King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok
Program in Translation for Education and Business
815406 Research and Report Writing
Semester: 1/2010
Class schedule: Tuesday, 1-4 & 6-9 p.m.
Instructor: Karnchanoke Wattanasin, Ph.D.
Room 415, Bldg 46
Office Hours: By appointment
http://eflwriting4life.wordpress.com
Course Description
This course focuses primarily on the development of students’ skills in writing in English. Students will be exposed to a myriad of writing practices, ranging from expressive to academic writing, as well as reading texts of their interests and those pertaining to translation research (TR). Major course activities include reading, class discussion, writing essays, peer review of students’ writing, and conferencing with the instructor.
Objectives
In this course, students will:
- Learn and practice writing skills that will help them to write;
- Read texts, and write to express their thoughts and to comment on the texts they have read; and
- Write multiple drafts of essays and reports based on their reading and class discussions, and an essay summarizing and critiquing a translation research.
Evaluation
The assessment of this course is principally based on students’ on-line evaluation-free journals at http://815406.blogspot.com/, reading materials from http://eflwriting4life.wordpress.com and discussions based on them, essay writing and submission, and class participation. Students will write at least 6 class essays for the entire semester, and are allowed to choose their own topics, with two required essays: one transactional-academic (TA) essay (Essay 5), and one expressive-transactional (ET) essay (Essay 6). Overall, class essays include:
- Weekly on-line journal entries, at least one double-spaced A4 page in length. All journal entries must be submitted 3 days prior to each class.
- Two expressive-transactional (ET) essays (Essays 1 and 2): 1-2 double-spaced pages per essay.
- Three transactional-academic (TA) essays (Essays 3 to 5): 2-3 double-spaced pages per essay. For Essay 5, students are required to read and discuss one translation research (TR) paper of their choice and write a summary and critique of the research. The essay must be accompanied by an abstract of the research being discussed.
- One reflection (ET) essay (Essay 6) submitted with the portfolio: 1-2 double-spaced pages. This essay is a reflection on the author’s experience with writing in this class, a list of his/her writing problems and solutions, and comments and suggestions for further class structure and activities. No multiple drafts required.
The in-class writing activity allows each student to spend 3 weeks on one essay. It is suggested, however, that students revise and write further drafts and submit them after they receive feedback from the instructor and/or peers thereafter. Hard copies are required for all primary drafts, while final drafts may be submitted electronically. Students are also required to make multiple hard copies for their classmates for peer review. During the last week of class, each student will submit his/her portfolio—a collection of written works he/she has completed during the semester, which includes both first and final drafts of: their on-line journals, in-class essays, and the reflection paper. There is no midterm or final examination. Evaluation is divided into:
| Attendance and participation | 30% |
| On-line journal entries and essay submission and revision | 30% |
| Translation research summary and critique | 10% |
| Portfolio | 30% |
| Total | 100% |
Suggested Readings and References
APA style essentials. (n.d.). Retrieved October 27, 2007, from http://www.vanguard.edu/faculty/ddegelman/index.aspx?doc_id=796
Carnicelli, T. A. (1980). The writing conference: A one-to-one conversation. In T. R. Donovan & B. W. McClelland (Eds.). Eight approaches to teaching composition (pp. 101-131). Urbana, IL: NCTE.
Citation styles. (n.d.). Retrieved November 5, 2008 from http://www.plagiarism.org/learning_center/printable_docs.html
Citing your sources. (n.d.). University of California Berkeley. Retrieved September 5, 2008. http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/instruct/guides/citations.html
Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Elbow, P. (1998). Writing with power. New York: Oxford University Press.
Elbow, P. (2000). Everyone can write. New York: Oxford university Press.
Flower, L. (1979). Writer-based prose: A cognitive basis for problems in writing. College English, 41, 19-37, Reprinted in Leeds, B. (Ed.). (1996). Writing in a second language: Insights from first and second language teaching and research. New Jersey: Longman.)
Hayakawa, S. I. & Hayakawa, A. R. (1990). Language in thought and action. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers.
Horton, S. R. (1982). Thinking through writing. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press.
Huff, R. & Kline, C. R., Jr. (1987). The contemporary writing curriculum. New York: Teachers College Press.
Leeds, B. (2001). TWE and application essays. Korea: Academic Press.
Leeds, B. (2003). How to teach EFL/ESL writing: A basic guide for Thai teachers. PASAA, 34, 80-102.
Leki, I. (1998). Academic writing: Exploring processes and strategies (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McCarthy, M. & O’Dell, F. (2008). Academic vocabulary in use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mittan, R. (1989). The peer review process: Harnessing students’ communicative power. In D. M. Johnson & D. H. Roen (Eds.). Richness in writing. New York: Longman.
Murray, D. M. (1982). Teaching the other self: The writer’s first reader. College Composition and Communication, 33, 140-147.
Murray, D. M. (2004). The craft of revision (5th edition). Canada: Thomson Heinle.
Paraphrasing. (n.d.). Retrieved June 16, 2007, from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/619/01/
Paraphrasing Exercises. (n.d.). Graduate Student Instructor Teaching and Resource Center. University of California Berkeley. Retrieved September 29, 2009 from http://gsi.berkeley.edu/resources/conduct/exercises.html
Paraphrasing Exercise 1. (n.d.). Kirtland Community College. Retrieved September 29, 2009 from http://www.kirtland.cc.mi.us/library/Plagiarism/module3g.html
Perl, S. (1980). Understanding composing. Reprinted in S. Perl (Ed.). Landmark essays on writing process (pp. 99-105). CA: Hermagoras Press.
Resources. (n.d.). Writing Development Centre, Newcastle University. Retrieved August 4, 2009 from http://www.ncl.ac.uk/students/wdc/learning/
Rose, M. (1980). Rigid rules, inflexible plans, and the stifling of language: A cognitivist analysis of writer’s block. Reprinted in S. Perl (Ed.). Landmark essays on writing process (pp. 85-97). CA: Hermagoras Press.
Spatt, B. (1991). Writing from sources (3rd edition). New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Swales, J. M. & Feak, C. B. (1994). Academic writing for graduate students. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
Williams, J. M. (1990). Style. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Writers Workshop: Writer Resources. (n.d.). University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Retrieved January 12, 2009 from http://www.cws.illinois.edu/workshop/writers/citation/
Zinsser, W. (2006). On writing well (7th, edition). New York: Collins.
Course Outline
| Class/ Date | Discussion Topic(s)/ In-class Writing (ICW)/ Remark (RM) | Assignment Due (AD)/Homework (HM) |
| 1 Jun 1 | - Course orientation - What is Writing? - What kind of writer are you? ICW: Essay 1.1 (ET, Topic: Your choice) | HW1: Start looking for 2 TR papers HW2: Write your journal on the blog. |
| 2 Jun 8 | Generating ideas: Pre-writing activities I (Direct writing, brainstorming, branching, clustering, mind mapping, story map, freewriting) ICW: Essay 1.2 | AD: Essay 1.1 HW: Make 4 copies of your Essay 1.2 for peer review next week. |
| 3 Jun 15 | - Reading to write: Finding main and supporting ideas - Peer review for main and supporting ideas in Essay 1.2 ICW: Essay 1.3 | AD: Essay 1.2 |
| 4 Jun 22 | Generating ideas: Pre-writing activities II (Wh- questions, using rhetorical styles, KWL, Talk about it!, beginning with a paragraph) ICW: Essay 2.1 (ET, Topic: Your choice) | AD: Essay 1.3 |
| 5 Jun 29 | Writing from reading I: Reading techniques; summary writing ICW: Essay 2.2 RM: You should have 2 TR papers by now. | AD: Essay 2.1 |
| 6 Jul 6 | Writing from reading II: Quoting; paraphrasing ICW: Essay 2.3 | AD: Essay 2.2 HW: Read and bring to class an article from a magazine, newspaper, or academic journal. |
| 7 Jul 13 | Writing from reading III: Citation and styles ICW: Essay 3.1 (TA, A summary and discussion of a text you have read) | AD: Essay 2.3 HW: Make 4 copies of your Essay 3.1 for next class’s peer review. |
| Jul 19-25 | No class (Midterm week) RM: If you have not done so, start reading your TR papers now. | |
| Jul 27 | No class | None |
| 8 Aug 3 | - Writing for an audience I: The tip-of-the-iceberg phenomenon - Peer review: Finding the tips of the iceberg in Essay 3.1 ICW: Essay 3.2 | AD: Essay 3.1 |
| 9 Aug 10 | Writing for an audience II: The writer’s two selves ICW: Essay 3.3 | AD: Essay 3.2 HW1: Make 4 copies of your Essay 3.3 for peer review next week. HW2: Read and bring to class an academic paper (a TR article from a journal) next week. |
| 10 Aug 17 | - Language and style in academic writing - Peer review for grammar work in Essay 3.3 ICW: Essay 4.1 (TA, A summary and discussion of a TR article you have read) | AD: Essay 3.3 |
| 11 Aug 24 | Language and style in academic writing (cont.) ICW: Essay 4.2 | AD: Essay 4.1 |
| 12 Aug 31 | Parts of an academic paper ICW: Essay 4.3 | AD: Essay 4.2 HW: Read and bring to class an academic paper (a TR article from a journal) next week. |
| 13 Sept 7 | Cohesion and coherence ICW: Essay 5.1 (TA, Summary and critique of TR) | AD: Essay 4.3 HW: Make 4 copies of your Essay 5.1 for peer review next week. |
| 14 Sept 14 | - Cohesion and coherence (cont.) - Peer review for coherence in Essay 5.1 ICW: Essay 5.2 - Conclusion to course | AD: Essay 5.1 |
| Sept 21 | No class (Final week) | AD: Portfolio |
