ENGL 101: English Composition I

The following is a description of ENGL 101: English Composition I

Course description

A general introduction to the principles of writing with emphasis on writing process, thesis, context, purpose and audience.

Course outcomes

By the end of English 101, students who earn a 2.0 or higher will be able to:

Write texts that demonstrate awareness of various audiences, purposes, and genres in multiple modalities and contexts.
Argue a position that includes a claim, position, or response and engages at some point with a textual, visual, or audio source..
Analyze how systemic inequalities shape the formal and informal rules and guidelines that define notions of “good” and “bad” writing in order to make conscious rhetorical choices.
Integrate and respond to sources in writing (quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing), demonstrating the ability to read and think critically.
Identify information needs, locate and evaluate sources, and incorporate information into texts with an awareness of genre expectations.
Implement a collaborative writing process that includes planning, drafting, revising, and editing.
Reflect on and contextualize your work as a writer and how it translates to your professional, academic and personal life.

English 101 themes.

English 101 themes

Lisa Bernhagen

Success and Leadership

This course is gives you experience and confidence in reading and writing for college, work, and your personal life. You will leave this course with an understanding of your own writing strengths and needs, and a better sense of common moves that American academic writers use, and that you can choose to use, to read and write for college and sharing research and ideas. The theme is around what makes people successful and fulfilled and go on to become leaders. This course uses contract grading, so your success is based on your effort.

You will learn about persuasive moves in writing and speaking. You will hear from experts about how to be more successful in school and in your life, especially when things are difficult or challenging. We will read theories and scientific studies of what makes people successful and fulfilled. We will apply these theories to our own experiences and other cases.

Prairie Brown

Impacts and Implications of AI

In this course, we will consider Artificial Intelligence (AI) versus Human Individualism, and as we explore various types of writing and AI tools, we will have many discussions about the ways in which AI is both beneficial and harmful to society, and we will consider when AI is useful to us as students and when it is better for us to develop and use our own voices.

Jessica Crockett

Cautionary Tales, Lore, and Neuroplasticity

Over the course of 4 short essays, 6 short readings, 12 rhetorical writing moves, and 1 motion text hyperbole, this course will ask that you consider how Bigfoot, gargoyles, serpents and fairies (including the Tooth), have followed you through adolescence. This class will entertain the idea(s) of how cautionary tales and lore keep our neuroplasticity engaged and well fed.

Joshua Gidding

Current Issues of Debate

We know that we learn better when we are able to relate what we are studying to our own lives. We also know that we write better when we have a personal stake in the subjects we are writing about – when we can make them our own, when we can “own” our writing. This first-year writing course (ENGL& 101) takes these two truths as its foundation, as we explore and write about many current issues of debate – including technology, diversity, food & diet, gender identity, and differing visions of American society.

Allison Green

Global Current Events

Write response papers, analyses, and arguments based on global issues and concerns. Students will be able to choose from several different topics currently in the news.

Lauren Hatch

From Personal to Powerful

We’ll start by unlocking the power of storytelling. You’ll tap into your authentic voice to share your stories as only you can tell them. Along the way, we’ll explore how our identities and cultures shape our stories, culminating in an essay that weaves together your personal narrative with your research on identity. In the second half of the quarter, we’ll dive into the art of building arguments. We’ll read, watch, and listen to thought-provoking materials to spark ideas and practice crafting persuasive arguments. By the end, you’ll write an essay that showcases your ability to analyze, synthesize, and advocate.

Katie Humphries

Self and Community

In this course, we will read fiction (short stories) and non-fiction (essays), view one film, and write three major essays. You will also participate in group projects and brief oral presentations.

Throughout the course, we will be investigating the self and community. How are we influenced by family and friends? How do we want to be perceived by others? How are we actually perceived by others? How can we contribute to our community in positive ways? By the end of the course, my hope is that you will be a stronger critical reader, a more confident writer, and more knowledgeable about yourself as an individual.

Tommy Kim

Film

Movies – whether seen in theaters or streamed at home – have become the dominant narrative form of our times. Certainly, people still read, listen to radio shows/podcasts, and share stories with one another but all those pale in comparison to the dominance of movies (and its counterpart, television).

In this class, we will learn how to write about films but, more importantly, in the process of learning how to write about films we will also learn how to think about films in a critical, insightful way. Please keep in mind that this is first and foremost a composition course, not a film course. While we will get deep into the movies, the emphasis will be mostly on understanding and producing various types of film discourses: the movie review, the synopsis, and critical analysis. Throughout the quarter you will be required to watch between 2 to 3 films (all available for free).

Monica Lemoine

Reading for Knowledge, Pleasure, and Well-Being

According to Psychology Today, getting absorbed into reading is both “innately pleasurable” and can “enhance our sense of wellbeing.” As a community of learners, we’ll read and think critically about various fiction and non-fiction texts (including at least one contemporary fiction novel) with a focus on mental, emotional, and physical well-being.

Tarisa Matsumoto-Maxfield

No theme listed

Shon Meckfessel

Language and Rhetoric

What are people doing when they use language? Does language just reflect the thoughts we have in our heads, or is it more complicated? How do people use language when they disagree with each other, and what are some ways to best use language when you disagree with someone else? How can you use language as a tool to be who you want to be, and do what you want to do in the real world?

Using the comic-based textbook Understanding Rhetoric and contemporary cultural “texts,” this class will help you to understand the power of language, and to develop your own language power. We will look closely at how others make meaning in words, images, videos, songs, and other kinds of expression, and we will practice making our own meanings through daily discussions and writing. As you sharpen your skills, you will also be brainstorming, writing, reviewing, and revising a series of academic essays on topics that you will choose.

Gregory November

Storytelling

This class is all about learning how to tell your story, as well as discovering why to tell your story. We will think analytically about our own lives, and will respond to the texts that we read together with our own personal narrative material rather than with research.

Stephanie Ojeda Ponce

Social Justice, Media Literacy, and Persuasive Writing

My courses focus on social justice issues, media literacy, and persuasive writing. I use texts like The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Ted Talks, documentaries, and other no-cost resources like library e-books. I’m a certified and experienced Puente Project educator; Teaching by those practices is about support, comunidad, and culturally engaging teaching. I identify as Salvadoreña, Mexicana, and American.

Aaron Ottinger

Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Culture

This class is divided into three main genres: creative writing, research writing, and technical writing. The focus is on major topics in digital culture, including but not limited to: AI writing assistants, discrimination in video games, the social media and politics, and more (topics rotate each year). Within these topics, students will select a more specific problem that appeals to them on a personal level. In response to their research on these problems, the final section of the class gives students the opportunity to collaborate on designing a solution or a form of resistance.

Susan Rich

Storytelling

Storytelling is how we understand the world. Whether writing from our own lived experience or persuading readers on the validity of a certain idea, we need stories to illustrate real life concepts. We will look at films, narrative essays, and op-eds to understand how to communicate our own critical ideas.

Matt Schwisow

Food

English 101 is a composition course. That is, you will practice strategies for creating more effective writing. In my particular version of English 101, you will practice those skills through entering public and academic discourse on issues related to food.

How often to you really think about the food you eat? There are so many interweaving interests and concepts regarding food including, but not limited to: cooking, nutrition, communication, culture, diversity, family, agriculture, science, politics, sociology, business, workers’ issues, economics, immigration, and even “fake news.” Food is one of those universal subjects that affects us all, and in this version of English 101, you’ll explore some of the many ways in which food affects your life. You’ll read from authors such as Anthony Bourdain, Michael Pollan, and David Sedaris.

Like other English 101’s, you’ll complete multiple writing projects in different forms for different situations, and you’ll even get to choose your own topics for some of them. The readings you will discuss and write about will all be related to food in some way, such as the topics listed above. You will engage in discussions on specific readings, and you’ll get to choose an “angle” you wish to explore on the given topic. You will write a summary, a response to a particular reading, an argument, a reflection, and several other assignments.

Laura Sinai

Identity

We will look at the idea of identity. Through our readings and writing, we will seek to answer many questions: What is identity? Where does it come from? How has identity—perceived and self-named—connect to how we view ourselves and are viewed by others? How does it affect how we experience the world? Not every assignment will be connected, but this will be our overall theme.

Wendy Swyt

Passion, Mindset, and Grit

What do you really want to do in life? What is preventing you from getting there? What will help you achieve your goals? In this course, we will examine key theories that apply to what you want to do and how passion, grit, and mindset can help.. In response to readings and videos, you will write essays that have different purposes and audiences: summary-response, open letter, and personal statement.

This course is designed to prepare you to read and write so that you can face writing requirements in other college classes and on the job with confidence and competence. You will leave this course with an understanding of your own writing process, needs, and strengths and a better sense of how to think through a writing task, either one from school or from work.

Tianyi Tang