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1. To use writing,
reading, and research as means of general cognitive development, as
activities which foster intellectual growth in an academic
environment.
2. To encourage
students to see writing as a learning tool that is important in all
contexts and is not confined to the writing
classroom.
3. To teach students
to plan, organize, and develop essays based on introspection,
general observation, deliberation, research, and the critical
reading of mature prose texts.
4. To make students
aware of their individual voices and how those voices can be adapted
to fit different audiences and rhetorical
situations.
5. To encourage
students to view writing as a process by using several prewriting,
organizing, drafting, revising, and editing
strategies.
6. To stress the
importance of clear communication by teaching students to revise
effectively through the complete rethinking, restructuring, and
rewriting of essays.
7. To encourage
independent thinking.
8.
To teach students to document correctly and to
incorporate borrowed material smoothly and
appropriately.
The
description of WRIT 101 adopted in 2007-2008 is as follows:
WRIT 101 is an
introduction to academic discourse. The focus of the course
should be on the writing process, a process that results in
well-supported, thesis-driven prose. While formal argument will
not be the only emphasis, the writing in this course should use
many of the strategies of formal arguments: a clear stance;
reason, logical support; concession; refutation; authorial
voice; awareness of audience; and the correct documentation of
borrowed materials. Reading assignments and class discussion
should lead directly or indirectly to writing assignments, and
readings should be mature non-fiction prose. The first paper in
the course may be an experiential, transitional—“from high
school to college”—paper (based solely on personal experience),
but writing assignments should progress quickly to objective
analytical writing that correctly incorporates summarized,
paraphrased, and quoted materials.
Instructors should
assign at least 4,000 words of graded writing, an amount that
includes the final exam (a timed writing assignment). Each
student should write at least six graded essays (including the
final exam). At least two essays should be written outside of
class, and at least two (including the final exam) should be
written in class. At least four essays should incorporate
borrowed material, and at least two of these should include
library or other outside research. One of our crucial goals for
this course is that every student learn how to incorporate
borrowed material correctly, and every effort should be made to
ensure that this goal is achieved. The University community
assumes that students leave WRIT 101 with the tools needed to
document borrowed material without unintentionally plagiarizing
and to understand what constitutes plagiarism and what its
consequences might be.
Complete revisions
(i.e. re-written papers) may count as new essays if both
versions are graded. Ungraded drafts and corrections do not
count toward minimum writing requirements. NOTE: Final
exams must be given during the assigned exam time.
NOTE: In WRIT 101, we do not
teach modes (narration, description, classification, etc.) as
the sole organizing strategy for any single assignment.
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