Composition Il

GOALS

This course is designed to prepare you to conduct, discuss, and present your writing at the university level, into your careers, and beyond. As a class, we will practice various writing and reading skills; however, our focus will navigate auto/biographical writing and critical reading and response. Writing is a process and practice; writing is a tool that helps humans make sense of identity and the world in which they negotiate various senses of the “self.” Therefore, we will use this tool as our main pedagogical approach as we explore the fascinating life of writing.

Learning objectives from the English Department:

  • Integration of complex ideas from academic and public writing with own experience and knowledge.
  • Understanding of research as a complex and involved process.
  • Proper use of sources ranging from the library to personal interviews, including documentation of such sources.
  • Development of complex ideas in various genres appropriate for various audiences.
  • Understanding of writing in a social context, as part of a larger academic or public discourse.
  • Use of logic to analyze and effectively argue a position.
  • Understanding of writing as a process involving reflection, response from others, self-analysis, and revision.
  • Proper control of such surface features as syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

REQUIRED TEXTS

All text will be uploaded as PDFs on Laulima.

Also, purchase a notebook or paper (in a binder) for in-class writing, reading responses, and reading group notes. Consider purchasing a book you will love to write, ponder, doodle, and respond in as we discuss key points.

GRADE DETERMINATION

Participation:  15%

Writing Assignment # 1 (1,000 words): Research Your Name 10% (This assignment is adapted from Kristin McAndrew’s syllabus)

Writing Assignment #2 (1,000 words): Telling an Ancestor’s Story—Oral Interview 10%

Writing Assignment # 3 Rhetorical Analysis of a Graphic Memoir (1,000- words): 15%

Writing Assignment # 4 (1,000 words): Research the History of a Place: Telling Land Stories 10%

Bi-Weekly 300-500 word Laulima Posts: 10%

Workshops: 10 %

Presentations: 10%

Journal: 10% (includes in-class free writes and writing reflections).

Assignments include: drafts, journal notes, workshops, and final drafts