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Composition Program

All first-year students, regardless of major, are required to take Composition I, and many majors require the second-year ENGL 204  and II. It is a program designed to introduce first year students to academic writing and critical thinking.

ENGL 0101 - Composition I: Rhetoric and Inquiry
Credits: 4

A writing course taken fall or spring of students’ first year that introduces them to the practice of producing texts for different rhetorical occasions. Students use feedback from peers and instructor to strengthen techniques in three stages of the writing process-pre-writing, drafting, and revision-in order to compose rhetorically effective texts for multiple audiences. While summarizing and responding to a range of texts, students learn to situate an original argument within the framework of other speakers, to practice critical inquiry, and to understand conventions associated with a range of rhetorical genres. In addition to writing formally and informally throughout the semester, writers produce a final portfolio whereby they demonstrate, through a variety of projects, meta-cognitive reflection and their ability to incorporate other texts or speakers into their own writing.

ENGL 0204 - Composition II: Rhetoric and Research 
Credits: 3

A course that promotes critical inquiry that students elect or are required by their degree program to take fall or spring of their second year that builds upon the process-based, rhetorically-grounded foundation of ENGL 0101 and that further develops students’ abilities to write and read non-fiction texts. While students will be introduced to argument summary in Composition I, in Composition II, students will learn additional strategies to locate, analyze, and synthesize research in rhetorically effective, genre- or discipline-specific ways. Students complete a final portfolio whereby they demonstrate metacognitive reflection of the contents and present at least two projects with the genre- and/or discipline-specific documentation. All sections have a theme and/or are linked with a course from another discipline, so students should carefully examine options when choosing sections. 

Prerequisite: ENGL 0101. 

Comp 101 Goals and Objectives

1. Students will demonstrate an understanding of elements of the rhetorical situation by:

  • Engaging with and writing in a range of genres
  • Determining a purpose for writing, appealing to one's audience, and writing with an awareness of the expectations of the genre
  • Practicing strategies for appealing to audiences appropriate to purpose and genre
  • During peer review, offering suggestions for other writers to apply rhetorical tools, techniques, and approaches appropriate for a given genre, purpose and audience
  • Using metacognitive practices as a part of writing processes, culminating in a final reflective project

2. Throughout the semester, students will develop:

  • A process-based approach to writing, including giving feedback to peers and receiving feedback from both peers and instructor
  • Inquiry-based reading and writing skills through identifying purposes and generating research questions
  • An ability to summarize texts representing a variety of modalities, including visual, digital, written, aural, etc.
  • Strategies to find, evaluate, and incorporate sources appropriate to the rhetorical situation for which student is writing/speaking
  • Revision strategies that encourage deep revision, including re-examination of major claims and organizational strategies and critical thinking informed by peer and instructor feedback
  • Proofreading and editing strategies that attend to sentence-level features