English: Written Expression

A foundational composition course featuring a sequence of writing, reading, and information literacy assignments. Students learn to write and revise for different rhetorical situations while increasing their mastery of academic conventions. Some sections designed for specific student audiences.

First Year & Sophomores only; Juniors & Seniors needing this course to fulfill the General Education requirement, FWIL, please contact Lise.Larose@uvm.edu for an override. Students who have enrolled in a TAP/FYS, CAS integrated program, or HCOL 1000 have already fulfilled this requirement; Open to Degree and PACE students

Yes, you already know how to write. Or, no, you believe you can't write and never will. Either way, this is not why you're here, engaging with this text, about to enter the landscape of Written Expression. Yes, this college composition course will teach you how to become a better writer—and editor of your own work; but, more than that, the projects, assignments, and explorations on which you're about to embark will give you new sensitivities as a reader and writer. This course consists of four major writing projects: The Social Narrative, Research Question Posing, The Literature Review, and—as an exciting new addition—Reporting and Documentary Storytelling, a lens through which you will explore alternative forms of communication, evaluate audience, and delve into journalism: long or short, audio or visual, print or digital. Through each carefully scaffolded writing project, you will discover the importance of seeing both the world around you and the written word—others' and your own—in a discerning light. And you will take this newfound acuity—critical ways of thinking, close reading, writing, and revising—with you in future academic pursuits and beyond. You will hear not only your own words but also the term, “craft,” as you gather, focus, order, draft, write, revise—and revise again. Know that, at the end of this semester’s voyage of discovery, how you feel and think about writing and its potential to touch others will never be the same. For now, trust the process.

Four Writing Projects—each to include with submission a thinking page, multiple “explorations,” two drafts (a “down” draft and mid-process draft), and post-process letter A freewriting and double-entry Writer’s Notebook (to be kept online via our Blackboard site) Class attendance, active listening and responsiveness, in-class writing exercises Dynamic involvement in group peer-response workshops and teacher conferencing

Four Writing Projects: 20% each Class presence and participation (includes discussions, peer workshops, and online journaling): 20%