Classes and Curriculum


Placement


To determine whether they will begin in ENEX 100 or ENEX 101, all students must take a placement exam that is offered eight to ten times each year (generally once during Orientation week, three times during advising and registration weeks each semester, once prior to the Spring semester, and multiple times during the summer). The exam consists of three to four directed prompts; students select one of these prompts and have forty-five minutes to respond with a well-structured and specific short essay. The best essays will (1) reflect a direct understanding of the prompt; (2) show a focused and specific response to the prompt; (3) reveal a logical structure and clear line of reasoning; (4) provide adequate support and/or examples for the claims made; and, (5) display generally clean spelling and grammar. All exams are reviewed by a group of trained readers, and every test that ultimately yields an ENEX 100 placement is reviewed by two or more readers.

Students who are unhappy with their performance on the test and with their subsequent placement may elect to take the test again at the next (or any subsequent) scheduled session. They may also visit with any of the directors of Composition during posted office hours and by appointment if they wish to discuss their performance on the test.

Although they are very rare, exemptions from the ENEX sequence are sometimes granted based on a superior performance on the placement exam; students may also be exempted from ENEX 101 via a score of three or higher on the AP Language and Composition test.


Classes


ENEX 100 (Basic Composition): The purpose of this course is to nurture the kind of critical thinking, reading, and writing that will enable students to succeed in ENEX 101 and beyond. By the end of the course, students should be aware of and practicing with confidence these elements of:

The Reading Process
  • the use of critical thinking models
  • the use of multiple reading strategies to describe, analyze, and synthesize texts
  • the use of strategies to read their own texts and assess their own rhetorical choices

The Writing Process

  • use of multiple drafts to improve their written texts
  • use of such strategies as brainstorming, freewriting, focused freewriting, outlining in all stages of the writing process
  • use of strategies to organize their written texts
  • use of strategies to revise their written texts
  • use of strategies to proofread and edit texts, including collaborative strategies and peer-editing

By offering a variety of writing opportunities (largely in response to thematically-based readings), ENEX 100 ultimately seeks to help students develop the confidence and the repertoire of strategies needed to confront diverse writing tasks. In addition to understanding and demonstrating more confidently the formal conventions of writing, students consider the diverse needs of different audiences and learn to interact effectively with the discourse of the academy. As it moves students towards writing a thesis-based essay in conversation with multiple sources, the course in its final weeks forges connections with what students will experience in the more rigorous ENEX 101.


ENEX 101 (English Composition): This course approaches critical reading and purposeful writing as essential aspects of responsible inquiry, and continues the program's goal of initiating students into the academic discourse community. Students focus on discovering and communicating their ideas as effectively as possible in the form of focused, well-structured, and well-developed essays. The four major inquiry projects give students the opportunity to compose in a range of genres for a range of academic and civic situations. Students will have opportunities to use observations and experience as evidence, as well as learn strategies for composing effective arguments and conducting academic research. ENEX 101 students will have the chance to develop all of their major projects through a process of inquiry and drafting. The variety of writing tasks (formal and informal) emphasized in ENEX 101 may include reading journals, free and directed in-class writings, email discussions, blogging and other electronic writing, peer critique, rhetorical analysis, etc.

Throughout the course, students will understand writing as a recursive process that involves reading and contemplation, the exchange of ideas within a discourse community, generating knowledge, organizing, drafting, revising, and editing. The curriculum strongly emphasizes the process of writing, and thus requires students to revise strenuously and to reflect on their writing consistently. Students will be asked to keep a working folder of all their writing throughout the semester, and, at the end of the semester, they will construct a final portfolio that will include the four inquiry projects, drafting, and an introduction to the portfolio. The program endorses portfolios to evaluate student writing because they support the emphasis on writing development and inquiry as activities that take place over time and across writing situations. Specifically, portfolios support choice, variety, reflection, and balance process and product.


ENEX 200 (Advanced Composition for the Disciplines): Underpinned by the notion that writing is a collective task across disciplinary interests, this course invites students to understand writing in relation to modes of inquiry in specific disciplines (Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, Business/Economics, and Humanities). Building on the goals of ENEX 101, the course invites students to craft argumentative essays as part of an open-minded process of responsible inquiry. The course exposes students to a variety of writing opportunities (e.g., formal essays, reading journals, in-class writings, electronic writing, peer and collaborative writing, proposals and abstracts, etc.), and asks them to demonstrate logical, clear development of ideas and lines of reasoning in response to increasingly complex contexts and readings. By emphasizing revision as well as the collaborative and social aspects of writing, students enhance their understanding of writing as a complex and flexible process, and they continue to deepen their awareness of audience and purpose.


Textbooks


ENEX 100:

ENEX 101:



Grading


Students enrolled in ENEX 100 and 101 are graded according to the plus/minus grading system. The Composition program and the university deem a C or higher to constitute a passing grade for ENEX 101. Students who earn below a C will be required to repeat the course.


Academic Honesty


The Composition program takes plagiarism very seriously. Instructors in all sections aim to foreground the issue in a way that both respects the complex ways information circulates and that educates students about the serious repercussions of academic dishonesty. If plagiarism is detected in a composition section, the instructor has the right to impose a penalty based on the severity of the offense: penalties can range from full letter grade deductions on individual papers, an automatic grade of F on an individual paper, and, in some cases, a failing grade for the entire course. Students who are either unsure of the definition of plagiarism or of how to cite source material properly are encouraged to see their instructors for clarifications and help. Students should also be aware that penalties for academic misconduct may be imposed by both the course instructor and university sanctions. See the Student Conduct Code for more information.











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