College of Arts & Sciences

Writing Course Descriptions & Outcomes

ENGD 090 -- Writing Workshop

The goals of ENGD 090 Writing Workshop are to enhance your appreciation for the value of writing, improve the quality and fluency of your writing, prepare you for college-level writing and provide you with progressive and challenging learning experiences. ENGD 090 is a prerequisite for ENG 101.

The usual work load for this class includes:

  • Approximately 10 pages of reading per week
  • 10-15 pages (3,000-4,500 words) of polished writing per term
  • 5-7 major writing assignments, plus a journal
  • Minor assignments as necessary, mostly in class
  • Approximately 5-6 hours of work outside of class each week

By the end of the semester, students should be able to:

  • Show familiarity with a variety of strategies for each stage of the writing process
  • Use detail and specificity to achieve a rhetorical purpose
  • Develop and organize their ideas
  • Implement strategies for engaging readers and anticipating audience needs
  • Follow accepted conventions of usage, spelling capitalization and idioms
  • Demonstrate understanding of the value of writing

ENG 101 -- College Writing

This course will help you become more successful in the writing you will do as a college student and beyond the university. The course guides you from writing about your personal experiences toward writing that responds to the ideas of others. You will write and revise many drafts, and you will receive feedback on your writing in workshops and conferences. You will read to learn about the kinds of choices writers make.

The usual work load in this class includes:

  • Approximately 10-15 pages of reading per week
  • 15-20 pages (4,500-6,000 words) of polished writing per term
  • 4-5 major writing assignments
  • Minor assignments as necessary: responses to readings, journals, quizzes, etc.
  • Approximately 5-6 hours of work outside of class each week

By the end of the semester, students should be able to:

  • Write for particular audiences and purposes
  • Create and organize ideas in writing
  • Understand that your writing affects a reader and revise to improve that effect
  • Read to identify an author's decisions
  • Locate popular sources, evaluate their usefulness, use them effectively, and cite them correctly
  • Identify and avoid plagiarism
  • Edit and proofread for a polished final product.

ENG 151 -- Honors College Writing

ENG 151 is a selective admissions Honors course that accomplishes the goals of both ENG 101 and ENG 291 in an accelerated single semester. The course is appropriate for you if you are highly prepared and ready to be challenged as you make the transition into university-level writing. This course has a thematic or interdisciplinary emphasis and will be conducted as a seminar. You are encouraged to participate in groups, discuss ideas, give oral reports, and collaborate on some projects.

This course is based upon the premise that good writers write frequently, read carefully, use a writing process, and collaborate with others to improve what they write. As a result, you will write and revise many drafts, and you will receive feedback on your writing in class workshops and conferences with your professor.

You will also read to discover new perspectives, to enlarge your repertoire of rhetorical and stylistic strategies, and to become a discerning user of sources.

The work load for this course depends on the instructor because assignments appropriate for ENG 151 will vary, but students can expect several major writing projects.

By the end of the semester, students should be able to:

  • Explore new ideas and styles in writing
  • Generate unique topics and develop and organize ideas
  • Re-think and revising the development and organization of your writing
  • Respond productively to the work of other writers
  • Read critically to identify an author's rhetorical and stylistic choices
  • Locate and evaluate print and electronic sources, both popular and scholarly, to support and challenge your own ideas
  • Use sources effectively and ethically, avoiding plagiarism and documenting sources fully, accurately, and consistently
  • Edit and proofread for a polished final product

ENG 291 -- Advanced Writing

This course will help you become a more independent writer. The course treats writing as a process of research, revision, multiple drafts, and feedback through peer workshops and instructor conferences. The course also requires reading to help you engage with the ideas of others and discover new writing techniques.

The usual work load for this class includes:

  • Approximately 15-20 pages of reading per week
  • 20-25 pages (6,000-7,500 words) of polished writing per term
  • 4-5 major writing assignments
  • Minor assignments as necessary: responses to readings, journals, quizzes, etc.
  • Approximately 5-6 hours of work outside of class each week

By the end of the semester, students should be able to:

  • Make decisions appropriate for academic and public audiences and purposes
  • Generate, develop, organize, revise, and refine your ideas
  • Search library databases to locate newspaper, magazine, and scholarly journal articles
  • Use search engines such as Google to locate popular and scholarly web sites
  • Evaluate sources for credibility, currency, and usefulness
  • Integrate sources smoothly into your writing
  • Document sources fully, accurately, and consistently
  • Edit and proofread for a polished final product