Freshman English: ENGL 104 - Basic Writing
English 104 is required of all students who enter the University of Connecticut with verbal SAT scores of 430 and below, and it is optional for those who enter with verbal SAT scores of 440 to 540. The course is designed, as the University General Catalog puts it, to help students “develop the reading and writing skills essential to university work.” Students placed in or who choose to take English 104 must pass the course before electing one of the required Freshman English Seminars (either English 110 or 111). The course carries four credits and the class limit is fifteen students. The four credits granted for passing the course do count toward graduation. Some 104 sections may be designated for ESL (English as a Second Language) students.

Goals of the course: English 104 prepares students for the rigorous reading and writing tasks required in the Freshman English Seminars (either English 110 or 111). Since the students enrolled in English 104 either have uneven reading and writing skills or lack confidence in their ability as readers and writers, the course immerses students in language through reading of a range of academic essays and literary texts and through close examination in conferences and small group tutorials of their own writing. English 104 is a course in basic academic writing. As Mike Rose points out in Lives on the Boundary, “Virtually all the writing academics do is built on the writing of others. Every argument proceeds from the texts of others” (180). In English 104, then, students will learn how to shape an argument, how to deploy and structure evidence, how to develop their own thought in relation to the ideas in their reading, and how to revise, edit, and proofread their final drafts so that the writing conforms to the conventions of standard English. English 104 will teach students “how to weave quotations in with [their] own prose, how to mark the difference, how to cite whom [they use], how to strike the proper balance between [their] writing and someone else's–how, in short, to position [themselves] in an academic discussion” (Rose 180). English 104 requires, as do English 110 and 111, that students write in the context of reading and that they write and re-write often. English 104 students are capable of doing and thus expected to do demanding and quality work.

Reading: Students will be asked to read as much as possible in order to see how texts work–how English prose moves, how syntactical variations work, how conventions of grammar and usage aid understanding–and how writers work to shape their ideas and arguments in extended prose. As students write in response to what they read–analyzing the rhetoric of a text, constructing a counter-argument, synthesizing multiple readings in an extended argument–they begin work as academic writers, work that is developed further in English 110 or 111 and throughout their college and professional lives. The texts for the course are generally a non-fiction prose reader (one of the standard composition anthologies, NOT a basic writing paragraph and sentence workbook) and a handbook, supplemented at times with one full length book.

Writing: By the end of the semester after reading, discussing, drafting, re-reading, revising and so on, students should have written at least twenty-five (25) pages of typed, revised, edited prose. Since the class size is limited to fifteen students, instructors should work individually with each student on revision throughout the term. In addition, writing workshops for all students for drafting essays and follow-up whole class revision workshops are also appropriate. Instructors will also work with students on grammar and mechanics individually as needed.

Learning goals for English 104: The goals for English 104 are to prepare students to participate successfully in the Freshman Seminars and all other university courses where writing is essential. We hope then to help students begin to understand through practice certain features of critical literacy, academic rhetoric, and writing conventions while also developing self knowledge of their own strengths and weaknesses as writers.

Critical literacy:

* the ability to represent the relationship between one’s own ideas and ideas from reading
(that is, to demonstrate how one reads by way of writing)

Academic rhetoric:

* understands reader expectations
* responds appropriately to assignments

Writing conventions:

* centers final drafts on a controlling purpose (thesis) that requires to be defended
* structures whole paper based on the requirements of the argument
* understands the logical and stylistic relationships within and between paragraphs
* understands when and how to document sources

Self understanding as writers:

* understands their own strengths and weakness as academic writers
* has strategies for drafting, revision, and proofreading that work for them
* understands that writing develops throughout their academic careers

For more information on the goals of the Freshman English Program and the principles and practices of teaching English 104 and the Freshman English Seminars, please see the “Statement of Pedagogical Principles and Practices” for English 110 and 111.

Thomas Recchio, Director of Freshman English
October 19th, 2005