Composition I

In this course, you will learn how to write effectively for a variety of audiences and in a variety of forms so that you will be better prepared to identify and work across the writing contexts that you’ll encounter in your college courses and, even, outside of them (e.g., in your job). You will learn to identify and effectively address an audience, to conduct research and engage with source material, as well as planning and revision strategies. To offer you a way into these processes and the deepen your relationship to them, you will be asked to choose a major sociopolitical issue to explore in a variety of exercise (written and verbal). Issues might include the use of maps or social networking platforms (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook) as texts to examine larger social issues of identity, gender/sex, colonialism, and settler responsibility. We’ll first explore these issues (and maybe others) in response to your own experiences/exploration of Oʻahu and R. Zamora Linmark’s book, Rolling the Rs, which will for most of the semester be our major texts. Don’t worry, I will support your efforts at each step. In the end, you will produce a research-based persuasive paper in which you construct and weigh in on an informed conversation about the issue you’ve selected and that calls readers to respond in some way to the issue. In total, you will have produced 5,000 words of polished prose.

(Possible) texts:

  • R. Zamora Linmark’s Rolling the Rs
  • Thomas King’s The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative