Course Description

The course’s general aims are twofold: to strengthen students’ writing and to have them produce it at a functional level consistent with the university’s expectations.  The writing will primarily take the form of shorter individual responses to a wide variety of texts.  Core course elements are:

• an engaged reception of selected works
• an awareness of the varieties of English, their uses and significance
• an ability to produce writing appropriate to an academic context and readership.

This class will emphasize analytical/argumentative writing along with personal/experiential writing. There will be several required conferences.

There are weekly required readings, and students will be expected to respond to them in writing, primarily in the form of short in-class essays, both argumentative/analytical and personal/ experiential.

There will be three longer papers.  In addition, a selection of  drafts, revisions, and final papers must be resubmitted in the form of a final portfolio.

This course relies on a discussion-based format.

Required text:

• Course Reader