Syllabus
Introduction to Language and Composition is a general education requirement course that must be completed by all ISU students. This course serves as an introduction to writing in the academy. The focus of this section of 101 will be composing identity with the use of observation and research. With each unit, students will identify various groups for definition, observation, and research: a generation paper, an observation paper, an ethnography, and an underground magazine. The second half of the semester will be devoted to revising these papers for a specific audience and forum.
Course Goals
Writers in EN101 will demonstrate their ability to
- Develop Strategies for Critical Inquiry
- Apply the rhetorical principles governing the effective presentation
of ideas in
writing to a range of audiences for a range of purposes. - Follow the principles and employ the rules pertinent to the effective arrangement of ideas in writing.
- Critically read various kinds of texts.
- Incorporate what they have learned from reading into their own thinking and writing.
- Develop abilities to write collaboratively
- Be able to understand the relationship between language and learning.
(for a more comprehensive explanation of these goals, consult the Course Guide, pages 10-12)
Approved Texts
The Mercury Reader
Course Guide for English 101: Language and Composition I
Required Work
The Final Portfolio
The portfolio represents all of the work you have completed throughout the semester in EN101, so it counts as 100% of your final grade. This porfolio includes discovery drafts, notes, research, peer review comments you wrote regarding the papers written by your classmates, essay summaries and responses, the practice University writing examination, paper reflections, graded process drafts, four revised portfolio drafts, disc copies of your work, and a final portfolio reflection.
Writing Reflections
With each unit, writers will turn in a reflection on the process they went through while writing each unit paper. These reflections should be approximately 2 pages in lenght and include a "grade suggestion and a defense of that grade."
Peer Review
In addition to being responsible for their own progress in the course, writers are expected to respond to the papers produced by their classmates, offering constructive criticism, appropriate and specific praise, and suggestions for improvements.
Essay Summary and Response
Throughout the semester, writers will summarize and respond to essays in the course text, The Mercury Reader.
Group Work
Writers will demonstrate their ability to work and write collaboratively by completing a variety of group projects and mini-papers throughout each unit.