English Composition Program
at Westfield State College, 2006-2007

In English Composition I students work to achieve the following objectives:

Rhetorical Knowledge:

• Write with purpose, in varied rhetorical situations and for varied audiences.
• Understand how different kinds of writing (e.g, different genres or purposes) influence the choices writers make about content, structure, language, and style.

Critical Thinking, Reading, Writing, and Speaking:

• Use writing, reading, and speaking for inquiry, learning, and thinking.
• Recognize, analyze, and interact with both opposing and supporting views.
• Find, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize appropriate primary and secondary sources.
• Integrate their own ideas with those of others.
• Explore the relationships among language, knowledge, and power.

Processes:

• Understand writing as a process that allows writers to rethink and revise their work.
• Develop strategies for drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading their papers.
• Experience writing as a social and public process.
• Learn to give effective feedback to their peers about their writing.
• Become effective and rigorous critics of their own writing.

Knowledge of Conventions:

• Understand the rhetorical importance of language conventions.
• Learn common organizational strategies appropriate for different kinds of essays or texts.
• Practice appropriate means of documenting secondary material.
• Gain competence in controlling such features as syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

In achieving these objectives, students will:

• Write and revise expository and other prose. Over the course of the semester, students write from 16-20 pages of formal academic prose. Students often write essays in multiple drafts. Exercises in sentence and paragraph revision are also assigned.
• Write at least one researched essay, using and correctly documenting varied primary and secondary sources gathered through library research.
• Read and critique expository writing and/or literature.
• Speak in class. Class participation is required, as students engage in both full-class and small-group discussions about the assigned readings and student essays.

Since the College considers the competencies acquired in English 101 and English 102 as fundamental to all other courses, students may only drop English Composition under extraordinary circumstances.

102 Outcomes Statement
Building on their study of expository writing and argumentation in English Composition I, students in English Composition II work to achieve the following objectives:

Rhetorical Knowledge:

• Consider how the choices that authors make about content, structure, language, and style are influenced by different genres, purposes, or conventions.
• Further develop their abilities to engage in academic arguments, effectively employing such strategies as explication, analysis, and classification.
• Recognize ways in which they might make use of varied rhetorical and literary devices in their own writing.

Critical Thinking, Reading, Writing, and Speaking:

• Use writing, reading, and speaking about literature as one model for inquiring, learning and thinking about the world.
• Use literature as an occasion for finding, analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing relevant primary and secondary texts.
• Develop responses to literary texts that allow them to participate in critical discussions about the texts and the issues they raise.
• Explore the ways in which literature and their own critical engagement with literary texts demonstrate the intersection of language, knowledge, and power.

Processes:

• Develop strategies for responding to literary texts as a way to discover ideas.
• Continue to practice writing as a process that allows writers to rethink and revise their work
• Refine strategies for drafting, editing, and proofreading papers.
• Develop editing strategies for style and voice.
• Experience writing about literature as a social and public process.
• Continue to develop strategies for giving effective feedback to their peers about their writing.
• Hone abilities to effectively and rigorously critique their own writing.

Knowledge of Conventions:

• Understand the rhetorical function of conventions used in literary genres, such as poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, drama, and film.
• Learn common organizational strategies appropriate for writing analyses of and academic arguments about literary texts.
• Practice appropriate means of researching and documenting secondary scholarly materials.
• Refine competence in controlling such features and syntax, grammar, punctuation, spelling, and gain exposure to conventions commonly used when writing about literature.

In achieving these objectives, students will:

• Write and revise essays about literature, such as explications, analyses, response essays, and critical arguments. Over the course of the semester, students will write from 16-20 pages of formal academic prose. Students continue to write essays in multiple drafts. Exercises in sentence and paragraph revision continue to be assigned as needed.
• Read and critique a variety of literary genres, such as poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, drama, and film.
• Write one researched essay on literature, using and correctly documenting varied primary and secondary sources gathered through library research.
• Speak in class. Class participation is required.

The superior paper (A) is written far above the minimum standards; it goes beyond merely avoiding error. It has a positive value and displays originality, imagination, vitality, and a feeling for words. Ideally, it should present fully and accurately a new idea or a new treatment of an old idea, though in practice a paper that does not quite attain this standard sometimes receives an A. The organization of the A paper should be not only logical but natural. The superior paper should be forceful and appropriate in style, and almost completely free of formal and mechanical errors.

The good paper (B) falls a little below the A standards. It too has a positive value that goes beyond avoidance of error, but it lacks one or more qualities that would bring it closer to perfection. It may develop an idea fully and accurately but lack elements of originality; it may have all the qualities of an A paper except naturalness or organization; or it may be marred by improper form, inappropriate style, or occasional obscurity.

The adequate paper (C) may not be developed fully; its logic may be unconvincing; its organization, paragraphs, or sentences weak; or it may be marred by obscurity or an unhappy choice of words. Frequently, a theme might rate an A or B in content and is given a C because it lacks coherence overall. Just as often, a theme may be relatively correct in form, but its content may be uninspired and dull, thus warranting a grade no higher than a C.

The unsatisfactory paper (D) is largely faulty but does not warrant complete failure. It may contain little of nothing worth saying, or it may be full of gross formal or mechanical errors. It may fail substantially to meet one or more of the minimum standards listed above.

The totally unacceptable paper (F) fails even to approach minimum standards, fails substantially to meet the requirements of the assignment, or plagiarizes from other sources.

ENGL-0101 ENGLISH COMPOSITION I(3 credits)
A writing-intensive course that provides instruction in the process of composing academic essays. Students strengthen techniques in three stages--pre-writing, drafting and revising--in order to compose well-structured papers written in proficient English. This course covers the fundamentals of rhetoric, research methods, critical readings of texts, and sentence and paragraph development. Writers compose about six essays, of which some are research-based. All students must take this course in the first semester of their freshman year.

ENGL-0101 Plus(3 credits)
Students who are assessed as needing more intensive instruction in writing, particularly in the areas of grammar, usage, and mechanics, are assigned to these sections of ENGL-0101. Students spend an extra 50 minutes per week improving their writing competencies in a hands-on, interactive setting. After successful completion of the course, which includes a final portfolio project, students receive three credits and are eligible to take English Composition II.

ENGL-0102 ENGLISH COMPOSITION II(3 credits)
An introduction to literature covering critical reading of fiction, drama, poetry, and the essay. Provides instruction in writing about literature and research techniques. A research paper will be required. SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF THIS COURSE IS A PREREQUISITE FOR ALL 0200 AND 0300 ENGLISH COURSES OFFERED. ENGL-0102 must be taken during the second semester of the freshman year.

ENGL-0105 ENGLISH COMPOSITION I SEMINAR (HONORS)(3 credits)
Students with outstanding writing ability will analyze and employ rhetorical strategies through classroom discussion and expository writing. Permission of the instructor is required. This course fulfills the ENGL-0101 core requirement.

ENGL-0110 ENGLISH COMPOSITION II SEMINAR(HONORS)(3 credits)
For students who have been invited from ENGL-0105 or who have been recommended by their ENGL-0101 instructors. Students focus on the critical and appreciative reading of poetry, fiction, drama and the essay, and on interpretive and analytical writing about literature. Techniques of research are discussed and practiced. This course fulfills ENGL-0102 core requirement.

STUDENTS MAY DROP THESE COURSES ONLY UNDER EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES AND WITH THE SPECIAL PERMISSION OF THE WRITING COORDINATOR.

Page last updated 05/05/04