English Composition
Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have
long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion
too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the
discussion had already begun long before any of them got there, so that no one
present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps that had gone before. You
listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the
argument; then you put in your oar. Someone answers; you answer him;
another comes to your defense; another aligns himself against you, to either the
embarrassment or gratification of your opponent, depending on the quality of
your ally's assistance. However, the discussion is interminable. The hour grows
late, and you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still
vigorously in progress.
-- Kenneth Burke The Philosophy of Literary Form (110-111)
Course Description
English 1A, a course in expository writing, aims to help students express
ideas and convey information in writing (1) with logical reasoning and
adequate factual support and (2) with clarity of purpose, organization,
and language. Beyond these fundamental concerns, the course encourages and
assists students to develop a degree of grace and style which will make
their writing not only clear and convincing, but interesting and readable.
The course also aims to help students analyze student and professional
writing, including writing which reflects cultural diversity.
This course focuses on all aspects of the writing process: pre-writing,
drafting, revising. Much of class time will be spent discussing, writing,
and working in small groups. This is a designated Hybrid course
with 3 hours per week classroom time and one hour per week online.
Aims of the Course
An important aim of the course is to give you guided practice in developing clear and coherent longer papers of various types, including those that narrate an autobiographical incident, report information, discuss issues, speculate about causes and effects, present arguments, solve problems, and interpret texts. As you work on these and other kinds of papers, you will develop several related areas:
-
your own "voice" in writing;
-
a repertoire of writing styles appropriate to your purpose, audience, and occasion for writing;
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your ability to compose sentences and paragraphs in a variety of syntactic patterns and with sufficient specific details;
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your skill in reading, analyzing, and assessing longer pieces of expository prose by professional writers and peers;
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your sensitivity to the impact of language on differing readers and listeners;
- your ability to use appropriate research methods and materials
efficiently, clearly, and effectively for all disciplines;
- your ability to analyze, assess and contribute to online sources.
We
will be using Mahara: writingwrocks.
- your skill in writing prose that conforms to the features of
standard written English.
Course Requirements
- Four in-class, timed essays (20%)
- Timed Writing (SAMPLE)
- Timed Writing (2 CRITICAL RESPONSES TO A TEXT)
- Timed Writing (REFLECTION)
- Three revised papers (30%): links activated when assigned
- Group web project (10%)
- Mahara Web Journal (30%):
consists of
summaries
and
responses to all readings for forum discussions; reading log, semi-weekly
progress reports and any other short homework assignments.
-
Annotated Bibliography (10%): Students will
research a topic of choice for the research project and construct an
annotated bibliography documenting and evaluating their findings,
using Janice Walker's
online MLA Style formating. The bibliography will be posted to
the web as part of the research project.