Mar 19, 2024  
2017-2018 Course Catalog 
    
2017-2018 Course Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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ENGL 0900 - Foundations of College Writing

Credits: 5
Hours/Week: Lecture 5Lab None
Course Description: This composition course emphasizes foundational principles of writing, including focus, development, organization, clarity, unity, and coherence in paragraphs and brief essays. Students will practice writing as a process; thinking critically about language, especially sentences, in context; and generating documents that are understandable for audiences, including how to identify and correct common errors. Emphasis will be placed on increasing written fluency and responding to texts. Instructor-supervised use of the Writing Center, equivalent to one credit, is required for students enrolled in ENGL 0900 sections meeting fewer than five hours per week.
MnTC Goals
None

Prerequisite(s): Assessment score placement into RDNG 0900  or above.
Corequisite(s): None
Recommendation: None

Major Content
  1. Engaging with college-level texts
    1. Reading as a writer
    2. Evaluating claims in a text
    3. Evaluating strategies of support
    4. Explaining organizational structure
    5. Writing in response
  2. Paragraphs
    1. Creating unified paragraphs
    2. Developing paragraphs
    3. Creating coherence within paragraphs
    4. Creating varied and correct sentences
  3. Essays
    1. Responding to varied assignments
    2. Focus / Thesis
    3. Support / Development
    4. Basic structure (beginning, middle, end)
  4. Integration of source material
    1. Navigating print culture to understand and use information
    2. Distinguishing student¿s words from others¿ words
    3. Avoiding plagiarism
    4. Avoiding excessive quotation
  5. Success Strategies
    1. Practicing interpreting assignments
    2. Using campus support such as Writing Center, ESOL Center, Reading and Student Success Center, tutors, office hours, counseling/advising
    3. Developing effective academic habits
  6. Basic Rhetoric
    1. Using purpose and audience to guide writing choices
    2. Contrasting oral culture and academic discourse
    3. Basic responsibilities of an academic writer
    4. Foundational writing skills
    5. Working with different types of academic questions
  7. Writing Process(es)
    1. Invention
    2. Drafting
    3. Revision
      1. Meeting conventions of academic discourse
      2. Identifying the kinds of feedback writers need
      3. Providing constructive criticism to other writers
      4. Using feedback from others to revise
    4. Editing/Proofreading
      1. Language choices
      2. Grammar and usage
      3. Correct and varied sentences
      4. Conventions
      5. Major marks of punctuation
      6. Missing words
      7. Misused words
      8. Incorrect verb forms
    5. Final formatting

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this course students will be able to:

  1. apply rhetorical principles, such as purpose, audience, and style.
  2. develop organized, coherent and unified paragraphs in the context of essays.
  3. employ a writing process to create essays in response to college-level assignments.
  4. employ proofreading skills to identify and correct distracting sentence-level and word-level errors in their own writing.
  5. engage in academic discourse.
  6. reflect critically on personal development of writing and editing skills.
  7. respond to a range of academic questions, including reflective, analytical, synthetic, and evaluative questions.
  8. suggest revision strategies to address obvious content problems in a draft.
  9. write clear, correct, effective, and varied sentences in paragraphs and essays.
  10. write in response to texts they read, including college-level texts, without plagiarism or excessive quotation.
  11. write purpose-driven essays for specific audiences.


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