Course Introduction Transcript

This course introduces you to more advanced aspects of language arts skills, including composition. You will learn skills for comprehending informational and argument texts, and you will study persuasive arguments in historical and contemporary texts. Analyzing the use of rhetorical techniques will help you evaluate how well authors address opposing viewpoints and counterclaims. In addition, you can practice what you have learned by writing an informational essay and an argument essay.

This course aims to help you build your communication skills and enhance your ability to critically evaluate ideas and arguments. The skills you will learn, such as researching and writing effectively, can lead to success in your academic and professional lives.

Major Concepts

• central ideas
• summarizing
• explicit and implicit evidence
• evidence and inferences
• structural elements
• organizational structure
• author perspective and purpose
• rhetorical techniques
• arguments and claims
• reasoning and evidence
• figurative language and word connotation
• seminal US documents
• patterns of word change
• reference sources
• semicolons and colons
• spelling
• informational writing
• argument writing

Projects

• appropriate correspondence in the form of emails to a friend and your teacher
• informational essay about a problem kids or teens face today, and possible solutions
• argument essay about an issue affecting the world and your life today

Course Objectives:

• Determine central ideas and supporting details in informational text.
• Analyze development, organization, supporting evidence, word choices and meanings, ideas and claims, and viewpoints and purposes in informational text. 
• Determine the meanings of academic and domain-specific words and phrases.
• Compose informational and argument essays, selecting relevant and sufficient evidence and organizing content effectively. 
• Evaluate claims, arguments, and reasoning in argument texts and determine relevancy and sufficiency of evidence. 
• Analyze seminal US documents. 
• Participate in collaborative discussions and presentations while effectively integrating and presenting information from multiple sources. 
• Correctly use the conventions of English grammar, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling in different contexts to make effective choices for meaning or style. 

Click the link to read through the Course Overview, which provides more detailed information on what you can expect throughout the course.