Introduction

This document contains a rationale for the curriculum in Sello C, Advanced Composition at ITESM, Campus Querétaro.  This course has been offered in its present form from August to December in both 2004 and 2005.  This document contains all the information in the outline above and is intended to serve two purposes.  First, I hope to offer a complete rationale for the activities undertaken throughout the semester.  Specifically, this document is offered from a curricular perspective to "justify" all the activities, assignments, projects, tests minor and major, and essays formal and informal that are required of students to meet the requirements of this composition course. 

A second objective is equally important.  I wrote the Perfiles Para los Alumnos for Sello C, Advanced Composition for Campus Querétaro in the summer of 2001, and I would like to revisit those Perfiles to measure the successes I had hoped for when I wrote them.  Within the context of the Perfiles, this paper will analyze the rationale for all class activities, offer independent academic justification for some of the tasks, and present students' writing accomplishments to show how the course curriculum attempts to advance the goals stated in the Perfiles Para los Alumnos for Sello C, Advanced Composition.

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Description of Sello C, Advanced Composition in English in Querétaro

Sello C, Advanced Composition is the most advanced English course offered by the English Department at ITESM, Campus Queretaro.  Currently, Advanced Composition is open only to students who have already met their ITESM Institutional TOEFL requirement, which in most cases is 550.  Thus, because of the current English Department policies in Querétaro, Sello C is open only to first semester students, new students who have already met their 550 TOEFL scores upon enrollment at ITESM, Campus Querétaro.  Students who enter ITESM, Campus Querétaro with TOEFL scores of less than 550 are not eligible to take Sello C, Advanced Composition.

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Perfiles and the Sello C, Advanced Composition Curriculum

The Perfiles for Sello C, Advanced Composition students were established in the summer of 2001.  The Perfiles goals cover the broadest range of goals imaginable, goals from the mere "functional" level of knowing to the complex "higher order" skills of doing and being.  This section contains all the Perfiles complete, and for the sake of clarity throughout the paper, I will refer to these Perfiles as Lower Level, Mid-Level, and Higher Level Perfiles.

From the perspective of the Sello C, Advanced Composition curriculum, the first goal of Advanced Composition in English is to provide students with the ability to write academic essays for an English speaking academic audience.  This means that when students choose to study in a foreign university for a semester or a year before their graduation from the TEC, this writing course makes it possible for them to succeed in meeting their foreign writing requirements.  Or when students are called upon to use English writing skills in their careers or participate in conferences and workshops, both before and after graduation, this course helps students accomplish those writing objectives.  Or when after graduation students go to work for US companies or Mexican companies that conduct business with US companies or other foreign companies in English, this composition course provides an excellent foundation for those writing objectives as well.

Basically, however, these goals are the mere lower level and mid-level "functional" goals listed above.  Possibly, these goals could be accomplished in almost any English Composition classroom anywhere.  However, both the Sello C, Advanced Composition Perfiles and the goals defined in the ITESM Mission, Perfil de los Alumnos, Valores y Actitudes (in Spanish) indicate that ITESM wants more.  ITESM wants individuals fully aware of themselves in their surroundings and of their impact on those surroundings.  ITESM wants professionals conscious of their personal and professional activities and their influence on their communities.  In short, ITESM wants fully functioning, autonomous, conscious individuals, and although the behaviors leading to this level of development are hard to attain, students in Advanced English Composition are challenged to attain these higher level skills of doing and being, and I believe some do.  

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Philosophical Foundation

Before turning to the actual products that students produce during the semester, and before examining each partial and its contribution to accomplishing the above goals, I believe it would be helpful to examine the philosophical foundation upon which these goals are accomplished.  First, with regard to accomplishing the first two sets of goals, the utilitarian goals principally, I am guided most by George Hillocks, Jr., author of Research on Written Composition, published in 1986.  This seminal work involved a review of all research projects on writing prior to 1986, a search that originally yielded over 6,000 research projects.  Then through a screening process excluding "research dealing only with oral language and pieces which were essentially anecdotal, hortatory, historical, curricular, or literary," 4,000 titles were excluded leaving approximately 2,000 research articles which are now included in Hillocks' studies (xviii).  (The bibliography to his book alone is 103 pages!).

One aspect that Hillocks examines is the relationship between Instructional Effectiveness and Focus of Instruction including (1) grammar and mechanics, (2) sentence combining, (3) models, (4) scales, (5) free writing, (6) inquiry, and (7) all above combined.  In short, the Hillocks' study shows the Mean Effect of the Focus of Instruction, the higher the Mean Effect, the higher the Instructional Effectiveness:

Focus of Instruction	Mean Effect
Grammar and Mechanics Sentence Combining Models Scales Free Writing Inquiry All Above Combined	-.29  .35  .22  .36  .16  .56  .26
	(215)

Hillocks' research shows grammar and mechanics to have a negative effect, interestingly, and inquiry having the highest positive effect.  This is important information to consider when designing a composition course, and I will discuss sentence combining, models, scales, free writing, and inquiry when examining each partial and its activities.

My philosophical foundation for the third set of goals, the part in which students are challenged to become fully functioning autonomous individuals, conscious individuals, is influenced by Marie Wirsing, my graduate school Philosophy of Education professor, who writes of awakening students to their surroundings:

A key method (of arousing consciousness within individuals) is intellectual confrontation, wherein the teacher attempts to stir up his students by focusing attention on ethical problems in which they have a personal stake.  At every opportunity, the teacher seeks to expose students to disturbing, incompatible, and uncomfortable ideas.  In other words, he deliberately tries to foment a constructive kind of mental anxiety, or disquietude--a learning atmosphere in which intellectual and emotional complacency is well-nigh impossible (55).

In other words, it is not possible for a student to remain "intellectually and emotionally complacent" and become a fully functioning autonomous individual, a conscious individual, at the same time.  For example, it is a difficult challenge for many students to support positions with which they disagree in writing, but they must.  Or beyond that, students must think about real and difficult problems similar to those they will face after graduation.  For example, Mexican cities and states face a variety of ethical issues, seemingly irreconcilable:  "Is it acceptable for a city or state to accept an industry that pollutes in order to provide employment for its citizens?"  "How much pollution (or unemployment) then is acceptable?"  Or, "Should communities embrace MacDonald's franchises and Walmart superstores even though small local businesses and the culture of the community will be negatively affected?"  These are real problems with no easy solutions, and students must become aware of their choices and their consequences.  I will discuss this aspect of the course when examining each partial and its activities.

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Product

In one semester, almost all Sello C, Advanced Composition students write from 8,000 to 10,000 words.  Most students say they have never written so much English in their lives.  Students write many different types of essays for different purposes and audiences for Sello C, Advanced Composition.   

The first product of this composition is a series of formal, academic essays of increasing complexity, these essays all by a single student:  Self Introduction,  Giving Instructions, Cause/Effect, Comparison/Contrast, and an Inquiry Paper, the essays all linked from the student's Main Page.  This student earned a final grade of 100, not only for the essays above, but also for many other informal essays.

The five formal, academic essays represented above (self introduction not included) comprise about one-third of the total writing that occurs in the Sello C, Advanced Composition class.  The other two-thirds of the writing is made up of (1) impromptu, in-class responses to print documents for each Partial Exam, (2) formal responses to movies after each Partial Exam, and finally (3) free writing forum responses to each other about all these essays.  Examples of these other essay types will be shown in the following sections of this paper within the context of fulfilling the ITESM Mission in the Perfil de los Alumnos, Valores y Actitudes.

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Technical Aspect of Writing 8,000 to 10,000 Words

Almost all students write between 8,000 to 10,000 words during the semester.  According to Alice Trupe, author of Academic Literacy in a Wired World:  Redefining Genres for College Writing Courses, the quantity of words is important for it "(1) gives the writer more confidence in his ability to write, (2) shows the student's awareness of the conventions of the discourse community he is attempting to join, and (3) permits the writer to 'outgrow' production errors because the student feels invested in the writing process."  This is consistent with my own study  of Sello C, Advanced Composition students' grades which shows a .78 correlation between a student's (1) final grade and (2) the number of words he/she writes during the semester.

The technical aspect of writing 8,000 to 10,000 words in one semester is accomplished in a computer lab where classes are held every class period, essentially making the Sello C, Advanced Composition class a "writing workshop," which is the goal.  Computers are equipped with internet connections and Microsoft Word including both spell check and grammar check in English.  Most of the writing itself is done in the online learning platform, Moodle, a Course Management System (CMS) designed for a social constructionist pedagogy, a program I host in my own website.  (Parenthetically, It must be said in passing that Moodle saves every word that each student writes in a single file readily available to each student at any time during the semester, the single file also including every teacher response and grade.)

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Writing for an Audience

Studies show that "student motivation and achievement are enhanced when student work is 'published' for a larger audience than the teacher."  Therefore, all essays are in Sello C, Advanced Composition, are ultimately published for either class members or the world wide web audience.  Since most students in Sello C, Advanced Composition, are first semester students and come from many different schools throughout Querétaro, for example, their first published essays are self-introductions, and almost always, students have an interest in "meeting" their new classmates through reading their self-introductions.  Then later, students write their first formal, academic Giving Instructions essays such as this one followed by classmates' responses which do more to motivate students to higher levels of creative writing than a teacher's responses ever could.  While this essay wasn't one of my favorites, it was definitely a favorite among this students' classmates!  Note the responses to the essay in this thread go twelve deep!  Also, this brilliant creative response to the original essay is one of my favorites, a response obviously well-prepared, a response that would have never been written had the author not known he had an interested audience.  The interaction among students in this thread shows that what is said by J. Sealey says about peer editing is true, that writers "relate more immediately to peer models and having a live audience than they do to professional readings, which in turn helps them assume a reader's perspective as they write."  In Sello C, Advanced Composition, at ITESM Campus Querétaro, ALL students' essays are ultimately published essays.

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Activities Within Partials

In this section of the rationale for Sello C, Advanced Composition, I will examine activities within partials and then explain how they contribute to accomplishing the goals and objectives described above.  The principal activities that run through each partial are (1) essays, (2) sentence mechanics, and (3) issues.  First, I will focus on each of these activities in general as the common thread that runs through all the partials, and then I will discuss specific aspects of each as they vary within partials.  It's possible to say at this point that each of the activities contributes to the specific Perfiles listed previously (lower level mechanical to higher fully functioning conscious level), each in its own way.

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Essays - Global Aspects of Composition

This is an English Composition class, so students write several essays throughout the semester, each essay increasing in complexity as the semester progresses.  The order of the essays is as follows:  Autobiography, Giving Instructions, Cause or Effect, Comparison or Contrast, and the Inquiry Paper which contains support of an issue (pro), support of an issue (con), and an essay to persuade.

The first writing assignment, an autobiography, is a "free writing" exercise (Hillocks) occurring in the first week of class before much specific instruction about writing.  The single "mechanical" item I suggest that students be aware of and apply in their autobiographies is "time transitions" linking the various "stages" of their autobiographies, almost always in chronological order.  At this point, I only "strongly suggest" that students choose a stage or several stages in their lives to write about.  From the theoretical perspective, this is consistent with Hillocks' "model" concept, in this case of the use of time transitions in an autobiographical event, an authentic model available here with the time transitions highlighted in blue.

The second essay is a Giving Instructions essay which, like the first, is almost always in chronological order, almost always requiring the use of time transitions.  This is the first writing assignment in which I specify the exact format I require:  a five-paragraph essay (model:  see Hillocks).  My rationale for requiring five-paragraph essays rests on a strong theoretical foundation, too detailed to discuss in this space but available here (will open in new window).  My essay, Rationale for the Five Paragraph Essay, is the foundation upon which all writing in Sello C, Advanced Composition, occurs.

The organization of the third and fourth essays, Cause/Effect and Comparison/Contrast, is always exactly specified, always five paragraph, but increasing in complexity.  The comparison or contrast essay, for example, can be written using "block" or "point by point" organization, and students by this time can provide a rationale for using either one organizational scheme or the other.

Finally, the organization of the final essay, an Inquiry Paper, is built upon the essays written previously; however, the organization is much more detailed.  For example, the Inquiry Paper consists of essentially two papers, one in support of and the other in opposition to an issue, each requiring at least three online references hyperlinked from the text itself.  I always explain to the students that after reading both sides of their Inquiry Paper issue, I don't what to know what the student's real opinion is because each side has to be presented fairly.  Then, after presenting both sides equally, the student has the chance to state and defend his/her position on the issue he has chosen.

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Process

All the essays described above are the result of a "process" which is as follows:  First, before beginning any writing at all, students are given some time in class (10 minutes) to discuss their potential topics with a colleague.  Ten minutes isn't much time, but most students have a general "topic" or "theme," and this is usually enough to start them thinking more seriously about their own topics.  Then students are required to write a "rough draft" of each essay and bring it to class for "peer review."  Peer review is when students in either groups of two or three exchange papers and read and comment about each others' essays.  Students always have at least a week (except for the autobiography) to complete each formal, academic writing assignment.  Beginning with the Giving Instructions essay, I give students time in class to complete a Peer Review Questionnaire (PDF), each Peer Review specific to the genre being written at that time, the link above containing three separate peer review questionnaires, Giving Instructions, Cause/Effect, and Comparison/Contrast.

Rough drafts must be on paper, double spaced (for penciling in comments or corrections), and spell-checked in English.  Students are usually given the entire class period to complete the peer review.  Students at the beginning of the semester approach this task tentatively, usually wondering whether they are "answering the questions correctly."  However, by the end of the semester, students approach peer review as "seasoned professionals," and it is always interesting to see this transformation as it occurs within the classroom.  This is to say that peer review of others' essays is a literacy skill learned over time, so through experience, students learn both the purpose and the positive effects of a classmate's response.  Thus, by the end of the semester, students look like a team of professional writers during their peer review activities.

After students have read each others' papers, they give their comments to the authors of the papers so the authors can make revisions and corrections based on comments they receive.  Within a class period usually, students then upload their papers as RTF files into the online learning platform where I copy them, paste them into MS Word, and score them using the ESL Composition Profile rubric.  I always make many comments and corrections (macro generated in some instances), and then I email the "corrected" paper back to the student. 

Finally, students make corrections and/or revisions based on my formative assessment using the ESL Composition Profile rubric (PDF) and upload their essays into the public forums within the online learning platform.  The entire process, from invention to completion, allows for students to work both individually and collectively on their essays over a period of at least a week or two, and during this time, they can revisit and revise their essays many times based on both peer and teacher comments.  

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Scoring of Essays

The three types of writing assignments in Sello C, Advanced Composition, are scored differently.  The formal, academic writing essays such as those described above, the Giving Instructions, Cause/Effect, Comparison/Contrast are scored formatively using the ESL Composition Profile which measures (1) Content, (2) Organization, (3) Sentence Construction, (4) Voice, and (5) Mechanics + Proofreading = Finished Form.  The ESL Composition Profile is introduced to the students before they turn in their writing assignments.  Formative scoring means that comments and/or corrections are specifically indicated so students can see exactly where and how to "correct" or "revise" their essays to make them better.  Students are expected to correct and revise their papers after I score them.  (I tell my students "If I spend twenty minutes or more 'correcting' and 'interacting' with your paper, you had better spend at least that much time revising it before posting it online!")  The papers that students post online for their peers are the essays that count the most in this class, so I always check to see that students have corrected and revised their papers before posting them publicly. 

Other writing assignments are scored by the number of words written.  After students post their formal, academic essays listed above, another writing assignment is for students to read and respond to their classmates' essays, at least five responses to five different essays, for example.  If the assignment is for 1,000 words, 1,000 words is a 100%, 800 words is an 80%, etc.  I always include my own formal, academic essay in the forums and participate in the spontaneous discussions as well.  My rationale for scoring by the number of words written is to encourage free writing (see Hillocks), which is to present spontaneous responses in real communication and to negotiate meaning, but not necessarily to write perfectly organized and polished essays.

Other writing assignments are scored using the Test of Written English (TWE) Scoring Guide (PDF), the same rubric used by the English Testing Service (ETS) to score TWE essays written for the TOEFL.  Partial exams, which are timed in-class essays, are scored using this rubric.  The Test of Written English Scoring Guide is introduced to the students before they write their partial exams.  As stated previously, partial exams are timed, impromptu responses to an essay students have been given previously.  The TWE Scoring Guide is a summative assessment rubric consisting of a six point scale that measures rhetorical and syntactic levels of writing basically, a score of six indicating perfect fluency, a score of four indicating fluency sufficient for study in many foreign universities, and a score of three indicating fluency not sufficient for pursuit of a degree in a foreign university without accompanying English and/or writing studies.  

My objective in using the TWE Scoring Guide is to try to score these in class essays exactly as they would be scored if they had been sent to the ETS for scoring.  Scoring the exams summatively means I do not write comments or corrections on the papers; I only give each essay a score and return the essay and the scoring guide indicating the strongest or weakest point with a single check mark.  

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Contribution of Writing Essays Toward Accomplishing Perfiles Goals

At the beginning of this paper, I indicated several "goals" of this English Composition course ranging from the "lower level" mechanical goals to the "higher level" fully functioning autonomous individual goals.  The writing activities I have described above include formal, academic genres that go through several stages, timed impromptu essays written in class, and spontaneous responses to classmates' ideas and essays.  As a result, and without a doubt, Advanced Composition students not only understand how to write, for example, a "five paragraph contrast essay using point by point arrangement of details," but they can do it!  This is an excellent mechanical skill to master because it will serve as a foundation for all future writing, academic or recreational.

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Sentences and Local Aspects of Composition

After content and organization, which I call "global," I believe the most important aspect of writing in English is good sentence control, which I call "local."  I believe students' essays should contain good sentence variety, and for that to occur, students should be able to define the kinds of sentences they are writing, whether they be simple, compound, complex, etc.  Because this is a difficult skill for many students to learn and apply (possibly since students have never had to do it before), students are first introduced to Sentence Identification in stages along with practice quizzes one, two, and three (on which they can collaborate in class).  After that, students are tested on sentence identification repeatedly in both announced and unannounced quizzes.

Teaching and testing also occur in other "local" aspects of composition such as recognition and writing of Adjective Clauses, Appositives, Parallel Structure, and Topic Sentences, always including in class practice quizzes on which students can collaborate.  In addition, for students to realize the importance of sentence identification, the first and second partial exams contain test questions on sentence identification.  In addition, half the third partial exam consists of a take home section in which students write different examples of different sentence types from their own essays.  Since this section of the partial exam is a take home exam on which students have three days to work and collaborate (if they are wise), they can accomplish two objectives.  They can do well in the partial exam, and they can introduce good sentence variety into their own essays. 

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Contribution of Local Aspects of Composition Toward Accomplishing Perfiles Objectives

Writing effectively at the sentence level is second in importance only after content and organization, and while many students do not at first understand the importance of mastering sentence control, most do, and eventually, most students incorporate appositives and parallel structure into their own essays.  This is readily apparent in all the students' final, in-class essays (linked to below) or when another English teacher reads a student's essay and comments "Oh, I see you've taught appositives and parallel structure."  These situations occur frequently and they show that students can apply the course content to their own writing. 

At the beginning of this paper, I indicated the "goals" of this English Composition course:  first two different sets of "lower level" mechanical goals and then the "higher level" fully functioning autonomous individual goal.  Like the "local" activities that preceded these, explicit instruction is devoted to writing at the sentence level, so students should master these skills.  And by the end of the semester, students will not only understand simple, compound, and complex sentences, etc., but they will also be able to discuss them at the meta level, and most important, they will be able to write them in their own essays!  If students master no more during the semester than the mechanical skills of writing English compositions, they will have accomplished a lot.  To this point, however, it would not be possible to say that these mechanical goals contribute to the "higher level" fully functioning autonomous individual goal, which is also an ITESM System goal.  But it is to that goal which we now turn.

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Issues

The higher order skills ITESM Advanced Composition students should be able to accomplish are those that define the fully functioning autonomous individual, the conscious individual, fully aware of him/herself in his/her surroundings and of his/her impact on those surroundings.  According to the Perfiles of Sello C, Advanced Composition, and consistent with the skills defined in the ITESM Mission, students should be able to 

(1) ethically evaluate the validity of conflicting values, (2) respect others' unique cultural values, (3) respond appropriately to the cultural context in which they are placed, (4) distinguish between environmentally sound and unsound behaviors, (5) keep abreast of environmental concerns and development, (6) practice environmentally sound behaviors in their professional activities, (7) evaluate the impact of their professional activity on the community, (8) suggest strategies to ameliorate the negative impact, and (9) participate in civic activities as a response to the community.

Obviously, it would be impossible to achieve these goals without discussing some specific issues, so time in each partial is devoted to an examination of a variety of issues through which students are challenged to move beyond the mechanical goals discussed previously.  Through the examination of a variety of issues, an open, exploratory, and nurturing environment is created within which student can confront conflicting issues, discuss them, and become informed, active participants within their constantly changing environments.  With specific reference to Mexican students who are writing in their second language, I am guided theoretically by Delpit who says "Students should understand the power realities" (293), and that teachers should teach the "communicative codes of the powerful" including ways of writing (Delpit, by Villegas 23).  Only by adapting to the communicative codes of the powerful will writers strengthen their capacity to be heard. Perhaps through writing that meets the expectations of the US academic audience, non-native speakers of English can influence social, economic, and political developments to conform to their vision of a better world.  And that is perfectly consistent with the ITESM Mission statement and the Sello C, Advanced Composition Perfiles created in 2001.

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Response to Issues in Sello C, Advanced Composition

Specific activities within English Composition classes are devoted to examination of issues.  Obviously, the issues I am about to describe are issues I have chosen, and I fully recognize these issues are not necessarily the students' issues.  However, the following issues are interesting, contemporary issues, and they serve well to introduce students to some of the complexities involved.  For example, in the class periods following the first partial exam, students saw the documentary, 9/11, which captured the work of the firefighters within the World Trade Towers before they collapsed.  This documentary was special because it was non-political, filmed by two French brothers who were actually making a documentary about the training and development of a New York City firefighter.  By chance, they were filming firefighters at the time the first plane crashed into the first tower, which they captured on tape, the first plane into the first tower.  These firefighters made the first official report of the crash, and they were also the first crew into the first tower, and it was all filmed, much from inside the tower. 

The second partial exam in both 2004 and 2005 was based on two polemic articles, Writing for Peace and A Worker Talks to a Peasant, by Ngugi Wa Thiong'O, a Kenyan nationalist radically opposed to colonialism.  Although these essays were written about economic, political, and cultural exploitation of Kenya during the Ronald Reagan administration, students easily see parallels between then and now, and between Kenya and Mexico.  And while the author offers three hypothetical responses to the unequal relationship between the dominator and the dominated, some students came up with their own creative responses.  This is obviously an issue in which students offer their own analysis and offer their own solutions within some very engaging forum discussions.

Other issues consisted of responses to the films, Uncovered, the Whole Truth About the Iraq War, and Memory of the Camps, a documentary of the liberation of the Concentration Camps filmed in April 1945.

Throughout the semester, I try to provide at least three academic essays which students read before the partial exams.  In addition to the sentence identification part of the partial exams mentioned previously, students also write in-class impromptu essays about the articles they read.  That is, students have the exam essay which they can refer to during the partial exams, but I give students the specific question the day of the partial exam.  In addition, sometimes students then enter these essays or other extemporaneous essays into the public forums in Moodle, and most often the number of responses to each entry goes at least four or five or six deep.  I also try to provide polemic movies which students respond to in Moodle's public forums, again the responses averaging six or eight deep.  It is my sense that in each forum students engage the issue, whatever it is, each from their unique perspectives, and the result is a thorough exploration of at least several important issues throughout the semester.  

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Examination of Issue and Inquiry Paper During Partials Three and Four

The issue of the third and fourth partials differs from the first two in that each student chooses his/her own issue.  Obviously, students have their own issues which they are encouraged to explore thoroughly during the entire third partial.  All issues by definition have two sides, and in their investigation, students are required to research the internet ("inquire": see Hillocks) to find general web sites to support both sides of their issue, whatever it is.  To give an example, if capital punishment is the issue, appropriate general sites might be a principal site opposed to capital punishment such as the ACLU site or any human rights site.  On the other side, a principal site in support of capital punishment might be a site supported by police organizations or victims of crime, etc.  In general, these sites should be MAJOR sites that generally support or oppose the issue.  Then within these general sites, students look for specific pages to support specific arguments related to their issues.  

The final paper of the third partial is clearly the most ambitious paper students will accomplish in the Advanced Composition class in that it consists of several stages:  

The first stage of the Inquiry paper is the introduction followed by the controlling statement which is crucial to the success of the entire final paper.  The controlling statement enables (or forces) the student to limit the range of his/her issue and focus his/her research.  After students choose their general issue, they must write their title in the form of a question beginning with the word "should."  A typical example might be "Should laws against downloading copyrighted music from the internet be more vigorously enforced?"  In this case, the student would invent three YES and three NO reasons.  YES, the laws against downloading copyrighted music from the internet should be more vigorously enforced because 1, 2, and 3.  Then the student would answer the same question from the NO position.  The objective is not to get the student to choose his support on both sides all at once but to get the student thinking about support where he can begin his search.  During the research process, students are encouraged to go where the evidence takes them and use the best documentation they can find.

From another perspective, whatever issue a student choose to explore, he is almost always joining a debate that is already in progress, the issues of capital punishment and abortion being two common examples.  Most likely, a student will not find anything "new" or "revolutionary" about either of these common issues; however, writing an Inquiry Paper about either of these issues will allow the student to line up his arguments on both sides, propose his own solution, and thus reframe the issue ever so slightly into terms more advantageous to his own position.  With huge topics like capital punishment and abortion, a student's Inquiry Paper will not have much influence, but what if his topic is "Should Querétaro's government allow the construction of tall, modern buildings in the downtown area?"  There are plenty of reasons to support both sides of that question, and a well-placed essay in one of Querétaro's daily newspapers might have a lot of influence on that issue.

The second stage of the Inquiry Paper consists of analysis PRO and CON.  In this part, students search ("inquire": see Hillocks) the www to find specific web pages (not general web sites) to support specific issues on both sides of their issue.  Then, in their paper's documentation, students should create hyperlinks to specific text to support specific points on both sides of their issue.  Because students must support both sides of the issue equally and objectively in this part of the paper, the point I make is that after reading both sides of their issue, I do not want to have any idea of the student's real position.  If I do, the student has not treated his issue fairly and objectively.

Finally, the last stage of the Inquiry Paper consists of argumentation and conclusion.  This is where after all the analysis, the writer takes his/her position and supports it.  Because the writer/researcher has investigated and reported both sides of an issue fairly and objectively, whatever the position the writer finally adopts, the reader must respect it as an informed position, a conscious position.  It is here where the writer has some influence and has a wonderful opportunity to move the discussion forward, whatever it is, to his/her view of a "better world."  

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Contribution of Final Paper Toward Accomplishing Higher Order Order Objectives 

The obvious questions at this point are as follows:  Do the forum discussions about issues in the first two partials and the writing about issues in the third partial contribute toward students with the capacity to fulfill the objectives in the ITESM Mission?  Do students by the end of this course meet the Perfiles standards of Sello C Advanced Composition mentioned previously?  Can students

(1) ethically evaluate the validity of conflicting values, (2) respect others' unique cultural values, (3) respond appropriately to the cultural context in which they are placed, (4) distinguish between environmentally sound and unsound behaviors, (5) keep abreast of environmental concerns and development, (6) practice environmentally sound behaviors in their professional activities, (7) evaluate the impact of their professional activity on the community, (8) suggest strategies to ameliorate the negative impact, and (9) participate in civic activities as a response to the community.

My answer:  Possibly, they can and they do!  Obviously, the issues I introduce in the first and second partials affect many people right now, from extreme poverty to economic, political, and cultural domination of rich countries over poor countries, and the domination of the rich over the poor within countries.  These are major issues with no easy resolution, but students wrestle with these issues within the forum discussions as indicated earlier.  In addition, writing about the pros and cons of their own issues in their own Inquiry Papers pushes students toward becoming "conscious and aware, fully-functioning individuals."  Specifically, writing and fully supporting both sides of an issue requires students to "step outside" their normal perspectives.  Indeed, the act of writing itself permits students to read what they have written from an "observer's" perspective, which is to become conscious of an issue from another perspective.  I believe these are major steps toward accomplishing both the goals of the ITESM mission and the Perfiles of Sello C Advanced Composition students.

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Conclusion

In sum, I believe Sello C Advanced Composition in English is one of the most important courses ITESM students can take for several reasons, all stated and supported previously.  In Sello C, Advanced Composition, students can (1) become proficient in the mechanical aspects of writing, they can (2) develop a reason to write, and finally, through the sheer quantity of writing in this academic setting, students can (3) develop their own academic writing voice.  

I have seen the transformation that takes place within students who successfully accomplish all the objectives in this course.  In the first place, accomplishing even the "low level" mechanical skills of organizing five-paragraph essays, paragraphs, and sentences makes it possible for many students to go to the US or Europe or Canada for a year of studies, which they often do.  With the writing skills they gain in Sello C, Advanced Composition, students can succeed in any of their academic writing objectives which means when they go abroad to study, they can at least devote time to a new and exciting cultural experience rather than spend their time in a foreign remedial writing class.

Second, I believe students should become active participants in their own destinies, which by definition requires they engage the issues they face in their own worlds.  Throughout the semester, we examine several issues that I bring to the classroom, but these are obviously not necessarily the students' issues.  However, they could be, and they are relevant, at least to an extent.  By the time of the third partial, however, students are prepared to explore their own issue in depth.  When students analyze both sides of their own issue and subject it to academic scrutiny, they become a respected "authority" who can advance their own positions consistent with their view of a better world. 

Finally, students in Sello C, Advanced Composition publish their own views online for both peers and the world wide web audience.  It has already been established that writing for an audience is a motivating factor in the composition process.  In addition, through the mechanical skill of linking to online evidence to support their rationales, students develop the literacy skills required for success in today's world.

These are all compelling reasons why ITESM, Campus Querétaro, students should study Sello C Advanced Composition.  While writing in English is very hard work (or because writing in English is very hard work), students gain a lot through Advanced Composition in English.  Through their accomplishments in this class, many doors are opened, and many opportunities present themselves that otherwise would have not been possible.

Students' Essays

It would not be possible for me to end this paper without pointing to some excellent examples of writing by the Sello C, Advanced Composition class of August to December 2005.  First, I am very proud of all their final exams, impromptu essays written in class.  Even though these essays represent various levels of English proficiency, they all show writers actively engaged in accomplishing their immediate task, a timed final exam essay.  Of these essays, the author of Recapitulation says he came to like writing in Advanced Composition and the author of Learning English says at the end of his in-class essay

I understand the importance of structure but I think that this curse achieve to go farther than that. Is the first time in my life, and this is something the teacher can show off about, that I really don’t care how many words I write, I care about how much I like to write them. At last, I like to thanks Mr. phlurns, phlurnsy for the friends, not for teaching me English but for awake in me an interest in writing that I don’t know I had.

Obviously, it is not possible to point to all the excellent essays of Advanced Composition, but the single Inquiry Paper, Should Countries Make the Transition from the Actual Energy Resources to Nuclear Energy, best represents both the curricular goals of Sello C, Advanced Composition, and the goals advanced in the Perfil de los Alumnos, Valores, y Actitudes.

Finally, all Sello C, Advanced Composition students agreed unanimously and in writing to allow me to use their essays as examples of excellent writing in English.  Thank you very much! 

Erlyn Baack
December 11, 2005

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