Composition I

Course Description:
English 100 is an introductory writing course designed to improve student writing and prepare students for the demands of academic prose. In this course we will explore the values of writing and composition from many disciplinary perspectives. Through formal and informal writing assignments you develop the foundational critical thinking and writing skills needed to communicate and convey your ideas successfully at the university level. You will learn to write nuanced and engaging sentences; build effective paragraphs; construct arguments; engage various audiences; and integrate other people’s thoughts into your own. In the end, these course activities and assignments will encourage you to be more reflective, critical, and careful writers.

Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs):

  • Compose college-level writing, including, but not limited to, academic discourse, that achieves a specific purpose and responds adeptly to an identifiable audience.
  • Provide evidence of effective strategies for generating, revising, editing, and proofreading a text in order to produce finished prose.
  • Compose an argument that makes use of source material that is relevant and credible and that is integrated in accordance with an appropriate MLA style guide.

Course Texts and Resources:
All course readings will be provided by the instructor via the course website. No books to buy!

Course Requirements:
There are five major paper assignments for this course:

  • Paper Assignment #1: Placing Our Stories (1000 words)
  • Paper Assignment #2: Uncovering and (Re)Placing Our Stories (1000 words)
  • Paper Assignment #3: Discovering and Reading Disciplined Stories (1250 words)
  • Paper Assignment #4: Naming Our Disciplined Terms (500 words)
  • Paper Assignment #5: Community Issue and Action Essay (1500 words) & Short presentation (5-minutes)

Additionally, each major paper assignment will be accompanied by a short grade justification (250-300 words), in which students will critically assess their own work and explain why such a grade is warranted in relation to the unit outcomes.

Throughout the semester, students will also write short, weekly blog posts that are intended to help you explore, summarize, analyze, and/or synthesize course material so that these preliminary thoughts may be incorporated into your major paper assignments.

Regular attendance is expected.

Course description is subject to change. Email instructor at laurenk9@hawaii.edu with any questions.