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105 Course description:

English 105 is designed to reinforce and build upon the writing competencies students have developed in English 104. This course will continue the first semester’s emphasis on the writing process and rhetorical analysis while introducing students to systematic research and writing from sources other than personal experience. We will read and write essays and reports from different disciplines, and we will learn to use APA and MLA documentation styles. We will practice reading a variety of texts composed in response to a variety of rhetorical situations. Students will have many opportunities to demonstrate their competency by successfully completing several short writing assignments and research papers.  The final opportunity to illustrate competency in research and writing will come in the form of a completed Writing e-Portfolio submitted by each student at the end of the semester.

Placement:  The prerequisite for English 105 is a “C” or higher in English 104, or a “B” or higher in English 100.

105 Goals and Objectives:

Goal 1.  To encourage students to view writing as a process and to foster an understanding of writing as it occurs in research–a process of systematic inquiry that focuses on finding and reporting information from sources other than personal experience.

Objectives related to enhancing students’ writing processes and research methodology:

• Develop research questions appropriate to different academic disciplines
• Determine appropriate sources and evidence to respond to various research questions
• Create search terms and conduct searches in appropriate and varied databases
• Navigate internet search engines and subject databases
• Use a variety of technologies to support research
• Practice field research methodologies

Goal 2.  To help students see writing as a tool and method to query ideas and to create knowledge as well as a means of exploring, understanding, and evaluating ideas in academic disciplines.

Objectives related to writing to learn activities stemming from research:

• Practice summarizing and paraphrasing source ideas
• Evaluate various types of sources using established criteria
• Craft synthesis of several sources’ ideas
• Prepare annotated bibliographies

Goal 3.  To prepare students for writing in their other courses across the curriculum by helping them articulate, develop, and support a point through both first-hand and archival research.

Objectives related to different approaches to constructing an argument including different types of thesis statements and different kinds of evidence accepted by different disciplines:

• Create thesis statements that inform and thesis statements that argue
• Compose reports based on research
• Construct arguments based on research
• Analyze data collected through survey, observation, and interview
• Identify patterns of meaning from analysis conducted in research process

Goal 4. To help students learn how to report in writing the results of their research consistent with the form, style, citation, and documentation of sources that is appropriate for composing in a variety of genres for a variety of rhetorical contexts.

Objectives related to different documentation styles used in academic writing:

• Recognize that different academic disciplines approach a topic from different perspectives
• Recognize that different academic perspectives pose different types of research questions
• Use APA documentation format and style in research reports
• Use MLA documentation format and style in researched argument
• Recognize that different academic disciplines use different styles and documentation formats to present their research

Goal 5.  To help students understand the rhetorical situation of writing.

Objectives related to different audiences/goals/voices used in academic writing:

• Compose writing in more than one style and for more than one academic audience
• Recognize various voices within the academic community
• Recognize various purposes for writing within the academic community