IW
Intermediate Writing (Higher Intermediate / Intermediate 2)
- Pukyong National University (Daeyeon Campus)
- Room: (allotted room, but not likely used)
- Instructional medium: This course will be conducted by means of uploaded, pre-recorded videos in the LMS. It is unlikely that we will hold live classes in our classroom this semester.
Prof. Kent Lee
- Office: C25-1103
- Office hours: By appointment
Contents
1 Course description
This course is designed mainly for sophomores, juniors and seniors 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.)
- 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
2 Assignments
2.1 ¶#1
For the first paragraph / multi-paragraph writing assignment, you will write a self-introduction email of at least a couple of paragraph. You can refer to the email guide in the book (§2.5) for the basic format of an English email. The general format and structure can be more formal, but the contents of the body paragraph can be more semi-formal (including first and second person pronouns). In your email, you can choose any one or more of the following topics and explain them in your email.
- Why you chose your major, and your future plans.
- Tell me about your English learning. What things have you find to be actually helpful and useful in learning English (habits, practices, experiences, reading materials, media materials, etc.)? What things have been unhelpful or adverse? How do you feel toward English? Do you personally like it or find it useful, or do you feel negative about it? What experiences have made you feel that way? How important is English for your future?
- Tell me about your experiences learning another language (and various aspects like those mentioned in the previous item).
- To help me learn the Korean language and culture, perhaps you could recommend some basic reading materials, websites, or any written or print materials that might help. Be sure to provide background information on such sources. (My Korean is at a lower-intermediate level).
- Any other questions that you might have.
Be sure to indicate your name and section in the subject line. Be sure to send your email to at least two of my email accounts simultaneously, to avoid emails getting lost (and that helps my email filters to put it in the right folder).
Due date: 18 Sept. For grading, you can refer to the grading criteria in the appendix, particularly those on p. 74. However, this is a semi-formal assignment, so I will not grade too strictly, and will not expect this to be in the very formal style of a college essay.
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 |
3.1.3 Technology & IT news
3.1.4 Science news
4 Paraphrasing and summarizing
Sample revision essays from an assignment may appear here.
5 Reference materials
5.1 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.
6 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.
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