IW
Intermediate Writing (Higher Intermediate / Intermediate Writing / Composition 1)
- Fall 2024 (for previous years, see Int. Comp. 2)
- Pukyong National University (Daeyeon Campus)
- Instructional medium: This course will be a live in-person course, taught by me or one of my clones.
Prof. Kent Lee
- Office: C25-1103
- Office hours: Mon. 11am or by appointment
Contents
1 Course description
This course is designed mainly for second-year to third-year students in social science and humanities fields. The goals of the course consist of improving your academic English writing skills, and expressing yourselves better in English. This includes specific skills like:
- Writing different types of paragraphs (definition, classification, narrative, etc.)
- Business, professional, and academic writing
- Prewriting techniques
- Using basic sentence types effectively; this includes common second-language issues such as essay structure, style, wording, and grammar issues.
- Developing main ideas, topic sentences, and body paragraphs
1.1 Grading
Here is the general grading scheme. You can refer to the syllabus and the textbook for more information.
| Attendance | 10% |
| Homework & other assignments | 40% |
| Midterm paper | 20% |
| Final paper | 30% |
2 Assignments
2.1 Minor homework assignments
There are minor homework assignments, including Google Forms, which are generally worth 10-20 points; and major multi-paragraph assignments, worth 100 points.
- Self-intro / survey GF
This is worth 10 points, and you will receive the 10 points simply for filling this out honestly and on time. You will provide some basic info about yourself, and some contact info; then you will answer some survey questions, which are for research purposes, and eventually, to help me improve my courses.
- Prewriting methods GF
This form is worth 10 points, and will be graded based on your effort in answering the questions. There are no right or wrong answers; I just want to know about your writing habits. Please fill out the text box below with a few sentences. The terms below are outlined in sections 2.1-2.2 of the book, which may not be available yet.
- Personal paragraph exercise (GF)
For this assignment, you will write a short paragraph (along the lines of the process and/or cause/effect paragraphs in this unit). This paragraph will be about yourself and your future (this will be relevant to some topics to come in the next few weeks). This is worth 10 points. Topic: How do you plan to finish college, get a job, become independent, and develop your career?
- Evaluating news sources (GF)
For this form, you will examine some potential sources in class and discuss why they might be useful or not useful sources for college papers.
- Discuss the news sources listed in the book or class website, and do a Google search for others. Look at the websites for various news outlets (news companies and their distribution media, such as TV and Internet). How can you judge the good quality, professional news sources from the weaker or less reliable ones?
- Look at websites for science news sites. How can you judge the good quality, professional science sources from the weaker or less reliable ones?
- Look at websites for business and business news sites. How can you judge the good quality, professional science sources from the weaker or less reliable ones?
- Pre-midterm GF
For this form, you will look at the midterm options on the course website, and tell me which option you want to do. Then you will tell me your rough ideas for how you plan to develop your proposal and your ideas, as best you can. Of course, after submitting this form and while working on the proposal, your ideas might change, and that's okay. This is simply designed to help you get started.
- Proposal samples (GF)
You will look at some proposal samples in the book, sections 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3. This form is worth 20 points. These are the three documents to look at. Research grant application, section 5.1 Business proposal, section 5.2 Roman military history (two versions, in different formats), section 5.3
- Looking at case studies (GF)
For this ten-point form, you will look at some sample case studies. In your class discussion groups, each of you should pick one that might be interesting to you. Skim them in class (do not try to read them or understand them in class). In your group, discus and compare the case studies that you have looked at. A few sample case studies will be made available via the LMS or Google Form. Then discuss the following.
- The study: Which case study / studies did you pick? (You can simply write the title[s] below for the samples that I've provided; if you find you own sample, please provide bibliographic info and/or a URL.)
- Sections: What are the different sections of the paper? Is it well organized? What are the different sections for?
- Sources: What kind of sources did they use? How were sources used in the paper?
- Data & analysis: What kind of data did they use for their main analysis? How did they analyze the data?
- Findings: What were their findings? Do you think their findings are reliable, interesting, useful, or relevant?
- Comparison: How does your case study differ from those that your group members / classmates looked at, e.g., in organization, sources, data, types of analysis & findings, etc.? (If upu are not able to discuss this with a classmate, then you can look at case studies from two very different fields and compare them.)
2.2 Professional writing assignments
Click on the 'Expand' applet on the right to see or collapse past and future assignments and materials. For these assignments, please see the grading criteria for shorter assignments in the book (most or all those criteria will be relevant).
2.2.1 Job application essay questions
Imagine that you are out of college and looking for a job in Korea. Companies in Korea and other countries often have applicants respond online to essay questions. Imagine that you are applying for an entry-level position, starting position, or junior position at a company, organization, or other entity, e.g.:
- An entry-level or junior position at a major company
- A teaching job of any kind (primary, secondary, tertiary, or private)
- An NGO (non-governmental organization or charity organization)
- A governmental agency (e.g., in Korea or another country), or an international / inter-governmental organization (e.g., the UN or similar entity)
At the start of your paper, be sure to specify the following:
- What kind of job or entity would you like to apply at, and for what kind of position?
Then answer two of the following questions (two from among #1, #2a, #2b, and/or #3). Each question should be answered with at least a complete paragraph.
- Please explain your qualifications for this job -- your relevant training, education, skills and qualifications for working at this company, and for this specific position.
- Either (2a) OR (2b)
- (2a)How have you developed intellectually and personally while in college? OR
- (2b) How did you develop or express your leadership, both in and out of school?
- What are your long-term goals at this company, and in your career?
Tip: You can reuse and modify what you write here for your résumé and cover letter assignments.
2.2.2 Job application materials
For this assignment, you will write a sample résumé and cover letter, as if you were applying for a job in the future. You can project yourself into the future - pretend that this is in the future, after you have graduated and have some accomplishments to mention - as long as they are reasonable. You can pretend that you have graduated from university and are applying for your first job, or have worked in one regular job for a few years and want to transition to a new job or career. Each document is worth 50 points, for a total of 100 points.
- Résumé: an application for an entry-level job (one page)
- A formal cover letter to go along with your résumé
2.3 Midterm
The résumé and cover letter assignments go together - they should be for the same company / organization and job position. Each document is worth 50 points, for a total of 100 points. Be sure to look at the grading criteria in the book.
- Résumé
For this assignment, you will write a sample one-page résumé, as if you were applying for a job in the future.
- Cover letter
For this assignment, you will write a sample one-page cover letter, as if you were applying for a job in the future.
- Notes
- You can project yourself into the future - pretend that this is in the future, after you have graduated and have some accomplishments to mention - as long as they are reasonable. You can also imagine that you have worked in one regular job for a while, and would like to apply for a different company, position, or career.
- The résumé and cover letter assignments go together - they should be for the same company / organization and job position. Each document is worth 50 points, for a total of 100 points.
- You can refer to the examples in the book, and you can also find examples online, but note that not all online examples are great examples. The exact format is up to you, as there is no one format for a résumé, but it should look professional and readable.
- For this, you can imagine you are applying at a company or other entity – e.g., a primary / secondary school, private school, college / university, government agency, an NGO (non-governmental organization), charity organization, or an international / inter-governmental organization.
2.4 Final project
A proposal is a formal document to apply for funds for a project, or to propose a business agreement. It can be a letter or short essay, and can be used to apply for a number of different things. In this assignment, you can choose a more business oriented topic or a more academic topic. See examples created for this course at this page: Proposals (writing).
2.4.1 Proposal
For this assignment, you will pick a potential subject for your final project - a company, entity, or program - for which you would write a case study or a qualitative study. The focus of this project is independent information / data gathering and analysis. You will provide some background information on your subject, why you are interested in the subject, and a potential research question about the subject that you would like to explore.
For this assignment, you will propose the topic of your final paper. For the final paper, you will write an original research paper, consisting of a case study of a particular company, entity, program, or group, e.g., a company or business (of any country), or one of its activities (e.g., a merger, acquisition, expansion into a new market, marketing strategy). (If you want to do a traditional research paper, that may be possible, too.) Possible subjects might include:
- an organization, institute, or institution
- a non-governmental organization (NGO), charity, non-profit organization, or community service organization
- a governmental / intergovernmental organization (such as UNESCO, the UN, World Bank)
- a government agency
- a government program
- a school, university, or educational institution
- a department or major of a particular university
- an educational program (at a particular school or educational institution, or from a particular organization or agency)
- a community service program or organization
- a qualitative study of a small group of individuals
- a famous person, e.g., a famous literary figure and one aspect of his/her work
A potential subject could be something like the following.
- A particular business or company (in any country); or one company's particular product, service, strategy, or such
- A particular government agency or program
- A particular NGO, governmental / intergovernmental organization, or one of its programs
- A particular community service organization, or community service program
- A particular educational institution (primary, secondary, or tertiary, private); e.g., a particular university or university program
- A particular educational program or policy, or a university major program / department; e.g., an EMI program, a study-abroad program, or a particular major, at one university
- A particular teaching method or approach in a particular context (e.g., a particular EFL/ESL teaching method; how a particular type of literature is taught)
- The learning experiences of a particular group of students / learners (in a progam, major, department, or such a context)
- The experiences of a particular teacher / group of teachers at a particular educational institution
- The opinions or experiences of a particular group of consumers / users of a product, service, or company
Requirements:
- At least one full page for the proposal. This can serve as the basis for your final paper, which will be longer.
- A literature review containing at least two English-language sources of professional or academic quality (or official websites), properly cited and referenced
- A well defined research question, or well defined business objectives
- Notes
- This can overlap with or relate to previous assignments, or a paper that you are currently doing in another course.
- If this overlaps with a paper from another course, the LMS plagiarism detection may flag one of your submissions as plagiarism or self-plagiarism. In that case, you can email the assignment to me, and in the LMS, simply indicate that you emailed it.
- See the grading criteria in the book, and the format for major papers.
2.4.2 Project types
Here are some project options for the propsoal and final. If you are analyzing an actual company or entity, be sure to formulate a specific research question. See the page on Proposals_(writing) for some examples.
- 1a. Academic research project
This would be an idea for an original, final research paper, or for a special research project that you might want to undertake someday. For a case study, you can focus on a literature topic (e.g., a famous writer, and an aspect of his/her life or work), or a case study of a specific academic department, program, university, school, etc. Another option would be an education and pedagogy topic (e.g., a case study of students in a very specific learning situation); note: for this, you need training or experience in collecting and analyzing qualitative data.
- 1b. Business / organization research project
This would be an idea for a business related case study, such as a study of a research question regarding a particular company, market segment, organization, or other entity. This could also be an evaluation of an existing or past government agency, policy, program; an intergovernmental agency, policy, or program; a particular NGP; or a particular community service program.
- 2. Community Service Project
This would be original proposal for a project that you might like to undertake. For an original project, you will propose a project that will benefit a community in some manner. This can be an area of Busan, a rural community or area of Korea, or a community or small area in another country (a country and local area that you are familiar with). This can be any kind of community project. You will need to explain a specific need, a specific plan for a project to address the need, and your ability to direct a project to help with that need. You can imagine that you are applying for funds from a foundation or governmental agency to make your project possible.
- 3. Business project proposal
You can imagine that you want to undertake an original business project. This can be starting a new business, and/or researching, developing, and marketing a new invention, product or service. For this, you will need to identify and explain a specific need or market for your company or idea, a specific plan for developing it, and your ability to direct the project and successfully complete it. You can imagine that you are applying for a grant from a foundation or governmental agency to make your project possible.
- 4. Business Agreement Proposal
Imagine you are an executive or manager of a company (or an entrepreneur or independent business person), and would like to make a full-length proposal to another company. This could be a proposal for both companies to enter into some type of business arrangement, or for one company to offer its services or products to another company. One company might need a particular service (e.g., managing a company website) or product (e.g., computer hardware) in order to function. You can imagine you are a manager or executive with the authority to make such a proposal to another company, where your company would like to offer its products or services to another. Clarify pricing options, your terms and conditions. Be sure to provide an executive summary at the beginning (see the book for information on executive summaries).
2.4.3 Components
Your proposal can be written as a case study or as a full-length proposal, which should include most or all of the following elements in some form.
- General requirements for all papers
- At one full papge
- At least two English-language academic or professional sources should be reviewed, cited and used meaningfully (such as academic or business / professional quality sources). Additional sources such as foreign-language sources may also be cited.
- Submitted in the LMS
- Academic / business research project
- Research question or problem
- Research plan and methods, details, and rationale for your choices
- Specific goals, objectives, and measurable outcomes
- Potential obstacles (and how you will handle them)
- Your ability and qualifications to direct the project, manage the funds, and successfully complete the project
- General timeline and budget
- Why your project deserves funding (including unique or distinctive aspects)
- Likely outcomes or potential results of the research
- Benefits or implications of your results
- Community service & business projects
- Situation or problem
- Your plan, including the proposed solution or approach, specific details, and rationale for your choices
- Specific goals, objectives, and measurable outcomes
- Potential obstacles (and how you will handle them)
- Your ability and qualifications to direct the project, manage the funds, and successfully complete the project
- General timeline and budget
- Why your project deserves funding (including unique or distinctive aspects)
- Likely benefits, outcomes, or implications of the project
- Business Project Proposal
- Explain with an introduction or executive summary. [1-2 ¶s]
- Explain the situation, problem or need.
- Propose a solution; explain feasibility
- Timeline & budget
- Explain your qualifications for this project
- Explain rationale, objectives, outcomes, importance, implications
2.4.4 General template
Here is a general template to help you get started. Each of these items might constitute a paragraph or a section of two or more paragraphs in your essay.
- Brief self-introduction; general purpose of the project
- Statement of the problem or question
- Specific description of your proposal / solution
- Specific goals, objectives, or outcomes
- Uniqueness or distinctiveness of your project or idea
- Your qualifications
- Timeline, budget, and how you will allocate the funds
2.4.5 Guidelines
- For this, you can project yourself into the future, and imagine that you have some kind of experience or qualifications that are relevant to your project (as long as it is reasonable - for example, you cannot claim to have a Nobel Prize or Olympic gold medal).
- For some more academic sources, you can try entering terms in a search engine (e.g., "community service programs Korea"), and focus on search results that look like official, professional, business, or governmental sources. You can also try academic search engines for academic sources:
- http://www.riss.co.kr for academic sources from Korea
- http://www.scholar.google.com for sources from international journals and books.
- The grading criteria are listed in the book.
2.4.6 Examples
- See examples created for this course at this page: Proposals (writing), and more examples of the research propsoal format at Research project proposal (college).
- See pages like this one at https://www.instructionalsolutions.com/blog/proposal-examples for commercial and business examples. Note: These tend to be in slide / PPT or informal formats, so look at the contents for ideas, but not the design or layout of these documents. This site explains the good points and bad points of each example, and each example is in a separate link.
2.4.7 Citations
You can use the Chicago Manual long footnote style (as discussed in the lecture videos), Chicago endnote style, Chicago short footnotes + works cited, Chicago parenthetical in-text citations, APA, MLA, or any other standard citation & referencing format. See here for Chicago style:
2.5 Final paper: Case study
For this assignment, you will write a case study of a particular company, entity, or program. You may want to look at the guide on doing case studies and case study examples.
- a company or business (of any country), or one of its activities (e.g., a merger, acquisition, expansion into a new market, marketing strategy)
- an organization, institute, or institution
- a non-governmental organization (NGO), charity, non-profit organization, or community service organization
- a governmental / intergovernmental organization (such as UNESCO, the UN, World Bank)
- a government agency
- a government program
- a school, university, or educational institution
- a department or major of a particular university
- an educational program (at a particular school or educational institution, or from a particular organization or agency)
- a community service program
- an individual subject, e.g., a teacher or learner (educational study), an employee or manager (business study) or a patient (health study) - Note: This requires sufficient academic training and expertise, such as advanced research-oriented students who are familiar with qualitative research
- A particular teaching method or approach in a particular context (e.g., a particular EFL/ESL teaching method; how a particular type of literature is taught)
- The learning experiences of a particular group of students / learners (in a progam, major, department, or such a context)
- The experiences of a particular teacher / group of teachers at a particular educational institution
- The opinions or experiences of a particular group of consumers / users of a product, service, or company
Your analysis might focus on one or more of the following types.
- an evaluation (e.g., the effectiveness of a company, program, or activity)
- a problem / solution or analysis of a problem or challenge that the entity has faced, is facing, or will likely face
- a challenge (past, present, or likely future challenge) for this entity / program
- an analysis, evaluation, or problem-solution paper based on a model (like the STAR model), theory, or framework in your field
- reasons for an entity's success or failure (past or present)
- the likely prospects of an entity or program, e.g., its potential for failure or success
- suggestions for what a company or entity should do (e.g., for a specific challenge, or for its future)
- an interview, survey or questionnaire study of a particular group of persons (e.g., students, teachers, stakeholders)
Some suggestions:
- Evaluating a company's performance and/or future prospects; evaluating one of its product lines, its marketing strategies, its management practices, or any particualr aspect of the company. You will probably need to use trade journals, business magazines, official company websites, official reports, government data, etc. as sources.
- Evaluating an NGO, community service program, government service, government agency, intergovernmental program (e.g., WHO, UNESCO...), educational program, etc. * Evaluating a specific university, college, public school, educational program, degree program, department, or such; or how a particular subject is taught, say, at universities in a particular country.
- A specific government policy, educational policy, or such.
- For such topics, as sources you will need to use some of the following: official websites (company or instituional sites), official publications (from relevant entities), official reports, white papers, official documents, government data, business news articles, official data / statistics, data from government agencies / websites, articles from professional publications, and maybe relevant academic studies, among others.
- Qualitative research, such as interview, survey or questionnaire studies, require some knowledge of a relevant model, theory, or research methods, and/or enough knowledge of a particular field that you know what you are doing.
Some ideas:
- Company X's rise and grown in a particualr market; Company X's current strategy or peformance in a particular market; the success (and future) of product line X from Company Y
- Business, management or leadership practices at Company / Entity X; the leadership and management style of Company X / Organization X
- A particular degree program at a particular university
- Problems with a community project in City X
- Needs or problems of a particular agency (governmental / intergovernmental) or NGO
- English-medium instruction program(s) at a particular university, or at universities in a particular country
- How literature is taught in language departments at Korean universities
- The life of a famous author (poet, novelist, etc.) and how his/her life shaped his/her writings
- How Busan can better promote itself, e.g., by attracting more tourism or businesses
- How a particular university can improve its image, or attract more international students, or promote itself, or attract more research funds
- How a particular university (or universities in one area or country) can better prepare students for the job market
- A specific governmental policy or program
- Focused interviews (e.g., consumers of a product, students in a school or program)
- A group project of two or more people (in that case, the length requirement for the paper is per person)
Please see the pages on case studies, case study examples, and doing case studies.
Requirements:
- There is a suggested minimum of at least 600 words, not counting the cover page, references, tables, charts, quotations, appendices, etc.; maximum length: 5 pages
- At least four sources of professional or academic quality, that are cited and used meaningfully, including at least two sources in English.
- Sources should be properly cited and referenced. I recommend the Chicago footnote style, which is easier, or the Chicago bibliographic style (parenthetical in-text citations with (Author, Year) and works cited / references at the end. The Chicago endnote system is fine, too. If you are used to another style like APA or MLA, you can use that, too.
- Extra materials that you use, like interview or survey questions that you used, should be included as an appendix.
- This can overlap with a paper that you are doing in another course (if you are doing this project alone) - in that case, you may want to be careful about submitting both version of a paper in the LMS, as it might be incorrectly flagged as plagiarism / self-plagiarism (in that case, you can email it to me).
- This can overlap or be based on previous assignments.
- See the grading criteria in the book, and the format for major papers.
Format & citations:
Please see the following pages for examples and guideliness for sources and citing sources.
- https://www.enwiki.org/w/Professional_sources
- https://www.enwiki.org/w/Chicago_Manual_(parenthetical)
3 Evaluating sources
3.1 News sites
There are the top news outlets, sites and publications for general world news, political news, original reporting, investigative journalism, commentary and analysis. Many of these predate the Internet, so here, format includes its original format before going online.
3.1.1 General news
| Name / site | Format & scope | Location |
|---|---|---|
| ABC News (US) | Traditional nightly TV news | US |
| ABC News (Australia) | Traditional TV news | Australia |
| Al Jazeera | TV news | Qatar |
| The Associated Press | Wire service | US |
| The Atlantic | Magazine; commentary & analysis of news, culture and society | US |
| BBC News | Traditional TV news | UK |
| CBS News | Traditional TV news | US |
| CNN | TV news; general news | US |
| Deutsche Welle | Radio & TV news / TV news | Germany |
| Foreign Affairs | Magazine; in-depth analysis of global affairs | US (published by a famous thinktank, the Council on Foreign Relations) |
| The Globe and Mail | Newspaper | Canada |
| The Guardian | Newspaper | UK |
| The Hill | US political news & commentary | US |
| Huffingtonpost | Magazine format; commentary and analysis of US & international news, politics, society, and culture | US |
| NBC News | Traditional TV news | US |
| The New Yorker | Magazine; commentary & analysis of news, culture and society | US |
| National Public Radio | Radio news | US |
| New York Times | Newspaper | US |
| Reuters | Wire service | Germany |
| Politico | US political news & commentary | US |
| South China Morning Post | Newspaper | Hong Kong |
| Time magazine | Magazine | US |
| The Times of India | Newspaper | India |
| The Wall Street Journal | Newspaper; US & international financial & general news | US |
| The Washington Post | Newspaper | US |
The following are foreign language news sources from around the world.
- Le Monde (France]
- Sverige Tillskott (Sweden)
- El País (Spain)
- Frankfurter Allgemeine (Germany)
- CNTV (China)
- Deutsche Welle (Germany)
- Der Spiegel (Germany)
- Yomiuri (Japan)
- RT (Russia)
- France24 (France)
- Niews (Netherlands)
- De Telegraaf (Netherlands)
The following are news aggregators, which do not do original reporting, but merely aggregate or collect trending stories from many news outlets.
The following provide commentary and analysis from a specific political perspective. They are not intended as general news sources, but as sources of (generally) intelligent political commentary.
- The New Republic (US; liberal)
- The Nation (US; liberal)
- National Review (US; conservative)
- The Weekly Standard (US; conservative)
3.1.2 Business & financial news
| Name / site | Format & scope | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Bloomberg | TV news | US |
| Business Insider | Magazine | US |
| Business Standard | Newspaper | India |
| CNBC | TV news | US |
| The Economist | Magazine | US |
| The Financial Times | Newspaper | UK |
| Forbes | Magazine | US |
| Fortune | Magazine | US |
| Market Watch | Magazine | US |
| New York Times (business section) | Newspaper | US |
| The Wall Street Journal | Newspaper | US |
| Harvard Business Review | Academic / professional journal | US |
3.1.3 Technology & IT news
3.1.4 Science news
3.1.5 Suggested journals & professional publications
Here are some professional trade journals, and some easier academic journals, that you might like to look at to find articles for the genre analysis assignment.
3.1.5.1 Professional trade journals
- The Chronicle of Higher Education https://www.chronicle.com
- Inside Higher Ed http://www.insidehighered.com
- Times Higher Education https://www.timeshighereducation.com/
- Observer https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer (psychology)
- Food Technology http://www.ift.org/food-technology.aspx
- World Landscape Architecture https://worldlandscapearchitect.com/
- Psychology Today https://www.psychologytoday.com
- Harvard Business Review http://www.hbr.org
- Other trade magazines
- Wikipedia list of trade magazines in different fields: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_trade_magazines
3.1.5.2 Academic journals
- International journals
- English Today https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/english-today (applied linguistics, language education)
- Domestic journals from Korea
4 Reference materials
4.1 Citation systems
The following are some commonly used citation systems; you can use any one of these for your papers in this course.
- See also this general introduction to citing and referencing sources.
- Brief Prezi on citing & referencing sources.
| Style | Typical field |
|---|---|
| * Chicago Manual, short & long footnote styles | 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 |
| * Chicago Manual (all versions) | complete guide to all versions |
If you have a lot of media sources, you might find Chicago or MLA easier to use.
5 Discourse & style issues
Read the relevant course packet chapters on coherence / transitionals, cohesion, reporting verbs, and word choice. We may go through some of this quickly in class, as this is rather dry. Please look at the examples and bring your questions, as you may or may not understand why some examples are given, or are flagged as problematic.
| To revise and improve your midterm paper, first look at these more general guides to style and wording. | Then look at these more specific topics.
|
