Planning Your W1 Course

As you create your syllabus, refer to the following guidelines and the Writing 1 Checklist to ensure your course has all necessary components.

Student Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

#1: Practice effective writing processes, including planning, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading.

#2: Participate in collaborative groups with emphasis on listening, critical and reflective thinking, and responding to group members’ writing and ideas.

#3: Demonstrate rhetorical awareness of the audience, message, and purpose of various reading and writing situations.

#4: Write an organized, logical argument.

#5: Demonstrate information literacy by finding and evaluating sources for answering questions and solving problems, as well as using sources appropriately to support arguments, and citing sources appropriately.

#6: Develop a clear, grammatically correct writing style.

Assignment Possibilities

The Writing 1 course is designed around several anchor assignments: a literacy exploration assignment, a rhetorical situations or analysis assignment, a researched argument, and a cover letter to accompany the ePortfolio. Please click on the Anchor Assignments Explanation document to learn more about each anchor assignment. If you have an idea for another assignment that meets the objectives of a particular category, we invite your creative exploration. Please reach out to the Writing Program by emailing writingprogram@apu.edu to talk about an assignment idea that you don't see listed on the Anchor Assignments Explanation document.

Literacy

An essay analyzing the student’s own writing processes
A literacy narrative
A literacy timeline with written explanation
A letter to one of the student's ‘literacy sponsors’ explaining the impact he or she had on the student’s literacy

Writing in Community & Peer Workshopping

Assessment of the student’s writing groups’ successes and challenges
A letter recommending best practices to a future writing group
A process analysis on writing groups
Draft responses for other students and/or themselves
Written responses to the professor’s feedback

Writing Processes

A folder documenting the writing process (brainstorms, plans, drafts, research, etc.) leading up to each polished paper
A writing portfolio with all of the student’s work from the semester
A portfolio cover letter explaining the processes the student took in order to complete their project(s)

Argument

An original, thesis-driven Writing Studies-based researched argument that incorporates researched evidence as a means of support

Research

An individual or group presentation on a writing studies journal, on the student(s)’ primary or secondary research, or on another relevant topic
A research bundle
An annotated bibliography

Rhetorical Situations

Addressing the same topic in two different rhetorical situations
A written assessment about a discourse community of which the student is a part
An article written for a particular writing studies journal

Texts

Texts will fall under three categories. If you would like to utilize a text that is not listed below, please email Jill Hartwig.

1. Each course must center around a solid writing and rhetoric-focused text. Please select one of the following:

Writing Logically, Thinking Critically (Cooper & Patton, 2015)

They Say, I Say (Graff, et al., 2018)

The Bedford Handbook (Hacker & Sommers, 2016)

Writing in Action (Lunsford, 2014)

Pretexts for Writing (Allbaugh, 2018)

Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing (Losh, et al., 2017)

Everyone’s an Author (Lunsford, et al., 2016)

The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing (Axelrod & Cooper, 2019)

Praxis: A Brief Rhetoric (Clark, 2016)

The Argument Handbook (Peters, 2018)

2. The subject matter of the course will be writing-studies-based texts, which will serve as examples of good writing and as jumping off points for analysis, critical thought, response, and discussion.* Please select one of the following:

The Subject is Writing: Essays by Teachers and Students (Bishop & Strickland, 2006) [Note: if you are unsure which text book to choose, this is a solid starting place. Students love this approachable text book, which can be supplemented with scholarly articles in pdf format.]

Writing About Writing: A College Reader (Downs & Wardle, 2016)

Writing Without Teachers (Elbow, 1998)

The Essential Don Murray: Lessons From America’s Greatest Writing Teacher (Murray, 2009)

*Additionally, instructors may prefer to offer articles available through the library in .pdf format, such as the following:

“The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” (Alexie)

“From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technologies” (Baron)

“2009 CCCC Chair’s Address: The Wonder of Writing” (Bazerman)

“Sponsors of Literacy” (Brandt)

“Writing as a Mode of Learning” (Emig)

“Rhetorical Reading Strategies and the Construction of Meaning” (Haas & Flower)

“Helping Students Use Textual Sources Persuasively” (Kantz)

“The Student’s Experience of Reading” (Mann)