College Writing is designed to lead students through the foundational principles of writing sentences, paragraphs, and essays. The course first introduces students to the concept of language formality in order to transition students from using informal and colloquial language to writing for a more formal, academic audience. Students are then taught how to write grammatically and syntactically correct sentences and to formulate basic paragraph structure.

This course serves as a foundation for students who need to develop sentence-level and paragraph-level proficiencies that will help them transition into standard college composition courses. The pace of this course is designed to ease students into writing in an engaging, non-threatening, and supportive learning environment.

The course contains comprehensive guided learning material such as instructional and animated videos, interactive games, and practice assignments that provide students with immediate feedback.

Through MindEdge’s adaptive learning segments, students can access help for more than 20 topics, including misplaced modifiers, comma splices, and active and passive voice. This course includes full access to the MindEdge Writing Pad to support real-time student writing and coaching sessions.

 

Module 1: Language Formality

• Identify different parts of speech
• Indicate parts of speech in a sentence
• Recognize the role of audience, diction, and tone in writing
• Differentiate between formal and informal writing
• Use diction appropriate for formal writing
• Use correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling

Module 2: Writing Sentences

• Differentiate among simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences
• Employ techniques to increase sentence variety
• Use coordinating and subordinating conjunctions as appropriate
• Use proper parallel structure when writing sentences with coordinated or subordinated parts
• Detect sentence fragments and employ strategies for correcting them
• Place modifiers in a sentence so that their referents are unambiguous
• Include a subject in the modifier when necessary for clarity
• Use commas when syntactically appropriate, and avoid using them in constructions where they are inappropriate

Module 3: Narrative and Descriptive Paragraphs

• Recognize how narrative elements come together in a paragraph
• Recognize the role of description in paragraph development
• Identify common errors in a narrative paragraph
• Identify common errors in a descriptive paragraph
• Differentiate between objective and subjective description
• Analyze how narrative elements function in a paragraph
• Analyze how descriptive elements function in a paragraph
• Assemble a narrative paragraph that contains defining elements and is free from common errors
• Assemble a descriptive paragraph that contains defining elements and is free from common errors
• Use correct grammar, syntax, and spelling

Module 4: Exemplification and Classification Paragraphs

• Recognize how exemplification elements come together in a paragraph
• Recognize how classification elements come together in a paragraph
• Identify common errors in an exemplification paragraph
• Identify common errors in a classification paragraph
• Analyze how exemplification elements function in a paragraph
• Analyze how classification elements function in a paragraph
• Assemble an exemplification paragraph that contains defining elements and is free from common errors
• Assemble a classification paragraph that contains defining elements and is free from common errors
• Use correct grammar, syntax, and spelling

Module 5: Process Analysis Paragraphs

• Recognize how directive process analysis elements come together in a paragraph
• Recognize how informative process analysis elements come together in a paragraph
• Identify common errors in a directive process analysis paragraph
• Identify common errors in an informative process analysis paragraph
• Analyze how directive process analysis elements function in a paragraph
• Analyze how informative process analysis elements function in a paragraph
• Assemble a directive process analysis paragraph that contains defining elements and is free from common errors
• Assemble an informative process analysis paragraph that contains defining elements and is free from common errors
• Use correct grammar, syntax, and spelling
• Choose among periods, exclamation marks, question marks, and quotation marks as syntactically and contextually appropriate
• Use commas, semicolons, and other punctuation marks when syntactically appropriate, and avoid using them in constructions where they are inappropriate

Module 6: Comparison and Contrast Paragraphs

• Recognize how comparison and contrast elements come together in a paragraph
• Recognize the role of definition in paragraph development
• Identify common errors in a comparison and contrast  paragraph
• Identify common errors in a definition paragraph
• Differentiate between comparison and contrast  information patterns
• Differentiate between definitional pattern possibilities
• Analyze how comparison and contrast  elements function in a paragraph
• Analyze how definitional elements function in a paragraph
• Assemble a comparison and contrast  paragraph that contains defining elements and is free from common errors
• Assemble a definition paragraph that contains defining elements and is free from common errors
• Use correct grammar, syntax, and spelling

Module 7: Cause and Effect Paragraphs

• Recognize how cause and effect elements come together in a paragraph
• Identify the best organizational strategy for developing cause and effect paragraphs
• Identify common errors in a cause and effect paragraph
• Analyze how cause elements function in a paragraph
• Analyze how effect elements function in a paragraph
• Assemble a cause paragraph that contains defining elements and is free from common errors
• Assemble an effect paragraph that contains defining elements and is free from common errors
• Construct a cause and effect paragraph
• Use correct grammar, syntax, and spelling

Module 8: Argument Paragraphs

• Recognize what defines an argument
• Recognize how argument elements come together in a paragraph
• Identify common errors in an argument paragraph
• Analyze how argument elements function in a paragraph
• Assemble an argument paragraph that contains defining elements and is free from common errors
• Use correct grammar, syntax, and spelling

 Module 9: Writing the Essay

• Recognize how an essay is structured
• Describe the purpose of exploration
• Identify an appropriate purpose and audience
• Use exploration techniques to generate ideas for a topic
• Analyze a topic for its breadth and narrowness
• Recognize the benefits of different visual organizers and standard outlines
• Analyze the relationship between thesis statements and topic sentences
• Recognize the difficulties of writing a first draft
• Use techniques to overcome difficulties of writing a first draft
• Analyze an essay draft for its overall grammar, syntax, organization, clarity, cohesion, unity, and diction

Module 10: Essay Patterns

• Recognize different essay types
• Identify how narrative elements come together in an essay
• Identify common errors in different essay types
• Organize different essay types using specific sequences
• Assemble different essay types that are free from common errors
• Revise different essay types for their overall grammar, syntax, organization, clarity, cohesion, unity, and diction
• Use correct grammar, syntax, and spelling