Learning Guide Unit 3

Overview

Unit 3: Generating Ideas for Essays

Introduction

Unit 3 will introduce strategies and guidelines for the prewriting process. You will learn about
brainstorming strategies and select a topic for your essay in the Learning Journal. You will also learn
how to avoid sentence fragments and how to correct them when they occur. You will read an article
on employee happiness, compare it with your own experience, and post your thoughts in an oral
presentation for the Discussion Forum assignment. You will also practice reading and listening
comprehension. Finally, you will determine your course progress with a Graded Quiz. Please preview
the reading assignments for this week before moving on to unit assignments. Each unit assignment
will offer specific instructions regarding readings and steps for completing the assignment.

Topics

Prewriting and brainstorming strategies

Selecting an essay topic for a compare/contrast essay

Avoiding sentence fragments

Building skills for comparing and contrasting

Vocabulary: Business and employment

Learning Objectives

By the end of this Unit, you will be able to:

Develop prewriting skills for a compare/contrast essay

Develop a compare/contrast argument

Use Correct sentence fragments

Use English vocabulary words related to business and employment

Vocabulary

In Unit 3, you will learn words that are related to business and employment. You will also read many
of these words in the article “Employee Happiness and Business Success are Linked” assigned for the
Unit 3 reading comprehension activity (as well as the Unit 3 Discussion Forum) and hear them in the
audio file “Employee Interview” assigned for the listening comprehension activity.
You should be continually reviewing vocabulary in preparation for the final exam. In addition, every
time you encounter a word you don’t know, you should add it to your personal vocabulary list. Make
sure to learn the words and review them regularly.

Watch: Unit 3 Vocabulary - Business and Employment

Learning vocabulary will help you as you continue the process of reading and writing. It is
recommended that you look up the definition for each word in a dictionary. Listen and repeat with
each word.

Alternative resources:

Unit 3 Vocabulary [Video Link]

Unit 3 Vocabulary [Audio]

Unit 3 Vocabulary List [PDF]

Unit 3 Vocabulary Flashcards [PDF]

Vocabulary Exercise 1

Based on the Vocabulary, complete the following activity.

Vocabulary Exercise 2

Based on the Vocabulary, complete the following activity.

Listening Comprehension:

In the audio file in the Reading Materials “Employee Interview,” a man is in a job interview in which
he is being asked several questions to determine what he assets he could bring to the position and
what he is looking for in a satisfying job opportunity. Listen to the file several times to get the full
meaning. Before you listen to the passage, you should review the definitions for the vocabulary
words in this unit. You should also listen to how the words in the vocabulary list are pronounced.

Listening: Employee Interview

Listen to the following audio, Employee Interview. Afterwards, complete the practice activity below
to test your knowledge.
Unit 3 Listening: Employee Interview [PDF]

Practice Activity

Test your knowledge by completing the questions related to the listening activity, Employee
Interview.

Reading Comprehension: Employee Happiness

The article “Employee Happiness and Business Success are Linked” describes research on job
satisfaction. You should read the article several times to attain the full meaning. This article is also
used in the Unit 3 Discussion Forum. You should complete this exercise before completing the
Discussion Forum assignment.

READ and TAKE NOTES on the following:

Employee Happiness and Business Success are Linked

Practice Activity

Based on the reading, Employee Happiness and Business Success are Linked, answer the following
questions.

Discussion Assignment

Read the article Employee Happiness and Business Success are Linked. For your discussion post, you
will respond to the questions provided in the instructions below and upload your oral comments on
the article using Kaltura. Your oral response should be a minimum of two minutes but no more than
three minutes.

Instructions

Read the article Employee Happiness and Business Success are Linked.

To help you understand the article:

Use some of the reading strategies provided in Unit 1: How to Read Academic Articles: Strategies for
English Learners.

Review the Vocabulary: Business and Employment.

Complete the Reading Comprehension Exercise

Think about and write some notes to the answers to the Discussion Forum questions.

What was the main idea that the writer was trying to express?

What do you think an ideal work environment is like?

How can businesses create good work environments?

Record your oral comments in Kaltura. For directions on how to use Kaltura, visit Technology: Kaltura
(uopeople.edu). Alternatively, you may use Loom (Technology: Loom Tutorial (uopeople.edu) or
ScreenPal (Technology: ScreenPal tutorial (uopeople.edu) to prepare a video and audio presentation
for this assignment. You also have the option of submitting an audio file only, for example you may
use VoiceThread (Technology: VoiceThread (uopeople.edu)) – or please upload an MP3 file that you
can record via a variety of options (Technology: Recording audio (MP3) - Other Options
(uopeople.edu)).

Rate and respond orally in two to three sentences to three of your peers’ postings.

Discussion Responses

It is your responsibility to respond to three classmates by providing comments, asking questions, or

having a conversation about their main post. Feedback should be appropriate, meaningful, and
helpful. For instance refer to how your own experience supports/contradicts the opinions developed
by your peers. If you think they are too general or not rooted enough in personal experience, you
may also ask for more detailed examples supporting these opinions. In particular make sure that the
examples provided are properly referenced and that you are able to access them. Overall, your
comments should contribute positively to the conversation by broadening or clarifying it. Feedback
should be at least 3-4 complete sentences (at least 100 words).

Rating Discussions

After posting an appropriate, meaningful, and helpful response to your three classmates, you must
rate their posts on a scale of 0 (unsatisfactory) to 10 (Excellent). The rating scores are anonymous;
therefore, do NOT mention in your remarks the separate rating score you will give the peer. The
instructor is the only person who knows which score matches the comment given to a peer. Some
classmates may worry that some peers will not provide a fair rating, or be unable to provide
accurate corrections for grammar or other errors. It is the instructor’s responsibility to ensure
fairness and accuracy.
10 (A) - Excellent, substantial, relevant, insightful, enriching, and stimulating contribution to the
discussion. Also, uses external resources to support position where required and/or applicable.

8 - 9 (B) - Good, quite substantial and insightful, but missing minor details which would have
otherwise characterized it as an excellent response.

6 - 7 (C) - Satisfactory insight and relevance, but required some more information and effort to have
warranted a better rating.

4 - 5 (D) - Limited insight and relevance of the material; more effort and reflection needed to have
warranted a satisfactory grading.

0 - 3 (F) - Unsatisfactory insight/relevance or failure to answer the question, reflecting a poor or

limited understanding of the subject matter and/or the guidelines of the question.

Here are some questions to consider as we think about the feedback and rating to give our
classmates:

Did the peer respond to everything asked by the assignment prompt?

Was the peer’s overall response organized and logical? Was it easy to follow and smooth?

Was it easy to understand the ideas the student was trying to communicate, or did you have to
make assumptions to make sense out of what the peer wrote?

Did the peer use their own words, or if they borrowed from somewhere else, did they give credit to
the source they used?

Were there consistent errors in grammar and punctuation that made it hard to understand or make
sense out of the writing?

Writing

Watch: Prewriting

Prewriting is the thinking and writing that you do before you begin an assignment to help you
generate ideas. Review Prewriting: Generating Ideas for Your Essay to learn how to better prepare
for writing. View the Prewriting presentation [PDF].

Watch: Correcting Sentence Fragments

A sentence fragment does not include the essential parts of a sentence and does not express a
complete thought. Review Sentences: Correcting Sentence Fragments to learn how to avoid using
sentence fragments. View the Correcting Sentence Fragments presentation [PDF].
Learning Journal

Review the presentation Prewriting: Generating Ideas for Your Essay. Use one or more of the
prewriting techniques in the presentation to identify the topic for the compare-contrast essay that
you will develop over the next few weeks. Address the question in the instructions below.

Your Learning Journal submission must have a minimum of 75 words.

The Learning Journal is also your opportunity to ask questions about any aspect of the course.

To do this:

Read the presentation on Prewriting – Generating Ideas for Your Essay.

Use one of the prewriting techniques to explore ideas for a compare/contrast essay topic.

In your Learning Journal, you will

write the topic that you selected for your essay, state what you plan to compare or contrast,

write the prewriting technique you used, and

describe how you used the technique to generate your ideas. You may choose to include your
prewriting or submit a picture of your mind map.Proofread your assignment for correctness.

Submit your Learning Journal.

Checklist

❏ Peer Assess the Written Assignment from Unit 2

Peer-assess the Written Assignment from Unit 2. Start by going to the previous unit to access the
peer-assessment. You will assess your peers' written assignments. When you assess their work, you
will answer the following and give them a grade between 1-10.

Is the submission a complete paragraph? Please write 1-2 sentences on how the submission does or
does not qualify as a paragraph.

Does the paragraph compare and contrast two different places? Please describe 1-2 comparisons or
contrasts made in the paragraph.

Does the paragraph have a topic sentence? If so, please identify the topic sentence.

Does the paragraph have a clear structure? Please write one sentence describing the structure of the
paragraph.

Did the student use full and complete sentences? Please point out any incomplete sentences and
suggest a way to correct them.
Are there any other spelling or grammar errors? Please note any frequent mistakes and suggest a
way to correct them.

❏ Review and Practice Using the Learning Guide Lessons

❏ Vocabulary

❏ Reading Comprehension

❏ Listening Comprehension

❏ Discussion Assignment

❏ Writing

❏ Learning Journal

❏ Complete and Submit Vocabulary Word Search

❏ Complete and Submit Dictation

❏ Complete and Submit the Discussion Assignment

Follow the directions for the Discussion Assignment as outlined in the Learning Guide

❏ Complete and Submit the Learning Journal

Follow the directions for the Learning Journal as outlined in the Learning Guide

❏ Complete and Submit the Self-Quiz

Self quizzes are to help you review the week's lesson and prepare for the graded quizzes. You make
take the self quiz as many times as you would like.

❏ Complete and Submit the Graded Quiz

The graded quiz contains 10 multiple choice and true/false (yes/no) questions worth 10 points each.
You have 30 minutes to take the quiz. You have 1 attempt.