English 1101: First-year Composition I

English 1101 focuses on informational, analytical, and argumentative writing (the principal genres of academic discourse that students will encounter in many courses across the curriculum), and on research skills and critical thinking. There are different varieties of English 1101 classes and instructors design their own syllabi.

Prerequisites

Students must either place into English 1101 or pass out of the Academic Enhancement Program.

• Fulfills General Education Core Area I: Foundation
• Fulfills Institutional Competencies Learning Outcomes:
   
  • Communication: The ability to effectively develop, express, and exchange ideas in written, oral, interpersonal, or visual form.
  • Critical Thinking: The ability to pursue and comprehensively evaluate information before accepting or establishing a conclusion, decision, or action.

Goals

The following outcome statements are linked to threshold concepts, or ideas that promote transformation and growth. Our learning outcomes are arranged under four threshold concepts that are most important for students in UGA’s English 1101 courses. Each concept includes a bulleted list of the learning objectives, suggesting how students will engage with these ideas in their 1101 courses.

• Writing is a process. Students learning this threshold concept should:
  • Produce writing through a sophisticated process that involves managing projects through multiple drafts, authoring new information, and using writing as a form of abstract problem solving;
  • Reflect on how they evaluate their own and others’ work;
  • Develop individual practices for writing and revision.
• Writing responds to a specific rhetorical situation. Students learning this threshold concept should:
  • Engage with and respond to elements of various rhetorical situations such as audience, context, purpose, genre, multimodality, and discipline;
  • Analyze and develop arguments made in response to varying rhetorical situations;
  • Select, organize, and apply evidence appropriate to the writer’s argument and readers’ needs;
  • Employ specific citation style guidelines and understand the underlying concepts behind discipline-specific citation practices.
• Writing is a social act. Students learning this threshold concept should:
  • Investigate written voice and writerly identity;
  • Consider how context-specific identities or personas are generated through acts of writing;
  • Give constructive feedback to peers, and thoughtfully incorporate feedback from others.
• Writing relies on technologies. Students learning this threshold concept should:
  • Create a variety of projects in different modes and media;
  • Recognize that different technologies provide distinct advantages and limitations to the writer’s process, peer review capabilities, and project design.

Requirements

Students will write a minimum of three essays (1,000-1,500 words or longer) that count for at least 50% of the students' final grades. In addition to writing papers and doing other work, all students will create a final electronic portfolio that counts as 30% of their final grade.

Course Texts

First-year Writing Guide (Digital version) 

The Norton Field Guide to Writing, 7th edition

Primary texts must be chosen by Course Instructor.