IFLS011 (2019)

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IFLS 011: Academic English I (Spring 2019)

Instructor:

Kent Lee, IFLS, Korea University

  • Mailbox: 국제관 208A
  • Office & office hours: 국제관 720, by appointment        
  • Email: See the syllabus or textbook (course booklet)

Course info

  • Course load: 2 hours/week, 1 credit
  • Class locations: 국제관 (International Studies Hall)        
 Sections
IFLS 011-E4     MW 13.00-13.50pm     국제관
IFLS 011-E0 Tu/Th 10.30-11.20 국제관
IFLS 011-E19 Tu/Th 12.00-12.50 국제관


1 Course description

This course deals with academic English for your college studies, including (1) academic English writing and speaking skills, and (2) critical thinking skills. The focus will be on academic English for writing and presentation skills for your future college courses.


1.1 Readings and materials

Textbook: Course packet, about ₩8000-10,000, from a print shop near campus (probably at the 空문화사 [공문화사] print shop near the 후문, the back gate on the way to Anam Station).


2 Weekly materials & assignments

Assignments
  • Read the introductory chapters of the textbook on your own.
  • Google Form #1: Fill out this form of basic information about yourself, and submit it. This counts as a minor grade. (The form works, though it won't send you a confirmation.) The link will have been sent to you by email from the Blackboard system.
  • Email assignment (see the course book, §9.1)


2.1 Weeks 1-2: Introduction

What is genre?


Assignments
  • Read the introductory chapters of the textbook on your own.
  • Google Form #1
  • Email assignment


2.2 Film project

We will not do all the assignments on p. 144; just the group write-up. Each group will provide a summary of their project in the Google Doc below (about 1-2 paragraphs; each group will submit one summary here), so that others will know your topic and basic ideas beforehand. See further below for info about types of sources and some suggested sources.

Important links
  1. Group sign-ups and schedule (Each group should sign up here.)
  2. Submit your project summaries in the Project Summaries document (or see the link in the sign-up sheet for your section).
  3. English presentation expressions guide


2.2.1 Answers to your questions

Some of you have asked questions about the project, which I will answer here for everyone's benefit.

Is okay to use plot details from the film summary document in the final paper?
If the summary was a group document then it's not necessarily plagiarism, and it's okay to use it for your paper. It would be better, though, to summarize / paraphrase it more in your own words and to keep it short - it's as if the essay is a formal proposal to the investors, who already have your film summary, so a lot of detail about the plot is unnecessary.
Can we use the whiteboard to explain some complex information about our film or project?
That might take time, and the schedule might be tight. I would recommend (1) providing everyone a handout with that information, and/or (2) putting that info in the project summary Google doc for everyone to see.
Does the film summary need to address all the points in p. 142-143?
No. The most important thing is the movie storyline and/or topic, and the summary should have more info about that. Some basic, general info about approximate budget, target audience, potential market, reasons for its appeal or value, production schedule, and other reasons why you think it deserves funding probably should be included here. Keep in mind that some of the points listed on p. 142-143 may not be as relevant or important for some kinds of films.
Do we need to do all the detailed requirements for the assignment description in the book?
No. Some of those details will be less relevant or not relevant to certain kinds of films or film genres, so you can adapt your talks and papers accordingly. The needs for a post-apocalypse sci-fi film will be very different than for a romantic comedy or a documentary drama. Also, some of those detailed requirements in the book reflect the project as it was done when this course was 2 credits, and it may not be realistic or necessary for your group to address them all.
Do we need a detailed budget?
No, a general budget estimate will suffice, and an explanation of why you need such an amount, or where you plan to spend most of it (e.g., about X amount for actors, staff, equipment, editing software...). Those detailed requirements in the book reflect the project as it was done when this course was 2 credits (and I probably should have revised some of those assignment details in the book).
Do we need revenue / income projections?
No, that's too much for this assignment. Again, this is from an earlier form of the course and project. However, investors will want to know how they can get their money back and also make some money, realistically (i.e., their ROI - return on investment). So you will need to convince them that your film can make enough money so they won't lose their money and hope to make some more - so you will want to convince them about your film's potential for at least some earnings, success, and ROI.

 

2.2.2 Grading criteria

  1. For the final paper, see the grading criteria on p. 177-178. The paper is due on 15 June, on Blackboard.
  2. Final presentation criteria: Each category is scored on a scale of 1-10, and averaged to a 100-point scale. Scores for some criteria (like #3 and #4) may overlap, depending on which aspects that you spoke on (your points may be averaged across both categories if you mainly talked about one of them). For most categories, I scored everyone individually (though #1, #9-12 may be similar among group members, and others may be similar if your performance was consistently similar). The criteria are as follows (I recently fixed some errors in this table):
1. Rationale, goals, objectives Clear rationale & explanation for the project, including goals, potential, value, or benefits; clear focus (for the whole presentation, and/or for your portion)
2. Contents Sufficient general contents & preparation; about 3 minutes worth of good contents per person
3. Project details Sufficient details & explanations about the movie, e.g., synopsis, story line, characters, and other basic info.
4. Other details Other project details; for example, your group's projected production timeline, general budget, and some idea about the number & type of people needed and where you will find them (producer, director, screenwriter, actors, staff / personnel, etc.)
5. Clarity Clear explanations, easy to understand follow; clear wording & vocabulary
6. Organization Well-organized and structured, good flow; flow indicated by intro, transition words & expressions; clear intro and conclusion (at least for your portion)
7. Speaking & vocal delivery Clear, audible voices; clear speaking & delivery; good vocal volume & intonation; the presentation quality indicates adequate rehearsal and preparation; no excessive fillers, pauses (uh, um), pauses, unfinished sentences; good pace
8. Interaction with audience Eye contact, body language, posture, etc.; not just reading from your notes, but talking to the audience
9. Equal participation Each group member participated equally, in the presentations and in answering the audience's questions; not exceeding the 3-minute time limit
10. Coherence Overall flow of the group's presentation; the various individual talks cohere together as a group presentation
11. Value Overall social, artistic, academic, practical, commercial, and/or scientific value & benefit; creativity and originality; also, the project's feasibility
12. Effectiveness How effective the presentation is, i.e., its persuasiveness and informativeness (especially your portion thereof); how audience members evaluate your presentation will also be considered. This also includes how well your group answered the audience's questions.



3 Using sources

3.1 Finding sources

Sources are used for adding support to the ideas in your papers, and for helping to develop your ideas. Sources can be classified into three general types.

type characteristics usability examples
General / popular sources
  1. Written by non-experts, and thus, maybe not reliable or credible
  2. Written for a general audience (educated, non-educated, youth, etc.)
  3. The information or ideas may be of poor quality
  4. Published often for commercial / money-making purposes or such
  5. Sources may be absent, not cited, or only cited very informally
Generally not valid for college papers; most often, these should not be cited or used for college papers.
  • Trade books (most commercially published, popular books like those sold in book stores)
  • Popular periodicals (commercial magazines, smaller newspapers)
  • Common Internet sits, blogs, etc.
  • Common reference works (dictionaries, encyclopedias)
  • Popular media sources & materials
Professional sources
  1. Written by experts: academic experts, business experts, government experts, professional experts from professional fields, researchers, etc.
  2. Written for an educated audience (college level readers or above)
  3. More credible information
  4. Published for professional, informational, or persuasive purposes
  5. Some citation of sources, often in a semi-formal style
Can and should be used in college papers, as these are of better quality, and many college students can understand and meaningfully use them in their college papers. These are especially used in papers in the first two years of college (before students are ready for full academic sources).
  • Reputable news outlets, especially those known for investigative journalism, and professional analysis & commentary (these are news sites & periodicals that have a strong international reputation, or at least a strong reputation nationally, for objective, professional journalism, reporting, and analysis)
  • Professional trade magazines / journals, which are written by and for those working in particular professional fields
  • Trade books written by experts (e.g., academic, government, or professional experts) for educated readers
  • Government reports and records; official reports & records from government agencies, international organizations, and major companies
  • Business news outlets (websites, periodicals)
  • Periodicals for business analysis & case studies
  • Reports, official web sites, official publications, etc., from government agencies, international agencies, and major companies
  • White papers (a report by a government or business, or other authoritative report, giving information or proposals on an issue)
  • Science & tech news outlets (websites, periodicals)
  • Professional film critics
Academic sources
  1. Written by academic experts (professors, researchers, doctoral students)
  2. Written for other academic experts in the field
  3. Written in a scholarly or technical style
  4. Consist of original research by the authors, and thus, probably reliable or worth citing
  5. Published for scientific and academic purposes by academic publishers
  6. Sources are cited using a formal citation style
Probably too difficult for most college students to read, understand, or use meaningfully in their college papers; 3rd or 4th year students might be able to handle some easier academic sources
  • Scholarly / research articles from academic research journals
  • Research & technical reports from institutes or government agencies
  • Research monographs (books that summarize research on a topic and present the author's original research)
  • Edited volumes of research papers (collections of research articles in book form, like an anthology)
  • Doctoral dissertations, master's thesis
  • Conference papers


3.1.1 Professional sources

Below are examples of some professional sources that may be useful for your final papers.

News outlets
  1. New York Times http://www.nytimes.com
  2. Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com
  3. Wall Street Journal http://www.wsj.com
  4. Time Magazine http://www.time.com
  5. McClean’s http://www.macleans.ca
  6. BBC News http://www.bbc.com/news
  7. Der Spiegel http://www.spiegel.de
  8. El País (Spain) http://www.elpais.com
  9. Le Monde (France) http://www.lemonde.fr
  10. Reuters http://www.reuters.com
  11. Associated Press http://www.ap.org


Science and technology news sources
  1. Wired http://www.wired.com
  2. New Scientist http://www.newscientist.com
  3. Scientific American http://www.scientificamerican.com
  4. Science News http://www.sciencenews.org
  5. Psychology Today https://www.psychologytoday.com
  6. CNET http://www.cnet.com (technology)
  7. Wired.com http://www.wired.com


Business news & analysis
  1. Forbes https://www.forbes.com
  2. Harvard Business Review http://www.hbr.org
  3. The Economist http://www.economist.com
  4. Business Insider https://www.businessinsider.com


Professional trade journals
  1. The Chronicle of Higher Education https://www.chronicle.com
  2. Inside Higher Ed http://www.insidehighered.com
  3. Times Higher Education https://www.timeshighereducation.com/
  4. Observer https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer (psychology)
  5. Food Technology http://www.ift.org/food-technology.aspx
  6. World Landscape Architecture https://worldlandscapearchitect.com/
  7. Psychology Today https://www.psychologytoday.com


Language education


Film experts & links
Some of these links themselves are not professional sources, but they may lead you to relevant experts or sources on film.
  1. American Film Institute database
  2. List of academic film experts (not a professional source)


Other trade magazines
  1. Wikipedia list of trade magazines in different fields: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_trade_magazines


3.1.2 Lighter academic sources


3.2 Citing sources

Here are links to guides for various citation systems. You can use any one of these for your papers in this course. If you would like to view my Prezi presentation, the overview of citation systems, it is available here.

Style Typical field & notes
* APA (overview) social sciences (e.g., psychology, education, sociology, applied linguistics); for a more detailed guide, see the complete APA guide
* Harvard style an older style for various fields, which is very similar to APA style
* MLA 7 & MLA 8 literature studies
* IEEE engineering
* Chicago Manual, short footnote style humanities (This is a more semi-formal citation style; end references are still required with footnotes)
* Chicago Manual (parenthetical) humanities (This is a more formal style with Author+Year in parenthetical in-text citations) humanities

If you have a lot of media sources, you might find APA inconvenient for citing these; you might find Chicago or MLA easier to use.

 

4 Style & grammar guides


5 Assignments & grading

5.1 Minor ten-point assignments

Minor assignments are short assignments that are graded on a ten-point scale, and include short paragraph assignments (¶), Google Forms (GF), brief presentations, and in-class tasks. This may also include a couple of in-class and/or online surveys (these are for data collection or research purposes, and you get ten points simply for doing them). A few assignments may count as two or three 10-point assignments.


5.2 Midterm

The midterm will be paragraph writing task, either in-class or at home. The writing topic will be related to one of the topics or units in the course. See the grading criteria in the Appendix for writing assignments.

  • Midterm due date: ? April
  • Length: About one page or more (single-spaced)
  • Sources: At least one source cited, using one of the above citation systems


However, I am so not strict about word limits; what is more important is that you have enough good contents, and your ideas are well developed (good details, explanation, etc.). An assignment space has been created on Blackboard for this. I use the Blackboard TurnItIn service (a plagiarism-checking service, which I use because it makes it easier for me to grade papers and give you feedback). It supposedly accepts different file formats, but MS Work (.doc/.docx) format works best. You can see p. 121 for suggested paper format, and Appendix 10.3.5 for grading criteria. You should cite and use at least two sources (including popular sources as examples of bad information, bad ideas, or misconceptions).

You should meet and work in your groups for the midterm and final, but the papers you submit should be entirely your own independent papers.


5.3 Final project

We will do a final group project, which will include group work and a group discussion project. Your grade will be based mostly on your own performance, and partly on the group’s performance. Instead of a final exam, you will write an individual final essay related to your group’s project; this will be out-of-class writing, which will be related to the final project. This will probably be turned in via the online KU Blackboard. See the grading criteria in the Appendix for major writing assignments. The final will be out-of-class writing, based on the group project, but your paper will be an entirely individual paper. This will probably be turned in via the online KU Blackboard.

 

5.4 Grade scale

You will be graded according to the following framework (though this might be adjusted slightly later). See the course packet for specific grading criteria.

Attendance and participation 15%
Minor ten-point assignments 15%
Midterm 20%
Discussion / presentation assignment         20%
Final essay 30%


6 See also

6.1 Making pitches

You may also find the following sites helpful, especially for the final discussion / presentation.


6.2 Notes & references

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