Drexel University

and Philosophy

Dept. of English

English 102: Persuasive Writing and Reading

Instructor: Ms. Allison McNally
Building
Classroom: Curtis 344
Class days/times: Thurs.11-12:20

Office Location: Caf in Main

Office Hours: Thursday 2-4pm
Email: akm82@drexel.edu

Blackboard Learn Site: learn.dcollege.net

Freshman Writing Program Goals and Outcomes
The Freshman Writing Program (FWP) at Drexel is a three-course, yearlong
writing-intensive sequence. During the year you will learn to
1. Use writing and reading for inquiry, thinking, and communicating
2. Appreciate and respond to diverse audiences
3. Craft messages for different kinds of rhetorical situations and purposes
4. Understand and write in different genres
5. Use research to develop, support, and enhance your ideas
6. Understand writing and revision as processes
7. Critique your own and others works
8. Use writing technologies to address a range of audiences
9. Use conventions, including documentation styles such as MLA
10.
Control mechanics such as syntax, grammar, punctuation, and
spelling
A comprehensive description of outcomes for English 102 is located
at the end of this syllabus.
Required Texts
Clark, Carol Lea. Praxis. 2nd ed., custom. Southlake, TX: Fountainhead Press,
2012. Print.
Lowe, Charles, and Pavel Zemliansky, eds. Writing Spaces. 2 Vols. Anderson,
SC: Parlor Press, 2010-2011.
Web.
Stein, Scott, Albert DiBartolomeo, and Kathleen Volk Miller, eds. The 33rd: An
Anthology. Philadelphia: Drexel Publishing Group, 2014. Print.
Hybrid English 102 Courses
Many of our FWP courses at Drexel are in a hybrid format, which means that
you will meet once per week with your instructor for 80 minutes, and the
remaining class time and coursework is done online using Blackboard Learn.
Here are some tips for success in the hybrid course:
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1. Take the time to get to know Blackboard Learn and your courses home
page. Get a sense of how your instructor has organized weekly
readings, Discussion Posts (and other informal writing), and
assignments. If you have questions about the site, dont hesitate to
ask.
2. Be sure to stay in contact with your instructor throughout the term. You
may see him/her in class only once per week, but you should still take
advantage of face-to-face conferences and email to ask your questions
and get feedback on your coursework. Staying in touch will also help
your professor to know you better.
3. Stay organized and keep a reliable planner with all of the due dates for
assignments.
4. Participate on the Discussion Board as much as you can throughout the
week. Not only will your participation help your instructor and
classmates to see your ideas, but it will also make class discussion so
much more interesting.
Drexel University Writing Center
The Drexel Writing Center (DWC) is located in 0032 MacAlister (x1799).
Whether you are developing a rough draft or trying to put the finishing
touches on a well-developed project, peer and faculty readers will help you
evaluate your own writing and determine how to improve it according to your
purpose and your audience. The DWCs Web page has more details:
http://www.drexel.edu/engphil/about/DrexelWritingCenter/
Course Requirements
Composition Projects
You will have two major composition projects in this course (see descriptions
below). These projects, so named because they will likely integrate both
writing and other media, should demonstrate the following, in line with the
course goals and learning outcomes:
A clear understanding of audience and purpose
A well-articulated and clear main point or thesis
A commitment to revising your project from inception to completion
Research and evidence appropriate for the project, incorporated
correctly and cited accurately
Clear organization
Attention to grammatical and stylistic elements appropriate for
college-level writing
Adherence to the conventions and guidelines of the project (due
dates, length, format)
Writing Portfolio
Keep all of the work you do in this course. At the middle and end of the term,
you will select a number of formal and informal compositions youve written
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in 101 and 102.You will use this portfolio again in English 103 and later in
your Drexel career.
Informal Writing
Informal writing assignments are a major component of your grade in this
course. Each week, you will be required to write several hundred words in
response to readings, instructor questions, conversations with colleagues,
and your ongoing discussion of your projects. These informal writings may
include discussion threads on Blackboard Learn, a Weblog, notebooks,
journals, peer reviews, and in-class writings.
Quizzes
You will complete several quizzes during the term, generally about the
readings.
Class Participation
You are expected to attend all classes (see Course Policies, below). Students
who participate at a high level in course discussions (face-to-face and/or
online) will be rewarded. Those who miss classes, are frequently late, or do
not contribute to course conversation may be penalized.
Grading
A+: 97-100
A: 93-96
A-: 90-92

B+: 87-89
B: 83-86
B-: 80-82

Portfolio 1 - 15%
Project I Composition 1A
Research Plan
Project I Composition 1B
Quizzes - 5%
Participation - 50%

C+: 77-79
D+: 67-69
C: 73-76
D: 60-66
C-: 70-72
F: below 60

Portfolio II - 20%
Project II Topic Proposal and
Project II Composition
Project II Annotated Bibliography
Project II Presentation -10%
Course Policies

Academic Integrity
All students must abide by Drexels academic integrity policy. The Drexel
Official Student Handbook states:
If an act of academic dishonesty is determined to have occurred, one
or more of the following sanctions will be imposed, depending on the
severity of the offense:
Reduction of a course grade
An F for the assignment or exam
Failure for the entire course
Other action deemed appropriate by the faculty member
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Any of the above sanctions with the inability to withdraw
Examples of other action deemed appropriate include, but are not
limited to, requiring the student to re-take the exam, re-complete an
assignment, or complete an assigned exercise. The decision of the
faculty member and the department head shall be reported to the
Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards, which is
responsible for maintaining student conduct records. The incident will
result in an official conduct record for the student(s). Students may
also be required to attend or complete an educational activity as
determined by the Office of Student Conduct and Community
Standards. (131)
A violation of academic integrity is not limited to copying a passage from a
source word for word. If you acquire specific information from a source, you
must acknowledge that source, even if you have used your own words and
paraphrased that information. You must also refrain from fabricating source
material, stealing or buying compositions, or being complicit in a violation of
academic integrity (e.g., writing a peers paper for him/her) (129-130). You
should also refrain from multiple submission (unless you have permission
from your instructor). Please review Chapter 7 of Praxis for acceptable ways
of acknowledging the work of other writers.
According to the Drexel Official Student Handbook, a second academic
integrity offense may result in suspension or expulsion, in addition to any
sanction issued from the list above (131). For further questions about
Drexels academic integrity policy, please talk with your instructor, and
consult the Drexel Official Student Handbook, which may be found here:
http://www.drexel.edu/~/media/Files/studentlife/pdf/StudentHandbook2011.a
shx
Disability
Students with disabilities who request accommodations and services at
Drexel need to present a current accommodation verification letter (AVL) to
faculty before accommodations can be made. AVLs are issued by the Office
of Disability Services (ODR). For additional information, contact the ODR
online at http://www.drexel.edu/ods/. The ODR is located at 3201 Arch St.,
Ste. 210, Philadelphia, PA, 19104. Phone: 215-895-1401; TTY: 215-895-2299.
Class Participation and Attendance
Your participation is essential to your success in this class, and thus you
should assume that attendance is mandatory. Class participation means
being present and prepared, and actively engaging with discussion, readings,
and writing. Students who miss more than 10% of class meetings due to
unexcused absences will have their grades penalized. Except under
extraordinary circumstances, a student who misses more than 20% of
scheduled class time as a result of unexcused OR excused absences will fail
the course. An excused absence is defined as one that is the result of a
condition or circumstance beyond the students control, such as illness, a
family crisis or emergency, or essential travel; an official university event
(e.g., academics, athletics or performing arts); or a religious holiday.
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Normally, an absence will be excused only if there is some documentation
verifying the circumstances that caused the absence.
Being on time is also important. Students who are often late to class
may be marked absent at their instructors discretion.
Deadlines and Assignment Submission
To achieve our course goals, you must complete your work in a timely
manner. Whether you submit your assignments in hard copy or
electronically, it is your responsibility to ensure that your instructor receives
your work. Projects and other assignments that are late will be penalized. You
should back up all of your work and plan on saving it for some time,
especially materials you will use in future portfolios.
Add/Drop/Withdraw
Students have until the end of the 2nd week to add or drop a course. Please
note that students are responsible for any work they miss in the late addition
of a course. Undergraduates have until the end of the 7th week of the term
to withdraw. For details on the withdrawal policy, see
http://www.drexel.edu/provost/policies/academic_transactions.asp
Library Skills
In order to engage in the research-based inquiry of this course, you must
know how to use the library resources. Be sure to visit the librarys New
Students Guide to the Libraries at
http://www.library.drexel.edu/quickguide, and the Research Skills 101
Tutorials at http://library.drexel.edu/tutorials/getting-started. Additionally, the
library has created an English 102 Research Guide, which may be found
here: https://www.library.drexel.edu/guides/general-reference/english-102.
Technology Expectations and Tech Support
You need to be able to access Blackboard Learn, and you also must have an
active Drexel email account. (It is easy to set up your Drexel account to
forward mail to another account.) If you are having problems accessing
Learn, setting up your email, or using iWebfolio, please contact
http://www.drexel.edu/irt/ or call the Help Desk at 215.895.2020. Support for
using iWebfolio may also be found here:
http://www.drexel.edu/irt/coursetools/toolList/eportfolios/iWebfolioTutorials/.
Inclement Weather
If the University is required to close because of severe weather, please
continue to check your email and/or Blackboard Learn regularly for
instructions from your professor.

Descriptions of Composition Projects

Composition Project 1: Campaign Rhetoric
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With one of its major focuses on both textual and visual rhetoric, English
102 invites you into an in-depth analysis of how text and image work
together. In politics, product advertising, education, business, and many
other contexts, we see words, pictures, and even sound coming together in
campaigns to send messages to their audiences. Your increasingly sharp
ability to analyze the rhetorical situations of such campaigns not only
contributes to the strength of your communication, but it also helps to
strengthen your ability to read and critique the world around you. This first
project invites you to analyze and evaluate a campaign that interests you.
Steps in the Process
Like any authentic research project, youll begin with inquiry: What do I
know? What dont I know? Youll use research to get to know some
campaign(s) in the media around you: Web, TV, print, radio, mobile phone.
Once youve done that research, youll
1. Choose a campaign: An anti-drug campaign for teens? A local
Senators campaign for re-election? Starbuckss line of seasonal coffee
drinks? A universitys recruiting campaign?
2. Identify the rhetorical situation: the communicator, audience,
context, message, and purpose.
3. Analyze its rhetorical strategies
4. Use this analysis to make an argument in which you evaluate this
campaign
5. Suggest how they could further improve the campaign
Your Audience
Your instructor and your peers are part of your audience. But the message
you send with this analysis is likely to be of interest to audiences in and out
of your field. Thus, it is up to you to decide who you want your audience to
be, based on your purpose, message, and context.
Form
Depending on your audience, purpose, message, and context, this
composition may take any one or a hybrid of textual forms: e.g., an opinion
piece, a letter, a memo, a report, a blog, etc.
Research and Evidence:
Your composition will draw on at least one form of primary research (see
Praxis 200-205) and at least one form of scholarly research. Additionally, you
may draw on other sources (journals, newspapers or magazines, Web sites,
images, popular culture) as your audience, purpose, and message require.
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Drexel University
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Create an alternate draft of your composition for a different audience. This
means you will likely change the form, rhetorical approach, and some
supporting facts for your altered argument.
Specifications:
700-1,000 words
Proper documentation of sources (see The Purdue OWL,
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/)
As you draft and revise, utilize peer review feedback, office hours,
and The Drexel Writing Center.

Composition Project 2: Collaborating to Make Change

Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and
working together is success.
Henry Ford
Collaboration
The professional world is abuzz with collaborators who use their intellects
and creative energy to solve problems and make change. In school or in the
workplace, each of you has likely participated in collaboration: you had to
work toward a common goal, responsibly and efficiently distribute the labor,
observe one anothers progress, and be evaluated as a collective. Project 2
will build on the rhetorical awareness skills you cultivated in Project 1, and
help you to strengthen skills with collaboration as you work in groups to
think about a local or global problem you care about. This problem can be
specific to your discipline, to your social lives, or to your academic lives.
Together, your group will:
1. Articulate the problem and its importance
2. Analyze causes and effects of the problem
3. Propose a clear solution to an appropriate audience
Here are important components of this composition:
The Group Contract
Once your group has formed, your first collaborative project will be to create
a group contract. How will you divide responsibilities? How will you monitor
the efforts of your peers? How will you make sure that all are abiding by the
expectations of deadlines, proper research, and productive communication?
This contract will articulate the ethical practices and commitments of your
group. Specifically, your contract should address the following elements:
communication, reliability, effort, quality, adherence to deadlines, academic
integrity.
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The Composition
1. Topic Proposal: Brainstorm and identify issues that you care about at
Drexel, in Philadelphia, or beyond. Uncover a problem that is most
pertinent to your groups interests. Together, your group will compose
a brief topic proposal in which you make a case for the importance of
the problem you want to explore.
2. Research: You and your group members will work together to gather
sources and compose an annotated bibliography. Your sources
should include your own primary research (interview, survey,
observation report), secondary research (journals, newspapers, film,
music), and at least one type of visual (chart, graph, photo, drawing).
3. Audience: The message you send with your proposal will be of special
interest to audiences involved in the issue youre trying to change.
Who are those audiences? You decide.
4. Context: Be prepared to explain the context in which you would
deliver this proposal. For example, if your group has created a
commercial, how might you get that commercial on the air? Or, if your
group wants to present to the Mayor, how might you get your foot in
the door?
5. Form: Thinking rhetorically, your group will decide on the form that
your project will take (report, Website, blog, brochure, article for a
specific publication, TV or radio commercial, podcast, advertising
campaign, short film, grant proposal, etc.). Audio/visual projects with
minimal text should be accompanied by a 750-word in-depth rhetorical
analysis in which you discuss the rhetorical situation, role of the writers
in the project, and reason for the chosen format.
Project Reports
Four times over the course of this collaborative project, individual students
will email the professor a brief report about how the project is going thus far.
These reports will reflect on how the group is working together toward their
goal: Successes? Challenges? Questions?
Group Presentation
Once your final product is completed, your group will present it to the class.
Keeping in mind that written and multimedia compositions and oral
presentations can be very different rhetorical situations, your group will
decide on the best format for your presentation to your peers and professor.
Post-mortem Reflection
At the completion of the project (final product and presentation), members of
your group will each compose a reflective analysis, in which you look back on
the project, think about its many facets, and evaluate how it has impacted
you, your learning, and your perspective on collaboration. You will share
these reflections with one another in class.
As you draft and revise, utilize peer review feedback, office hours,
and The Drexel Writing Center.
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Writing Portfolio

Your Writing Portfolio is an online space where you gather artifacts of your
writing and make an argument about how those artifacts demonstrate how
you have achieved the FWP Outcomes (which are adapted from Drexels
Student Learning Outcomes for Communication). Your tool for constructing
this argument is reflective analysis, a process in which you closely
examine a variety of your own writing over a period of time.
Reflective analysis helps you to make an evidence-based argument about
yourself, a skill that will help you not only here at Drexel, but also outside of
Drexel. In your academic and professional life, it will be important to
establish and reflect on goals, to periodically examine what you have
accomplished, and to ask critical questions about your learning: What did I
hope to accomplish in this class/project/experience? How did I grow as a
person, scholar, or professional? What evidence do I have for that growth?
How does this growth prepare me for what is next? In many contexts, you
will be asked to discuss, either in person or in writing, what kind of student or
employee you will be. In these contexts, you will be most convincing to your
audiences if you can provide some proof for the claims you make about your
abilities and potential. Reflective analysis can help you to provide a basis
upon which to make these claims.
As you move through the FWP sequence, the Writing Portfolio will give you
lots of practice in doing reflective analysis, which will help you to work
toward two of the FWP Outcomes (and others, too):
1. Students will reflect on their own and others writing and
communication processes and practices. They will learn that the
term writer applies to themselves and their peers.
2. Students will use writing to embrace complexity and think about
open-ended questions.
The skills you gain by closely examining your compositions, and by making
larger claims about your writing abilities based on the composition artifacts
you include, will help to prepare you for the reflective analysis you will be
asked to do later in your academic and professional life.
English 102 Writing Portfolio and Reflective Analysis Assignment
In this culminating assignment of the course, you will use the English 102
area of your iWebfolio to display at least four artifacts of your writing and a
reflective analysis that explains how those artifacts provide evidence for your
writing development. You will use the FWP Outcomes as a basis for analysis.
Components of the Reflective Analysis
Your Reflective Analysis should accomplish four tasks:
1. It should make an argument about your writing development.
Read the FWP Outcomes and choose ONE of the Outcomes as the
focus for your argument. You have lots of options here.
2. It should use artifacts of your own writing as evidence for your
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argument. Specifically, you should integrate the following artifacts
as sources in your analysis:
a. 1 major project from 101
b. 1 major project from 102
c. 2 informal compositions from either 101 or 102
d. Any other supporting artifacts you would like to use
3. It should do meta-analysis of those artifacts as it makes its
argument. Meta-analysis is your examination of your own work,
your writing-about-your-writing.
4. It should be directed to a specific audience: Professional employer,
friend, teacher, parent or guardian, future child, yourselfyou
choose.
Citing Artifacts of Your Own Writing:
In your reflective analysis, you should, of course, provide proper in-text
citation of your sources, just as you would with any other source in a
composition. In this case, however, your sources are your own compositions;
so, youll be citing yourself. Here is an example:
In my second project for English 101, I discuss the impact of drafting
on my writing development: I have always drafted because I have
been required to. But I really wanted to reflect analytically on how the
process of drafting actually impacted my overall writing development.
Was I becoming a better writer? (Drafting and Development 1).
Additionally, you should include full citations in a Works Cited. Heres how:
Works Cited
Last name, First name. Title of Project. Course Title. Professor ______
_______. Department,
Institution. Date project was submitted. Form of Media (Print, Web,
etc.).
---. Title of Project. Course Title. Professor ______ _______. Department,
Institution. Date project was submitted. Form of Media (Print, Web,
etc.).
And so on
Organizing Your Artifacts in iWebfolio:
1. Create each artifact as an ITEM in iWebfolio, and add a preface to
the item in which you explain its original context (when it was
written, in what situation, and for what purpose or in response to
what). Note: In iWebfolio, Items are different than Files in that Items
are created and formatted to be viewed within the portfolio, while
Files are linked to and must be downloaded; unless we arrange
otherwise (in the case of an unusual text that can't be represented
as an Item), all of your artifacts in the portfolio should be ITEMS.
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2. Within your Drexel Writing Portfolio, add your artifacts to the English
102 Category of your portfolio using Add Attachment (and then
select Item in the pull-down menu to view Items youve created).
3. Add your reflective analysis to the main body of the English 102
area of the portfolio using the Edit feature.
Keep in Mind
Your reflection is not a place to try to make your professor feel good about
your growth as a writer; it is a space for your honest reflection about your
own work. In your reflective analysis keep your focus on the argument you
have established and use the compositions you have provided as evidence.
Course Schedule
(Syllabus is subject to change)
Notes for Faculty: TR= Teaching Resources site on Blackboard Learn
(Readings and Resources)
Week
1

Week
2

GOAL
S:

Thinking and seeing rhetorically: What is the message

here?
Class orientation
Introduce Composition Project 1

READ:

Praxis: Chap.3, Analyzing Rhetorically, 73-108

TR (Readings About Audience folder): Cicero, From On
Rhetorical Invention
TR (Visual Literacy folder): Benoit and Harthcock,
"Attacking the Tobacco Industry: A Rhetorical Analysis of
Advertisements by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids"
JRs The Wrinkles of the City art campaign: http://www.jrart.net/projects/the-wrinkles-of-the-city-la-havana

DUE:

Read your syllabus and send your professor an email to

acknowledge that you have done so
Journal for 5 minutes
Decide on topic for Project I

GOAL
S:

Analyzing and evaluating rhetoric

One activity on mechanics and style
Explore Composition Project 1 topics

READ:

Praxis: Chap. 5, Writing Rhetorically, 145-168

Watch: TED Talk, Annie Lennox: Why I am an HIV/AIDS
Activist and the SING Campaign:
http://www.ted.com/talks/annie_lennox_why_i_am_an_hiv_aid
s_activist.html
Examine: Stand Up To Cancer campaign:
http://www.standup2cancer.org
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DUE:
Begin composing drafts of Composition Project 1
Composition Project 1 first draft for peer review
Informal writing (notebook, discussion posts, journal, blog)
Week
3

GOAL
S:
READ:

Week
4

Review Praxis Chap. 6, Revising Rhetorically

TR (Rhetorical Strategies and Argumentation folder):
Krause, On the Other Hand: The Role of Antithetical Writing in
First Year Composition Courses
InvestorPlace staff, 5 Reasons Why Everyone Hates the
New Apple Ad Campaign:
http://investorplace.com/2012/07/5-reasons-why-everyonehates-the-new-apple-ad-campaign/

DUE:

Quiz 1
Project 1A due

GOAL
S:

Collaborative composition: theory and practice

In-class review of Drexel Library resources
Introduce Composition Project 2
Select collaborative groups and compose Group Contracts

READ:

DUE:
Week
5

Imagining audience

GOAL
S:

READ:

DUE:

Review Praxis Chap. 7, Researching Rhetorically, 197-224

TR (Collaborative Composition folder): Ingalls, Writing
Eyeball to Eyeball
Listen: This American Life, Ruining it for the Rest of Us:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radioarchives/episode/370/ruining-it-for-the-rest-of-us
Project 1B due
Submit copy of your Group Contract to professor by email
Articulating a problem: Invention and stasis theory
In-class group presentations on Project 2 topics
Introduction to Annotated Bibliography
Praxis: Chap. 4, Inventing Rhetorically, 109-144
TR (Research and Evidence in Writing folder): Rosenberg,
Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources
The 33rd suggested reading: Hartmanns A Class Divided,
37-45
Quiz 2
Portfolio I with your letter to the reader due
Informal writing (notebook, discussion posts, journal, blog)
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Group Topic Proposals due
Project Report #1 due to professor by email
Week
6

Week
7

Week
8

GOAL
S:

Proposing solutions: what to propose, how to present

it
In-class work on collaborative compositions
Announce to students that the 103 theme list is posted

READ:

TR (Genre Analysis folder): Dirk, Navigating Genres

TR (Research and Evidence in Writing folder): Haller, Walk,
Talk, Cook, Eat: A Guide to Using Sources
Swifts, A Modest Proposal:
http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/modest.html

DUE:

Composition Project 2 first draft for peer review

Informal writing (notebook, discussion posts, journal, blog)
Project Report #2 & 3 due to professor by email

GOAL
S:

Composing together: addressing conflict, opening

space
One activity on mechanics and style
In-class work on collaborative compositions

READ:

TR (Collaborative Composition folder): Trimbur, Consensus

and Difference
Watch: TED Talk, Howard Rheingold: The New Power of
Collaboration:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/howard_rheingold_on_coll
aboration.html

DUE:

Quiz 3
Composition Project 2 final draft
Annotated Bibliographies due
Informal writing (notebook, discussion posts, journal, blog)
Project Report #4 due to professor by email

GOAL
S:

Thinking rhetorically about presentations | Preparing

for the 102 Writing Portfolio
In-class work on collaborative compositions

READ:

DUE:

TR (Rhetorical Strategies and Argumentation folder): Boyd,

Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)
Watch: TED Talk, Duarts The Secret Structure of Great
Talks:
http://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_duarte_the_secret_structure
_of_great_talks.html
Informal writing (notebook, discussion posts, journal, blog)
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Project Report #4 & 5 due to professor by email
Week
9

GOAL
S:

DUE:

Week
10 &
11

In-class Group Presentations

In-class Group Presentations
For discussion: What are the potential benefits of reflective
practice in academic and professional work?
Submit any late or missing work for a reduced grade by
class of Week 9. No late submissions of previous
projects or missing work will be accepted after Week
9.
Begin assembling materials for portfolios
First paragraph of portfolio reflective analysis (workshop inclass/online)
Informal writing (notebook, discussion posts, journal, blog)

GOAL
S:

Reflections on English 102| Finalizing the Writing

Portfolio
Post-mortem: In-class reflective analysis of Composition
Project 2: writing and group discussion
What to expect in English 103

READ:

TR (Revision Strategies folder): Allen, The Inspired Writer

vs. the Real Writer

DUE:

First draft of portfolio reflective analysis (early in the week)

Final Writing Portfolio and reflective analysis due
Peer reflection on a classmates portfolio reflective analysis

Drexel Freshman Writing Program Course Outcomes

What Students Learn and Do in English 102: Persuasive Writing and
Reading
Writing and thinking process
1) Students will learn the terminology, rhetorical ideas, and practical
approaches of writing
persuasively/argumentatively.
Assessment/Deliverables:
Students will demonstrate that knowledge and those skills in at
least two major assignments and several minor writing
assignments.
Through assignments/class discussions, students will demonstrate
an understanding of and fluency with rhetorical concepts and terms
such as argument, persuasion, visual literacy, logic, logical fallacy,
inductive/deductive, and reflective analysis.
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These terms will appear in course discussions, readings, and
assignments.
2) Students will apply the writing process and revision to the creation of
persuasive projects.
Assessment/Deliverables:
Students will complete at least two major assignments with a
substantive written component.
Students will draft and revise at least one substantive written
composition guided by instructor and peer rough draft comments
(instructors evaluations can be delivered via written comments,
verbal comments, and/or conferencing).
Students will meet with their instructor at least once to discuss a
writing assignment.
3) Students will continue to reflect on their own and others writing and
communication
processes and practices.
Assessment/Deliverables:
Students will conduct in-depth, well-structured peer review of
other students written work. Peer reviews will be graded or will
count in some way in the course grade, demonstrating the value
of the review both to the reviewer and to the student being
reviewed.
Guided by their instructor, students will create a reflective
analysis for a writing portfolio that examines the portfolio materials
in relationship to the FWP Outcomes and demonstrates their ability
to make rhetorical choices about how they present themselves to
external audiences.
4) Students will use course writing and conversations to develop their
critical thinking skills
and their ability to engage open-ended, complex problems.
Assessment/Deliverables:
Students will complete multiple assignments demonstrating
critical thinking skills
5) Students will reinforce their understanding that grammatical and
mechanical errors detract
from achieving their communication purposes.
Assessment/Deliverable:
Students will demonstrate in several assignments their ability to
write with minimal grammatical and mechanical errors.
6) Students will continue to use writing technologies, i.e., digital writing
and communications
tools, for a variety of writing purposes and to address a range of
audiences.
Assessment/Deliverables:
Students will complete at least one assignment that uses a multimedia component, such as a video, podcast, or Web site.
Students will use digital technologies to compose, edit, and
disseminate their texts.
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Drexel University
Dept. of English
and Philosophy
7) Students will reinforce their understanding of the goals and means of
course assessment.
Assessment/Deliverables:
Through informal writing, portfolio work, conferences, and/or class
discussion, students will articulate the course goals and how each
assignment fits these goals.
8) Students will understand how to create a collaboratively written
document.
Assessment/Deliverables:
Students will work in a team to complete a complex writing
project.
Students will examine collaborative writing as a subject of study.
Students will demonstrate the ability to create documents to
reflect team progress.
Writing and genre
9) Students will understand how genres, especially professional genres,
shape writing.
Assessment/Deliverables:
Students will study and compose genres such as letters, reports,
essays, and memos.
In assignments, students will respond to diverse audiences;
respond to different rhetorical situations; use format and structure
conventions appropriate to the rhetorical situation; and adopt
appropriate voice, tone, and level of formality.
Students will write about a discipline/profession in which they are
interested.
Use of research and evidence
10) Students will reinforce their understanding of and fluency with the
following citation and
use of research/evidence concepts and terms: attributive tags,
quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, annotation, block quotes, ellipses,
parenthetical citations, indirect sources, integrity.
Assessment/Deliverable:
Several course assignments, quizzes, and/or class discussions will
focus on these concepts, and students will use terms appropriately
throughout the course.
11) Students will reinforce their understanding and use of annotated
bibliographies.
Assessment/Deliverable:
Students will create an annotated bibliography that will be graded
or evaluated in some way by the course instructor.
12) Students will continue to demonstrate that they can integrate their
ideas with the ideas of
others.
Assessment/Deliverable:
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Drexel University
Dept. of English
and Philosophy
Through their written work students will demonstrate the ability to
access, evaluate, paraphrase, and use fairly and effectively
information from a variety of sources.
13) Students will reinforce their ability to cite a variety of sources
scholarly, non-scholarly,print, Webaccurately using a recognized and
accepted system such as MLA, APA, or Chicago. They will continue to see
citation as a choice of using language appropriate to a particular audience.
Assessment/Deliverables:
Students will incorporate a correct citation style appropriate to the
type of composition and its audience in at least one assignment,
and they will be able to discuss why they chose a particular citation
style as appropriate to their purpose and audience.
Students will create a bibliography that includes various sources
(scholarly, non-scholarly, print, Web).
Visual rhetoric and design
14) Students will reinforce their understanding of visual rhetoric.
Assessment/Deliverable:
Some assignments and class conversations will focus on visual
rhetoric.
Students will incorporate visuals responsibly into at least one
major course project.
15) Students will reinforce their understanding of document design.
Assessment/Deliverable:
Student assignments will be evaluated for design and
presentation.
Reading
16) Students will reinforce their understanding that good reading is
connected to good writing
and good thinking.
Assessment/Deliverables:
Students will read a variety of challenging texts.
Students will read a substantial amount of their peers writing in
the course, and will provide advice on improvement (i.e., peer
review) to their peers.
Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze selections from
the course readings that exemplify various modes and styles of
writing.
17) Students will continue to see texts as ongoing discussions that they
are invited to join.
Assessment/Deliverable:
Students will discuss and reflect on readings in assignments and
discussions.

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