Teaching ENGL 1102

ENGL 1102 provides instruction in rhetoric, process, and multimodality by emphasizing written, oral, visual, electronic, and nonverbal (WOVEN) communication in a variety of genres and rhetorical situations. It also introduces research as well as cultural studies and humanistic analysis. Supplementary texts often include fiction, poetry, drama, film, television, video games, and other forms of cultural artifacts. Students complete a sustained research project, which can be individual or collaborative (many WCP faculty design collaborative projects).

Broadly, instructors of 1102 should gear their instruction toward these areas:

  • Considering rhetoric and process in relation to multiple modes
  • Providing instruction in multimodality, including issues such as multimodal genres; affordances of mode, medium, and technology; multimodal synergy
  • Providing instruction in academic research, reference, and citation
  • Developing critical analysis of, and argumentation about, cultural artifacts such as literature, film, video games, etc.

More specific outcomes for the course are detailed below.

Learning Outcomes for ENGL 1102

These learning outcomes are adapted from the Council of Writing Program Administrators (WPA) Outcomes Statement for First-Year Composition (3.0).

Category
Outcomes by the USG Board of Regents
Outcomes by the
Council of Writing Program Administrators
Additional Expectations of the GTWCP
Critical Thinking

Critical thinking involves understanding social and cultural texts and contexts in ways that support productive communication and interaction.
  • Analyze arguments.
  • Accommodate opposing points of view.
  • Interpret inferences and develop subtleties of symbolic and indirect discourse.
  • Use writing and reading for inquiry, learning, thinking, and communicating.
  • Integrate ideas with those of others.
  • Understand relationships among language, knowledge, and power.
  • Recognize the constructedness of language and social forms.
  • Analyze and critique constructs such as race, gender, and sexuality as they appear in cultural texts.

Rhetoric

Rhetoric focuses on available means of persuasion, considering the synergy of factors such as context, audience, purpose, role, argument, organization, design, visuals, and conventions of language.
  • Adapt communication to circumstances and audience.
  • Produce communication that is stylistically appropriate and mature.
  • Communicate in standard English for academic and professional contexts.
  • Sustain a consistent purpose and point of view.
  • Use a variety of technologies to address a range of audiences.
  • Learn common formats for different kinds of texts.
  • Develop knowledge of genre conventions ranging from structure and paragraphing to tone and mechanics.
  • Control such surface features as syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
  • Create artifacts that demonstrate the synergy of rhetorical elements.
  • Demonstrate adaptation of register, language, and conventions for specific contexts and audiences.
  • Apply strategies for communication in and across both academic disciplines and cultural contexts in the community and the workplace.

Process

Processes for communication—for example, creating, planning, drafting, designing, rehearsing, revising, presenting, publishing—are recursive, not linear. Learning productive processes is as important as creating products.

 [No USG BOR outcomes are specifically related to process.]
  • Find, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize appropriate primary and secondary sources.
  • Develop flexible strategies for generating, revising, editing, and proofreading.
  • Understand collaborative and social aspects of writing processes.
  • Critique their own and others’ works.
  • Balance the advantages of relying on others with [personal] responsibility.
  • Construct and select information based on interpretation and critique of the accuracy, bias, credibility, authority, and appropriateness of sources.
  • Compose reflections that demonstrate understanding of the elements of iterative processes, both specific to and transferable across rhetorical situations.

Modes and Media

Activities and assignments should use a variety of modes and media—written, oral, visual, electronic, and nonverbal (WOVEN)—singly and in combination. The context and culture of multimodality and multimedia are critical.
  • Interpret content of written materials on related topics from various disciplines.
  • Compose effective written materials for various academic and professional contexts.
  • Assimilate, analyze, and present a body of information in oral and written forms.
  • Communicate in various modes and media, using appropriate technology.
  • Use digital environments for drafting, reviewing, revising, editing, and sharing texts.
  • Locate, evaluate, organize, and use research material collected from electronic sources, including scholarly library databases; other official (e.g., federal) databases; and informal electronic networks and internet sources.
  • Exploit differences in rhetorical strategies and affordances available for both print and electronic composing processes and texts.
  • Create WOVEN (written, oral, visual, electronic, and nonverbal) artifacts that demonstrate interpretation, analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and judgment.
  • Demonstrate strategies for effective translation, transformation, and transference of communication across modes and media.

Projects 

Within the course outcomes and requirements discussed below, ENGL 1102 instructors have a lot of flexibility with their assignment design and are encouraged to experiment.

  • ENGL 1102 common first week assignment– use programmatic assignment sheet
  • Multimodal projects
  • ENGL 1102 portfolio – use programmatic assignment sheet

Multimodal Projects

When considering multimodal projects for ENGL 1102, consider how the projects, taken together, will provide learning across the WOVEN modes. That is, how does your project sequence provide students opportunities to learn and practice communicating in written, oral, visual, electronic, and nonverbal modes? Ultimately, multimodal projects tackle multiple modes at a time—we can say that all communication is multimodal (for example, written text necessarily engages the visual mode through layout and design, readability, etc.). This need to engage with all the modes is reflected in the required end-of-semester portfolio, in which students select artifacts to show their learning in Written, Oral/Nonverbal, Visual, and Electronic modes.

In short: make sure your projects (outside of the Common First Week assignment and end-of-semester Portfolio) together engage all five modes.

The Importance of Genre

Understanding genre, like those of rhetoric, process, and multimodality more broadly, helps students transfer their learning in our classes to the innumerable unpredictable communication situations they have in their other classes and personal and professional lives.

ENGL 1102 Project Menu

For ENGL 1102, we recommend planning three major projects in addition to the Common First Week Assignment and end-of-semester Portfolio. Use the menu below to think through possible options for your three projects.

Note: ENGL 1102 requires a substantive research project. Research is often a part of ENGL 1101 in practice, though it is not required in the same way.

Select project emphasizing W (but with OVEN in the process) Select project emphasizing O/N (but with WVE in the process) Select project emphasizing  V (but with WOEN in the process) Design scaffolded feedback/review 
Feature article Presentation slides  with voiceover Infographic Peer reviews
Wiki article Podcast PSA video Checklists
Annotated bibliog. Panel presentation Poster Sketches
Analytical essay Museum guide recording Website Storyboards
Review/commentary Individual Pitch Book covers Annotated drafts
Your own choice Your own choice Your own choice Outlines
Audio/video clips
User/usability tests
TrackChanges
Your own choice

Here is a project sequence that shows the mix and match possibilities (and, of course, many more options exist):

Sample project sequence

(0) Project Zero Common First Week Video

Scaffolding/process: Video analysis; brainstorming; script drafting; rough storyboard; reflection

(1) W—feature article for an online newspaper or magazine

Scaffolding/process: Brainstorming/mind-mapping; oral pitch; research; annotated bibliography; rough drafts; peer reviews; reflection

(2) V—an infographic

 Scaffolding/process: Tech review memo; sketches; peer review/user testing; reflection

(3) O—a group presentation

Scaffolding/process: Group collaboration agreement; research; outlining/storyboarding; script draft; notes page draft; reflection

(4) Portfolio—Document process. Describe growth/awareness. Select representative work.

Scaffolding: Portfolio plan/outline; semester reflection; reflective essay rough draft; peer review

Textbooks

ENGL 1102 has two required textbooks.

  1. Georgia Tech Writing and Communication Program, WOVENtext Open Educational Resource: woventext.lmc.gatech.edu
  2. Ball, Cheryl, Jennifer Sheppard, and Kristin Arola, Writer/Designer 3rd ed. Accessed through The Bedford Bookshelf.

Instructors are also welcome to require additional books or resources beyond these two required books.

WOVENtext Open Educational Resource

Use the WOVENText OER for:

  • Introducing/framing the WOVEN curriculum (e.g., Ch. 1, Ch. 2, Ch. 3,
  • Discussing multimodality in depth (Ch. 4)
  • Supporting learning about collaboration (Ch. 6, Ch. 7)

Writer/Designer

Use Writer/Desginer for instruction in

  • The process of developing multimodal projects
  • Working with technology
  • Working with multimodal sources

Course Themes

Instructors develop the thematic content of the course, given that the course uses the required course outcomes, general project requirements, and textbooks discussed above.

Course Description Example/Template

As with all WCP course descriptions, the ENGL 1102 course description should prioritize the writing and communication outcomes of the course rather than the theme or topic. The following example can be used as a template, may be adapted to your needs, or otherwise serve as a model of how to appropriately prioritize the course outcomes over the theme. See Developing Your Course Topic for more information.

This course provides opportunities for you to become a more effective communicator as you refine your thinking, writing, speaking, designing, collaborating, and reflecting. As part of the WOVEN (written, oral, visual, electronic, and nonverbal communication) curriculum, ENGL 1102 emphasizes developing your strategic processes in multimodal communication, critical analysis, and research. In this section of the course, you’ll investigate [the course topic/focus/theme] as you employ writing and other WOVEN modes to create projects about [the course topic/focus/theme] in a range of writing-focused genres. [More information about the course topic/focus/theme.]