English 0100: Developmental English THEA Review Course

English 0100 has a curriculum intended for students who have completed the college developmental sequences (through ENGL 0310 or ENGL 0349) but have yet to demonstrate the appropriate THEA standard.  The course consists of writing to a variety of THEA-style essay prompts with close supervision and direction by the instructor.  Students must be fully experienced with Writing Process and writing persuasion and argument construction.  Class is generally a workshop setting where most of the time is devoted to essay writing.

Prerequisites

Students registering for English 0100 must have completed one of the two Developmental English Programs sequences through either English 0310 or English 0349.  In general registration, a counselor must verify that the student has completed the correct sequence before enrolling the student in English 0100.  In exceptional cases, a student may be allowed to enroll in English 0100 with Department Chair or Assistant Chair approval via a reference from an English faculty member or counselor.

Course Goals (includes competencies, incorporation of SCANS, etc.)

English 0100 is designed to give students additional writing practice in preparation for the THEA.  English 0100 is not a substitute for Developmental English or English for Second Language Speakers courses.  The purpose of English 0100 THEA Review Course is to provide students with the intensive instruction and writing practice they need in order to pass the Writing Sample Section of the THEA Test.  Course content and guidelines are developed along the lines of THECB (Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board) and NES (National Evaluation Systems) THEA requirements and preparation resources and parallel the THEA Writing Sample assignment and its evaluation and grading.  Students who complete English 0100 should be able to demonstrate a THEA examination performance which meets the state requirement. 

Please see the faculty list link at the homepage of this site.

Textbook Information

Lab Requirements (if any)

Developmental English courses have a one hour lab component.

Students with Disabilities

ADA: HCCS is compliant with the American Disabilities Act and Sec. 504 of the Rehabilitation Act 1973.Students with special needs or disabilities that may affect their ability to succeed in college courses should contact a Disability Support Counselor.

Academic Honesty

Scholastic Dishonesty: The Houston Community College System Student Handbook 2009/2010 defines the following criteria: "Scholastic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating on a test, plagiarism, and collusion."Please refer to the Handbook for the specifics of cheating on a test."Plagiarism means the appropriation of another's work and the unacknowledged incorporation of that work in one's own written work offered for credit. Collusion means the unauthorized collaboration with another person in preparing written work offered for credit.  Possible punishments for academic dishonesty may include a grade of 0 to F for the particular assignment, failure in the course, and/or recommendation for probation or dismissal from the College System."

Attendance and Withdrawal Policies

Attendance: HCC policy designates 87.5% minimum attendance for college courses. This requirement allows a 12.5% absence maximum in a 1-hour course which computes as 2 hours.  Since English 0300 courses across the system have different schedules, a student must consult the instructor to determine the exact amount of time a student may miss class.  A student who exceeds the maximum is dropped from the course.
Tardies: Tardy policy is determined by the instructor.  Generally, a tardy student who fails to sign the roll will be counted as absent.  Excessive tardies, either individual or as a class, are an interruption of instruction.  Official tardy count is recorded as follows: three tardies (or early leaves) count as one class absence.

W (Withdrawn) is given to a student who exceeds the 12.5% maximum absence or to a student who withdraws from the course before the last drop date.  D or F may be given in cases of poor performance, scholastic dishonesty, or other severe academic violations. An F or W grade requires that the student repeat the course.

IP  (In Progress grade) is given to students who do not meet the minimum grading standards but who are otherwise in good standing (complete all assignments on a timely basis, attend class, participate, etc.)  An IP does not affect a student's GPA but does require the student to re-take the course.  A student may receive an IP grade only once for any developmental course.  When repeating the course, a student must receive a letter grade (A, B, C, or F).

Course Requirements and Grading Policy

In the course of the semester, the student who passes with a "C" or above will have been able to:
1.  Address and complete reading and writing assignments.
2.  Attend class regularly, missing no more than 12.5% (2 hours) of instruction.
3.  Actively address writing deficiencies for THEA purposes.
4.  Write five or six passing essays as assigned.  Two of the essays will be timed and impromoptu (written completely in class).
5.  Achieve an overall passing essay average (70%+).
90-100  A
80-89    B
70-79    C
69 and Below; Unsatisfactory or IP, In Progress

Testing

Testing policy is determined by the Developmental English Departments. Consult your instructor for specifics.

Make-up policy

Testing policy is determined by the Developmental English Departments. Consult your instructor for specifics.

Projects, Assignments, Portfolios, Service Learning, Internships, etc.

As a review course, English 0100 does not generally include special projects.  Consult your instructor for specifics.

Course Content

English 0100

1.  Recognize purpose and audience.  This skill includes recognizing the appropriate purpose, audience, or occasion for a piece of writing and recognizing writing that is appropriate for various purposes, audiences, or occasions.

2.  Recognize unity, focus, and development in writing.  This skill includes recognizing unnecessary shifts in point of view or distracting details that impair the development of the main idea in a piece of writing and recognizing revisions that improve the unity and focus of a piece of writing.

3.  Recognize effective organization in writing.  This skill includes recognizing methods of paragraph organization and the appropriate use of transitional words or phrases to convey text structure and reorganizing sentences to improve cohesion and the effective sequence of ideas.

4.  Recognize effective sentences.  This skill includes recognizing ineffective repetition and inefficiency in sentence construction; identifying sentence fragments, comma splices, and run-on sentences; identifying standard subject-verb agreement; identifying standard placement of modifiers, parallel structure, and use of negatives in sentence formation; and recognizing imprecise and inappropriate word choice.

5.  Recognize edited American English usage.  This skill includes recognizing the standard use of verb forms and pronouns; recognizing the standard formation and use of adverbs, adjectives, comparatives, superlatives, and plural and possessive forms of nouns; and recognizing standard punctuation.

The following characteristics are considered in scoring the writing samples.

Appropriateness: the extent to which the student addresses the topic and uses language and style appropriate to the given audience, purpose, and occasion.

Unity and Focus: the clarity with which the student states and maintains a main idea or point of view.

Development: the amount, depth, and specificity of supporting detail the student writing provides.

Organization: the clarity of the student's writing and the logical sequence of the student's ideas.

Sentence Structure: the effectiveness of the student's sentence structure and the extent to which the student's writing is free of errors in sentence structure.

Word Usage: the extent to which the student's writing is free of errors in usage and shows care and precision in word choice.

Mechanical Conventions: the student's ability to spell common words and use the conventions of capitalization and punctuation.

Course Calendar with Reading Assignments

Other Student Information (clubs, tutoring, web resources, etc.)

Southwest College's Writers' ClubConsult your instructor for details.