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Graduate Course Proposal Form Submission Detail - LAE6374
Tracking Number - 2035

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Current Status: Approved, Permanent Archive - 2005-01-10
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Detail Information

  1. Date & Time Submitted: 2003-10-07
  2. Department: English
  3. College: AS
  4. Budget Account Number: 1223000
  5. Contact Person: Professor John Hatcher
  6. Phone: 45763
  7. Email: jhatcher@cas.usf.edu
  8. Prefix: LAE
  9. Number: 6374
  10. Full Title: Practice in Teaching Grammar
  11. Credit Hours: 3
  12. Section Type: D - Discussion (Primarily)
  13. Is the course title variable?: N
  14. Is a permit required for registration?: N
  15. Are the credit hours variable?: N
  16. Is this course repeatable?:
  17. If repeatable, how many times?: 0
  18. Abbreviated Title (30 characters maximum): Practice in Teaching Grammar
  19. Course Online?: -
  20. Percentage Online:
  21. Grading Option: S - S/U Only
  22. Prerequisites: None
  23. Corequisites: None
  24. Course Description: Demonstrates techniques incorporating instruction of essential elements of English grammar/mechanics into composition courses. Pedagogy is essential for teachers in secondary schools, community colleges, or advanced composition at the university level.

  25. Please briefly explain why it is necessary and/or desirable to add this course: At present the great majority of college students have little knowledge of English grammar. The reason for this gap is that most college instruction assumes that the college student received this instruction in secondary schools and that those students go
  26. What is the need or demand for this course? (Indicate if this course is part of a required sequence in the major.) What other programs would this course service? The English Graduate Faculty feels strongly that while many most graduate students would benefit from this course, it would be a needless imposition on those students who may already have a solid background in grammatical correctness. Therefore, while the course will be highly recommended, it will not be mandatory. It is also assumed that the Teaching Assistant will quickly experience firsthand whether or not they need this pedagogy, though most have already expressed a desire, indeed an eagerness, to acquire this skill.

    Other programs that would use this course would most certainly include students obtaining a Masters in English Education or a Masters in Communication. Furthermore, even those students who may have a solid background in grammatical analysis and correction would certainly benefit from learning the techniques for conveying this information so that grammar instruction in the context of a course on composition does not become a segregated or onerous appendage to a vibrant writing program.

  27. Has this course been offered as Selected Topics/Experimental Topics course? If yes, how many times? In the past, graduate TA’s were required to take an undergraduate course (without credit) if they failed to make above 70 on a diagnostic test taken largely from an undergraduate text on correct writing. While the students learned a great deal, this cours
  28. What qualifications for training and/or experience are necessary to teach this course? (List minimum qualifications for the instructor.) We offer on the undergraduate course two levels of grammatical instruction: Practical Grammar and Usage and Traditional Grammar. One is prescriptive and thus instructs the student in rules of correctness while the more advanced course is descriptive and demonstrates methods of illustrating logical relationships. While a thorough knowledge does not depend on one having had these courses, they offer excellent background for one desiring to teach this course, though the most effective background is classroom experience of having tried numerous methodologies and having determined thereby those which are most effective in improving the student’s ability to incorporate a knowledge of grammar into his or her own composition.
  29. Objectives: To provide the students (teaching assistants) with a sufficient knowledge of grammar to correct compositions with appropriate grammatical designations and to enable the students/teachers to convey with ease to their own classes the fundamentals of grammatical structures, rules of correctness, and methods of incorporating that knowledge into an improved writing style.
  30. Learning Outcomes: The student should emerge with the ability to grade or edit a composition indicating where necessary all major violations of grammatical correctness, whether in constructions or diction. The student should further feel confident in his or her ability to teach these same concepts to a class on composition by integrating the rules of grammar and mechanics in such a way that the class does not become tedious, intimidating or boring, nor will the grammatical content became a separate or segregated part of the course content.
  31. Major Topics: (1) grammatical constructions in language (words, phrases, clauses) (2) principles of grammatical relationships (logical relationships to the sentence core) (3) rules of correctness regarding the most common violation of logical relationships (4) violations of idiomatic English (diction) (5) rules governing punctuation and mechanics. (5)methodologies by which this knowledge can be incorporated into student writing.
  32. Textbooks: Any number of texts will work. One of the best for teaching simple correctness is "Correct Writing" by Butler, et al. Another useful text is English Fundamentals.” The best descriptive grammar (teaching grammatical structures) is "Descriptive English Grammar" by House and Harmon, though any number of other texts would also work well. The texts will always be secondary to the instruction in techniques. For this purpose, sample papers from ongoing classes will serve.
  33. Course Readings, Online Resources, and Other Purchases:
  34. Student Expectations/Requirements and Grading Policy:
  35. Assignments, Exams and Tests:
  36. Attendance Policy:
  37. Policy on Make-up Work:
  38. Program This Course Supports:
  39. Course Concurrence Information:


- if you have questions about any of these fields, please contact chinescobb@grad.usf.edu or joe@grad.usf.edu.