This course is designed to introduce you to the many kinds of writing and reading you will do across the curriculum. As we read and analyze a variety of written texts, we will study the rhetorical strategies, conventions, and styles that writers and thinkers use to convey meaning. By the end of the semester, you will be better prepared to write for an academic audience.
Because writing is a process, you will submit drafts for each major writing assignment and participate in peer reviews. You will also have the opportunity to rewrite or revise your papers after they have been graded and returned to you. Throughout the semester, we will review grammar, usage, mechanics, and punctuation in order to add clarity and authority to your writing and to improve your proofreading skills.
In addition to its emphasis on having you produce university-level writing, this course will have a focus on the concept of sustainability. Our readings and in-class discussions on sustainability, ecology, and conceptions of nature will acquaint you with a variety of discourses. Most of the writing you will do in this course will concern environmental issues, and your assignments will prepare you to write a final research project on an issue of sustainability. By researching and writing about environmentalism, you will sharpen your critical thinking, writing, and language skills.
Required Texts:
- Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. “They Say, I Say”: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2009. Print.
- Hacker, Diana, and Nancy I. Sommers. A Pocket Style Manual. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. Print.
Our other course readings (which will include essays, scholarly articles, and selected works of nonfiction and fiction) will be provided on Laulima.