College Writing (ENGLWRIT 112)

Introduction

College Writing serves two purposes: (1) to prepare students for writing in future academic situations, and (2) to develop writing skills applicable to professional and civic contexts beyond the university. The course gives students occasion to work on writing that presents a range of broadly applicable intellectual and composing challenges and, in so doing, help them develop as writers. Those challenges include writing to accomplish various purposes -- for example, to render experience, to interpret, to explain, to persuade -- for various audiences. Those challenges also include being able to make meaning and compose from various sources, including one's own experience and knowledge and new knowledge gleaned from reading, observing, and listening to others. Most fundamentally, those challenges include being able to link private interests with those of a public audience in order to accomplish one's purpose in writing.

English 112 aims to teach students to make informed choices about their writing processes and the form of their written product. By modeling the process and choice-making strategies within the contexts of each unit, our goal is to ensure writers will be able to apply these ways of thinking to future writing situations. Thus, the writing assignments included in the curriculum focus on educated audiences both inside and outside the academy.