COURSE DESCRIPTION   

English 110 is a course that will enable students to organize their thoughts and ideas in the form of written arguments for a variety of audiences. The course will introduce a vocabulary and writing process designed to help students improve their reading, writing, and thinking skills as part of Monmouth College’s Communication Across the Curriculum program.

Over the course of the term, students in all sections will write an in-class diagnostic essay, a rhetorical analysis, three regular essays, a sourced (research) essay, and a final assessment essay (part of the final exam) as well as numerous informal pieces. The main focus of the course will be writing and critical reading. The assignments students are given will gradually increase in their degree of difficulty. All essays will be thesis-based arguments, but later essays will require more sophisticated manipulation of rhetorical/developmental strategies.

REQUIRED TEXTS

Hacker, Diane.  The Bedford Handbook.  9th ed.  Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin's, 2014.

         ISBN: 978-1457608025     

Kirszner, Laurie G. and Stephen R. Mandell.  Practical Argument.  2nd ed.  Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin's, 2014.

         ISBN: 978-1457622373    

COURSE OBJECTIVES

A.  Use the steps in the writing process to compose well-reasoned, informed arguments.

B.  Identify and use developmental and organizational strategies for effective thesis-focused writing. 

C.  Write college-level essays characterized by appropriate word choice and diction, standard usage, spelling, and mechanics.