ENGL 120 and 121 are inquiry-based writing courses. In them, students should use writing and reading (primarily from non-fiction texts) to investigate issues that are significant for their development as writers and readers in an academic context. Through this work, students will develop habits of mind that are important for writers:  assessing audience expectations; reading critically; engaging with others' ideas in analytic and research-based writing; developing control over surface features of writing; and discovering, cultivating, and being reflective about their writing processes. This development takes place recursively – that is, students master these strategies by practicing with them repeatedly through their work in these two courses and others at EMU. This work begins in ENGL 120 and continues through ENGL 121, by the end of which successful students will have achieved these outcomes.

Rhetorical Awareness
In ENGL 120, students will practice with the following strategies. By the end of ENGL 121, students will:

• Become aware of expectations of different audiences
• Analyze different contexts for writing
• Employ genres that achieve the purpose of their writing and that reach their audiences
• Focus on a purpose for writing that balances audience expectations with the desires of the writer
• Make explicit choices about the form and content of their writing
  

Faculty in all programs and departments can build on this preparation by helping students learn:

• The main features of writing in their fields
• The main uses of writing in their fields
• The expectations of readers in their fields
  

Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing
In ENGL 120, students will practice with the following strategies. By the end of ENGL 121, students will:

• Use writing and discussion to work through and interpret complex ideas from readings and other texts (e.g., visual, musical, verbal)
• Critically analyze their own and others' choices regarding language and form (e.g., in student texts or formally published texts)
• Engage in multiple modes of inquiry using text (e.g., field research, library-based inquiry, web searching)
• Incorporate significant research (as above) into writing that engages a question and/or topic and uses it as a central theme for a substantive, research-based essay
• Use writing to support interpretations of text, and understand that there are multiple interpretations of text
• Consider and express the relationship of their own ideas to the ideas of others

Faculty in all programs and departments can build on this preparation by helping students learn

• To use writing for critical thinking in their field
• To develop relationships among critical thinking, analytical reading, and writing in their field
• To find relationships among language, knowledge, and power in their field
  

Processes
In ENGL 120, students will practice with the following strategies.  By the end of ENGL 121, students will:

• Use written, visual, and/or experience-based texts as tools to develop ideas for writing
• Understand that writing takes place through recurring processes of invention, revision, and editing
• Develop successful, flexible strategies for their own writing through the processes of invention, revision, and editing
• Experience and understand the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes
• Learn to critique their own and others' work
• Be reflective about their writing processes
  

Faculty in all programs and departments can build on this preparation by helping students learn

• To build toward final products of writing in stages
• To review work-in-progress in collaborative peer groups for substantive revision and editing
• To save extensive editing for later parts of the writing process
  

Knowledge of Conventions
In ENGL 120, students will practice with the following strategies.  By the end of ENGL 121, students will:

• Understand the conventions of particular genres of writing
• Use conventions associated with a range of dialects, particularly standardized written English (but not necessarily limited to it)
• Recognize and address patterns in their writing that unintentionally diverge from patterns expected by their audience/s
• Practice using academic citational systems (MLA or APA) for documenting work
  

Faculty in all programs and departments can build on this preparation by helping students learn:

• The conventions of usage, specialized vocabulary, format, and documentation in their fields
• Strategies through which better control of conventions can be achieved
  

Use of Technology
In ENGL 120, students will practice with the following strategies.  By the end of ENGL 121, students will:

• Experience working through the drafting process using computers
• Consider the relationship between on-line (e.g., hypertextual, e-mail) and off-line genres of writing
• Use computers to facilitate their processes of inquiry
• Locate and critically assess sources available on-line
  

Faculty in all programs and departments can build on this preparation by helping students learn:

• To use computers to facilitate their drafting and revising for a variety of writing tasks
• To develop criteria for assessing on-line sources in their field