Welcome to ENGL 1301 - Composition I

This course is an introductory writing course that focuses on helping students become familiar with multiple modes for college essay writing. By examining the technical skills needed to build strong academic papers, you will develop as critical thinkers and build foundational communication skills that will help you excel not only in future English courses, but in many other courses as well. In addition to the goals of Composition I, you will also increase your awareness of your own thinking and learning processes, and focus and grow those learning processes.

Students should plan on logging into the course and completing work or reviewing current assignments every day. You should also plan to focus on and complete each assignment by its due date in order to keep up with the course's pace. Please be aware that you will use both HCISD Canvas and TSC Canvas to retrieve and submit most coursework. 

If at any point you have questions about the assignments or other course content, you should contact your instructor by email (Nancy.Castro@hcisd.org or Nancy.Castro@tsc.edu) or visit my classroom (#2104). As an alternative, you may contact me through Canvas Inbox or come in during office hours.

*NOTICE: As a dual enrollment course, students will receive a grade for their high school English credit and a separate grade for their college English credit. Please be aware that Texas Southmost College utilizes several grading categories to figure your college average for the entire semester, while your quarter grades with HCISD will be comprised of the following 2 categories: Assignments (75%) & Tests/Projects (25%). Therefore, your high school grade and your college grade may not always match. 

Course Objectives:

This course is designed to address the following student learning outcomes and Core Objectives:

Student Learning Outcomes

• • 1. 1. Demonstrate knowledge of individual and collaborative writing processes.

       2. Develop ideas with appropriate support and attribution.

       3. Write in a style appropriate to audience and purpose.

       4. Read, reflect, and respond critically to a variety of texts.

       5. Use Edited American English in academic essays. 

THECB Core Objectives: 

• Critical Thinking Skills (CT)

• Communication Skills (COM)

• Teamwork (TW) 

• Personal Responsibility (PR) 

Course Structure:

This course is organized into weekly units. Each weekly unit contains required readings, lectures, assignments, and essays, as well as collaborative activities. In addition, each weekly unit addresses specific objectives that can be found on the weekly "Assignments and Overview" pages. Students should review these objectives closely before beginning work for each unit.

Required Materials:

• School-issued electronic device

• 3-subject spiral notebook 

• Wired earbuds

• Pens/pencils

• Highlighters

OER Textbook Information:

This course does not utilize a traditional printed textbook. Instead, all reading assignments in the course will be available to you free, completely online.

Readings for this course come from two Open Educational Resource (OER) online textbooks, linked with attribution and license information below.

Lumen Learning's College Writing

• Oaks, Susan. College Writing, Lumen Learning, 2019, oercommons.org/courses/college-writing/view

• OER available through the Lumen Learning organization, as part of the Simple Books series. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Press Books' Let's Get Writing!

• Bolan, Kathy, Elizabeth Browning, Katelyn Burton, Kirsten Devries, and Jenifer Kurtz. “Chapter 5—Rhetorical Modes.” Let’s Get Writing!, Pressbooks, 2018, oercommons.org/courses/let-s-get-writing/view

• Licensed under a Creative Commons Noncommercial Share-Alike 4.0 International License.