Composition I
Activities
Students who score 18-36 on the ACT or 74-100 on the COMPASS exam are placed in Composition I. Students whose test scores do not meet these requirements are placed in Basic Writing (ENGL 032) and Composition I (ENGL 101) concurrently. In Basic Writing, students focus on grammar and usage, puncutation, and paragraph development. In Composition I, student writers produce eighteen pages of finished text written on various subjects. Students draft, revise, and edit expository essays in a variety of rhetorical modes, such as description, definition, comparison and contrast, analogies, examples and illustrations, texts relating to or examining cause and effect, classification and division, evaluation, and argumentation. The rhetorical strategies will be determined by the instructor.
The final paper in Composition I is timed and written in a classroom—the Common Final (fall semester). All students taking Composition I respond to a writing prompt presented to them on that day; however, students are provided several sources (articles, statistics, on-line sources) prior to the final. Writers are expected to examine these sources and use them to strengthen their texts. This argumentative essay launches the composition student into their second composition course (ENGL-201).
Learning Objectives
Composition I has ten basic learning objectives. Students who successfully complete the course will learn to:
- understand Standard American English (according to SDBOR)
- engage in critical thinking and reading
- write within varied rhetorical strategies
- implement invention strategies to generate prose
- engage in an individual writing process by drafting, revising, and editing prose
- implement academic format and style for academic papers in MLA or APA, as specified by the professor
- find, evaluate, and incorporate academic research ethically and accurately
- communicate with concision and precision
- learn the expectations of the community of academic writers
- contend with new and diverse perspectives in a thoughtful, sophisticated manner
While Composition I courses are founded on common objectives, students will encounter diverse perspectives and ideas in the various classrooms. The Humanities department shares in the Higher Learning Commission’s view that “[i]ndividual and group differences add richness to teaching and learning and also challenge them. People become more aware of their differences and similarities in a variety of ways, including through the processes of discovery and exploration, interaction, collaboration, and partnering1.” The diverse topics and concepts introduced in the classrooms also prepare students in writing for audience members’ diverse experiences.
Goals
Composition I prepares students for Composition II. It enables students to produce acceptable academic papers. Composition I increases the student’s awareness of audience and the writing process.
Course Description
“Practice in the skills, research, and documentation needed for the [sic] effective academic writing. Analysis of a variety of academic and non-academic texts, rhetorical structures, critical thinking, and audience will be included” (BHSU Academic Catalog).
1“Commission Statement on Diversity.” Higher Learning Commission. Chicago, HLC, 2003.
Composition II
Activities
In Composition II (ENGL 201), writers learn more about attending to logical relations (coherence), building arguments, supporting claims, questioning assumptions, and recognizing logical fallacies. Throughout the semester, students will draft, revise, and edit their work with the final goal of producing twenty-five pages of finished text. In this course writers are taught to employ critical thinking and intellectual engagement crucial to all fields.
Learning Objectives
Composition II has seven basic learning objectives. Students who successfully complete the course will learn to:
- analyze persuasive and other academic texts to understand and engage in the process of argumentation
- analyze the rhetorical nature of academic texts, including rhetoric, structure, context, audience analysis, and syntax
- respond to complex arguments to strengthen critical reading and analytical skills
- implement academic format and style for academic papers in MLA or APA, as specified by the professor
- find, evaluate, and incorporate scholarly research ethically and accurately
- produce scholarly, persuasive texts for academic purposes
- contend with new and diverse perspectives in a thoughtful, sophisticated manner
Students learn that discourse consists of many conversations, and that they are expected to enter into the discussion. Writers develop claims and counterclaims and assemble the support required. Overall, students work toward communicating ideas in a convincing manner, in an ethical way, and with confidence.
Goals
Composition II prepares the student writer for academic research and the argumentative process foundational to a variety of disciplines. Upon completing ENGL-201, writers produce thoroughly argued and better organized texts. Writers improve their skills in finding, evaluating, and incorporating the research of others into their texts, and in the process become adept at citation. The successful completion of Composition II enables individuals to produce quality academic papers.
Like Composition I, this course is founded on common objectives but students will encounter diverse perspectives and ideas in the various classrooms. The Humanities department shares in the Higher Learning Commission’s view that “[i]ndividual and group differences add richness to teaching and learning and also challenge them. People become more aware of their differences and similarities in a variety of ways, including through the processes of discovery and exploration, interaction, collaboration, and partnering1.” The diverse topics and concepts introduced in the classrooms also prepare students in writing for audience members’ diverse experiences.
Course Description
“Study of and practice in writing persuasive prose, with the aim to improve writing skills in all disciplines” (BHSU Academic Catalog).
1“Commission Statement on Diversity.” Higher Learning Commission. Chicago, HLC, 2003.
Textbooks
Assigned textbooks vary at the discretion of the instructor. However, the required handbook for all ENGL 101 and 201 sections is the latest edition of A Pocket Style Manual by Diane Hacker and Nancy Sommers.
