English 403 

Style and Grammar for Writers

Instructor:            Laurie Cubbison                     

Office                   Young 306                    

Office phone          831-6421                      

Email                   lcubbiso@radford.edu                       

Office Hours          MWF 11 am- noon, T 3-5 pm                       

Required Materials:

Edward Smith and Stephen Bernhardt – Writing at Work: Professional Writing Skills for People on the Job. NTC Publishing Group.

Internet access and a style notebook

 

Course Schedule

Course Links

 

Course Description:

This class is designed to help you improve your writing through an intense focus on the effective use of language in communicating with different audiences and in different genres. Not only will this course will cover ways to improve sentence and paragraph quality through discussions of coherence, wordiness, grammar, but it will also include broader discussions of Standard Written English, publication style manuals, the difference between aural and written style, and other issues facing writers.

 

Course Objectives

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:

  1. Demonstrate mastery of principles of style that will allow them to recognize problems with their prose and to revise it effectively.
  2. Demonstrate mastery of principles of English grammar and usage that are directly related to style, correctness, and clarity of writing.
  3. Demonstrate an understanding of writing styles in relation to grammar, syntax, and audience expectations.
  4. Demonstrate the ability to edit their own writing—as well as the writing of others—for correctness and clarity.
  5. Have a firm base from which to proceed in upper-division writing courses.

 

Attendance:

You are expected to attend every class session.Because much of your time will be spent working with other people, your absences affect not only your work but also the ability of your classmates to carry out their work. For that reason, I will subtract the number of absences you have from the point total of your grade that is allotted to group work.If you have six or more absences, you will be asked to withdraw from the course. If, however, you are forced to miss class by circumstances beyond your control, notify me (ahead of time if possible) so that alternate arrangements can be made between you, me and the other members of your group.All work is expected on the day it is due.

 

The Computer:

All written work, except for in-class writing, will be done on the computer.If you are uncomfortable or unfamiliar with the computers, don’t worry, and don’t hesitate to ask me any questions you have.You will find that the skills in using the computers that you develop in this class, including the ability to write with the computer, will be extremely valuable to you during your time at college and afterwards. 

While we will be spending some of our classtime using the computer, bear in mind that you do need to have some sort of access to a computer outside of classtime in order to complete the assigned projects. Always remember to back up your work.

Plagiarism:

Since your purpose for taking this class should be to improve your writing, you should have no reason to commit plagiarism by copying someone else’s writing. That said, plagiarism or dishonesty of any kind will result in automatic course failure and a report filed with the student judicial board.Please observe the student conduct code printed in each classroom and in your student handbook.

 

Radford Honor Code:

I do hereby resolve to uphold the Honor Code of Radford University by refraining from lying, from the stealing or unauthorized possession of property and from violating the standards of Student Academic Integrity.

 

Grading:

In this class you will have a number of longer assignments and a number of shorter exercises.

 

Assignments                                     50 points each
Assignments are longer papers, completed out of class, and always prepared using a computer. Several assignment have multiple steps that will complete over a couple of days.
 

Final Project                                     100 points

The final project will be a public information campaign for which you will produce several different kinds of documents for different audiences.

 

Style Notebook                                  10 points each

We will be doing a number of exercises in and out of class which you will be required to keep in a notebook which I will collect at various times throughout the semester. You will need to bring the notebook to class each time as we will either be discussing the exercises done outside of class or doing exercises during class which you will need to include. These exercises will generally be handwritten, but out-of-class exercises may be prepared using a computer.

 

Class participation and groupwork         45 points

At its most basic, this section of the grade requires attendance, and students who are consistently absent or tardy will be penalized in this section of the grade by having a point subtracted for each absence from the total number of classdays.

However, attendance is not enough to do well in this class. Active participation in class discussion and in collaborative groups is required. Active participation in collaborative groups means that you come to class with the work that is expected of you so that you and your group members can complete the tasks assigned that day. If you come to class without the work necessary to participate in the group, then you will not work with your group that day. Instead you will do the homework while the groups are working on their tasks.