General Education Outcomes Applicable for English 120:

∑ Outcome #1: Communicate effectively in a variety of contexts and formats.
∑ Outcome #2: Locate and use information for making appropriate personal and
professional decisions.
∑ Outcome #4: Comprehend intrapersonal and interpersonal dynamics.
∑ Outcome #6: Integrate knowledge and ideas in a coherent and meaningful manner.

Course Description: Concentrates on the process of writing analysis and persuasion essays requiring library research and emphasizes the appropriate use of information from sources, sound reasoning, and strategies for persuading readers.

Course Objectives:
1. Students will learn to write clearly for a variety of specific purposes and audiences, specifically to write convincing, researched arguments.
2. Students will practice effective and efficient writing strategies. The writing process (inventing; developing; focusing; drafting; revising to improve focus, organization, development, and clarity; and editing) is emphasized in a series of researched essays. Instruction is given in writing unified paragraphs, effective beginnings and endings, and appropriate transitions as well as the importance of standard English spelling, grammar, usage, and punctuation when writing for an academic audience.
3. Students will practice active reading strategies: to discover and acknowledge opposing views, to analyze and summarize claims and grounds from alternative perspectives, and to evaluate the arguments of other writers.
4. Students will begin to learn to construct arguments: to present a clear and significant thesis; to defend that thesis with claims that are supported with appropriate evidence; to persuade their readers through the use of appropriate rhetorical strategies; and to recognize common pitfalls in reasoning.
5. Students will learn to conduct library research. In addition to the basic resources used in English 110, they will learn to use specialized references, professional journals, databases, and, perhaps, fieldwork to gather specific, relevant, reliable information, to analyze alternative perspectives, and to use that information to write arguments. Correct and responsible use of MLA documentation is emphasized.

English

120