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+--- Thread: English Comp (/Thread-English-Comp--29586)
English Comp - TexasTink - 05-30-2018
What course in English/College Comp would you recommend for someone basically starting from scratch? I have no knowledge on APA/MLA formatting and very little experience writing papers of any kind. I don't hate writing, but as a perfectionist, I prefer to be able to take my time and really think through things and rewrite as much as necessary. I had wanted to take the CLEP so I could get it all over quickly. But upon more research, it seems to be eerily similar to the essay portion of my SAT which I have bad memories of and didn't score well on. After thinking it through, it seems like it would be good to get some practice in writing, especially before I take some upper level courses, so going through courses instead of CLEP would be better. Are there English courses y'all would recommend or ones to definitely avoid? Thanks!!
RE: English Comp - quigongene - 05-30-2018
CLEP w/o Essay for Comp I
DSST Advanced English for Comp II
Both multiple choice
I seem to remember DSST Technical Writing being mentioned as a replacement for Comp II, but no idea if that panned out for TESU. Also multiple guess.
RE: English Comp - dfrecore - 05-30-2018
(05-30-2018, 08:36 PM)quigongene Wrote: I seem to remember DSST Technical Writing being mentioned as a replacement for Comp II, but no idea if that panned out for TESU. Also multiple guess.
They said it won't work.
(05-30-2018, 08:33 PM)TexasTink Wrote: What course in English/College Comp would you recommend for someone basically starting from scratch? ...I prefer to be able to take my time and really think through things and rewrite as much as necessary. After thinking it through, it seems like it would be good to get some practice in writing, especially before I take some upper level courses, so going through courses instead of CLEP would be better. Are there English courses y'all would recommend or ones to definitely avoid? Thanks!!
Definitely courses at your local CC would be good. I found it to be helpful to have that knowledge under my belt.
I think SL's English Comp I & II would fit the bill if you want something cheaper, although as someone on here stated, doing the teacher-led course rather than the cheaper version would be more helpful - you can actually interact with the instructor, and it's the instructor who grades your papers. With the normal version, you submit your paper online, and then a random grader gets ahold of it, and sends it back. He/she may not be great at the job, as there have been complaints here over the years.
I don't know what Study.com's English Comp I & II courses are like.
RE: English Comp - leland.kirk - 05-30-2018
Just to chime in: Study.com's Comp. I and Comp. II are both easy enough. Take the quizzes over to get a 100 average on that, take a practice final, and do as well as you can on the final. Then the grades on the writing assignments won't matter so much. Just have to get them submitted. The quizzes will also help drill format into your head if needed. Oh, and take Library Science first if you have time. Exceptionally easy course that works toward your progress on both the composition courses, and it's actually pretty informative as far as finding information from library databases. I believe that part also goes towards Intro to Computing progress, at least the boolean logic and database parts
RE: English Comp - a2jc4life - 05-31-2018
I haven't taken the Study.com ones, but my guess (based on other Study.com courses) is that they may not be the ideal option if you don't feel confident and want to really *learn* the material. In that case, I'd recommend Straighterline (definitely the teacher-led version -- I've been having those grading issues dfrecore mentioned) or even Modern States. Modern States is designed to prep you for the CLEP exams, so that may or may not fit your goals in terms of getting the credits, but it's free and self-paced.
I also definitely recommend checking out the OWL Purdue site for formatting. It's much easier than trying to muddle through the APA or MLA reference texts or figure it out on your own. It's considered pretty reliable, even though it isn't "official." All of my professors have pointed students to it as a reference. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/?_ga=2.19623804.558179429.1522454400-1709346682.1522454400
RE: English Comp - dfrecore - 05-31-2018
The other thing to keep in mind - when I was doing my capstone, in one section it said to use MLA, in another, to use APA. I asked the instructor, and he said he didn't care as long as I chose one and was consistent throughout the paper. Then, I used MS Word to do my paper, and told it that I was doing an APA formatted paper, and it formatted it for me. I mean, a little guy didn't come out and do anything, but it did stuff in the correct format.
Also, you don't have to memorize the formatting - you can look it up while you're writing a paper. So there's not a lot of pressure to "get it right" from that perspective.
Like some on here have said, you could take the easy way out and test out. That's what I personally did, because I'm a pretty good writer already. But if you actually want to try to become a better writer, then I suggest either taking a course, or using SL. The test-out method will not help you become a better writer for sure.
RE: English Comp - TexasTink - 05-31-2018
Thanks y'all! CLEP/DSST is out for the moment anyways as I'm having a hard time finding something easy to get to that is still open. CC is out as there appears to only be one in my city, I seem to have missed the summer classes deadline, and they charge $111 per credit hour so it just makes more sense to do something like SL or Study.
I'm planning on doing a lot of classes through Study and am on my last month of the Guardian, so I'm leaning towards their courses. I also liked that I could see the syllabus and what the writing assignment options were. The topics didn't seem too bad - at least for Comp1. I can't seem to find that info on SL. Am I missing it somewhere? It doesn't seem like the SL English comp classes have a proctored final, so that's definitely intriguing. Any last minute reasons I should go with one over the other?
RE: English Comp - a2jc4life - 05-31-2018
I didn't take SL's English Comp I, but I'm just finishing up Comp II, and I posted the assignments the other day. Let me see if I can find that again.
https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-Straighterline-English-Composition-II-Review?page=3