Course Description
English 101 is an evidence-based, writing intensive course designed to improve critical thinking, reading, and writing skills by providing students practical guidance in writing short, focused, thesis-driven essays. Students progress from personal expressive writing to expository essays appropriate for an academic audience. The purpose of the course is to help students develop strategies for turning their experience, observations, and analyses into evidence suitable for writing in a variety of academic disciplines.
Course Objectives
Among the specific abilities students should learn in this course:
- To understand the rhetorical situation and the factors that influence writing
- To evaluate the assertions, evidence, and underlying assumptions of a written argument
- To use appropriate reading and writing tools for inquiry and informed communication
- To synthesize information from appropriate sources and integrate it within your own writing
- To plan and develop an essay through multiple drafts and improve your writing strategies
- To adopt appropriate voice, tone, and level of formality in your writing
- To provide constructive feedback and strengthen your writing through peer review and collaboration
- To edit documents for format, structure, grammar, punctuation, and spelling