IFLS012

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IFLS 012: Academic English II (Fall 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)
  • Syllabus


Course info
  • Course load: 2 hours/week, 1 credit
  • Class locations: 국제관 (International Studies Hall)

Sections

IFLS 012-42       MW (1) 9.00-9.50 (or 9.20-10.10)     국제관 #112
IFLS 012-47 TT (3) 12.00-13.50 국제관 #225
IFLS 012-52 MW (4) 13.00-13.50 국제관 #512a


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 Current & upcoming assignments


3 Weekly materials & assignments

3.1 Weeks 1-2: Introduction

  • Read the introductory chapters of the textbook on your own (chapters 1-2).
  • Google Form #1: Personal info & survey. Please 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.


3.2 Weeks 3: Evaluating sources

3.2.1 Internet sources

Look at the following websites. Discuss: how reliable and trustworthy are these sites? What criteria can help you distinguish good sites and sources from bad ones?

  1. Pacific tree octopus
  2. CIA realizes it has been using ...
  3. Dihydrogen monoxoide: The truth

3.2.2 Newspaper article samples

Now look at the following news stories about a border controversy in Hong Kong. Which seem biased, neutral, informative, or reliable, and why?

  1. Global Times [1]
  2. South China Morning Post [2]
  3. Reuters [3]
  4. New York Times [4]
  5. Business Insider [5]


3.2.3 News outlets

Look at the following news outlets, and discuss the following.

  • Which ones seem reliable?
  • Which ones would be worth citing for information in a college paper?
  1. Fox News http://www.foxnews.com
  2. Breitbart http://www.breitbart.com
  3. New York Times http://www.nytimes.com
  4. New York Post http://www.nypost.com
  5. Washington Times http://www.washingtontimes.com
  6. Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com
  7. Wall Street Journal http://www.wsj.com
  8. The Sun http://www.thesun.co.uk
  9. Der Spiegel http://www.spiegel.de
  10. Frankfurter Allgemeine http://www.faz.net/aktuell
  11. El País (Spain) http://www.elpais.com
  12. Le Monde (France) http://www.lemonde.fr

3.2.4 Science news sources

Now look at the following science news websites; which ones seem reliable or worth citing?

  1. National Geographic http://www.nationalgeographic.com
  2. New Scientist http://www.newscientist.com
  3. Scientific American http://www.scientificamerican.com
  4. Science News http://www.sciencenews.org
  5. IFLScience http://www.iflscience.com

3.2.5 Science news examples

Look at the following sites reporting on an issue in health and biomedical news. Which ones seem more reliable, and why?

  1. The Independent Does spending too much time on smartphones ...
  2. Tech Advisor How much screen time for kids
  3. Very Well Family Negative effects of too much cell phone use
  4. Forbes Phone addiction is real ...
  5. Psychology Today Too much screen time ...


For the Psychology Today article, discuss the following.

  1. Click on the links in the text, where you see names and years inside parentheses. What are these articles? What kinds of articles are these? How reliable and credible are they? Can you understand them?
  2. What are the references at the end?
  3. From the different sources in the table above about phone / device usage, which ones might you cite if you were writing a college paper on the topic?
  4. If you were writing a college paper on the topic, would you cite sources like those that are cited in the Psychology Today article?

See also this summary of Academic versus non-academic sources.


3.2.6 Assignments


3.2.7 Overview of sources

Note: See the page on Academic versus non-academic sources and the EW Youtube video on evaluating sources (#1: intro video).


3.3 Logic, information, and misinformation

3.3.1 Assignments

Sample essays

Read the following essay and discuss the following.


Questions
  1. Do you agree with the essays?
  2. Do you at least find them informative or persuasive?
  3. How could they be improved?


Midterm & midterm outline
  • See the following handout for tips for preparing for your midterm and final essay. Essay structure handout
  • Before doing the midterm paper, you need to sketch out an outline and sample thesis statement for your essay, and turn it in. This may be graded as a ten-point assignment.


3.4 Popular misconceptions project

This project includes the above outline assignment, the midterm paper, a paraphrasing exercise, the final paper, and the final group presentation. See the Misconceptions project page for possible ideas for topics, and for an overview of different types of popular misconceptions.


3.4.1 Midterm

  • Midterm date: due during Week 8, in Blackboard
  • Suggested minimum length: About 500 words, or 1 page (if single-spaced) or 2 pages (if double-spaced); no more than five pages
  • I would suggest 1-2 background paragraphs, and 1-3 paragraphs for your analysis. You do not need to talk about possible solutions for the midterm (but you can if you want to). You do not need to worry about a concluding paragraph.
  • Sources: At least one professional quality source cited, using any citation system (footnote citations, MLA, APA, Chicago style). I would recommend a good popular source for science news, political news, Psychology Today, etc.; see the page on Academic versus non-academic sources.
  • In addition, you can cite popular sources that promote a false belief, or that are good examples of such a false belief (for such popular sources, you can simply footnote the source information).
  • You can use any system for citing sources, such as Chicago author-date style, Chicago footnote style, MLA, or APA.
  • If you are not familiar with systems for citing sources then use footnotes. Include as much information as you can about the source, such as: Author, date, article title / book title. For magazines, include a URL or page numbers. For more academic journals, include issue, volume number, and page numbers. For books, include the publisher / publishing company and location (where it was published).

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 will be created on Blackboard for this. It supposedly accepts different file formats, but MS Work (.doc/.docx) and PDF formats work best. You can the Appendix of the book for suggested paper format (§11.1), and for grading criteria (§11.3.6).

You can form your own groups of 2-6 people. 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.

 

3.4.2 Pronunciation

Some links:


3.4.3 Paraphrasing exercise

Below are some articles about why people believe in conspiracy theories and other false beliefs. These are secondary sources, but fairly professional. In these articles, identify some parts or information that might be relevant to your paper project. Write a summary / paraphrase* of the relevant information, and then add to your paraphrase with your own thoughts about how it applies to your topic. Also cite the source and write the end reference(s). You can use any of these articles for this task.

Use one of the articles for the paraphrasing assignment in the book. If you find a good quality article that is relevant and would prefer to use it for this assignment, you can do so if you check with me first.

  1. Why Do People Believe Things that Aren’t True?, Psychology Today
  2. Scientists discover the reason people believe in conspiracy theories, The Independent
  3. Why Debunking Myths About Vaccines Hasn’t Convinced Dubious Parents, Harvard Business Review
  4. Who believes in conspiracies? New research offers a theory, EurekaAlert.com
  5. Secret success: equations give calculations for keeping conspiracies quiet, The Guardian
  6. 5 Reasons Why People Stick to Their Beliefs, No Matter What, Psychology Today


Please see this handout on tips for summarizing. The examples are from a different assignment, but they mostly correspond with the assignment description and tips in your book. [6]


3.4.4 Assignments

Paraphrasing quiz


3.4.5 Final presentations

The group presentation assignment is described in the book.

Guides

Guide to presentation expressions

3.4.6 Final paper

The final will be out-of-class writing, based on the midterm. This will probably be turned in via the online KU Blackboard.


4 Style, grammar, and referencing guides

4.1 Style and grammar


4.2 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
* MLA 7 & MLA 8 literature studies, media studies
* Chicago Manual (parenthetical), or Author+Date
Also: Chicago Manual parenthetical style, short PDF guide		 humanities (This is the more formal version of CM with Author+Year or Author+Year+Page# in parenthetical in-text citations)[1]
* Harvard style an older style for various fields, which is very similar to APA style
* IEEE engineering

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, and MLA is especially convenient for any kind of media, online, or electronic sources and materials.



5 Course policies

5.1 Minor assignments

Minor assignments are shorter assignments that are graded on a variable point scale, that is, some are worth more points that others. These may 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 points simply for doing them). At the end of the semester, I will add up the possible total points and convert your grade to a 100-point scale. For example, if you got 150 out of 180 possible points for all the assignments, then 150/180 = 83.3.


5.2 Midterm & final project

The course will center around the topics of popular misconceptions, including fake news, false beliefs, and logical fallacies. This theme allows us to develop critical thinking skills that are needed for college and for life in general. See the grading criteria in the Appendix for writing and presentation assignments.

  • See Misconceptions project for more on the midterm, including possible topics
  • Example: I have created a sample essay for your here: The Santa Claus myth. This is not exactly a serious misconception in the sense that we've talked about; it is a sort of misconception among children that adults use, though sometimes the Santa story may be used inappropriately.


5.3 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 10%
Homework & other minor assignments 20%
Midterm 20%
Final group presentation 20%
Final essay 30%

6 See also

6.1 References

  1. ↑ There also exists the Chicago Manual short footnote style and long footnote styles. These are more semi-formal citation styles; end references are still required with footnotes. See also this Chicago Manual, PDF short footnote style guide.


6.2 Other links

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