Catalog Description

Variable theme composition course focused on academic discourse, research, and argumentation. Instruction and practice in developing reading, writing, and research skills introduced in ENG100 and employed across the curriculum. Emphasis is on rhetorical analysis and a process approach to writing effective academic arguments. Students must pass the course with a grade of “C-“ or higher to satisfy the University requirement in general reading and writing competencies. 

Focus

This course is a variable theme composition course focused on academic discourse, research, and argumentation. Students will also develop their reading, writing, research, and critical thinking abilities as they come into contact with the ways that at least three disciplines (two of which are in the Humanities Commons) engage a particular theme. In addition, by studying scholarship across disciplines students will develop rhetorical awareness about the arguments, approaches, and other conventions of these disciplines. A focus throughout the course will be on enabling students to take a process approach to making effective arguments in a complex academic context.

Humanities Commons Student Learning Goals

ENG 200H is a first-year Humanities Commons course within the Common Academic Program, which will replace the General Education program beginning fall 2013. As such, its student learning outcomes (listed in the next section) are designed to support the six student learning goals of the Humanities Commons.

By completing the courses within the Humanities Commons, students will:

• Read primary texts closely and critically (including self-critically);
• Analyze, in writing, a variety of texts contributing to larger historical conversations, debates, and traditions and as resources for understanding and appreciating the complexities of human identity, dignity, and experience;
• Develop an understanding of their place in community, country, and world in relationship to multiple others, with particular attention to differences – such as class, gender, and race – upon which social inequalities are constructed and maintained;
• Engage central concepts of Catholic intellectual tradition as they contribute to humanistic inquiry and reflection in the relevant academic discipline (English, History, Philosophy, or Religious Studies);
• Examine the question of what it means to be human from a disciplinary perspective, and in the process make connections among disciplines and develop an appreciation for the ways in which learning is a process of integrating knowledge
• Understand and practice academic honesty as foundational to the making and sharing of knowledge in a community of learners that is both local and global.

ENG 200H Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of ENG 200H, students should be able to:

• Write about primary and secondary texts on the course theme in a manner that reflects the ability to read critically;
• Engage in a process approach to writing college-level prose;
• Produce rhetorically effective college-level expository prose;
• Produce well researched academic arguments and appeals that are documented in accordance with the MLA style manual;
• Examine one topic from at least three disciplinary perspectives (two of which are in the Humanities Commons);
• Examine one topic with attention to differences such as race, class, gender, and/or sexuality.
• Explore the relevance of Catholic intellectual tradition for the study of reading, writing, and/or rhetoric as human endeavors.

Readings and Textbooks

All sections of ENG 200 are required to use the following handbook: Lunsford, Andrea. The Everyday Writer. 4th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2010. Print.

Writing Requirements

Informal Writing Assignments

A Diagnostic Essay: All students are required to write a brief (1-2 page) diagnostic essay in response to a prompt of the instructor’s choosing. The diagnostic essay may be written inside or outside of class but should be collected by the instructor no later than the second class meeting.

The primary purpose of the diagnostic essay is to give the instructor a sense of students’ writing abilities early in the course so that the instructor can teach as effectively as possible to each class. If a student’s diagnostic essay suggests strongly that they have been placed in the wrong composition course, contact the Director of Writing Programs. Individual placement issues should not be discussed with students.

Formal Writing Assignments

In addition to the diagnostic essay, students must write at least four formal essays totaling at least 18 pages of university-level prose (not counting revisions). One of these formal writing assignments must involve significant library research including the use of Roesch Library catalog and databases. The remaining formal writing assignments may take a variety of appropriate forms of college-level prose and should be designed as well as sequenced to enable students to achieve the learning outcomes for this course.

Information Literacy

To enable students to achieve the outcomes related to research and documentation, ENG 200H requires that all students complete the library tutorials and produce at least one formal essay that depends upon significant library research.

Students enrolled in ENG 200H must complete all three online library modules and quizzes through Isidore at http://isidore.udayton.edu. To encourage students to take these tutorials seriously, instructors are strongly encouraged to make the scores that students earn on the quizzes associated with each tutorial part of the course grade for ENG 200H.

In order to produce a formal writing assignment that depends on library research, all sections of ENG 200H are required to visit Roesch Library during the course of the semester for instruction provided by one of the Roesch Library instructional faculty. To set up this instructional session, contact the LTC (229-4259).

The ideal time to schedule a library session is after students have determined their research topics and before the formal writing assignment is due.  

Information Literacy Outcomes

Upon completion of a library session for ENG 200, students should be able to:

• Locate popular and scholarly sources through online catalogs (UD, OhioLINK);
• Use appropriate limiters within these resources;
• Interpret results correctly in the online catalogs;
• Recognize online databases and understand their usefulness;
• Locate popular and scholarly sources through online databases.

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