Welcome to Coalescence, a course in academic writing for upper-level students of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). This is a unique course. It presents grammar and composition skills using the social justice themes of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

An integrated approach

This is an academic writing course for language learners. But it’s really a lot more than that. This course starts to bring together the various pieces of writing: vocabulary– grammar, composition, and mechanics — with meaningful content. That means that you won’t study these things in isolation. Instead, you will learn about these tools and strategies and then practice using them in your writing. You will see how they come together to form a whole.

And that’s why it’s called Coalescence.

“coalescence: (noun)  /koʊ ə ˈlɛ səns/  the joining or merging of elements to form one mass or whole” — Oxford Languages

A central theme

As you complete each essay, you will research and write about a variety of topics found in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. You’ll define important concepts, explain cause-and-effect surrounding important issues, and discuss the implications of recognizing — and denying — social justice for all.  By the end of this course, you will have the necessary skills and confidence to write interesting academic essays with clear grammar and an effective structure.

To reach this goal, you will practice these four sets of skills:

• Grammar – You probably already know some things about verb tenses and dependent clauses, so now you’ll build on that to make sure that you feel comfortable using these parts of speech in your writing.
• Composition -You probably already have an idea of what makes a basic essay, so now you’ll continue to strengthen your skills within that common structure so that you feel comfortable moving above and beyond that structure to the next level. Specifically, you’ll practice definition, cause-and-effect, and discussion strategies.
• Vocabulary – You probably already know many words, but now you’ll continue to study academic vocabulary in order to make your writing clear, concise, compelling, and complete.

This course will ask you to try many different things, but by the end of the term, those different things will coalesce — they will come together into one stronger way of writing.