This course is an introduction to college level writing and offers a diverse learning environment. Major assignments include a narrative essay, rhetorical analysis, argumentative essay, letter to the editor and opinion piece, literature/product/film review and a formal research project. You will also write informal journals at the end of each assignment to reflect on your writing experience. At the end of the semester, you will have the option of featuring one of your assignments on the English 100 class website. Through these modes of writing, you will learn fundamental research methods and critical reading, thinking and writing strategies that will help prepare you for other course work and future career.
Activities are designed with “globalization” in mind. We see corporate logos, car emblems and signature lines wherever we go. We are also bombarded with visual rhetorics of difference and unity, often dealing with cultural and ideological tensions. To complicate matters, technological advances influence the way we define ourselves and lifestyles, particularly our interactions with each other. We will explore these dynamics with course materials that include a variety of oral and written texts, visual compositions and documentary films. To improve your writing, you will be encouraged to critically examine problems, propose solutions and participate in academic and civic discourse concerned with the impact of globalization as a process and ideological framework.