21 1010: Course Objectives & Curriculum Summary

ENGL1010: EXPOSITORY WRITING

Expository Writing focuses on writing as a genre and on learning to adapt composing processes to a variety of expository and analytical writing assignments. More broadly, students are invited to understand how literacy functions in their own lives, in the lives of others, and in communities. By becoming more reflective, flexible writers attendant to the constructed, rhetorical nature of discourse, students build genre awareness key for writing success across the curriculum and in their lives.

True Blue Course Objectives

Examine multimodal literacies across contexts, cultures, and communities, including academic disciplines and public audiences (Reading Processes)

Reflect on literacy in student lives and across learning experiences (Integrative Thinking)

Compose writing tasks that demonstrate understanding of the rhetorical situation(Rhetorical Knowledge)

Revise writing assignments based on iterative feedback and make appropriate decisions about content, form, and presentation (Composing Processes)

Demonstrate understanding of ethical primary research practices (Genre Conventions)

Practice genre analysis of various types of text—print, digital, and audio (Information Literacy)

The textbook for ENGL 1010 is MTSU’s OER  The Muse: Misunderstandings and Their Remedies.

The Digital Archive of Literacy Narratives, Writing Spaces, Bad Ideas About Writing, and Try This: Research Methods For Writers are also recommended sites and sources to consult when creating assignments for 1010.

In what follows, we offer a description of the purpose of each writing project (the exigency), the primary learning objectives for the project (derived from course objectives), genre opportunities for the project (delivery), course reading suggestions (content), and scaffolding assignments (invention).

Project 1: Personal Literacy

The purpose of this assignment is to draw students’ attention to themselves as literate individuals, writers and rhetors who have made many informed decisions about composition throughout their lives. Through building metacognitive awareness, this project introduces students to each other, to you, and writing at the university level. It also helps them begin to see discourse as constructed and rhetorical, key components of the course and later success as flexible, strategic writers. Because this assignment asks students to draw on their past experiences, they must also use “I” –an experience that some students feel uncomfortable about initially, though many find it liberating and enjoyable. This is also a great tone-setting assignment in which you can encourage students to experiment, challenge themselves, and find joy in writing.

True Blue Core Objectives Emphasized:

• Compose writing tasks that demonstrate understanding of the rhetorical situation
• Reflect on literacy in student lives and across learning experiences
• Revise writing assignments based on iterative feedback and make appropriate decisions about content, form, and presentation

Deliverable Variations:

• Literacy Narrative
• Multimodal/Digital Literacy Narrative
• Word Focus/Goal Essay

Project 2: External Literacy

In this project students begin to look outside themselves, bringing their burgeoning rhetorical awareness and literacy understanding to primary research opportunities. Adopting primary research methods such as interviews, surveys, and observations, students draw on their findings to craft a window into someone else’s literacy experiences.

True Blue Objectives Emphasized:

• Demonstrate understanding of ethical primary research practices
• Revise writing assignments based on iterative feedback and make appropriate decisions about content, form, and presentation

Deliverable Variations:

• Discourse Analysis
• Literacy Profile
• Observation Essay

Project 3: Networked Literacies 

In this project, students draw on their literacy learning in Projects 1 and 2 to guide their exploration of how literacy functions more broadly, in communities. In particular, they examine genres rhetorically, considering how community literacies are expressed through genre. Genres function like cultural artifacts, demonstrating their needs, values, and expectations through discourse. Students might focus on one genre in particular, or they might examine myriad genres of a particular community, such as that of a particular university community, major, or discipline. Instructors can pull from a wide range of topics, including but not limited to print/digital advertisements, song lyrics, and film/tv shows.

True Blue Objectives Emphasized:

• Examine multimodal literacies across contexts, cultures, and communities, including academic disciplines and academic audiences
• Practice genre analysis of various types of text—print, digital, and audio
• Revise writing assignments based on iterative feedback and make appropriate decisions about content, form, and presentation

Deliverable Variations:

• Genre Analysis
• Genre Development

Project 4: Integrated Literacy Reflection 

In this project, students are asked to thoughtfully and mindfully reflect on their work from across the semester and develop an attendant reflection on their learning. In addition to giving students the opportunity to articulate their understandings of course material, the presentational aspect of the project invites students to share their learning with each other, prime their work for ENGL1020, and integrate lessons learned across their coursework.

True Blue Objectives Emphasized:

• Practice genre analysis of various types of text –print, digital, and audio
• Reflect on literacy in student lives and across learning experiences
• Revise writing assignments based on iterative feedback and make appropriate decisions about content, form, and presentation

Deliverable Variations:

• E-Portfolio and Reflection
• Presentation of theory of writing