Course Objectives

Course Rationale and Strategy: 

Writing helps you discover, collect, evaluate, and express your own thoughts; moreover, writing can also be a pleasant pastime. In this course we will focus on the process and product of your writing. You will work on collecting, shaping, and expressing your thoughts in writing for a specific audience; thus, we will examine organizational tools for good writing, strategies for controlling grammatical errors, and conventions in academic writing. Furthermore, to be a good writer one must learn to read critically. We will read challenging texts and learn to engage in their critical discourses through writing and discussion. This format requires a student-centered rather than lecture-driven course; thus, I expect each of you to share intellectual responsibility for the class with your colleagues and myself. Assignments vary from class to class, but our emphasis is expository and argumentative writing and reading skills, allowing you to practice writing and reading about college-level topics. 

Course Objectives:

This course addresses the following outcomes.

Campus Learning Outcomes (CLOs)

Campus outcomes are the following:

1. Fluency in reading, writing, and oral communication; mastery of the basic principles of logical, mathematical, and scientific reasoning; literacy in information resources and learning technologies.

2. Mastery of the core concepts, principles, and methods in arts and humanities, the social sciences, cultural and historical studies, and the mathematical, physical, and life sciences.

3. Logical analysis and synthesis of information and ideas from multiple perspectives; critical acquisition, integration, and application of knowledge in students’ intellectual, personal, professional, and community lives.

4. Valuing the diversity of human experience, as exemplified in race, ethnicity, social class, language, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, or disabilities; understanding how these categories are often used to create injustice; recognizing our common human heritage and the interconnectedness of communities in the region, the nation, and the world.

5. The application of the principles of ethics and governance to the larger society, one’s immediate community, and to individual conduct on campus and in society.

Course Outcomes

At the end of this course, students will be able to

1. Use processes of brainstorming, drafting, revising, and editing to compose original essays that generate and communicate personal and intellectual discoveries; (CLO 1)

2. Write for different audiences and purposes; (CLO 1 and 3)

3. Use active reading skills to analyze and interpret texts; (CLO 3)

4. Collaborate with colleagues to create and to improve essays; (CLO 1)

5. Produce college-level essays that are characterized by organization, support, appropriate word choice, and standard usage. (CLO 1)