Course Syllabus

Welcome to ENGL002: English Composition II

Specific information about this course and its requirements can be found below. For more general information about taking Saylor Academy courses, including information about Community and Academic Codes of Conduct, please read the Student Handbook.

 

Course Description

Learn basic research concepts and techniques by using them to conduct academic research and develop effective writing processes.

 

Course Introduction

The ability to research topics and incorporate information from your sources into your work is an important skill both in college and on the job. This course will reinforce the concepts you practiced in English Composition I by introducing you to basic research concepts and techniques. It will also give you a chance to put these new concepts and techniques to work as you develop a final research paper. We will begin by looking at how to build research into an effective writing process. First, you will learn to think of researching not as a requirement for getting a good grade on a paper but as a valuable tool that can make your writing more powerful and convincing. You will learn how to build research into your writing process so that you can add persuasive power to your finished work. Through the rigorous practice of the fundamental techniques, you will come to see that, like writing itself, research is an act of discovery rather than a search for prefabricated ideas.

The intent of this course is to teach you how to prepare research for any discipline or subject. We will carefully explore and practice general research techniques and processes that you should be able to apply to many academic disciplines and in your job. 

This course includes the following units:

  • Unit 1: Research and the Writing Process
  • Unit 2: Researching: How, What, When, Where, and Why
  • Unit 3: Reviewing and Analyzing Your Sources
  • Unit 4: Putting Your Source Material to Work
  • Unit 5: Writing Your Research Paper and Acknowledging Your Sources
  • Unit 6: Polishing Your Research Paper

 

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

  • define the relationship between research techniques and academic work in various disciplines;
  • refine research within a writing process, identifying and using rhetorical strategies as well as practicing critical thinking and reading;
  • identify the various kinds of research used to produce written work in academic disciplines;
  • identify and use tools for conducting Internet-based and library research;
  • demonstrate critical and analytical thinking in locating, evaluating, and using research;
  • use quotes, paraphrases, and summaries accurately and appropriately to strengthen written arguments and to avoid plagiarism;
  • demonstrate skills in source summarization and in synthesis skills;
  • cite and document information sources in accordance with MLA style requirements;
  • use information from resources as structural elements in an academic paper; and
  • review and practice the grammatical and rhetorical skills necessary for successful writing.

Throughout this course, you will also see learning outcomes in each unit. You can use those learning outcomes to help organize your studies and gauge your progress.

 

Course Materials

The primary learning materials for this course are articles, lectures, and videos.

All course materials are free to access and can be found in each unit of the course. Pay close attention to the notes that accompany these course materials, as they will tell you what to focus on in each resource, and will help you to understand how the learning materials fit into the course as a whole. You can also see a list of all the learning materials in this course by clicking on Resources in the navigation bar.

 

Evaluation and Minimum Passing Score

Only the final exam is considered when awarding you a grade for this course. In order to pass this course, you will need to earn a 70% or higher on the final exam. Your score on the exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. If you do not pass the exam on your first try, you may take it again as many times as you want, with a 7-day waiting period between each attempt. Once you have successfully passed the final exam you will be awarded a free Course Completion Certificate.

There are also end-of-unit assessments and other quizzes in this course. These are designed to help you study, and do not factor into your final course grade. You can take these as many times as you want until you understand the concepts and material covered. You can see all of these assessments by clicking on Quizzes in the course's navigation bar.

 

Tips for Success

ENGL002: English Composition II is a self-paced course, which means that you can decide when you will start and when you will complete the course. There is no instructor or an assigned schedule to follow. We estimate that the "average" student will take 101 hours to complete this course. We recommend that you work through the course at a pace that is comfortable for you and allows you to make regular progress. It's a good idea to also schedule your study time in advance and try as best as you can to stick to that schedule.

Learning new material can be challenging, so we've compiled a few study strategies to help you succeed:

  • Take notes on the various terms, practices, and theories that you come across. This can help you put each concept into context, and will create a refresher that you can use as you study later on.
  • As you work through the materials, take some time to test yourself on what you remember and how well you understand the concepts. Reflecting on what you've learned is important for your long-term memory, and will make you more likely to retain information over time.

 

Suggested Prerequisites

In order to take this course, you should:

 

Technical Requirements

This course is delivered entirely online. You will be required to have access to a computer or web-capable mobile device and have consistent access to the internet to either view or download the necessary course resources and to attempt any auto-graded course assessments and the final exam.

  • To access the full course including assessments and the final exam, you will need to be logged into your Saylor Academy account and enrolled in the course. If you do not already have an account, you may create one for free here. Although you can access some of the course without logging in to your account, you should log in to maximize your course experience. For example, you cannot take assessments or track your progress unless you are logged in.

For additional guidance, check out Saylor Academy's FAQ.

 

Fees

This course is entirely free to enroll in and to access. Everything linked in the course, including textbooks, videos, webpages, and activities, is available for no charge. This course also contains a free final exam and course completion certificate.

Last modified: Monday, September 28, 2020, 2:33 PM