Reading, Writing, and Rhetoric in a Nutshell

Let’s be honest. Most of you are going to say that you’re in this class because you have to be. We get that. It doesn’t keep you from learning, from gaining intellectual habits that you can take into other courses, or from learning to communicate information in ways that will be useful for your entire life. Many factors will play into your classroom experience including your instructor, your previous experiences with English classes, your classmates, and what you bring to the table. Every section of the course, however, has shared goals, learning outcomes, and assignments that should be consistent for every student in English 101: Reading, Writing, and Rhetoric.

In the big picture, program goals will enable students to

• Begin to understand college-level expectations for critical reading, critical thinking, and sophisticated writing.
• Leave the course feeling more confident to tackle reading, thinking, and writing goals in other general education courses, in program courses, and leaving the university.
• Understand more clearly that every context, every audience, every situation has a different purpose for reading and writing and that they can be insightful and flexible enough to meet each situation with what is required.
• Meet some people who are new to EKU.
• Have a resource in the instructor, who can help new students negotiate the first year of college.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The university sets certain standards for what all courses should teach and expect of students. For English 101, these are the general education goals set by the university.

Students will be able to:

1. Communicate effectively by applying skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening and through appropriate use of information technology.
2. Use appropriate methods of critical thinking and quantitative reasoning to examine issues and to identify solutions.
3. Integrate knowledge that will deepen their understanding of, and will inform their own choices about, issues of personal and public importance.

Those are great! But, we also have some more specific things we want to get done, as well.

At the end of the semester, students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate comprehension of significant concepts in primary texts.
2. Provide analysis by recognizing the parts or aspects of texts that contribute to understanding the purposes of texts.
3. Connect and integrate concepts from texts to construct and support explanations, conclusions, or arguments through the use of paraphrase, summary, and direct quotations, appropriately cited in a standard format.
4. Evaluate texts by looking at genre, tone, audience, purpose, or other rhetorical features.
5. Organize a composition around a thesis, claims, and supporting evidence from primary texts and present effective transitions between points/paragraphs.
6. Demonstrate recognition of a rhetorical situation and audience and develop an appropriate voice for that situation through paragraphing, sentence structure, variation, rhythm, phrasing, and word choice.
7. Present writing that is clear, accurate, and precise.
8. Use punctuation, grammar, capitalization, citation format, etc. with minor or minimal errors that do not interfere with clarity.

MAJOR ASSIGNMENTS

Almost all sections of English 101, English 101R, English 101Z, or English 101RZ will follow a similar pattern of the major assignments, leading to a final reflective portfolio.

Our standard assignments include:

• Literacy Narrative
• Analysis
• Textual Synthesis
• Reflective ePortfolio

Do “analysis” and “synthesis” sound like work you don’t know how to do? Yeah. We’ve been there. Don’t worry, though. Your instructor is going to explain everything for you and every major assignment will be completed in steps in a process.

Literacy Narrative

Purpose: The literacy narrative is your opportunity to connect your previous experiences with reading and writing, whether in your personal life or school, and to think deeply about your goals for your continued development in college.

Task: You’ll be asked to make a statement of purpose (like a thesis) that makes a claim about your literacy experiences and then provide evidence to support that claim. You might also be asked to bring in quotes or points from one of the readings in this textbook.

Analysis

Purpose: This assignment will ask you to move beyond what you can see on the surface (comprehension) and into the potential connections and meanings beneath the surface of a text (analysis). Analysis is often more intellectually difficult than comprehension, but it is also more rewarding and more interesting.

Task: You will write an essay or create another type of text (podcast/audio essay, video, etc.) that makes an analytical argument about a chosen text. Your instructor will help you choose a text and may require a particular kind: a piece of art, a song, an essay from the textbook, or something else. Choose something that you find at least somewhat interesting!

Synthesis

Purpose: By this point in the semester, you’re moving into more sophisticated intellectual work. While an analysis focuses deeply and specifically on one text, a synthesis makes connections across several texts. In this assignment, you’ll learn how to use critical reading techniques to read and really understand several essays (probably 3-4) and then to create a project that says something interesting about those texts.

Task: You will write an essay or create another type of text (podcast/audio essay, video, etc.) that integrates multiple sources to make a single point, a thesis-driven argument. Your instructor will guide you about how to choose your texts.

ePortfolio

Purpose: A portfolio gives authors the opportunity to show their audience the very best of their work and/or the ways they have improved over a period of time. By reflecting on your work over time, you are also better prepared to transfer reading and writing skills from your English course into other situations that call for writing—such as on the job and in other courses.

Task: This ePortfolio is required for every student in English 101, 101R, 101Z, and 101RZ, and the assignment is almost exactly the same for everyone. Follow your instructor’s directions, but your ePortfolio will include samples of your work as well as written reflections you've completed throughout the semester (usually one for each major assignment) and a final, holistic reflection on your work and learning in the course as a whole.

ASSESSMENT RUBRIC

In order to keep instructors and students on task with these goals, we use what’s called a rubric to give feedback on the work of the course. Here’s how it works.

1. The competent-level categories directly line up with our program goals listed above, so you can clearly see what is most important.
2. As you work to achieve these goals, you can also begin the intellectual work involved to be more persuasive and then more accomplished. The accomplished terms are based on Paul & Elder’s Intellectual Standards, a tried-and-tested framework for deeper thinking.
3. Our rubric isn’t based on any certain number of points gained or lost. It’s what we call “holistic,” which just means that we look at assignments and the work put into it as a whole rather than picking it apart by pieces. In other words, how does it all fit together?
4. The rubric can have many different purposes:
   • When used as a guide for you, the rubric can help you reflect on your goals for the course.
   • Used as a peer review instrument, it gives you vocabulary to discuss course work with your classmates.
   • As a grading tool, it allows your instructor to show you what you’re doing well and what still needs some improvement.
5. For students who are really struggling with the competency standards, you and your instructor should have a conversation about what support we can offer you to help you achieve your goals for the course.

C = COMPETENT

A competent text meets the following standards:

Assignment Standards

_____Follows assignment instructions as specified by the instructor

_____Is organized as the assignment requires (summary, narrative, argument, analysis, etc.).

_____Meets assignment requirements for length, genre, approach, or rhetorical situation.

Critical Reading & Development

_____Demonstrates comprehension of significant concepts in texts.

_____Provides analysis by recognizing the parts or aspects of texts that contribute to understanding the purpose of texts.

_____Connects and integrates concepts from texts to construct and support explanations, conclusions, or arguments, appropriately cited in a standard format.

_____Evaluates texts by looking at genre, tone, audience, purpose, or other rhetorical features.

_____Organizes around a thesis, claims, and supporting evidence.

Conventions of Academic Writing

_____Demonstrates recognition of a rhetorical situation and audience.

_____Presents writing that is clear and accurate.

_____Uses punctuation, grammar, capitalization, citation format, etc. with minor or minimal errors that do not interfere with clarity.

B = PERSUASIVE

A persuasive text meets the following standards in addition to the competency standards above:

_____Presents effective transitions between paragraphs and between sentences.

_____Develops voice through paragraphing, sentence structure, variation, rhythm, phrasing, and word choice.

_____Develops points thoroughly with specific and concrete evidence (ex: quotes, data, statistics).

_____Engages with an appropriate number and kind of reliable sources for support.

_____Integrates evidence from outside sources smoothly and with precise documentation in a relevant citation style.

A = ACCOMPLISHED

An accomplished essay distinguishes itself through one or more of the following characteristics in addition to meeting the competent and persuasive standards above:

D = DEVELOPING (60-69)

A text is developing and will receive a D if it attempts to establish a controlling purpose but fails to competently maintain unity throughout the composition. This text may also lack audience awareness, coherence, and/or evidence and/or have several problems with the conventions of academic writing. You should schedule a conference with your instructor if your text earns a D.

F = BEGINNING/INEFFECTIVE

A text that does not meet the basic standards of competency will receive an F. In this case, you should schedule a conference with your instructor to discuss your ability to be successful in the class.

This text does not meet competency standards because:

• it shows minor problems in all areas, or
• major problems in one or two competence areas.

The most common reasons for receiving an F include unintentional plagiarism, failure to meet assignment requirements such as length or research, or lack of a controlling purpose or thesis.

If you are found to have plagiarized intentionally, your paper will be removed from this general rubric, and we will follow guidelines for an infraction of Academic Integrity. You can see EKU’s Academic Integrity policy at www.academicintegrity.eku.edu.

These assignments have been designed with student learning in mind in this very order to help students connect previous experiences to new ones, read more deeply, create effective academic projects, and reflect on the process to prepare for success moving forward. These descriptions are an overview, so students should always follow individual instructor’s instructions.