Advanced Composition - ENGH 302

Part of the Mason Core and Mason Impact, ENGH 302 as the second course in Mason’s vertical writing curriculum builds on student learning in ENGH 100/101 through advanced rhetorical analysis, inquiry-based research into a variety of scholarly and public perspectives, and writing oriented toward investigating, engaging with, and responding to meaningful disciplinary questions in a variety of academic and non-academic contexts. ENGH 302 is offered in five versions: business (B), humanities (H), multidisciplinary (M), natural sciences (N), and social sciences (S).

ENGH 302 introduces students to potential undergraduate research opportunities as part of the Students as Scholars (SaS) initiative. SaS provides funding for undergraduate research projects in a variety of multi-disciplinary endeavors. ENGH 302 students are encouraged to engage in inquiry and discovery as they work through complex writing and research-oriented tasks that prepare them to shape and reshape our world by drawing upon their growing disciplinary expertise.

The courses are offered in a variety of learning modalities, including face-to-face, hybrid, hybrid online, and both synchronous and asynchronous online. For a description of course modalities and to see how each type of modality appears on PatriotWeb, please visit our course modalities page.

ENGH 302 Learning Outcomes

Students will be able to analyze rhetorical situations–audience, purpose, and context–in order to recognize the expectations of readers and understand the main purposes of composing across multiple contexts relevant to their fields of study.
Students will understand the conventions of academic and non-academic genres, to include usage, specialized vocabulary, format, and attribution/citation systems.
Students will be able to apply critical reading strategies that are appropriate to advanced academic and non-academic texts of relevance to their fields of study.
Students will identify and synthesize multiple perspectives in articulating and refining a research question relevant to their fields of study.
Students will engage in a recursive process of inventing, investigating, shaping, drafting, revising, and editing to produce a range of academic and non-academic texts of relevance to their fields of study.

SaS Student Learning Outcomes

CORE: Articulate and refine a question, problem, or challenge
ETHICAL: Identify relevant ethical issues and follow ethical principles
DISCOVERY: Distinguish between personal beliefs and evidence
METHOD: Gather and evaluate evidence appropriate to the inquiry
METHOD: Appropriately analyze scholarly evidence
CONTEXT: Explain how knowledge is situated and shared in relevant scholarly contexts

Requirements and Prerequisites

Students are advised to complete the ENGH 302 version that is most relevant to their major field or postgraduate professional plans. All students are welcome to take 302-Multidisciplinary. Students should take ENGH 302 by the end of their junior year, so that they may incorporate their new knowledge into senior-level research and writing projects in their major field and in writing intensive courses.

All students who register for ENGH 302, regardless of discipline, must meet the following prerequisites:

Completion of a minimum of 45 credit hours
Credit or waiver for ENGH 100 or ENGH 101
Completion of the Mason Core literature requirement (see information at the Mason Core website)

Note: The College of Engineering and Computing requires students to take specific versions of ENGH 302, based on major. If you are a student with the College of Engineering and Computing, you must talk with your advisor and make sure you are enrolled in the correct version of ENGH 302.

Resources for Students

Catalog Course Description and Current Schedule

Waivers for the Composition Program

The Writing Center

Writing Across the Curriculum

GMU Library

Students as Scholars

Office of Academic Integrity