In English 121, you will write non-fiction argumentative essays. You will learn about certain
conventions, practices, and strategies you can use when composing and revising your essay
assignments. However, there is no one formula for writing an essay. Writing is situational, and
you will need to approach each writing task differently. This course will expose you to various
writing situations, and I intend to help you to become aware of the particulars of each situation so
that you will be able to write appropriately for the task at hand. Rather than thinking of the course
as adapting to a new style of writing, think of the course as an exploration of how writing is
situational because you will need to reconsider what you write as well as how you write.
In this course, we will focus on writers and readers (those involved in the act of communication
through writing) and justified arguments (the message of the writing). Though writing and reading
resembles an exchange involving give and take between writers and readers, it is not like a
conversation. Writing and reading are not face-to-face interactions in real time; there is a distance
involved.
How do we communicate our ideas effectively despite this distance between writers and
readers? In the setting of this class, your principal responsibility as a reader or writer is justifying
yourself. As a writer, you will learn how to address your readers, and this involves more than
making your writing clear and understandable. You will need to explain yourself fully in your
argumentative essays, providing the necessary evidence for your ideas and relying on logic and
organizational strategies to fulfill your readers’ expectations and predispositions. In addition, your
writing must convey a sense of purpose that seems significant for your readers.
Since this is a composition course, you will write about your service experience, but keep in
mind that such writing will be only one “text” you will use. You will learn how to analyze various
texts and how to engage with them when writing your own original arguments. You must pair
ideas from challenging literary and theoretical texts with your experience to help you reflect
critically on your experience. Therefore the essays you write for this course will be less about 2
reporting what you did for your organization and more about explaining how your experience
relates to the concepts we've discussed in class.
COURSE THEME
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