ENC1101 Course Description

In ENC1101, students read research findings from the field of Writing Studies intended to help them gain both procedural ("how to") and declarative ("content") knowledge about writing that they can use in a variety of other writing situations.

Course outcomes for 1101 are:

• Students will demonstrate an understanding of writing processes and how writing processes change depending on writing contexts.
• Students will demonstrate an awareness of rhetorical situations and acquire strategies for writing in different contexts.
• Students will improve as readers of complex texts.
• Students will demonstrate an awareness of the relationship between discourse conventions, lexis, genres, and their related communities.

In working toward these outcomes, students engage in writing-to-learn activities to help them understand and apply the various concepts; they also compose and revise extended texts employing those concepts at the end of each unit.

Sample Unit Sequence

The exact curriculum will vary.

Possible Unit: How Writers and Readers Construct Texts

Student Learning Goals

• To understand how writers construct texts persuasively (or not)
• To understand how readers construct meaning(s) from texts
• To understand what it means to say that knowledge is constructed
• To recognize and explore common misconceptions about writing
• To understand the concept of the rhetorical situation and be able to apply it to writing and reading situations

Examples of Possible Writing Assignments

• Write an essay that considers and explains a specific construct about writing (such as "error" or "plagiarism")
• Find three sources on the same topic that disagree, and consider why they seem unable to agree

Possible Unit: Writing Processes and Practices

Student Learning Goals

• To acquire vocabulary for talking about writing processes
• To better understand themselves as writers
• To actively consider their own writing processes and practices and learn to adapt them as necessary so that they are most effective
• To understand writing and research as processes requiring planning, incubation, revision, and collaboration
• To improve as readers of complex, research-based texts

Examples of Possible Writing Assignments

• Conduct a descriptive study (autoethnography) of your own writing processes
• Write an essay analyzing the impact of technology on writing processes
• Write an essay in which you describe your view of yourself as a writer, and consider concepts from the chapter such as "What is good writing?" and "What is a good writer?"

Possible Unit: How Discourses Shape Writing

Student Learning Goals

• To understand how language practices mediate group activities
• To understand how language plays a role in discourse community enculturation
• To understand the relationship between language, identity, and authority
• To consider various understandings of what it means to be literate
• To gain tools for examining the Discourses and texts of various communities
• To improve as a reader of complex, research-based texts

Example of Possible Writing Assignments

• Conduct an ethnographic study of a non-academic discourse community of your choosing

Possible Unit: Writing in the University

Student Learning Goals

• To understand how discourse is used in the university
• To consider the textual "moves" common to many forms of academic discourse
• To understand which discourse conventions vary across disciplines and why they do so
• To acquire tools for successfully responding to varied discourse conventions and genres in different classes
• To improve as a reader of complex, research-based texts

Examples of Possible Writing Assignments

• Conduct an ethnographic study of an academic discourse community
• Analyze the differences between an original scientific research report and the representation of those research findings in the mainstream media