific purpose, register and genre, and it reiterates the stages of the writing process. Moreover, COM 102 concentrates on developing the skills required to produce a substantial academic research paper. These include: critical reading and research, formulating and supporting a thesis, incorporating credible sources and properly employing citation and bibliographic techniques.

Here is the course outline:

1. Rhetoric

Sep 11

Concision, Prewriting, Citation Styles, Prototype Semantics, Isocrates’ Didactic Approach, “Bullshit” in academic writing

2. Analytical Reading

Sep 18

Text analysis, In-Text Citations, Thesis Statements vs. Claims, Academic Ethos

3. Prewriting

Sep 25

Drafting an Extended Outline, Film Screening (to be announced)

4. Citation Styles

Oct 2

Online Databases, Boolean Operators, Types of Research, Peer Review

5. Information Literacy

Oct 9

Online Databases, The CRAAP Test, The Academy of Sciences Library

6. Referencing

Oct 16

Quoting, Text Analysis, Compiling a List of References

7. Plagiarism

Oct 23

Types of Plagiarism, Paraphrasing

8. Select a Topic

Nov 6

Thesis Statements and Claims, The Oscar Wilde Taste Test

9. Working Bibliography

Nov 13

Aphorisms about Conciseness, Citation Styles, Quotations, Editing Exercise

10. Extended Outline

Nov 20

Examining Sample Papers, Formatting, Long Quotations

11. Drafting

Nov 27

Final Paper Checklist, Editing Exercise, Peer Review

12. Peer Review

Dec 4

Hyphens-Italics-Capitals, In-Class Peer Evaluation

13. Final Paper Defense

Dec 11

Presentation and Defense of Research Papers

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