Composition I

Throughout this
course, we will work on the analytical writing and rhetorical skills you need
to be an active participant in academic communities and in the places in Hawai‘i
where we live and write.  The UHM
English Department guidelines for ENG 100 explain that “[t]he introductory
writing course focuses generally on preparing students for writing they will do
both as college students and as citizens who make contributions to the larger
public discourse.”  Toward this
end, we will be writing to engage the day-to-day issues we face in Hawai‘i.

The course objectives include the
following:

  1. to help you to understand writing as a
    process that involves recursive elements: brainstorming, drafting,
    revising, editing, proofreading, peer-editing, brainstorming, drafting,
    revising, editing, proofreading,
  2. to sharpen your analytical skills by
    comparing the ways stories are told in pieces ranging from autobiographical
    narratives to political essays,
  3. to enable you to identify the
    rhetorical demands of different contexts and audience
    expectations,
  4. to enable you to identify and choose from an array of different rhetorical strategies
    to address different audiences,
  5. to make use of research resources and
    to document sources.

To
accomplish these goals, each student will focus on a specific place in Hawai‘i
and the histories, stories, and political issues that make up this particular
place.   We will be examining
Hawaiian writers’ discussion of the significance of land and particular places,
and we will sift through the many stories that make up any one particular place
to understand why particular stories are told.  Paper topics will include a personal essay on a memory of a
place in Hawai‘i, a an oral history project of that place, a literary analysis
of selected stories about places in Hawai‘i, a rhetorical analysis of an
argument raised in public debates over that place, and an argument with
research project on that place.  Shorter
writing exercises focusing on close textual analysis will help you to build
towards your paper assignments, and they will ask you to develop arguments
based on careful analyses of the nuances of language and your understanding of
your audience.  To help you think
about strategic ways of writing for specific audiences, you will work in
peer-editing groups: for each paper, you will critique each other’s drafts in
groups of three before turning in your final copy.

Required Text

  • Diana Hacker.  Pocket Style Manual.
    (available at Revolution Books, 2626 King Street, between Puck’s Alley and
    7-11)

The
course reader will include works by Piliamo‘o, Kapulani Landgraf, R. Zamora
Linmark, Katrina-Ann Kapā‘anaokalāokeola, Rodney Morales, Walter Ritte, Lee
Cataluna, ku‘ualoha ho‘omanawanui, Carlos Andrade, Summer Kaimalia Nemeth,
Dennis Kawaharada, Puakea
Nogelmeier, Vivien Lee, Ida Yoshinaga, Dean Saranillio, Ka‘anohi Kaleikini, and
others. Location for pick-up will be announced in class.

Course requirements:

  • Six
    papers (75%),
  • assignments (10%),
  • peer-editing (10%),
  • participation (5%)