LSU English Composition

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Will Makeit, May 28, 2005.

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  1. Will Makeit

    Will Makeit New Member

    Is anyone doing this one to fulfil the Excelsior College English Composition requirement?

    COURSE BOOK
    Where can one find the English Composition book requried for the course? I tried searching for it using its ISBN but could not locate it anywhere.

    PROCTOR
    Besides other universities, what other institutions can be valid as proctors?
     
  2. cdhale

    cdhale Member

    My wife is taking some courses with LSU. Since we also live in Europe, perhaps we have a few of the same issues to deal with...

    She doesn't need this course, so I can't help much with the book.

    As to proctor, she uses a lecturer from the Estonian Music Academy. This is a degree granting institution, so would be considered along the lines of university, I suppose.

    However, librarians are considered acceptable proctors, as well.

    If you have any ideas and just wonder if they are acceptable, then I suggest emailing LSU and asking them. They have always written back fairly quickly when we had a question.

    clint
     
  3. Will Makeit

    Will Makeit New Member

    Thanks. I will be in contact with you about anything relevant.
    I did contact LSU by email inquirying about the cost of the books but they just replied that they don't give that information, that I'd have to check with the bookstores.

    I will have to phone them to explain that it is impossible to find that book.

    I am concerned about the proctors because all the American universities that I know of close in summer here and I really did want to do this (hopefully final) course during the summer.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 30, 2005
  4. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Have you searched for the book at www.amazon.com or www.bookfinder.com ? How about just outright telling us the author & title of said book and maybe someone here will have a copy to sell you?
     
  5. Will Makeit

    Will Makeit New Member

    I don't mind buying it new, but I just couldn't find it anywhere. I think it's a sort of self-published book:

    Mary Lou Cutrera. English Composition 1001. New York: McGraw Hill/Primis, 1997. ISBN: 0-390-67351-X
     
  6. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Ah! The course book was written by the professor herself.
    Living here at these addresses
    http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1128
    http://forums.degreeinfo.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19529
    are a couple of discussions on where to buy your books.
     
  7. anthonym

    anthonym New Member

    My wife took that course. The ISBN in the course guide was wrong and we had to search by author and title at Amazon or Half.com (I can't remember which). If I can find the book, I'll post the correct ISBN.
     
  8. cdhale

    cdhale Member

    Here are some thoughts on this teacher. According to this page she is a fairly difficult grader and teacher. I wouldn't know, having never taken her for a course.

    Maybe you should look at BYU.

    clint
     
  9. Stanislav

    Stanislav Well-Known Member

    My wife ordered the book from LSU bookstore online (there are two bookstores that sell texts for LSU courses; they are listed in the bulletin).

    From the grades she gets for fairly reasonable essays, though, I would avoid this instructor if at all possible. Have you thought about ECE exam?
     
  10. Will Makeit

    Will Makeit New Member

    Thanks for all this.
    As far as the LSU course and the difficult instructor versus the Excelsior test, since my writing is quite rusty and since the Excelsior exam costs practically the same (if not more) than the LSU course, I had thought it would be a good idea to take the course so as to get more practice and not risk all the money in a one shot exam...but now I don't know...

    Didn't enrolling for the Excelsior exam also include some online practice help or something? I will have to re-investigate this.
     
  11. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    Have you checked out the DL offerings of Adams State College (www.extstudies.adams.edu/ind_study/iscourses.html) in lovely Alamosa, Colorado? They offer ENG 101: Communication Arts I at a cost of $285 for a three credit course. The textbooks are: Diane Hacker, _A Writer's Reference_,5th edn., and Alffred Rosa and Paul Eschholz, Models for Writers_, 7th edn.
     
  12. Will Makeit

    Will Makeit New Member

    Thanks. I will have to start checking this and other courses.
    Excelsior can sum up to almost $500 when adding all the required textbooks etc.
     
  13. Will Makeit

    Will Makeit New Member

  14. james_lankford

    james_lankford New Member

    Here is a composition course excelsior will accept that has no exams and therefore no proctor

    http://coned.colostate-pueblo.edu/indstdy/eng/eng101.asp

    the only thing with this course is that you have to prove you're not a complete English idiot before you enroll

    they asked me to take something called an Accuplacer sentence skills exam. This is a free computer based standardized placement exam that is offered at a number of colleges in the US.

    I went to New York University, the department of Continuing Education, sat down in front of a computer, answered a bunch of multiple choice questions, like

    The boy kicked the ball.

    If this sentence were rewritten, and kept its original meaning, what would be the last LETTER in the new sentence?

    I thought 'The ball was kicked by the boy' so Y

    lots of easy questions like that. Then my scored appeared on the screen, I had the administrator fax my score to Colorado State University-Pueblo and that was it.
     
  15. Will Makeit

    Will Makeit New Member

    James, Hi actually I had contacted Pueblo a few days ago and they replied:

    quote
    Hello. There are no exams for the course. However, you must show where
    you've taken a lower level English course (098 or 099), or submit recent
    ACT/SAT scores (from within last 5 years), or take an Accuplacer exam
    prior to registering for the course. You may submit transcripts to me
    or contact our Student Academic Services office for information on
    taking the Accuplacer at 719-549-2756.

    Tuition is the same regardless of residency.
    unquote

    But since I'm, in Europe i don't think I have access to the Accuplacer easily and the ACT/SAT would probably require a proctor too so...
     
  16. BeateTXL

    BeateTXL New Member

    Hi Will,

    Should you decide to take the class BYU offers, you might be interested to know that you can take exams at your local LDS Institute of Religion.
    I don't know if they proctor exams for other colleges.

    I wrote one final exam here at the local institute in Berlin, Germany, and they were very helpful and nice, as well as familiar with the procedures. I am not LDS, and that was no problem. Proctoring was free, but I did pay for the return postage (naturally).

    Apparently there are three (?) institutes in Madrid, you can search here.

    Good luck!
    Beate
     

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