Welcome to the First-Year Writing Program

The First-Year Writing Program at Elon includes three writing courses: ENG1100, ENG1000, and College Writing for High School Juniors. English 1100, Writing: Argument and Inquiry, is a required course in the First-Year Foundations in Elon’s Core Curriculum.

Outcomes for ENG1100 Writing: Argument and Inquiry

The following outcomes are shared among all ENG1100 Writing: Argument and Inquiry courses at Elon University. Our goal as a program is to help students come to know and do the following through sustained practice.

All students in ENG1100, Writing: Argument and Inquiry, will

Engage with Writing as a Complex Process.

  1. Practice writing as a flexible and recursive process that includes brainstorming, drafting, revising, designing, proofing, and polishing over time.
  2. Collaborate with others in the writing process by co-creating knowledge, which includes giving and receiving feedback and composing texts collaboratively.
  3. Engage with writing as a process of discovery and risk-taking where one’s questions, strategies, and arguments evolve.

Develop the Agility to Write across Genres, using Multiple Media, for Various Audiences and Contexts.

  1. Analyze the rhetorical situation, including the relationship of rhetor, audience, context, and purpose.
  2. Compose, design, and adapt texts in a variety of genres, media, and styles to communicate effectively given the audience and context, which could include various academic disciplines as well as civic, public, professional, and/or personal contexts.
  3. Design media purposefully by considering ways to maximize accessibility and communicate to diverse audiences inclusively.

Examine How Communication Practices are Socially Situated.

  1. Identify how one’s own experiences and relationship with writing, as well as one’s race, gender, ethnicity, (dis)ability, sexual orientation, religion, class, nationality, and/or language background, influence approaches to communication.
  2. Question and critique cultural language biases and dominant language ideology, and develop appreciation for the value of multiple literacies and Englishes.

Conduct Research to Inquire, Argue, and Expand One’s Knowledge and Understanding.

  1. Seek out, analyze, and evaluate various kinds of sources–such as personal testimony, data, internet sources, and peer-reviewed research–that represent a variety of communicative approaches and perspectives.
  2. Read sources with curiosity, skepticism, and a willingness to expand and complicate one’s understanding.
  3. Synthesize information and evidence to develop hypotheses and/or stake claims; practice ethical source use, which includes citing sources appropriately and attributing ideas to their respective sources.
  4. Recognize the socio-political nature of information, including the positionality and expertise of its creators, where it is located, and how it is controlled.

Appreciate the Capacity of Writing to Change Oneself and the World.

  1. Practice metacognitive reflection about one’s own choices as a writer, and evaluate one’s own writing and writing practices in order to improve.
  2. Use writing as a tool to make personal connections that are meaningful to the author and to expand one’s and others’ awareness of local and global issues.
  3. Explore ways to use writing for civic engagement within and beyond the university; recognize ways that writing can be used to define, examine, debate, and solve problems.

 

Program Overview

Elon University offers approximately 80 sections of English 1100 Writing: Argument and Inquiry, our required first-year writing course, each year. English 1100 is 4 credit hours and offered both fall and spring, with half of the first-year class taking the course each semester.

All sections of English 1100 share common outcomes, but courses take different approaches and include different writing projects based on faculty expertise and student interest. Some sections of Writing: Argument and Inquiry feature community engagement; others take a decentralized, student-led approach; others create multimedia content for a range of audiences. All sections provide opportunities for writing practice across academic and non-academic contexts.

  • Class Size Cap: 20
  • AP Score Required for Credit: 4 or 5 on the AP English Language and Composition exam
  • Faculty: Approximately 35 on tenured, tenure-track, lecture-track, limited-term, and part-time lines

This site includes information for students, parents, and faculty. If you cannot find the information you need on this site, please contact the First-Year Writing Coordinator, Dr. Heather Lindenman.