First-Year Composition

This is a class about writing, how it works, what the student's relationship with it is, and what they might want to do differently as writers during their time in college and beyond. This course is designed to give students the opportunity to plan, draft, reflect, and revise throughout the semester. One goal of the course is to help students understand content (declarative knowledge, threshold concepts) about writing, as well as to engage in the processes (procedural knowledge) of drafting and revising a variety of genres for various audiences and purposes. The course grading aligns with best practices for learning to write; students will receive formative feedback during the semester, and revise their major assignments.

During the 2026-27 academic year, a new version of ENG 111 is being piloted in select courses. This new curriculum will be available for all students beginning Fall 2027.

By the end of the course students will:

• Understand writing as a subject of study and that students contribute to the scholarly conversation.
• Work individually and collaboratively to understand writing as a process and hone their revising and editing skills.
• Study and use a variety of writing tools and understand their specific affordances and constraints.
• Develop their understanding of rhetorical situations as they read and write in several genres. 
• Develop their critical thinking skills as they analyze model texts and secondary sources. 
• Study genre conventions and apply appropriate conventions to their own work.