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The Composition Program

English 101

English 101 Syllabus — Sample
English 101 Consent Form
English 100 and 101— Student Memorandum

English 101 teaches the paragraph and the rudiments of the essay. ENG101 should review and teach grammar and syntax, so students will understand basic requirements for composing college-level expository writing. The course emphasizes the structure and components of the paragraph, and the course develops competence in essays.

The course covers the following skill areas: Various sentence types, constructions, and structures, paragraph structure, modifiers, verb forms, pronouns, expanding vocabulary/diction, punctuation, mechanics, spelling. Other areas that need coverage will be included, as needed.

These skills should lead to competence at writing at the paragraph and essay levels. These activities aim to develop the writing skills needed for success in subsequent English Composition courses. All ENG 101 sections must teach the following four rhetorical modes:

Narration,
Description,
Process,
Exemplification.

ENG101 focuses on writing competent paragraphs, narrative compositions, and essays. Since approximately forty percent of incoming students are placed into ENG101, considerable time and attention should be paid to the standard elements of sentences and paragraphs. This is to say that, although lengthy narrative compositions and the four modes essays will constitute the basis of most coursework, faculty members should pay considerable attention to the problems and errors that trouble basic writers' sentences and paragraphs.

The course also introduces students to a historical novel, Coming of Age in Mississippi, which should be sued to enhance the class discussions and the content of the papers. You might want to have students react to parts of the autobiography in their assigned writing.

Students will need to be taken to the Writing Lab, in the first or second week of class. They must attend the Lab for 12 hours a semester. Contact the Learning Resource Center to schedule your first visit, after which students can attend at their own schedule to perform the 12 hours.

Required Texts:

Eschholz, Paul, and Alfred Rosa. Subjects/Strategies A Writer's Reader. Tenth Ed. NY: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005.

Moody, Anne. Coming of Age in Mississippi.

Robitaille, Julie, and Robert Connelly. Writer's Resources: From Paragraph to Essay. NY: Wadsworth/Thomson, latest ed.

Writing. Normally, six graded compositions, three composed in class, constitute the major work in the class, and should be the major determination for the student's final grade for the course. Faculty members are encouraged to assign quizzes and exams that test students' knowledge of mechanics, grammar, and usage. Faculty members are encouraged to assign additional essays. The traditional five-paragraph essay structure, with thesis statement, topic sentences, introductions and conclusions, should be emphasized. The final drafts of essays should grow out of sentence outlines and then multiple-revision drafts; these aspects should be treated as discrete, sequential parts of essay assignments. Faculty members are encouraged to allow students to revise most of their essays; revision grades may be incorporated into the grading system according to the faculty member's judgment.

Portfolios for advanced students: When a faculty member believes that a student was "mis-placed" (with the scores from the ACT or SAT) into ENG 100, then the faculty member may recommend that the student be advanced into ENG 101 or 102. A portfolio (containing a minimum of four graded compositions and a letter of recommendation from the student's professor) must be submitted to a special committee, composed of the Writing Program Administrator (Dr. Hoogeveen), and other Department members. If the special committee concurs with the faculty member's recommendation, then the WPA will make a recommendation to the Department Chair (Dr. Button), who will decide if the student will be advanced.

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