Spanish 452

Advanced Written Spanish

Fall 2004

 

Professor Mark G. Goldin

Thompson Hall 233

Office Hours: Monday through Thursday, 11-12

Phone 993-1231 (voice); 993-1245 (fax)

e-mail: mgoldi2@gmu.edu

 

 

This course fulfills the writing intensive requirement in the Spanish major.  Students sharpen their writing skills by preparing successive drafts of four writing projects:  a narration, an exposition, a persuasive paper, and a research paper.

 

Textbook

Valdés, G., Dvorak, T, Hannum, T., and Angelelli, C.  Composición: proceso y síntesis, cuarta edición.   New York:  McGraw-Hill, 2004.

 

Evaluation

                                                                       
Narration:20%
Exposition:20%
Argumentation: 20%
Research paper: 30%
Participation: 10%

 

Criteria for Grading Compositions

A: Demonstrates Competence
Clear topic sentence; everything relates to topic sentence, no tangents; clear organization; introduction and conclusion; few language errors; few misspellings

B: Suggests Competence
Well organized but too many language errors or misspellings

C: Suggests Incompetence
Organizational problems; too many topics attempted; contains statements unrelated to topic

D: Demonstrates Incompetence
Organizational problems and too many language errors or misspellings


Deadlines and Late Submissions

Preliminary drafts may be submitted electronically or in hard copy. Electronic versions will be returned electronically, with comments and suggestions, within a few days. Hard copies will be returned at the next scheduled class meeting. Comments and suggestions for preliminary drafts received after the due date will be delayed.

Final versions received more than 24 hours after the due date will be penalized one letter grade.


Schedule


August 31-September 7:  Description

Aug. 31:  vocabulary survey, in-class description activities (ungraded)

Sept. 7:  review of descriptive paragraphs

 

September 7-September 28:  Narration

Sept. 7:  Chapter 2, pp. 37-54

Sept. 14: First draft of narration due

                  In-class writing

Sept. 21: Chapter 2, pp. 55-64

Sept. 28::  Second draft of narration due

 

September 28-October 26:  Exposition

Sept. 28:  Chapter 3, pp. 65-106

Oct. 5: First draft of exposition due

                  In-class writing

Oct.12: No class. If you have Monday classes they will meet on this day.

Oct. 19:  Chapter 4, pp. 107-153

Oct. 26:  Second draft of exposition due

October 26-November 16:  Argumentation

Oct. 26:  Chapter 5, pp. 154-194

Nov. 2:  First draft of argumentation due

                  In-class writing

Nov. 9:  Chapter 6, pp. 195-244

Nov. 16:  Second draft of argumentation due

 

November 16-December 7:  Research

Nov. 16:  Appendix B, pp. 251-257;

  Footnoting and bibliography; Requirements for your research paper

Nov. 23:  First draft of research paper due

                   In-class writing

Nov. 30:  In-class writing

Dec. 7:  In-class writing

                Second draft of research paper due