ENG 101: Composition I

Introduction

This course will employ a variety of writing and editing exercises to give you a fuller sense of the writing process. The lecture material is kept to a minimum. Most of your learning will result from reading assignments, class exercises, and writing tasks. Writing can be learned best by doing it, not just talking about it. There will probably be a high level of activity in regard to classroom postings and discussions. The instructor will answer your questions about the writing process as they arise. Knowledge comes from inquiry.

Description

UW Colleges Catalog Course Description for ENG 101 - Composition I - 3 credits. A composition course focusing on academic writing, the writing process, and critical reading. Emphasis will be on essays that incorporate readings. This course fulfills the UWC requirement for an Elective (EL).

Prerequisites: A grade of C or better in Basics of Composition (ENG 095, 097, or 098) or exemption through a sufficiently high placement assessment.

This online course involves writing academic essays, peer editing, and participation in weekly discussions based on assigned readings.

Proficiencies

Upon completion of this course, the student should be able to:

Rhetorical Knowledge

  • Audience
    • Understand formality and informality in academic writing
    • Adapt content, form, and style to the audience, purpose, and requirements of a college writing assignment
  • Rhetorical Situation and Purpose
    • Recognize different kinds of reading and writing situations
    • Recognize conventions of format and structure appropriate to different kinds of reading and writing situations
  • Form
    • Understand how disciplinary and generic conventions shape the form of a text
    • Read and understand different kinds of texts

Knowledge of Conventions

  • Apply conventions of standard written English and grammar, language usage, punctuation, word choice, and style, and recognize academic writing conventions
  • Identify and construct complete sentences and demonstrate an understanding of sentence boundaries
  • Use a signal phrase to introduce a summary, paraphrase, or quotation
  • Use parenthetical references to cite sources according to an established documentation style

Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing

  • Thinking
    • Use writing for inquiry, learning, thinking, and communicating
    • Begin to understand the relationships among language, knowledge, and power
    • Consider multiple perspectives and identify bias
  • Reading
    • Distinguish between fact and opinion
    • Identify multiple perspectives in a text
    • Identify main points and supporting details in a text
    • Recognize explicit and implicit meaning in a text
    • Analyze and evaluate an author’s thesis, assertions, and supporting evidence
    • Begin to critically evaluate source material
    • Identify and integrate appropriate quotable material
    • Summarize a text without plagiarizing
    • Quote and paraphrase source material
  • Writing
    • Narrow a topic
    • Write and support a clear, focused thesis
    • Understand the paragraph as a unit of meaning
    • Construct unified paragraphs with topic sentences and supporting details that advance the thesis
    • Develop a cohesive essay using transitions within and between paragraphs

Processes

  • Generate multiple drafts to create and complete a successful text
  • Apply successful strategies for generating, revising, editing, and proofreading
  • Understand the recursive writing process that permits writers to use later invention and rethinking to revise their work
  • Develop the ability to critique their own and others’ work
  • Develop proficiency in collaborative work

Requirements

Software

  • Microsoft Word or the ability to save documents in a format that can be read by MS Word, such as rich text file
    MS Works documents should be saved in Rich Text Format (*.rtf) files because MS Word is not always able to open docments saved in MS Works format.
    The most current edition of MS Office (containing MS Word, Excel and other valuable programs) is available to University of Wisconsin students at discounted prices through the Wisconsin Integrated Software Catalog.

About the Instructors

  • Photo of Richard KrupnowRichard Krupnow
    Lecturer, English
    BS, UW-Stevens Point
    MA, Ball State University