For those of you that took english in university, which I'm sure all of you did, how did you find it? What did the professor ask you guys to do? And What is expected of the students before the start of the course. I am talking about the first year english course..description on other year english courses would be sufficient to. Did anyone major in literature or something like that?
Page 1 of 1
English Courses In Uni?
#2
- Member
-
- Group: Members
- Posts: 691
- Joined: 28-May 07
Posted 12 August 2007 - 02:05 AM
well... although it's been a while since you posted this topic... and you might not even be worrying about it anymore:
this year, I took ENGL108M: Youth and Adolescence (which, incidentally, I didn't *have* to, but I wanted to, since it looked fun)
I found it pretty easy (then again, Waterloo isn't exactly known for it's English... so that might not speak for universities such as... say... York).
The course texts were short stories and poems (which were compiled in a course package), and several novels.
For assignments, we had 4 so-called "critical journals," in which we were presented a question that we had to answer (length min: 1 pg, dbl spaced; no specified max). The questions were generally of the type "compare this character to this character" or "is such-and-such a thing still relevent today", and the like.
I don't know where you're going, but, at least from my 1-course experience at Waterloo, you shouldn't need to worry too much about first-year english courses.
this year, I took ENGL108M: Youth and Adolescence (which, incidentally, I didn't *have* to, but I wanted to, since it looked fun)
I found it pretty easy (then again, Waterloo isn't exactly known for it's English... so that might not speak for universities such as... say... York).
The course texts were short stories and poems (which were compiled in a course package), and several novels.
For assignments, we had 4 so-called "critical journals," in which we were presented a question that we had to answer (length min: 1 pg, dbl spaced; no specified max). The questions were generally of the type "compare this character to this character" or "is such-and-such a thing still relevent today", and the like.
I don't know where you're going, but, at least from my 1-course experience at Waterloo, you shouldn't need to worry too much about first-year english courses.
My: 411
"Police were not expected to take action against the father, blaming the incident on pure stupidity, against which there is currently no law"
"Police were not expected to take action against the father, blaming the incident on pure stupidity, against which there is currently no law"
#3
- Member
-
- Group: Friends of Soompi
- Posts: 329
- Joined: 08-August 07
Posted 12 August 2007 - 08:07 AM
I took two courses of first-year English (not the same one, two different ones ^^) because it's a part of the requirements for my BA. The second one I took was pretty interesting, it was just reading through a bunch of articles from several different Canadian writers and filling out the worksheets she gave us, and having a discussion afterwards on it. There were also two essays we had to do, the first one she gave us a choice between 3 questions we had to answer, and the second essay was completely up to us, but we had to submit a 1-2 page explanation of what we wanted to write about that she would give an OK for before we began writing. Plus, there were about 4-5 quizzes an 2-3 major exams. The good thing about this course was we had our exam on the last day of classes. It was a LOT of work (I mean 6-8 hours of homework a week), but if you went through the trouble of working through the worksheets, it wasn't hard to get good marks.
The first one I took though, was terrible. It was a poetry/short stories course. It wasn't so much that the topics he covered weren't interesting, it was just that...we NEVER got feedback for what we submitted in. We had about 2 essays and 2 exams for the whole course. I had NO idea what my mark was for ANY of them. Without any feedback, I wasn't even sure if I was doing it RIGHT or WRONG. I couldn't figure out his style, what he looks for in papers, etc. I was just basically shooting into the dark hoping I didn't miss the mark. He kept running into "family troubles" or "injuring his hand" that the marks for those assignments kept on pushing back until the last day of classes he told us he wouldn't have them done by the time the final exam came around. When I found out my mark...yeah, I missed the mark in the dark. By a long shot.
The first one I took though, was terrible. It was a poetry/short stories course. It wasn't so much that the topics he covered weren't interesting, it was just that...we NEVER got feedback for what we submitted in. We had about 2 essays and 2 exams for the whole course. I had NO idea what my mark was for ANY of them. Without any feedback, I wasn't even sure if I was doing it RIGHT or WRONG. I couldn't figure out his style, what he looks for in papers, etc. I was just basically shooting into the dark hoping I didn't miss the mark. He kept running into "family troubles" or "injuring his hand" that the marks for those assignments kept on pushing back until the last day of classes he told us he wouldn't have them done by the time the final exam came around. When I found out my mark...yeah, I missed the mark in the dark. By a long shot.
Oceansportrait's Shop
LAST UPDATED: Sept 20 (FRI)
Up for SALE: Japanese Manga, J-pop, Snoopy goods, Jewelery, and More!
LAST UPDATED: Sept 20 (FRI)
Up for SALE: Japanese Manga, J-pop, Snoopy goods, Jewelery, and More!
#4
- Love makes me strong.
-
- Group: Friends of Soompi
- Posts: 1,708
- Joined: 05-October 05
Posted 12 August 2007 - 08:40 AM
For the previous school year, I took two English courses in the first semester. One was English 102, which is the highest level class of English for those who aren't English majors. The lecturer happened to be a science fiction writer and the theme for the class happened to be 'what makes us human' so most of our writing and reading assignments dealt with this topic. It was an okay class since it had a lot of tough readings that had a lot of scientific terms.
I preferred my second English class, which also had a similar theme to the first class. Except we did very thorough reading about medical stuff, like doctor's mistakes, uncommon diseases, and AIDS. Reading about those were pretty interesting and the class came to be more understanding about doctors and medical issues.
I preferred my second English class, which also had a similar theme to the first class. Except we did very thorough reading about medical stuff, like doctor's mistakes, uncommon diseases, and AIDS. Reading about those were pretty interesting and the class came to be more understanding about doctors and medical issues.
novemberbaby86.livejournal.com
#5
- Member
-
- Group: Friends of Soompi
- Posts: 8,992
- Joined: 05-October 05
Posted 12 August 2007 - 09:47 PM
My ENG100 class was extremely easy...but my other friends had it a little harder. It really just depends on your professor. I thought it was a ton easier than my senior english class in high school.
#6
- Member
-
- Group: Members
- Posts: 94
- Joined: 21-February 07
Posted 16 August 2007 - 01:06 PM
I am entering my second year this fall and I am planning to major in English and minor in philosophy.
It really varies between the courses because the professors are completely different. As of right now, I successfully completed one first year English course, and a second year English course (one of the requirements for becoming an English major). Then for the upcoming school year, I will be taking a total of four of them (two are part of the second year requirements, while the other two are being taken because one benefits my future career, while the other one is taken for my own personal interest).
Obviously, English is all about writing. All the assignments, mid-terms and finals I have written were based on essays (especially the one I took this summer because it was based on improving your writing skills (the course consisted of a mid-term, nine quizzes, one huge essay (take it as a final) and seven assignments)). Whereas for my first year English course, we were required to read nine novels on our own and have lectures based on the history of the books and so forth.
As for what you are expected to know before you start the course, it depends on your University. At my University, on the first day, the professors will hand out papers including information about the textbooks you need and what you need to study. Therefore, there isn't much to do, other than to prepare for a lot of writing, reading and discussions. The only word of advice that I can give you is to write whenever you feel like it =)
Believe me, you have to love to write in order to enjoy English. I don't mind writing much, despite the fact that there were times where I am completely fed up with a stupid essay. However, my friends have noticed that my writing skills are improving even more (how I am typing now is completely different when it comes to writing essays) - to the extent that they tell me that I don't need to write essays on their facebook (since I provide everything I wrote with evidence and I like to be formal).
Anyway, does your University offer a course book guide (where it provides you with a general idea about the course)? Or an anti-calendar (not too sure if other Universities have it, but it is a site where students are allowed to rank their professors and so forth)?
Other than that, best of luck! =)
It really varies between the courses because the professors are completely different. As of right now, I successfully completed one first year English course, and a second year English course (one of the requirements for becoming an English major). Then for the upcoming school year, I will be taking a total of four of them (two are part of the second year requirements, while the other two are being taken because one benefits my future career, while the other one is taken for my own personal interest).
Obviously, English is all about writing. All the assignments, mid-terms and finals I have written were based on essays (especially the one I took this summer because it was based on improving your writing skills (the course consisted of a mid-term, nine quizzes, one huge essay (take it as a final) and seven assignments)). Whereas for my first year English course, we were required to read nine novels on our own and have lectures based on the history of the books and so forth.
As for what you are expected to know before you start the course, it depends on your University. At my University, on the first day, the professors will hand out papers including information about the textbooks you need and what you need to study. Therefore, there isn't much to do, other than to prepare for a lot of writing, reading and discussions. The only word of advice that I can give you is to write whenever you feel like it =)
Believe me, you have to love to write in order to enjoy English. I don't mind writing much, despite the fact that there were times where I am completely fed up with a stupid essay. However, my friends have noticed that my writing skills are improving even more (how I am typing now is completely different when it comes to writing essays) - to the extent that they tell me that I don't need to write essays on their facebook (since I provide everything I wrote with evidence and I like to be formal).
Anyway, does your University offer a course book guide (where it provides you with a general idea about the course)? Or an anti-calendar (not too sure if other Universities have it, but it is a site where students are allowed to rank their professors and so forth)?
Other than that, best of luck! =)
Share this topic:
Page 1 of 1
