First Year Writing Program

Program | ENGW 101 | ENGW 102 | Links | Committee

Overview of Course Objectives for College Writing:

The six-credit College Writing curriculum provided by the Nazareth College ENGW Department consists of two semesters of rigorous, sequential work in composition and rhetoric.   The majority of   first year students are required to take ENGW 101: Exposition in the fall of their first year, followed by ENGW 102: Argumentation and Research in the spring semester.  These courses are distinct in their foci, the latter building on the skills taught in the former, but both courses feature a common emphasis on writing process (particularly recursive revision), close monitoring by instructors (including customized feedback and individual writing conferences) and effective writing workshop protocol (particularly the students' ability to recognize strengths and weaknesses in their own and others' writing).

Another significant objective shared by both courses is the inculcation of skepticism in readers/ listeners/viewers; students are taught to analyze not only the content, but also the credibility, of a variety of texts--written, visual and aural. Early in the first semester, instructors are expected to assess their students for their writing proficiency using a diagnostic prompt from the list provided by the department. Areas of student writing to be assessed include:   claim development and support, organizational facility, clarity of expression, precision of vocabulary, mastery of grammatical conventions, and awareness of audience expectations.   These initial assessments help the instructor shape a flexible, tiered curriculum designed to augment skills essential for success at the college level and beyond.

Students who arrive at Nazareth with 6 college credits in English composition, whether through a 4 or 5 AP   exam score or transferred college courses, place out of ENGW 101-102.   Students who arrive with 3 credits typically take ENGW 103: Writing in the Disciplines, though students interested in PIPCID, the Honors Program, or Pre-Law may wish to enroll in ENGW 251: Rhetoric I.   On the basis of outstanding high school performance and SAT scores, some first-year students may be invited to take ENGW 251-252: Rhetoric I-II in lieu of ENGW 101-102.

Exposition (ENGW 101)
Argument and Research (ENGW 102)
Links to English Resources

Exposition (ENGW 101)

This course focuses on moving students from the initially useful, but ultimately limited and limiting five-paragraph structure they learned in secondary school to genre- and assignment-specific essays of greater length and complexity.   Purpose-driven writing instruction teaches students that they are entering varying discourse communities (with varying expectations for style, tone, organization, development and content) depending on what they are writing, and for whom . This awareness, coupled with intense practice at all stages of the writing process, prepares students to write productively and appropriately in their concurrent and future courses.

This course will concentrate on the modes (see the following outline of ENGW 101 skills sets).   However, a professor does not have to divide the course into the specific modes explicitly as long as the students learn a common vocabulary and are consciously aware of the modes used in successful expository writing. ENGW 101 requires a minimum of 15-20 pages of "final" copy; students will, in fact, produce double this amount in draft material.  

For information about the skill sets covered in Exposition (ENGW 101), please follow this link.

Argument and Research (ENGW 102)

This course carries forth the key methods and objectives of ENGW 101, but now engages students in scholarly application, focusing on argumentation techniques (including recognition of such rhetorical strategies in professional writing) and research protocol (including library holdings/database navigation, as well as academic integrity in all of its complexity).   Students bring their newly learned (or recently augmented) exposition skills into the arena of higher-level college discourse, learning to develop sophisticated, textually supported, logical arguments free from fallacious and/or unsupported claims.

Students typically produce 20-25 pages of final copy in ENGW 102, again supported by a comparable amount of draft prose.   At the end of ENGW 102, students compile a reflective portfolio through which they self-evaluate their progress and provide evidence for their instructor's evaluation.   These portfolios also serve as evidence of the success of the program, and random samples will be evaluated regularly as part of program-wide assessment.

The two courses, together, provide students with a solid foundation for further work in the numerous discourse communities they will encounter in their core and major courses, as well as in their future academic and professional contexts.   Regardless of their majors, vocations or graduate school intentions, students will be expected to produce clear and cogent writing that is attentive to its context.   Our belief is that there are key transferable skills in oral and written communication that will enhance the productivity and citizenship of all of our students, irrespective of their career choices. In the following section, these skills are itemized for both ENGW 101 and ENGW 102.

For information about the skill sets covered in Argument and Research (ENGW 102), please follow this link.

First-Year Writing Program Committee:

Dr. Virginia Skinner-Linnenberg
Director of Writing Programs

Dr. Joseph M. Viera
Associate Professor of English

Dr. Adrielle Mitchell
Assistant Professor of English

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