Camille Willingham
Communications and Humanities Faculty, Kennedy-King College

Course

English 101 - Composition 1, 3 semester hours

The goal of English 101 Composition I is the development of critical and analytical skills in reading and writing expository prose. The general objective is for students to learn strategic steps and the rhetorical devices and modes used in collegiate writing.

The specific objective is for students to write a minimum of eight essays according to the basic rhetorical forms: narration, description, definition, example, process analysis, comparison/contrast, classification/division, cause/effect, and argumentation.

For each writing assignment, students are expected to (1) select a manageable topic, (2) have a thesis statement that implies or states the essay's plan of development, and (3) construct at least three paragraphs that develop the thesis with concrete, relevant, and cohesive support, using transitional words, phrases, and sentences. They are also expected (4) to use good diction and correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation in 80% of the sentences.

Prerequisite: Placement test or grade of C or better in English 100 or consent of department chairperson.

Description

This module is designed to facilitate student fulfillment of specific objectives 2 and 3 of our 101 course syllabus. Unity, support, and coherence are the requisites for the effective collegiate essay in all rhetorical modes. The student examination of sample essays is an excellent way to master these concepts. Consequently, our modules propose to examine appropriate sample essays that demonstrate these requisites in each of the eight rhetorical forms. Our modules will enhance student understanding of the function of thesis, logical organization, topic sentences, supporting paragraph details, and transitional words in each of the sample essays. This exercise will reinforce the concepts of unity, support, and coherence required to effectively set forth and develop a point. Each sample professional essay taken from Langan (2001) is presented in four on-screen computerized exercises.

Transferability

The enhancement of critical and analytical skills in writing and reading expository prose is essential in all other English composition, developmental reading, and literature courses. It is, in fact, essential in all of the liberal arts that students have the skills to identify the main idea, major supporting points, and the effectiveness of those points when reading. It is equally important that students, when writing papers and exams, are capable of formulating an essay that has a clear thesis and coherent and adequately supported points. An on-screen computerized analysis of a sample professional essay in their discipline would be a reinforcement or refresher to what they have been taught in English 101.