Visit the COMP 250 BLOG for all course content online . . . http://blogs.fortlewis.edu/mangrum-comp-250/
*COMPOSITION 250 (SECTIONS 12 AND 13): ACADEMIC INQUIRY AND WRITING
SPRING 2014
*This syllabus is printed in three sections. Part I contains this professor’s contact information, office hours, COMP 250
course description, and an assignment based on the learning outcomes for COMP 250 as established by CCHE and FLC.
Part II includes remaining particulars such required texts, supplies, grading scale, late policy, attendance requirements,
classroom decorum, disability services, FERPA, and much more. Part III is the anticipated schedule for this term.
Dr. William Lee Mangrum / Visiting Instructor: The Writing Program
Noble Hall 234 / Fort Lewis College / 1000 Rim Drive / Durango, CO 81301
Office: 970-247-6764 / Cell: 760-445-6441 / mangrum_w@fortlewis.edu
Office Hours: Wednesday @ 8:00 till 12:00 and 1:00 until 5:00
To make appointments, please go to https://williamleemangrum.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php
Welcome to Composition 250: Academic Inquiry and Writing. The first thing you need to know about this
course is this: I enjoy teaching this course! This is a good course, an important course, and a difficult course.
I’ve prepared our syllabus to aid our thinking together on “inquiry and writing.” Thus, this syllabus is important
both for the information it conveys to students about this course and as an example of a text to be studied, a
communication artifact embodying a particular rhetorical strategy. We’ll study many strategies of rhetorical
inquiry this semester, focusing on arguments and argumentation. We begin our “arguing together” by analyzing
this syllabus as well as the FLC and the State of Colorado Learning Outcomes for COMP 200 Level Courses.
Here is the catalogue description for this offering.
Comp 250: Academic Inquiry and Writing (4 credits). This course guides students
through the process of proposing, conducting, and presenting an independent academic
research project. Prerequisite: Successful completion of any CO-1 course with a C- or
higher or FLC Writing Placement Score placing student into CO-2.
Again, this syllabus is for Composition 250: Academic Inquiry and Writing.


Section 12 / CRN 31178 / 8:00 until 10:00 / Tuesday and Thursday / Jones 154
Section 13 / CRN 31179 / 10:10 until 12:10 / Tuesday and Thursday / Jones 154
I prefer that you call me “Bill” inside the classroom, in our private conversations elsewhere, and even in public
places. I will quickly learn and use your first name. Likewise, I expect you to learn and use the first names of
your peers in all our discussions (but not in academic papers). As mentioned in my letter to you prior to the
start of school, the respectful use of first names promotes healthy personal connections. Strong personal
connections among peers foster ease-of-learning in the academy and the ethical practices of critical thinking
beyond these walls. We learn better when we know each other.
This course fulfills the Composition II requirement at Fort Lewis College. In order to move forward from here
into a Composition III course, you must maintain a C- or better in this class. Earning a “C” is difficult. I do not
say “difficult” to scare you. Fear is not motivation for much of anything in this world. I do say that earning a
“C” is difficult so that you are fully aware of this course’s intellectual demands and academic opportunities.
After a brief review of MLA and class introductions, we’ll begin with a close reading (analysis) of the learning
outcomes for COMP 250. In what follows, the COMP 250 learning outcomes—copied from the Fort Lewis
College Writing Program website—are to the left. I have added a center column and a column on the far right.
One of your early assignments is to compare these learning outcomes with the primary text for this course:
Dr. William Lee Mangrum / Composition 250: Academic Inquiry and Writing/ FLC / SPRING 2014
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Visit the COMP 250 BLOG for all course content online . . . http://blogs.fortlewis.edu/mangrum-comp-250/
Good Reasons with Contemporary Arguments (5th edition). (Please note: this book, by Lester Faigley and Jack
Selzer, is required of all students. It is available in the FLC Bookstore. I do not permit digital copies in class.)
Again, this is a course in “academic inquiry.” Academic inquiry is not something we’ll do “later.” Rather, we
begin with understanding the goals and strategies of this course. This is not busy work. Rather, by this
assignment I’m assessing your ability to locate the material listed as an outcome within the required text. This
close reading and comparative analysis is due the first day of the third week of the term. If you need assistance,
please see a member of your assigned learning community.
Each department of Fort Lewis College maintains and assesses learning outcomes for its catalogue offerings.
Below are the Writing Program’s 200-Level Composition Course Learning Outcomes (left column). These
are to be compared, by each COMP 250 student, to the table of contents, chapter summaries, glossary, and
index from Good Reasons with Contemporary Arguments (5th edition), by Lester Faigley and Jack Selzer. Use
the center column to note corresponding chapter titles, headings, and pages. Note your critical comments and
questions in the right column.
The FLC COMP 250
Learning
Outcomes
Note corresponding
matter from Good
Reasons with
Contemporary Arguments
(5th ed).
Record, here, your critical
remarks, questions, and
concerns which you will
later address in class.
Rhetorical knowledge

Establish main and secondary
claims, evidence, and
consideration of multiple
viewpoints

Understand how voice, tone,
format, and structure affect
content

Read and write texts in several
genres, for specific discourse
communities (may include
professional or disciplinary)

Develop awareness of
authorial bias in readings
Dr. William Lee Mangrum / Composition 250: Academic Inquiry and Writing/ FLC / SPRING 2014
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Visit the COMP 250 BLOG for all course content online . . . http://blogs.fortlewis.edu/mangrum-comp-250/
Experience in the writing and
research process

Develop invention, revision,
editing, and proofreading
strategies through multiple
drafts to complete an indepth project

Use a variety of
technologies to develop
information literacy skills,
utilizing campus resources
as needed

Conduct original research
by selecting a specific topic
and using primary and
secondary sources to
understand and explicate it

Understand and practice
ethical research
methodologies
Critical thinking and communication
strategies

Incorporate research
methods that utilize multiple
perspectives
Dr. William Lee Mangrum / Composition 250: Academic Inquiry and Writing/ FLC / SPRING 2014
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Visit the COMP 250 BLOG for all course content online . . . http://blogs.fortlewis.edu/mangrum-comp-250/

Develop presentation skills
that incorporate multimodal
genres

Create a deliberative
argument that seeks to move
audience to action or
address a defined problem
or gap in the scholarship

Recognize and
communicate to a variety of
audiences within specific
disciplines, discourses, or
professions
Awareness of writing conventions

Use appropriate format for
specific writing task,
including visual design

Apply genre conventions
such as structure, tone,
voice, and mechanics

Use disciplinary vocabulary,
format, and documentation

Control features such as
syntax, grammar,
punctuation, and spelling
Dr. William Lee Mangrum / Composition 250: Academic Inquiry and Writing/ FLC / SPRING 2014
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Visit the COMP 250 BLOG for all course content online . . . http://blogs.fortlewis.edu/mangrum-comp-250/
Now that you have worked through the course outcomes, comparing these to the critical resources available to
you in the required text, Good Reasons with Contemporary Arguments, you are ready for the next step. Please
study the chart below. On the left are the same COMP 250 Course Outcomes. In the middle column these
course outcomes are correlated with various assignments you will encounter in this course—exercises,
readings, library work, blogging, papers, in-class writes. The space at the far right is provided for you to note
actual assignments as they are given in class, linking what we claim to be doing with what we actually do.
FLC Comp 250 Course Outcomes
Rhetorical knowledge
Establish main and secondary claims,
evidence, and consider multiple
viewpoints
Understand how voice, tone, format,
and structure affect content
Read and write texts in several genres,
for specific discourse communities
(may include professional or
disciplinary)
Develop awareness of authorial bias in
readings
Experience in the writing and research
process
Develop invention, revision, editing,
and proofreading strategies through
multiple drafts to complete an in-depth
project
Use a variety of technologies to
develop information literacy skills,
utilizing campus resources as needed
Conduct original research by selecting
a specific topic and using primary and
secondary sources to understand and
explicate it
Understand and practice ethical
research methodologies
Critical thinking and communication
strategies
Incorporate research methods that
utilize multiple perspectives
Develop presentation skills that
incorporate multimodal genres
Assignment
All homework, inclass exercises, essays,
discussions, and blogs
All homework, inclass exercises, essays,
discussions, and blogs
Researched Argument,
CSW Presentation
Annotated
Bibliography
Assignment
All homework, inclass exercises, essays,
discussions, and blogs
Library Instruction
Researched Argument
based in collaborative
blogging and
discussions of
Authoring Your Life
Annotated
Bibliography
Assignment
Researched Argument
based in collaborative
blogging and
discussions of
Authoring Your Life
CSW Presentation,
blogging, classroom
presentations
Dr. William Lee Mangrum / Composition 250: Academic Inquiry and Writing/ FLC / SPRING 2014
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Visit the COMP 250 BLOG for all course content online . . . http://blogs.fortlewis.edu/mangrum-comp-250/
Create a deliberative argument that
seeks to move audience to action or
address a defined problem or gap in
the scholarship
Recognize and communicate to a
variety of audiences within specific
disciplines, discourses, or professions
Awareness of writing conventions
Use appropriate format for specific
writing task, including visual design
Apply genre conventions such as
structure, tone, voice, and mechanics
Use disciplinary vocabulary, format,
and documentation
Control features such as syntax,
grammar, punctuation, and spelling
Researched Argument
based in collaborative
blogging and
discussions of
Authoring Your Life
All homework, inclass exercises, essays,
discussions, and blogs
Assignment
All homework, inclass exercises, essays,
discussions, and blogs
All homework, inclass exercises, essays,
discussions, and blogs
All homework, inclass exercises, essays,
discussions, and blogs
All homework, inclass exercises, essays,
discussions, and blogs
Thought we were done, did you? We’re not! Not only must we—students and professors—attend to the FLC
outcomes for this course, we must also be sure to link our work in COMP 250 with the requirements sent
down to us from the Higher Learning Commission for the State of Colorado. So, now we turn our attention
learning goals established state for students in a COMP 2 course. I’ve provided space at the bottom of this
page for your critical markings, questions, and comments. Again, read closely, read critically, annotate.
State-Level goals for Intermediate Writing (CO-2) courses:
Deepen Rhetorical Knowledge
 Focus on rhetorical situation, audience, and purpose
 Use voice, tone, format and structure appropriately, deepening understanding of relationships
between form and content in writing
 Write and read texts written in several genres, for specified discourse communities. These
communities may include professional and disciplinary discourse communities
Deepen Experience in Writing Processes
 Use multiple drafts
 Develop strategies for generating ideas, revising, editing, and proofreading for extensive, in-depth
and/or collaborative projects
 Learn to critique own and other’s work, including the work of professional writers and/or scholars
 Use a variety of technologies (writing and research tools)
 Learn to evaluate sources for accuracy, relevance, credibility, reliability, and bias
Deepen Understanding of Writing Conventions
 Select appropriate format for different writing tasks
 Apply genre conventions ranging from structure and paragraphing to tone and mechanics to more
extensive projects
 Control features such as syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling in more extensive and/or indepth writing projects
Develop Effective Communication Strategies, including
 Ability to compose a message for a specific audience and purpose
Dr. William Lee Mangrum / Composition 250: Academic Inquiry and Writing/ FLC / SPRING 2014
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Visit the COMP 250 BLOG for all course content online . . . http://blogs.fortlewis.edu/mangrum-comp-250/
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Ability to communicate to a variety of audiences or ability to communicate to an audience within a
specific profession or discipline
Ability to adapt content and style to respond to the needs of different audiences and different
rhetorical situations or ability to adapt content and style within a profession or discipline.
Now we are ready for you to write, analyzing these specific learning outcomes, assessing your literacy
history, establishing personal goals for the semester ahead. Use the following space to take notes on
our conversations and your reading. An essay will be assigned so dig in and get started!
Below is provision for your signature. By signing and dating this document, you indicate agreement with
the course description, assessment strategies, and other particulars as outlined in this syllabus.
Your Signature:
Date:
Dr. William Lee Mangrum / Composition 250: Academic Inquiry and Writing/ FLC / SPRING 2014
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