Aloha and welcome to English 100. The theme of this course is Hawai‘i—Writing Place, Writing Culture. Throughout the semester, we will examine how the ‘āina (land, location, environment, place) shapes cultural development and practices in Hawai‘i, such as mālama ‘āina (caring for and cherishing the land). Mālama ‘āina is a key theme in Hawaiian culture (and this course). One way to put this into practice is to minimize our impact on the environment, including reducing our use of paper. Therefore, all course materials will be stored on the class website on Laulima, and the majority of your writing will be posted there as well. The purpose of this course is to sharpen your writing and language skills, and prepare you for the rigors of college-level academic writing. We will discuss different purposes for writing, study various writing situations, and practice multiple writing strategies.
You will do a variety of writing in this course, including formal essays and frequent writing exercises. Your formal essay topics will cover personal origins, literature, community and global issues. Your written work will be gathered together into a final e-portfolio project at the end of the semester, which you will share with the class in an oral presentation. There is no mid-term or final exam for this course. Readings will be disseminated electronically. I encourage student feedback on topics of interest in regards to Hawai‘i. A complete list of readings are included on the class syllabus and Laulima. They will include essays, stories, poetry, testimonies, and other kinds of writing about Hawai‘i by a variety of Native Hawaiian, local, and other writers from the past and present. Access to reference materials in electronic form (such as a dictionary (www.dictionary.com), thesaurus (www.thesaurus.com), Ulukau, the Hawaiian Electronic Library (www.ulukau.org), and the Hawaiian online dictionary (www.wehewehe.org) is also required.