Hi, I am going to be an incoming sophomore at Humboldt State University and I was wondering if there were any Freshman Composition (english) classes online that are accredited and transferable to my institution. Does anyone know an affordable school? I looked at CVC.edu but a lot of the classes have started and I was looking for something with rolling classes, but anything works.
Hi - You might want to look at these courses offered by Louisiana State University. They are relatively inexpensive, can start anytime and the credits should transfer without any problem. http://www.is.lsu.edu/courselist.asp?level=CO&online=0&nid=102
Humboldt will grant credit for ENGL 100 for a pass (with essay) on either of the English Composition of Freshman College Composition CLEP exams. http://www.humboldt.edu/~ves/documents/CLEP.pdf
For the CLEP, what would one have to know? Also, I was looking for a school more around the $100-125 range. How hard would it be to pass one of these classes?
The CLEPs are easy (some are harder but English is easy). If you passed high school english you should pass. Practice writing a 5 paragraph essay and you will be fine.
True. However, if you know that writing is not your strength, it may be a better idea to actually take a good composition class rather than testing out. I'm just throwing this out here because there are so many students, including grad student, who just can't write a decent paper. A good composition class is a great foundation for strong academic writing.
I would say I am okay at writing. I did get A's in English in high school, but I not very good at writing. Under pressure I think I would have perhaps C level work. Is it a credit, no credit arrangement?
I would say I am okay at writing. I did get A's in English in high school, but I not very good at writing. Under pressure I think I would have perhaps C level work. Is it a credit, no credit arrangement? I see that HSU also accepts the Excelsior College® Examinations is that any different than the other?
It kinda same! CLEP is cheaper. " English Composition Description of the Examination The English Composition examination assesses writing skills taught in most first-year college composition courses and, in particular, skills for college assignments requiring writing that explains, interprets, analyzes, presents, or supports a point of view. The examination does not cover some topics included in many first-year college writing courses, nor does it require knowledge of grammatical terms. However, the student will need to apply the principles and conventions expected of academic writing discourse. Two versions of the test are offered. One is all multiple-choice, and the other is multiple-choice with an essay. In both versions, some of the multiple-choice questions are pretest questions that will not be scored. The multiple-choice version contains approximately 90 questions to be answered in 90 minutes. The version with the essay has two separately timed sections. Section I contains approximately 50 questions to be answered in 45 minutes. Section II is comprised of one essay question to be answered in 45 minutes. In either version, any time candidates spend on tutorials or providing personal information is in addition to the actual testing time. The essay is scored by college faculty who teach writing courses. Each essay is read and assigned a rating by two scorers; the sum of the two ratings is weighted and then combined with the candidate's multiple-choice score. The resulting combined score is reported as a scaled score between 20 and 80. Separate scores are not reported for the multiple-choice and essay sections. Policies of colleges differ with regard to their acceptance of the two versions of the English Composition examination. Some grant credit only for the version with essay; others grant credit for either version. Many colleges grant six semester hours (or the equivalent) of credit toward satisfying a liberal arts or distribution requirement in English; others grant six credit hours for a specific first-year composition or English course that emphasizes expository writing. Knowledge and Skills Required The multiple-choice questions measure students' writing skills both at the sentence level and within the context of passages. The current examination in English Composition places a greater emphasis on revising work in progress than did previous forms of the test. The examination is designed so that average students who have completed the general education requirement in English composition can usually answer about half of the questions correctly. Skills at the Sentence Level The examination measures the candidate's knowledge of a variety of logical, structural, and grammatical relationships within a sentence; these skills are tested by approximately 55 percent of the all-multiple-choice version and 30 percent of the multiple-choice questions in the version with essay. Questions test recognition of standard written English relating to * Sentence boundaries * Clarity of expression * Agreement: subject-verb; verb tense; pronoun reference, shift, number * Active/passive voice * Diction and idiom * Syntax: parallelism, coordination, subordination, dangling modifiers * Sentence variety The following kinds of question format assess sentence-level skills throughout the test: Identifying Sentence Errors—This type of question appears in both versions of the exam. It requires the candidate to identify wording that violates the standard conventions of written discourse. Improving Sentences—This type of question appears in both versions. It requires the candidate to choose the phrase, clause, or sentence that best conveys the intended meaning of the sentence. Restructuring Sentences—This type of question appears only in the all-multiple-choice version. The candidate is given a sentence to reword in order to change emphasis or improve clarity. He or she then must choose from five options the phrase that would most likely appear in the new sentence. Skills in Context Questions in approximately 45 percent of the all-multiple-choice version and 20 percent of the version with essay measure recognition of the following in the context of works in progress or of published prose. * Main idea, thesis * Organization of ideas in the paragraph or essay * Relevance of evidence, sufficiency of detail, levels of specificity * Audience and purpose (effect on style, tone, language, or argument) * Logic of argument (inductive, deductive reasoning) * Coherence within and between paragraphs * Rhetorical emphasis, effect * Sustaining tense or point of view * Sentence combining, sentence variety The following kinds of questions measure writing skills in context: Revising Work in Progress—This type of question appears in both versions of the exam. The candidate identifies ways to improve an early draft of an essay. Analyzing Writing—Two prose passages written in very different modes appear only in the all-multiple-choice version. The candidate answers questions about each passage and about the strategies used by the author of each passage. The Essay This section comprises 50 percent of the version with essay. The candidate is expected to present a point of view in response to a topic and to support it with a logical argument and appropriate evidence. The essay must be typed on the computer. Scoring the Essay Shortly after each administration of the CLEP English Composition with Essay examination, college English faculty from throughout the country score the essays. Each essay is scored independently by two different readers, and the two scores are then combined. This score is weighted approximately equally with the score from the multiple-choice section, then combined with it to yield the reported score for the test. The college English teachers who score the essay expect that the writer has a command of English grammar and sentence structure and can use words precisely; they also expect that the essay will be organized, the ideas will be presented logically, and the examples will be pertinent. These qualitative descriptions are linked to a 6-point rubric, or scoring guide. Each reader awards an essay a score on a scale of 1 to 6; the sum of the two independent scores ranges from 2 to 12. In addition, a score of zero is given to off-topic essays and blank responses; this score can be assigned only by the Scoring Leader (a faculty member who is a scoring expert)."
