top of page

Unit 1 
Week 1

Hello and welcome to Composition 1!

Before we dive in to learning, there's a bit of housekeeping to get out of the way.

Please, before you do anything else in the Week 1 folder:

  • Read the Syllabus

  • Look over the Schedule

  • Order the textbook (both hard copy or e-book are fine)

 

Have you done all of the above? Fantastic! Let's get started. 

 

There are two related lesson topics this week that will prepare you for reading and writing at the college level . You'll have reading assignments for each topic, activities to do, and disscussion or journal posts to submit. The topics are:

  1.  Introduction to Composition 1: Overview of Writing's Various Purposes and Contexts 

  2.  Strategically Reading for College and Beyond

​

Topic 1: Introduction to Composition 1, Overview of Writing

 

Read the following:

​

Journaling Activity: Due at latest by Saturday 8/28 11:59 CST

  • After reading the chapter, ponder over your strengths and weaknesses in the four "writing goal" areas: rhetorical knowledge; critical thinking, reading and composing; writing processes; and knowledge of conventions. 

  • Next, via the Blackboard Journal option, submit a journal entry between 200-500 words about your self-assessment. Name the Journal Entry "Week 1". You can write your entry in paragraph form, make a list, or use another type of thought organization that you are comfortable with.

 

Please note:

This journaling activity (and all other journaling activities!) are part of your participation grade and are pass/fail depending only on whether you submitted it and it meets the basic criteria asked for. You won't be graded on the content, spelling, grammar, or any other technical thing- just whether it exists or not.  Only you and I will ever see it, so there's no need to fear opening up and being vulnerable. 

​

These journal entries are here to benefit you! I promise. At the end of this semester, you'll have to write a self-reflection essay about what you've learned and how you've grown as a writer. These journal entries will be the *perfect* material for you to quickly reference when writing the last essay. 

​

Topic 2: Strategically Reading for College and Beyond

​

Please Read:

 

Discussion Post Activities 1 and 2: 

  • Complete Discussion Posts 1 and 2. (The instructions for each are contained within the powerpoint listed above in Topic 1.)

  • These discussion posts are both due by Saturday August 27th 11:59 pm CST.

  • You have an additional week, until Saturday September 3rd 11:59 CST, to post response comments on other students' discussion threads. Remember to be courteous and curious!

Unit 2
Week 2

Welcome to Week 2!

This week we'll be learning about:

  • The Historical Development of Writing Systems: It's a communication form that has developed to convey the meaning behind personal abstract thoughts to others through a standardization of public symbol usage;

  • The individual mental processes behind meaning-making and meaning-sharing;

  • The processes you go through as a writer to compose a written work;

  • Embracing and overcoming the inherent vulnerability that goes hand-in-hand with writing for a public audience. 

It's going to be a heavy-hitting metacognitive week. You'll be actively forced to think about your personal thinking habits themselves as well as how they influence your sub-conscious and conscious stages of the process of composition. 

​

Topic 1: The Historical Development of Writing Systems

​

Why writing?

​

Writing is a communication form that has developed over millennia to convey the meaning behind ones' personal abstract thoughts to others through a standardization of public symbol usage.

​

The earliest forms of people using symbols to communicate ideas involved physical objects representing non-tangible concepts. Then, drawings were standardized as visual representations of the objects and the object's associated meaning. In this way, abstract concepts became linked to specific visualized symbols. From there, grouping multiple drawn symbols together could create elaborate messaging that was permanent and reach multiple audiences. People could communicate ideas and values and narrative stories through time and space.

Read:
 

Watch:

​

Topic 2: Mental Processes of Meaning Making and Meaning Sharing

​

It's much less daunting to write when you know how the process works. The following powerpoint and chapter readings delve in to three different composition processes that you do daily (but likely don't think about in depth). 

​

  1. The unconscious process of developing the thoughts you think

  2. The in-between process of mentally translating your personal thoughts into messages for the public

  3. The conscious process of putting pen to paper and writing

 

Please read:

 

*Update 9/1/2022: I have fixed the incorrect link that was for Powerpoint and Instructions for Discussion Post 3. The article it was incorrectly linking to, Writing Is Recursive, now has its own separate hyperlink. *

​

Unit 1
Week 3

Topic 1: Overcoming Writing Fears and Anxieties

​

This week we're busting common myths about writing and facing our writing fears and anxieties.

I'll let you in on a secret: you aren't alone in struggling to write. Everyone has at least one hang-up when it comes to writing that makes them feel anxious. 

To build up your courage and expose the secrets of writer's block, the following readings will hopefully reveal something new to you that will help you feel more secure in your college writing career moving forward. 

​

There's no one right way to write. That's an initially scary thought...until you embrace it and discover the freedom and power that truth empowers you with. 

 

Read:

 

Bad Ideas About Writing is a collection of essays that "bust myths" and misconceptions about writing. Pick at least three of the essays in this book to read, whichever ones you feel drawn to. 

​

Personal Journal Activity:

​

Self-reflect your own writing insecurities in relation to the three essays you chose to read from Bad Ideas About Writing. For example, What experiences have you had that you wish could have gone differently? What aspects of the writing process do you find yourself struggling with...and would like help with turning into strengths? Were there any particularly interesting insights you gained from the essays? 

Please state the names of which essays you chose to read at the start of your journal entry. 

Write at minimum 500 words. Due by 9/10 at 11:59 pm CST.

 

Watch:

 

Writing Activities:

Sit down with a pen and paper. For 15 minutes daily every day this week, "write without thinking" as Nicoletta Demetriou describes in the above Tedx talk. Capture your thoughts, whatever they are and however they appear. "Write with no expectation and no demands..."Something will happen."

 

Discussion Post Four:

You have two options to choose from this week for your discussion topic. 

  1. Share with the class your experience with your sitting and writing your thoughts for the week. What were the most surprising, interesting, or helpful thoughts that you discovered your brain was in the process of forming? 

  2. Share your thoughts about recent readings in class. What new information, if any, has caught your interest? Is there anything you're wanting to learn more about or have come up with questions for? 

 

Your initial discussion post is Due by 9/10 at 11:59 pm CST.

Your minimum of two thoughtful and respectful response posts to fellow students are due by 10/17 at 11:59pm CST. 

bottom of page