English W131. Elementary Composition
Section 19:--1:30-2:20pm MWF SB G-11
Section 71—2:30-3:20pm MWF SB G-21
Lecturer: Geoffrey B. (Jeb)
Waldschmidt                                                   Office: CM143           
Office Hours:   TBA                                        Email: waldschg@ipfw.edu
                       

Course Description:
Writing 131, Elementary Composition  is a course based on the process of writing that is designed to enhance your understanding of academic and public discourse and to give you practice in producing it.  The course is intended to give you a comprehensive introduction to argument, including an understanding of the necessary rhetoric used in argument and practice in composing argument essays through that understanding. 

Course Outcomes:
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to demonstrate competence in the following four areas:

  1. Rhetorical Knowledge
  2. Focus on a purpose
  3. Define a thesis
  4. Respond to the needs of different audiences
  5. Adopt an appropriate stance toward audience and topic
  6. Write in several genres
  7. Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing
  8. Use writing and reading for inquiry, learning, thinking, and communicating
  9. Paraphrase and summarize the work of others
  10. Integrate your own ideas with those of others
  11. Manage a writing assignment as a series of tasks, including finding, evaluating, and synthesizing appropriate primary and secondary sources
  12. Writing Processes
  13. Engage in a recursive process of writing by developing multiple drafts to complete an effective text
  14. Develop flexible strategies for generating, revising, and editing
  15. Participate in collaborative and social processes to critique your own and others’ work
  16. Knowledge of Conventions
  17. Recognize and use common formats for different genres of texts
  18. Practice appropriate means of documenting work
  19. Control syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling 

You will learn how to acquire and articulate ideas, clearly and precisely, using a process of your own design to mate idea articulation with your own specific task or goal.  We will use a modified process-based writing method in a collaborative learning environment. 
Ground Rules: 
Intentional and deliberate “Copy-and-paste” plagiarism will cause you to fail the course. 
Attend class, be on time… and all that.