John Jay College of Criminal Justice
English 101/201
Revised
Presentation prepared by Prof. Mark McBeth,
Director of Composition, Fall 2005. Revised by K.
Killoran, 1/06
Description of English 101 Revised
This course introduces students to the
skills, habits, and conventions necessary
to prepare inquiry-based research for
college. While offering students
techniques and practices of invention
and revision, this theme-based
composition course teaches students the
expectations of college-level research,
academic devices for exploring ideas,
and rhetorical strategies for completing
investigative writing.
General Structure of English 101
• Each English 101 instructor will choose a single theme for the course
(for example, dialect, evidence, or gender).
• Students will develop inquiry-based writing that explores this theme.
• All students prepare a portfolio of writing which includes prescribed
types of writing forms. (Listed and explained below.)
• These forms of writing provide students with a base of knowledge about
the processes and conventions of academic writing.
• This inquiry-based course prepares students for the types of research
methods and writing they will need to do for the mission-based
disciplines.
• Once students complete this inquiry-based writing course, they will be
better prepared to complete research theses for their other courses.
Objectives for English 101 Revised
In this course, students engage in a variety of in-class and
homework assignments that offer them strategies of preparing,
revising, and completing college-level writing.
• Students learn and practice academic techniques to help them in the
process of preparing research papers.
• Students practice both low-stakes writing (informal, exploratory writing)
and high-stakes assignments (formal, finished products). The variety of
writing assignments will give students the opportunity to experience the
incremental and developing stages of the writing process.
• Students are familiarized with academic forms (letter, proposal, outline,
annotated bibliography) to help them explore their investigative questions.
• Students learn the terminology of research.
• Students learn to examine their investigative inquiries within the discourse
of their academic community as well as within the context of experts who
have posed similar questions.
Objectives for English 101 Revised
• Students learn to focus an investigative question and to
prepare a statement which describes their proposed inquiry.
• Students learn methods of library research, including finding
books and journals appropriate to their subject, locating articles
on electronic sites, and distinguishing websites that provide valid
information and support.
• Classroom discussions and exercises help student to explore
their ideas and think more critically.
• Students learn to differentiate between speculation, opinion,
analysis, and inference.
• Students practice in-class peer review to grow increasingly
aware of audience, readers’ expectation, and the rhetorical
devices necessary to convey ideas clearly.
• Students gain the language and self-awareness about their
literate abilities that allow them to discuss their strengths and
challenges of expression.
Recommended Assignments
for English 101 Revised
The students in this course will compose a
sequence of assignments that will prepare
them to write a final inquiry-based paper that
integrates their own ideas about a focused
question along with research that relates to
that investigative inquiry. Each of the forms
that lead up to the final paper should be
drafted and revised throughout the semester.
The final products of this recursive process
will be collected in a final portfolio which will
be used to determine their overall grade for
the semester.
.
Proposed Assignments
Assignment 1. A descriptive letter to a specified audience which explains a situation that the
student has experienced. The letter explains how that experience has elicited a reaction which has
peaked their interest and which motivates further inquiry on their part. In lieu of a letter, students
could compose a creative non-fiction essay that serves the same function.
Assignment 2 A proposal that adopts some investigative question from the letter that could be
explored. This proposal will present a topic, examine the purpose of this investigation, consider the
methods of exploring the subject, and designate resources that will be useful for their exploration.
Students first draft of this proposal may be initially vague but as they do the research for subsequent
assignments, focus their questions based on the discourse they discover, and shape their essay, the
proposal will be revised to reflect the development of their inquiry.
Assignment 3 An annotated bibliography which asks students to find two to three secondary
sources which inform their investigation. Students will visit the library to attend workshops on
information technology as well as how to use resources of library’s research. In writing the précis
for the annotated bibliography, students learn to summarize, paraphrase, and use direct quotes. They
likewise understand the discourse that surrounds their inquiry question.
Assignment 4 A first draft of their inquiry-based essay allows them to make an initial
exploration of their proposed idea. Their first draft permits them to display what they know about
their subject (through personal experience or external resources), to formulate some preliminary
ideas, and to experiment with how they will express what they know as well as what they need to
learn about their topic.
Proposed Assignments
Assignment 5 A formal outline gives them the opportunity to lay out possible organizations for
their essay. Students should experiment with how they arrange & order their ideas and resources in
the outline. This typically formalistic piece of academic writing will be used to help them develop the
most logical & accessible rhetorical strategy for their audience. Students will revise this outline as
their essay progresses so that it reflects the updated strategies & materials of their developing
composition.
Assignment 6 The scripted interview is a piece of writing that challenges students to consider
the relationships between the ideas of the outside authors they have read as well as their own
contributions to their topics. Students prepare a script in which they are a participating interviewer
(think Charlie Rose) who questions the ideas and perspectives of two authors they have read for
their annotated bibliography. The authors they interview exchange views upon the topic while the
student interviewer observes, analyzes, and responds to their interrelated ideas. This experimental
(and completely hypothetical) piece of writing challenges students to think about how the
established writers they have researched would interact: if placed face to face and prompted with
questions would these experts compare and contrast their ideas through mutual agreement, critical
analysis, persuasion, and/or argument.
Proposed Assignments
Assignment 7 After a recursive process of completing the above forms, students would
prepare a second draft of their inquiry-based paper. By exploring their topics in a variety
of writing forms and rhetorical methods, students will take a more informed, analytical, and
critical approach to the topic they have chosen to investigate.
Assignment 8 Students will compose a cover letter to their English 102 instructor
explaining the process that they went through to create the contents of their inquiry-based
portfolio. They will describe the strengths they have gained while producing the various
pieces of writing in this collection as well as the challenges that they still face as a writer.
Teachers can prepare students for this final cover letter by either having them keep a writing
process journal throughout the semester, or having them do an in-class reflection as they
complete each step of this sequence of writing assignments.
Final Exam For the final exam of this English 101 course, students will bring a clean,
typed copy of their portfolio, exchange it with a peer and, based on the language and
concepts of writing and composing processes that they have learned throughout the
semester, will compose a critical response to a peer’s portfolio. This critical response, written
in the form of a short essay, will demonstrate that they understand the qualities and
expectations of college-level prose as well as their ability to express that understanding in a
well-conceived critique.)
Library Research/Information Literacy
Presently the library offers English 102 classes a research workshop. With the revision
of the sequence of composition curriculum, this orientation will be presented instead to
English 101 students.
Students learn to invent multiple subject headings which familiarize
them with research in computer Boolean systems.
•
• Students participate in a library research orientation which shows
them how to find resources related to their topics and how to locate
books and journals in the library.
• Students participate in a library exercise which teaches them how to
find books, journals, newspapers, and electronic media related to their
research topic.
• Students are familiarized with the John Jay electronic resources
found on the college’s website.
• Students are made aware of the bibliographic information contained
in scholarly work and how to use it to their research advantage.
• Students are introduced to the issues of intellectual property and
the pitfalls of plagiarism.
• Students learn documentation as an academic agreement between
scholars depending upon the needs of their specific disciplines.
• Students learn the APA documentation system.
Description of English 201 Revised
This course introduces students to the
rhetorical characteristics and writing styles
from across the disciplines. Instructors
choose a single theme and provide students
with reading and writing assignments which
address the differing literacy conventions and
processes of diverse fields. Students learn
how to apply their accumulated repertoire of
aptitudes and abilities to the writing situations
presented to them from across the
disciplines.
Rationale of English 201 Revised
English 201 exposes students to reading and writing
from across the disciplines. It prepares students for
the types of research methods and writing they will
need to do for the mission-based disciplines of the
college.In this course, students study the preferred
genres, rhetorical concepts, terminology, formatting,
and uses of evidence in different scholarly fields. As
a result, students learn how to transfer investigative
and compositional conventions and skills from one
type of disciplinary writing to another. This course
confronts the confusion students often have when
they attempt to apply the literacy skills they gained in
their primary college-level composition course to
their upper-level college courses.
General Structure of English 201
• Each English 201 instructor will choose a single theme for the course (for
example AIDS, the criminal mind, or disobedience).
• In relation to this theme, instructors choose articles from a variety of disciplines,
possibly from the library’s internet databases.
• Students analyze the particular disciplinary characteristics of these texts,
identifying the criteria that each field sets for itself.
• Students review research methods, conventions, and practices from a variety of
disciplines.
• Students prepare a portfolio of writing that they compose throughout the
semester.
Objectives for English 201 Revised
• Students practice varying processes and conventions of writing
as it moves from field to field.
• Students learn different types of research methods and writing
that they will face in the content-based courses of the college.
• Students consider how writing can help them learn new
discipline-specific subject matter.
• Students learn to identify the preferred genres, rhetorical
concepts, terminology, formatting, and specific uses of evidence
in various disciplines.
• Students review research methods, conventions, and practices
that they integrate into the cross-disciplinary writing assigned for
this course.
• Students reflect upon how their composing skills can be applied
in diverse writing situations.
• Students expand their abilities to discuss their writing strengths
and challenges.
Suggested Assignments
for English 201 Revised
Below is a non-exhaustive list of assignments that would challenge
students to explore writing across the disciplines.
• Students compose essays which critically analyze a variety of
disciplinary texts.
• Students research the particular composing characteristics of
their major (or proposed major) to discover the expectations that the
discipline requires.
• Students prepare class presentations about the theories and
concepts related to different scholarly fields.
• Students choose a disciplinary text for which they prepare an
examination.
• Students write a letter to an expert in their field which questions
some element of the expert’s research. This inquiry letter should
prove that the student has a grasp of the subject, the terminology,
and the evidence usage of the expert’s disciplinary background.
Writing Curriculum Articulated for Another Discipline
Philosophy Adaptation
Explain Descartes’ argument for his conclusion that “I think; I am” is
the only thing we can know, and then critically evaluate his argument.
letter
Assignment #1 (maps on to “descriptive letter”) Spontaneous in-class
writing: Identify one thing that you used to believe was true, but now
believe is false. Explain at least one reason why you changed your
mind.
Assignment 2 A proposal for
an inquiry-based paper
Assignment #2 (maps on to “proposal”) Thesis statement/Intro draft:
Submit a proposal describing a critical essay on Descartes
Assignment 3 An annotated
Assignment #3 (maps on to “annotated bibliography”) Annotated
bibliography: The student needs, in addition to working with
Descartes’ primary text, to find one or two other primary texts that
contain arguments differing from Descartes’ approach (e.g., Locke,
Hume).
Assignment 1. A descriptive
bibliography
Assignment 4 A first draft of
their inquiry-based essay
Assignment #4 (maps on to “first draft”) Rough draft: The rough
draft will primarily be the exposition of Descartes’ argument, just to
be sure that the student has a grasp of how to distinguish premises
from the conclusion, how to distinguish reasons from the premises,
and how it is all supposed to fit together in order to support the
conclusion.
Writing Curriculum Articulated for Another Discipline
Assignment 5
A formal
outline
Assignment 6
The scripted
interview
Assignment 7
A second
draft of their
inquirybased paper
Assignment #5 (maps on to “formal outline”) Outline:
After receiving feedback on the rough draft, the student will highlight the
key moves in Descartes’ argument. Student does a structural layout of
Descartes’ essay.
Assignment #6 (maps on to “scripted interview”) Critical analysis
brainstorming: Identify and explain the ways in which others (e.g.,
Locke, Hume) have challenged Descartes’ argument. Identify and
explain ways in which you could further challenge Descartes’ argument.
Explain how Descartes could respond to his critics, and explain whether
you think that his responses fail or succeed. This could be not only a
written exercise that the student gets feedback on, but also the basis for
in-class small discussion groups where students can practice verbally
dialoguing and developing this difficult skill of critical analysis.
Assignment #7 (maps on to “second draft”) Final draft:
The student is now ready to put the elements of the essay together,
especially from feedback received on assignments 2, 4, and 6.