Texts

Trimbur, John.  The Call to Write.  Brief, 2^nd Edition.  New York: Longman, 2002. 

Additional readings will be from the weob, or made available on the class website.  You will be asked to bring in readings of your choice to the course at various times. 

Course Material can also be accessed via Blackboard: http://blackboard.ndsu.nodak.edu

Description

This course is a writing intensive course that takes as its top priority helping students make the transition from high school writing tasks to university-level reading and writing tasks.  This course is not a remedial course, and assumes that students will have good, basic reading and writing skills. You will be asked to do some writing that isn’t especially complex, but those writing assignments will be used to help you reflect on the writing process, issues of audience, situation, genre, and voice. 

One of the keys to producing good writing is understanding the topic you are writing about.  This course is going to give you an opportunity to work extensively with topics and issues having to do with music.  The first half of the course will ask you to review music for a variety of audiences, then move towards increasingly academic analyses of music or music-related topics.  In the second half of the course, you will be asked to write with music—to use music in power point presentation, in a video, or in a website—as a means of exploring what it means to write in a digital age.

General Education Outcomes

English 110, Composition I, has been approved for the Communications category in general education in the North Dakota University System.  Students in this course will be asked to meet two General Education Outcomes:

Students should learn to communicate effectively in a variety of contexts and genres (GE Outcome #1).  English 110 will emphasize the transition from reading and writing everyday and high school genres to reading and writing university-level genres.  In order to achieve this outcome, students will

1. read a variety of genres of writing that have been produced for various audiences (especially genres that are used in everyday life and in academic settings) and develop an understanding of generic conventions within the context of audience and purpose. 
2. write in a variety of genres for various audiences and purposes (e.g. writing for family and friends, writing for peers, writing for instructors, writing for a more general academic audience)
3. practice effective and efficient writing strategies, including generating, developing, and focusing ideas, sharing drafts of writing with peers and the instructor, revising and editing for clarity, consistency, and correctness.  

Students should also understand that effective communication can only be defined within the context and situation of reading and writing tasks. 

Students should learn to integrate knowledge and ideas in a coherent and meaningful manner (GE Outcome #6).  English 110 will emphasize doing library and web research, and then successfully integrating that research into one’s own writing, as an important part of learning and communicating in university courses. In order to achieve this outcome, students will:

1. respond to others’ writing by identifying the ideas, motives, and effects writers employ (including thesis statements, claims, and evidence when appropriate)
2. locate basic library and online resources and incorporate information from those resources into their own writing, documenting them appropriately for their audience and situation

The English department content goal for this course

Students should come to understand that literacy is a complex social-cognitive act.  Reading and writing are not only fundamental skills for success in school and life, but they are skills that are flexible, varied, and require life-long practice and development.  In order to achieve this content goal, students will be asked to:

1. Reflect on, and do research on, the meaning of "literacy."
2. Reflect on the work they have done in the course as a means of reflecting on their development of increasingly specialized and sophisticated literacy skills. 

The bottom line 

*      Students will be given practice writing for a variety of audiences, utilizing appropriate genres and styles.  Students must be able to demonstrate basic proficiency with at least two genres in order to pass the course (typically "C" work); students who can produce excellent work in all genres and writing situations will be producing "A" work. (General Education Outcome #1)

*      In order to write effectively for a variety of audiences and genres, students will need to be able to integrate information in a coherent and meaningful fashion.  In order to meet this outcomes, students will need to demonstrate this ability to integrate information in at least two assignments, and they will need to understand how to use appropriate search engines, understand the use of databases on the web, understand the value of library resources and services.  Essays that are well researched and integrate the research effectively will be considered "A" work; essays that show only minimal research and limited integration will be considered "C" work.  (General Education Outcome #6)

*     Students will need to be able to show their understanding of the complexity of reading and writing tasks not only by performing well on assignments, but by showing insight into the concept of literacy via informal reflections and research into the topic of "new literacy."   Students who produce good work, and can effectively reflect on their work and the concept of literacy, will have a very good opportunity to earn an "A" in the course.  Students who can produce good work but who don’t show insight into their own writing or the concept of literacy will likely earn a grade lower than A. 

*      Based on six years at NDSU, I can tell you that I average five "A" students per semester in 110 (as few as 2, as many as 7).  I can also tell you that hard work—especially willingness to revise—will give almost all of you a chance to earn at least a "B" in the course: I average twelve "B"s for 110.  I typically end up with 5 "C" grades in this course, and only students who do not complete the course, or do not complete all of the assignments, get Ds and Fs. 

*     We will talk about grading criteria and expectations with every assignment.  If you are ever unclear about my expectations for an assignment or the class as a whole (and this sometimes happens!), please talk to me.  One of the best things you can learn to do as a writer is talk to your audience and try to understand what he/she/they would like to see in your writing.