ENGH 101 One Page Curriculum Description

Overview and Main Concepts

ENGH 101 provides student writers with the skills and mindsets needed to effectively respond to a range of academic and public writing situations through particular attention to rhetorical flexibility and inquiry-based research. Students learn to engage in a process of discovery and consider diverse perspectives before making a judgment, taking a stance, or proposing a solution. Students learn to analyze and respond to a range of rhetorical situations (writing in various genres for different audiences and purposes); develop strategies to critically read a range of non-fiction genres; engage in in-depth inquiry and writing processes; locate, evaluate, and synthesize source material to discover and answer complex questions; and reflect on what they are learning and how they are applying new knowledge, as well as on their research and writing processes.  

Major Project Requirements

All ENGH 101 classes include (multiple project requirements may be combined into a single assignment):

  • An inquiry-based research assignment that begins with an instructor-reviewed research question
  • An in-depth annotated bibliography that includes an explanatory synthesis writing component or leads to formal synthesis writing (e.g. a synthesis essay)
  • Rhetorical adaptation work in which students work on unique rhetorical situations
    • Information from one project is repurposed for a new rhetorical situation (focusing on adapting one’s writing and linguistic choices for changed purposes, audiences, and genres) 
  • Argument writing
  • Public writing (can include multimodal and/or digital writing)
  • Consistent reflective writing and metacognitive/teaching for transfer work

Major Instructional Topics 

  • The rhetorical situation 
  • Analysis of rhetorical situations, including audience & genre analysis
  • Critical and rhetorical reading, including rhetorical language noticing 
  • Metacognition and reflection
  • Inquiry-based research, including research question development
  • Information literacy, including source evaluation (with lateral reading strategies such as SIFT), selection, analyses, and synthesis
  • Topic brainstorming, selection, and narrowing/exploratory research strategies
  • Writing process, including feedback, revising and editing strategies
  • Argument/persuasive writing, including responses to audience perspectives and concerns

Mason Writing Intensive Requirements

Because this course is a Writing Intensive course, students will: 

  • Produce at least 3500 words of formal graded prose and engage in informal and reflective assignments, early drafts, and/or task-specific writing assignments (e.g. summaries or reading analyses).
  • Be engaged in the writing and research process and regularly receive feedback and instruction.
  • Revise at least one major project after receiving detailed instructor feedback prior to submitting for a grade.