ENGL 0095 Essentials of Writing II: Effective Essays

Description

Essentials of Writing II: Effective Essays introduces outlining, thesis statements, introductions and conclusions, transitions, direct and indirect discourse, awareness of audience, and levels of formality. Students write brief essays to demonstrate an understanding of these basic skills.

Credits

2

Prerequisite

ENGL 0090 or placement by multiple measures

Topics to be Covered

1. Rhetorical Awareness

2. Process

3. Focus/Structure/Organization

4. Development and Support

5. Critical Thinking

6. Clarity & Conventions

Learning Outcomes

1. Begin to demonstrate how writing can change based on the rhetorical situation.

2. College-ready students understand that rhetoric is more than simply crafting arguments. Rhetoric involves understanding the most effective approach to writing in any given specific situation. This may include, but is not limited to • Adapting voice, tone, format, genre, and vocabulary for specific audiences and contexts;

3. • Writing for a range of purposes that may include writing to narrate, inform, summarize, or argue.

4. Employ a writing process involving invention, drafting, revision, and editing.

5. College-ready writing students understand that writing is rarely, if ever, a task that can be completed all at once; they understand that writing is a process. This process is not linear and is individually determined by the writer. Feedback is essential during all stages of the writing process. These stages may include, but are not limited to • Recognizing the importance of time to develop ideas and improve writing quality; • Receiving and responding to feedback from a variety of sources, which may include instructors, tutors, and peers;

6. • Adapting the writing process for varying contexts, which may include multi-modal formats to reflect the needs of an increasingly digitally literate society.

7. Create texts that demonstrate a fundamental awareness of coherence and unity by using strategies such as purposeful organization.

8. Organization in writing refers to the way in which the parts of a text create a coherent, unified whole. College-ready writing students understand that organizational and structural considerations are driven by the rhetorical situation, audience, and overall focus of the whole text. These considerations may include, but are not limited to • Analyzing the role of an individual paragraph within a larger text; • Writing focused and developed paragraphs, both stand-alone as well as part of multiparagraph assignments; • Organizing paragraphs to support a text’s main idea;

9. • Aiding reader comprehension by employing effective transitions

10. Demonstrate an ability to present focused ideas in writing and sustain them through relevant and specific evidence and explanations.

11. College-ready students understand that developing a text involves identifying and expanding on a controlling idea so that the idea is thoroughly explained and supported. This may include, but is not limited to • Creating a controlling idea based on the rhetorical context;

12. • Developing and supporting the controlling idea with examples or other types of evidence; Explaining how the selected evidence supports the controlling idea and overall purpose of the text.

13. Revise and edit texts to make them comprehensible for specific audiences and writing contexts

14. College-ready students are able to identify and apply the grammatical conventions of a particular rhetorical situation. These may include • Writing clear, effective, and varied sentences; • Revising content for accuracy and effectiveness individually and in collaboration with others; • Revising and editing for grammar and mechanics, including the conventions of Standard American English, independently and in response to feedback;

15. • Revising and editing to control tone, style, voice, and word choice.

Credit Details

Lecture: 2

Lab: 0

OJT: 0