ROYAL UNIVERSITY OF PHNOM PENH

INSTITUTE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
Bachelor of Arts in English

Academic Year: 2020 - 2021

COURSE SYLLABUS
Course Title Writing Skills 201

Course Code WS201 No. of Credits 3

Pre-requisites Common Course
WS 201
(Code) (Code)
Course Coordinator(s) Lim Chantha
Email lim.chantha@rupp.edu.kh Telephone No. 012626555
Other Course PLD, SN, KEO, VMK, SLP, Qualification
Teacher(s)/Lecturer(s) SPA, LLD, USR
Course Type Core Course  Compulsory  Elective 
Offer in Academic Year 1st Semester  2nd Semester 

1. COURSE DESCRIPTION
Writing Skills 201 is designed to better students’ success and retention in academic writing at the
university level – Upper-intermediate level. The course comprises four different types of academic
essays: 1) narrative essay; 2) cause-and-effect essay; 3) compare-and-contrast essay; and 4)
argumentative essay. Students will learn writing strategies for these types of essays. Students will
improve writing proficiency through multiple drafts of each essay type and peer reviewing and
editing activities. Students will also undertake quizzes, progress tests, portfolios, a major
assignment, and a semester exam.

2. COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, learners should gain the following knowledge:
 Recognize structures of four types of essays – narrative, comparison, cause and effect and
argumentative essay
 Recognize academic words, sentence structures, and coherence and cohesion in each type
of essay
 Describe four types of academic essays – narrative, cause-and-effect, compare-and-
contrast, and argumentative essay
 Write different types of essays, i.e., narrative essay; comparison essay; cause and effect
essay; and argumentative essay with correct word choice, sentence structures, and
punctuation

At the end of the course, learners should be able to use the following skills:

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  Plan the outline of four types of academic essays – narrative, cause-and-effect, compare-
and-contrast, and argumentative
 Create ‘hooks’ and ‘thesis statements’ for different essays effectively
 Compose different sentences and paragraphs using appropriate sentence connectors
 Research various sources for writing academic essays appropriately
 Use technological tools to facilitate the practice of writing multiple drafts
 Review, edit and revise multiple drafts of essays effectively
 Construct and produce appropriate and standard academic essays, i.e., narrative essay;
cause-and-effect essay; compare-and-contrast essay; and argumentative essay
 Assess the quality of the four types of academic essays effectively

At the end of the course, learners should develop the following attitudes:
 Develop a positive conception of writing as both a process and a product
 Demonstrate a positive attitude toward working with peers or in the groups
 Illustrate active peer-reviewing and peer-editing
 Show a high spirit of teamwork and collaboration

3. COURSE OUTLINE

Course Outline
Session/Week Topic/Lesson/Activity Required Reading
1 Introduction to WS201 19/10/20: Classes
(30/09- Introduction to Microsoft Teams commence
05/10/19) Monitoring and trial of online accounts
Discussing what characteristics of a good writing
2 A process writing 29-31/10/20:
(26-31/10/20) Moving from paragraph to essay King’s Coronation Day
Introduction to comparative essay and Water Festival
Comparative Essay Writing
Patterns of Organization
 Block method
 Point-by-point method
 Parallel Organization of Supporting
Information
Text analysis and modelling
 Studying a comparative essay
 Developing a comparative essay
 Supporting Information
Comparative essay writing – Drafts 1 & 2
 Brainstorming and outlining
 Writing draft 1
 Peer-feedback: reviewing and editing

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 Language Focus
 Connectors of comparison
 Word Associations
 Using Adverb Clause
5 Comparative essay writing – Draft 3 & Final Off Campus 1
(16-21/11/20) draft
 Teacher’s feedback
 Revising and submitting final draft
Cause-Effect essay writing
Structure of the essay
 Focus-on-causes
 Focus-on-effects
Text analysis and modelling
 Studying a cause-effect essay
Text analysis and modelling
 Developing a cause-effect essay
 Adding supporting information
Cause-effect essay writing – Drafts 1 & 2
 Brainstorming and outlining
 Writing draft 1
 Peer-feedback: reviewing and editing
Language Focus
 Connectors of cause-effect essays
 Wordiness & redundancy
 Collocations
8 Cause-effect essay writing – Draft 3 & Final
(07-12/12/20) draft
 Teacher’s feedback
 Revising and submitting final draft
Argumentative essay writing
Understanding the essay
 Arguing pro and con
 Convincing the reader
Text analysis and modelling
 Studying an argumentative essay
 Developing an argumentative essay
 Adding supporting information
10 Understanding argumentation
(21-26/12/20)  Developing arguments
 Developing counterarguments and refutation
 Logical fallacies

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 11 Argumentative essay writing – Drafts 1 & 2 01/01/21:
(28/12-  Brainstorming and outlining International New Year
02/01/21)  Writing draft 1 Day
 Peer-feedback: reviewing and editing
Language Focus
 Choosing models
 Using the if-clause
 Citing sources
12 Argumentative essay writing – Draft 3 & Final 7/01/21:
(04-09/01/21) draft Victory Day
 Teacher’s feedback
 Revising and submitting final draft
 Portfolio Presentation
13 Narrative essay writing Off Campus 3
(11-16/01/21) Structure of a narrative essay
 Introducing a structure of narrative essay
 Introduction: identifying hooks; writing a
thesis statement
 Body: chronological order or time order and
transitional sentences
 Conclusion: moral, prediction, or revelation

Narrative essay writing – Drafts 1 & 2

 Brainstorming and outlining
 Writing draft 1
 Peer-feedback: reviewing and editing
Language focuses:
 Connectors and time relationship words
 Adjective clauses
 Word associations
 Using collocations
Narrative essay writing – Draft 3 & Final draft
 Teacher’s feedback
 Revising and submitting final draft
Text analysis and modelling
 Reading comprehension
 Outlining practice
 Adding supporting information

16 Make-up classes

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 (01-06/02/21)
17 Make-up classes
(08-13/02/21)
18 Exam preparation
(15-20/02/21)
19 Examination
(22-27/02/21)
***This course outline is subject to change.

4. ESSENTIAL DOCUMENTS:
 Core Texbook
Boardman, A. C. & Frydenberg, J. (2008). Writing to Communicate 2: Paragraphs and Essay
(3rd ed.). New York: Pearson Education, Inc.
Folse S. K., Vokoun, A. M., & Solomon, E. V. (2014). Great writing 4: Great essays (4th ed.).
Boston, MA: Heinle Cengage Learning.
IDEA. (2007). The debatabase book: A must-have guide for successful debate (3rd ed.). New
York: International Debate Education Association.
Slaght, J., Harben, P., & Pallant, A. (2004). English for academic study: Reading and writing
source book. Reading: Garnet Education.

 Additional Reading Materials

(To be confirmed)

5. TEACHING AND LEARNING ACTIVITIES

 Blended learning method: a combination between in-class and online learning
 A process writing approach: developing, reviewing, editing and revising multiple drafts
 Text modelling, joint construction and independent practice (genre-based approach)
 A practice-oriented approach

6. STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES
 Creating an account of “Microsoft Teams”.
 Reading materials in the textbook and online.
 Posting and responding to questions for discussions in the Discussion Forum.
 Developing, reviewing, editing and revising multiple drafts of essays.
 Monitoring one’s own learning, i.e., active participation in online discussions, writing
practices in class, evaluating own learning progress.
 Submitting multiple drafts of essays according to the due dates.

7. COMPUTER OR SMART DEVICE REQUIREMENTS

You need to have an up-to-date browser, operating system and some additional software
programs on your computer or applications on their smart devices (e.g. smart phones,
tablets, etc.) to attend the online platform. You will be given access code in order to register

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 the course in the online learning platform, Microsoft Teams. Documents will be available
as Microsoft Word, PDF, video, image, or link forms.

8. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
 Tech Support
If technical assistance is needed during the orientation or to report a problem, students can
contact each respective lecturer for assistance.
 Additional Student Resources
There are many services on campus to help you achieve success in your courses. You can go to
Self-Access Centre (SAC) at IFL, Hun Sen Library at RUPP or online documents.

9. COURSE COMMUNICATION
 Announcements
Announcements will be posted in Microsoft Teams on a regular basis. They will appear on their
Microsoft Teams Stream and/or will be sent directly through preferred method of notification
from Microsoft Teams. Please make certain to check them regularly, as they will contain any
important information about upcoming lessons, exercises, quizzes, journals, major assignment, or
class concerns.

Once you log in Microsoft Teams, you will be able to contact anyone through Outlook. Make
sure you check the notifications and Outlook frequently.

 Question Forum
In online courses, it is normal to have many questions about things that relate to the course, such
as clarification about lessons, exercises, journals, major assignment, and other assessments. Please
post in “General” Site as an open forum, and you are encouraged to give answers and help each
other.

 Discussion Forum
Please post some discussions in the “General” and be remembered that each lecturer will also post
some discussions, and you are encouraged to give thoughtful and well-written answers (at least 5
sentences) as much as possible. You can also receive 1 extra credit point for the course (up to 10
points maximum).

10. COURSE PARTICIPATION POLICY

Participation is essential to your success in this class. In this blended learning course, you are
required to participate just as if you were in a face-to-face course. This means that in order to get
full credit for participation, you will have to complete your discussion, lesson assignments, quizzes
and other requirements on a timely basis. Consistent failure to participate in class and online
activities will result in WS201 subject failure.

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Policy for Success
 Attendance
To succeed in this course, students must attend scheduled class period regularly. If students must
miss classes due to authorized university and/or workplace activities, personal problems such as
illnesses, accidents, and social events, to name some problems, students must inform and provide
the lecturer with necessary documents prior to class. Students are allowed to be absent for four
sessions (6 hours) with leave granted and two sessions (3 hours) without leave granted for the
whole semester.

 Class Participation
Students are expected to read lessons and materials in the textbook and online before each session
in order to actively participate in online and in-class discussions and practices.

 Late Work
Late work will not be accepted. Assignments will not be available to submit after the deadline. If
you have an extenuating circumstance, please contact your lecturer by private message before the
assignment is due to make alternate arrangements.

11. PLAGIARISM AND CHEATING POLICY

Academic Honesty/Student Conduct
As a student at IFL, students are expected to read and follow the guidelines and policy.
 Not CHEAT or PLAGIARIZE. PLAGIARISM means using another person’s words or
ideas as your own without proper documentation. Any cheated action or plagiarized work
must be resulted in ZERO scoring.
 Not interfere in other students’ Microsoft Teams account.
 Not let any other student to copy any of your work.

 Failure to follow this policy will result in disciplinary action, which can affect your academic
standing at IFL.
 Remember, this Blended Learning platform is a learning community, so take special care to
be a respectful and thoughtful member when posting the questions and sharing thoughts.

12. ASSESSMENT METHODS

Assessment Task Score (%) Related to ELOs

Class Participation 5
Homework 5
Quizzes 5
Portfolio 10
Major Assignment 15
Mid-Term Test 20
Semester Exam 40

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12. DESCRIPTION OF ASSESSMENT TASKS
Course Assignments

Important Dates
The due dates for your assignments can be found after being posted, but please be aware that YOU
CANNOT UPLOAD ASSIGNMENTS AFTER THE DUE DATES. In addition, the reminders will
be posted prior to the due dates in the “Recent Activity” site.

Weekly lessons and essay writing assignments

Each week you will need to complete the following:
 Reading the weekly lesson. This will be available before the class starts.
 Posting in the weekly Discussion Forum.
 Responding to other students’ posts in the Discussion Forum.
 Completing the lesson assignments in each course lesson by the due dates.

Essay writing assignments: Each assignment should be-

 at least in about 500 words ,
 typed,
 double space of 12-point font size
 Times New Romance.

Each essay will be graded on content, spelling, punctuation, grammar, and format. Please make
sure that each essay writing type is complete and clear. You will receive maximum of 10 points
for each essay.

Major Assignment
Argumentative Essay will be chosen as a major assignment task. This task is an independent work
by following a process writing approach, i.e., completing multiple drafts.

Grading Scale
Letters Percentage GPA
A 85-100% 4.00
B 80-84% 3.50
C 70-79% 3.00
D 65-69% 2.50
E 50-64% 2.00
F 49% and below 1.50

Rubric and Holistic Scoring

In order to understand what is expected of you for each assignment, please check out the
RUBRIC – a table that details the requirements of each assignment and the benchmarks for
success – attached to each ASSIGNMENT for the grading criteria. Also, some assignments will
be used holistic scoring.
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Extra Credits
You can earn up to 10 extra credit points for each relevant and well-thought responses to
questions in the DISCUSSION FORUM.

Grades
You can view your grades using the GRADEBOOK button in the course navigation links. Please
check your grades regularly to make certain that all of your assignments are received. If you have
any question about grading, please contact each class lecturer. Please do not post your personal
concerns in a discussion forum.