Composition 1&2

Class Overview:

Composition I introduces students to the college-level writing process through the construction and revision of a series of expository and persuasive essays. Students may also produce other writing appropriate to the academic and working world. Through exposure to a variety of college-level readings, the students will build critical reading skills, and students will be expected to respond to assigned readings in a variety of ways. The course introduces library and computer-based research strategies. Students will write and revise at least 4 essays and produce a minimum of 20 pages.

Course Syllabus:

Comp 1 Competencies: 

1. Generate writing as an active process, using planning, drafting, revising, and editing

   1. Explore invention activities, such as brainstorming, listing, word-mapping, reading, freewriting, discussing, and journal writing

   2. Use planning and drafting techniques, such as outlining and freewriting

   3. Consider audience, purpose, and context

   4. Revise for clarity, coherence, and conciseness

   5. Use technology as appropriate given the task, assignment, and setting

2. Evaluate strategies and approaches for organizing content

   1. Write well-structured introduction, body, and conclusion paragraphs

   2. Organize essays using thesis statements and topic sentences

   3. Use paragraphs as an organizational method

   4. Incorporate effective transitional devices

   5. Integrate relevant, credible supporting details and evidence from source materials

   6. Incorporate quotations from source material

3. Examine college-level reading skills as an active part of the writing process

   1. Identify various genres of expository writing, including narrative, essay, and article

   2. Develop vocabulary, using relevant reference resources

   3. Examine various rhetorical and organizational methods

   4. Use effective reading techniques such as rereading, annotating, paraphrasing, and summarizing

   5. Analyze the content, expression, and context of verbal and/or visual texts

4. Synthesize research resources appropriate to the task and context

   1. Develop researching skills to locate credible sources, which may include interviews, observations, surveys, DMACC library resources, library databases, and other web resources

   2. Distinguish between credible and unreliable print or electronic sources

   3. Integrate research into writing when appropriate

   4. Acknowledge ownership of ideas when using source information

5. Integrate standard college-level documentation practices

   1. Understand definitions and consequences of plagiarism

   2. Identify reasons for documentation

   3. Distinguish between personal ideas and outside sources

   4. Develop summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting skills using primary and secondary sources

   5. Integrate sources effectively within the given context

   6. Document sources in MLA or APA formatting style

6. Adapt to the rules of Standard English grammar appropriate to context

   1. Use standard rules of grammar, punctuation, mechanics, and spelling

   2. Construct syntactically sound sentences using varied, appropriate vocabulary

Comp 2 Competencies: 

1. Apply college-level reading skills to academic and professional texts

   1. Read a variety of academic and professional texts, primarily non-fiction

   2. Develop vocabulary

   3. Identify language nuances, such as denotation, connotation, and figurative language

   4. Determine a text’s audience, purpose, thesis, and context

   5. Restate texts by summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting

2. Analyze rhetorical strategies found in academic and professional texts

   1. Determine how ideas, structures, or other textual features influence interpretation, including rhetorical situations and social, cultural, and historical contexts

   2. Examine how multiple perspectives can operate at the same time

   3. Distinguish between types of evidence, such as primary, secondary, quantitative, and qualitative

   4. Determine logical fallacies, bias, slanted language, discriminatory language, and propaganda

3. Integrate sources to support research-based projects

   1. Determine research objectives and schedule

   2. Locate primary and secondary sources via library databases, catalogs, Internet, and other resources

   3. Analyze the relevance and credibility of sources

   4. Illustrate claims using research sources

4. Argue in response to continuing dialogues within and beyond academic disciplines

   1. Recognize various points-of-view

   2. Integrate audience-based persuasion techniques

   3. Evaluate multi-cultural, social or global perspectives for diverse audiences

   4. Synthesize ideas from multiple sources to reframe in new contexts

5. Evaluate individual writing processes to produce college-level essays and projects

   1. Generate early drafting and revision strategies, including conference, workshop, or individual and peer feedback

   2. Compose clear, concise prose

   3. Construct syntactically sound sentences using varied, appropriate vocabulary

   4. Use standard rules of grammar, punctuation, mechanics, and spelling

6. Integrate standard college-level documentation practices

   1. Understand definitions and consequences of plagiarism

   2. Identify reasons for documentation

   3. Distinguish between personal ideas and outside sources

   4. Integrate sources effectively within the given context

   5. Document sources using MLA or APA style