ENGL 135/A12: Academic Reading and Writing

Course Outline

CONTACT INFORMATION
NAME: Dr. Richard Pickard EMAIL: rpickard@uvic.ca
OFFICE: Clearihue D331 PHONE: 250.721.6636
OFFICE HOURS: M 1:00-2:00, W 1:30-2:20, R 10:30-11:20

CALENDAR COURSE DESCRIPTION

Practice of skills needed for successful academic writing in a variety of subject areas. Analysis of
rhetorical, stylistic, research, and documentation techniques; development of these techniques
through practical writing assignments. Balance of lectures and discussion.

COURSE OVERVIEW
ENGL 135 introduces you to university-level reading and writing. Its goal is to enable you to
build on the reading and writing skills you have developed through your earlier school years and
to progress toward the advanced level of literacy that is the hallmark of the educated citizen.

ENGL 135 will help you develop the core transferable skills in critical thinking, reading, and
writing that you will use in your university courses, regardless of your program of studies.
Through the analysis of a variety of challenging readings, you will discover the characteristics
and conventions used by scholars in different disciplines. You will explore different genres of
academic writing and how these reflect different rhetorical purposes. You will practise typical
academic writing tasks, including writing a basic research paper, and will learn strategies for
reading and writing more efficiently and for approaching new writing tasks. You will also learn
how to use reflection and self-assessment to become a more independent and competent reader
and writer. Through these experiences, you will prepare yourself for the increasingly challenging
reading and writing you will do as you advance through your degree program and beyond.

PREREQUISITES
You are eligible to take ENGL 135 if you have the required final grade in English 12 (or
equivalent), an LPI score of 5, or 1.5 units of English.

COURSE GOALS AND LEARNING OBJECTIVES

The course goals state what the course should help students learn; the learning objectives state
what you should be able to demonstrate during and at the end of the course.

The course content will focus on meeting the course objectives described below.

Goal: To strengthen students’ reading skills

Learning objectives: You should be able to
• use reading strategies to comprehend challenging texts
• identify the main and supporting ideas in what you read
• analyze academic writing in terms of rhetorical purpose, audience, content, genre, pattern
of development, and stylistic features
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Goal: To encourage students to respond critically to ideas

Learning objectives: You should be able to
• distinguish between fact and opinion
• analyze the reasoning behind an argument
• take a critical stance toward ideas, raising questions, examining evidence, and evaluating
arguments on the basis of reason

Goal: To prepare students for writing in courses across the curriculum

Learning objectives: You should be able to
• focus on a purpose for writing
• use writing as a means of learning
• approach a writing task as a process of planning, outlining, drafting, revising, and editing
• summarize effectively
• incorporate source material into their writing according to standard academic conventions
• write well-structured sentences and paragraphs in standard English
• critique your own and others’ writing

Goal: To help students develop basic information literacy skills

Learning objectives: You should be able to
• develop research questions
• determine appropriate sources
• use the print and electronic resources of the library to locate sources
• evaluate sources for authority, relevance, timeliness, and other criteria

Goal: To help students develop awareness of their progress as readers and writers
Learning objectives: You should be able to
• appreciate the importance of strong academic reading and writing skills to your
undergraduate studies and your career
• reflect on your progress as a reader and writer and set goals for yourself
• make use of appropriate resources to support your academic reading and writing,
including dictionaries; spelling, usage, grammar, and style guides; and ESL resources
• effectively manage your reading and writing tasks

REQUIRED TEXTS
You will require two texts for ENGL 135:
• The Active Reader by Eric Henderson
This textbook, which is written by a UVic ENGL 135 instructor, features a set of
contemporary academic and professional readings along with guidance on the academic
reading and writing tasks you will encounter in your university studies.

• The University of Victoria Writer’s Guide

This concise and easy-to-use reference includes the essential information you need to
write successfully in your university courses. The Writer’s Guide covers punctuation,
mechanics, and style, as well as provides strategies for reading, planning, writing, and
revising.

Both textbooks are available at the UVic Bookstore.

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COURSE RESOURCES
In addition to your textbooks and any handouts, a number of other resources are available to
support your learning in ENGL 135.

• ENGL 135 Moodle site

The main ENGL 135 Moodle site is available to all ENGL 135 students and instructors;
our section also has its own Moodle site. The main ENGL 135 Moodle site includes a
range of resources, but most of them are duplicated within our own site.

• The Active Reader website

The companion site for your textbook includes exercises, additional readings, updated
documentation guidelines, and activities to accompany the readings in The Active Reader.
As a user of The Active Reader, you also have access to other online resources from
Oxford University Press, including quizzes, exercises, and much more.

• The Writing Centre

The Writing Centre provides free one-on-one tutoring to help students build their writing
skills and proficiency in English. The centre also runs workshops that address common
problems in academic writing. You can book appointments online or visit on a drop-in
basis.

The Writing Centre is located in Room 135F of the Learning Commons, in the
McPherson Library.

• UVic Libraries
The Research Help link at the UVic Libraries Gateway offers students help with their
research, writing papers, locating resources, and identifying people to ask for more help.
The Research Help section includes links to eTutorials on basic research skills. The UVic
Libraries also offer AskAway, a chat reference service that allows students to talk with a
librarian in real time. You can also ask questions by e-mail or talk to a subject librarian
by phone.

• CALL Facility
The CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) facility offers software, audio, and
video resources for language learners, including ESL learners. Resources are available on
an individual, drop-in basis. The CALL Facility is located in the basement of the
Clearihue building (A051). You can contact the CALL facility by phone at 721-8959 or
by email <calllab@uvic.ca>.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS
As part of the requirements for successful completion of ENGL 135, students are required to
write a minimum of 3000 final (that is, edited and proofread) words, along with exercises and
other assignments.

The following are the types and value of the assignments you will complete in ENGL 135.

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Required assignment type Assignment Date Due Value

Writing diagnostic A short in-class writing task 0%
A learning journal
Weekly,
Self-assessment/reflection (Note that weekly submissions are not 10%
and Dec. 4
graded or commented upon)
A number of exercises, to be done outside
classroom time throughout the semester,
on some of the basic skills in academic
Exercises Ongoing 10%
writing, such as documentation rules and
styles, punctuation, sentence combining,
copyediting, and similar topics
1. Lecture summary (600 words) 1. Sept. 27
2. In-class proposal 2. Oct. 15
Short writing assignments 5% each
3. Annotated bibliography (500 words) 3. Nov. 15
4. In-class progress report 4. Nov. 19
A rhetorical analysis of two or more
Comparative analysis Oct. 27 20%
sources (1000 words)
An essay or research paper requiring
multiple sources (1250 words)
Essay/research paper You must also complete the Search Smart Dec. 10 25%
library research workbook (available on
the Moodle page in PDF form) as part of
this assignment
Final exam Date to be assigned by university TBA 15%

Late assignments will be accepted up until 72 hours after the deadline, without an excuse, but
10% will be deducted for each 24 hours (or portion thereof). If you think you have a good reason
for being late, you should ask if it counts as an excuse – you may well be turned down, but that’s
not the end of the world.

GRADING
The writing you do in ENGL 135 will be evaluated according to the Department of English’s
grading standards for first-year writing, which provide detailed criteria for each letter grade. The
grading standards are available on the course Moodle page as well as at the following page:
http://english.uvic.ca/undergrad/grading_standards.html. Your work will also be evaluated in
terms of how well it meets the requirements of the assignment and your achievement of the
learning objectives of the course.

The following table shows how the letter grade or percentage score you receive on an assignment
corresponds to the university’s standard grading system:

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Grade
Letter Description
Point %
Grade (from the University of Victoria Undergraduate Calendar)
Value
A+ 9 90–100 Exceptional (A+), outstanding (A), and excellent (A-)
performance. Normally achieved by a minority of students, these
A 8 85-89 grades indicate a student who is self-initiating, exceeds
A- 7 80-84 expectations, and has an insightful grasp of the subject matter.

B+ 6 75-79 Very good (B+), good (B), and solid (B-) performance. Normally
achieved by the largest number of students, these grades indicate a
B 5 70-74 good grasp of the subject matter or an excellent grasp in one area
B- 4 65-69 balanced with a satisfactory grasp in the other area(s).

C+ 3 60-64 Satisfactory (C+) or minimally satisfactory (C) performance.

These grades indicate a satisfactory (only) performance and
C 2 55-59 knowledge of the subject matter.
D 1 50-54 Marginal performance. This grade indicates a superficial grasp of
the subject matter.
F 0 0–49 Unsatisfactory performance.

COURSE POLICIES AND EXPECTATIONS

The following course policies and expectations apply to all sections of ENGL 135, including
ours.

You can expect your instructor to

• be on time and prepared for class
• teach to the course goals
• give clear instructions for assignments and exercises
• advise and support students in their course work
• treat students with respect
• act in a fair manner
• be available during office hours or, if necessary, arrange an alternative time to meet
• evaluate students fairly and constructively, based on criteria made clear to students
beforehand
• return assignments in a timely manner
• give useful feedback

Your instructor will expect you to

• attend all classes except in case of illness or emergency
• prepare for class by completing readings and assigned work in advance
• actively participate in classroom activities
• ask questions if you do not understand
• submit all assignments according to instructions, complete, and on time
• use instructor comments and feedback to improve future work
• cooperate with and act respectfully toward other students and the instructor
• communicate with the instructor about problems or concerns as soon as possible
• put focused and disciplined effort into the course assignments

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Attendance
The university expects students to attend all classes in which they are enrolled. University policy
allows an instructor to refuse a student admission to class because of lateness, misconduct,
inattention, or failure to meet the responsibilities of the course.

According to the university’s policy on attendance, students who neglect their academic work,
including assignments, may be refused permission to write the final examination in a course.

Grade appeals
If you feel that an assignment you submitted has been unfairly evaluated, your first step is to
discuss your concerns with your instructor. As your instructor is using the grading standards for
first-year writing, be prepared to show your instructor how your work matches the standards for
the letter grade you feel you should have received.

If you are not satisfied with your discussion with the instructor, you may apply for a formal grade
review, which is described in detail in the UVic academic calendar.

Academic honesty
The writing you do in ENGL 135 must be your own. Presenting the work of others, whether it is
used without attribution (plagiarism) or submitted by you but written by someone else (cheating),
violates the university’s policy on academic integrity.

The university has prepared several web pages to help you understand the university’s policy,
what constitutes plagiarism and cheating, and how to avoid them. These include the following
pages:

• Plagiarism from the UVic Libraries website; explains what plagiarism is and how to
avoid it.

• What You Should Know About Cheating and Plagiarism from the UVic Ombudsman’s
Office.

• Policy on Academic Integrity from the University of Victoria academic calendar; gives
the definitions of plagiarism, cheating, and aiding others to cheat; the procedure for
dealing with violations of the policy and the penalties. (This document is available on the
course Moodle page.)

In addition to these handouts, here are a few points about plagiarism to keep in mind when you
write:
• The best way to avoid inadvertent plagiarism is to ask your instructor for guidance. Some
students end up plagiarizing because they aren’t sure how to correctly incorporate the
work of others into their writing. Your instructor can help you learn how to quote,
paraphrase, and cite your sources correctly.

• Students who are found guilty of plagiarism or cheating face serious consequences.
According to the university policy, “A largely or fully plagiarized assignment should
result in a grade of F for the course.”

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• If a student is found guilty of violating the university’s policy on academic integrity, the
offence will be added to the student’s record and will remain there for four years after the
student graduates.

SCHEDULE

Please note that every Wednesday, you must either hand in a piece of paper representing your
week’s commentary for the learning journal (see Assignments list above, or for a description see
the end of this course outline), or provide me with electronic access to a copy of the commentary.
You must also complete a number of exercises throughout the semester (again, see Assignments
list above). These recurring assignments are NOT noted by date in this syllabus.

Date Readings/Assignments
Sept 9 Administrative matters
Lecture: “What’s the point?”
Diagnostic exercises
Sept. 10 Administrative matters
Introduction to academic writing
Unit One: An Introduction to Academic Reading
Sept 14 Reading: “An Introduction to Academic Prose,” pp.3-28
Discussing the assignments
Sept 16 Research and the university experience
Reading: Binkley, “Wikipedia Grows Up,” pp.203-06
Sept 17 In-class writing, organized around Wikipedia
Sept 21 Last day for 100% reduction of tuition fees for first-term courses
Sept 21 Reading: “Critical thinking,” pp.43-56
Reading: Fiske, Harris, & Cuddy, “Why ordinary people torture enemy prisoners,”
pp.360-65
Sept 23 Reading: Schwartz, Thomas, Bohan, & Vartanian, “Intended and unintended effects of
an eating disorder educational program,” pp.343-53
Sept 24 In-class writing, responding to articles so far
Sept 27 Summary due (via Moodle)
Unit Two: An Introduction to Academic Writing
Sept 28 Reading: “An Overview of the Essay,” pp.81-111
Sept 30 Readings: on reasoning and logic, pp.116-32
Sept 30 Last day for paying first-term fees without penalty
Oct 1 In-class writing, on logic and argumentation
Oct 5 Lecture: The summary
Reading: “Writing summaries,” pp.146-53
Oct 7 Reading: Barron and Lacombe, “Moral panic and the Nasty Girl,” pp.366-83
Oct 8 In-class writing, on summarizing academic writing
Oct 11 Last day for 50% reduction of tuition fees for first-term courses
Oct 12 Reading: Desai, “In the minds of men,” pp.383-88
Oct 14 Reading: Gindengil, Blais, Nadeau, & Nevitte, “Enhancing democratic citizenship,”
pp.282-93
Oct 15 In-class proposal paper
Unit Three: Research
Oct 19 Reading: “Writing research essays,” pp.154-63
Oct 21 Readings: on sources, pp.164-179
Oct 22 Reading: “Interacting with texts,” pp.57-78
Oct 26 In-class writing: relations to sources

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Date Readings/Assignments
Oct 27 Rhetorical analysis due (via Moodle)
Oct 28 Reading: Young, “Universities, governments and industry,” pp.216-23
Oct 29 Reading: Young, continued
Oct 31 Last day for withdrawing from first-term courses without fear of failure
Nov 2 Reading: Ferguson, “How computers make our kids stupid,” pp.195-203
Nov 4 Reading: Gliksman, Adlaf, Demers, & Newton-Taylor, “Heavy drinking on Canadian
campuses,” pp.436-46
Nov 5 In-class writing, reorganizing an assigned reading
Nov 9-11 Reading Break – no meetings
Unit Four: Active Writing
Nov 12 Reading: Posner, “Image world,” pp.325-32
Nov 15 Annotated bibliography due (via Moodle)
Nov 16 Reading: Kerr, Tyndall, Li, Montaner, & Wood, “Safer injection facility use and syringe
sharing in injection drug users,” pp.432-36
Nov 18 Reading: sample student paper, pp.180-88
Nov 19 In-class progress report
Nov 23 Reading: Wohlgemut, “AIDS, Africa, and indifference,” pp.190-95
Nov 25 Reading: Wohlgemut, continued
Nov 26 In-class writing, revisiting a previous exercise
Dec 2 Readings: “An Overview of the Essay,” pp.79-111; “An Introduction to Academic
Prose,” pp.3-28
Dec 3 Exam preparation
Dec 10 Final paper due

ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTIONS

1. Summary 600 words, due Sept. 27, worth 5%

You’ll be required to attend a public lecture by a professor or graduate student talking about her or his
research. (In other words, you can’t use a lecture from a course.) The best online resource is the
university’s Events Calendar (http://events.uvic.ca/calendar.php); set it to a monthly view of only
lectures/seminars. You’re free to choose a lecture on any topic you like, but if you’re not sure that a
particular lecture will work, please ask me. The Lansdowne lectures will always be acceptable.

If you’re convinced that an on-campus lecture won’t work, I may grant you approval to use something
from iTunes U or from Google Video, but you must send me the link well in advance so I can briefly
check whether it will suit this assignment. You will have to explain why at least three on-campus
lectures are unsuitable for you before I will grant this approval.

Please note that this summary will form the basis of most of your assignments this semester: the in-
class proposal, the annotated bibliography, the in-class progress report, and the research essay. In other
words, you should look for a topic you’ll be comfortable spending some time with.

2. In-class proposal Oct. 15, worth 5%

You will be asked to discuss what you intend to write for the final project in this course, based on the
lecture you have attended and summarized. There will be a specific question to answer, so you will not
be able simply to write a paper beforehand and submit it, but you’ll be able to prepare extensively for
this assignment if you like. There is no length requirement, but you must write a well-organized, multi-
paragraph paper.

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3. Rhetorical analysis 1000 words, due Oct. 27, worth 20%

For this paper, you will respond to one of several questions comparing the rhetoric of two essays we’ve
read so far in this course. You’re not being asked to write an essay of literary analysis, but a
comparative paper of rhetorical analysis. You’ll have to explain what you expected from the essay as
well as what you encountered in it, and you’ll need to provide evidence from the text.

Some of the questions you might be asked to consider while writing this assignment include:

• What kind of essay does this introduction lead the reader to expect?
• Does the essay live up to what appears to be its intended purpose?
• Is this essay primarily expository or persuasive? If it is persuasive, how direct or subtle is its
attempt at persuasion?

4. Annotated bibliography 500 words, due Nov. 15, worth 5%

You will have to provide brief summaries of three individual scholarly articles relevant to the subject
of your final project. You are required to use your own words for this, rather than quoting from or
paraphrasing the articles themselves, their abstracts, or other writers’ comments on them. These
assignments will be checked carefully for plagiarism, including uncredited paraphrasing, so make sure
you understand this issue before you submit the assignment.

5. In-class progress report Nov. 19, worth 5%

You’ll have to tell me how your work toward the final paper has been going. Clearly, it will not be
adequate to explain that you’re just about to start work on the project, or that you’ve been prevented
from getting started for some reason. By this point in the semester, it is essential that you have been
working toward this assignment. You’ll be asked some particular questions in this assignment, to make
it a true test of your ability to respond relatively spontaneously in written form.

6. Short research essay 1250 words, due Dec. 10, worth 25%
Following up on the lecture that you summarized, you will research one specific area discussed or
introduced during that lecture. You will be required to quote from at least two adequate academic
sources (either published, hard-copy sources, or digital documents that meet the same standards of peer
review and academic publication), and you are encouraged to speak with a professor in a related
department about the area you’re researching.

7. Learning journal weekly, and Dec. 4

You will have to write weekly commentaries, approximately 300-500 words each, about your
engagement with the themes and learning objectives of this course. What examples of academic
writing have you encountered this week, and how did it go? How much (or how little) has English 135
been on your mind, and why? What work have you done this week toward an academic writing
assignment for this or some other class? The goal of each commentary is to reflect on your work and to
remain aware of your level of engagement with the material. You will hand in each commentary (or
make it electronically available, if you are working in the form of blog or other online medium), but
they will not be graded or commented on during the semester. At the end of the semester, you will
have to provide me with what you believe are the six commentaries that best indicate your level of
engagement with the course material and objectives.

8. Exercises throughout, worth 10%

You will complete several exercises, mostly in online form outside of class time, throughout this
course. The majority of them will be time-limited, and they will be on such subjects as rhetorical
terms, copyediting, plagiarism, and documentation.

9. Final exam TBA, 15%

A two-hour final examination will be scheduled by the university during the official exam period.
More information about the form of this examination will be provided as the semester goes on.

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