Course Description

English 111 is a Miami Plan Foundation course. The Miami Plan goals of (1) critical thinking, (2) understanding of contexts, (3) engaging with other learners, and (4) reflection leading to informed action are centrally entwined into the course goals of English 111. More detailed descriptions of the goals for English 111 are available on pages 6-14 of College Compostion at Miami. These are goals that I strongly believe in and that have shaped the curriculum I have developed for this section, so please read them carefully.

In this particular section, English 111, subtitled "Writing at the Intersections of Communities, Cultures, and Contexts," we will focus on reading and writing in print-based and digital environments with the goal of developing necessary rhetorical and deliberative skills for reflective engagement with public issues. Questions that we will consider in written and oral assignments include: How when we write and read, do our writing and reading reflect the particular communities to which we belong? How when asserting our own points of view can we acknowledge the perspectives of others? How can we integrate research and others' perspectives into our writing? In different contexts, including multimodal digital contexts, what makes a particular piece of writing effective? What types of feedback may we give to others about their writing, and what types of feedback work well for helping us revise our writing and our thinking? We will also discuss strategies for such things as conducting academic research and revising essays from initial drafting stages to final copyediting stages.

The course is arranged around several sequences, which are described more fully in College Composition at Miami (pp. 6-14): Autoethnography, Rhetorical Analysis, Public Discussion, and Writing Reflection.

As a writing course, writing and the analysis of writing are, obviously, central. Almost every class period you will have a writing assignment or a revision of a writing assignment due. In addition to the required paper-based writing projects, you will also write in/for digital contexts. Writing project #4 will be recasting a previous writing project into a web site. (Don't worry. No prior web authoring or technical experience necessary. We will cover composing for the Web in class.) You will also write frequent shorter pieces, including reflective letters about your experiences writing each essay.

This class will be conducted as a writing workshop, which means that class members will frequently share their writing and ideas with other members of the class. Class meetings will consist of in-class writing and exercises, discussions of readings and texts, and various group activities. Remember to bring your laptop with a charged battery to class every day.