The student will be able to:

1. Develop reading skills and strategies for comprehension and critical analysis.
2. Develop critical thinking skills and strategies related to the process of expository and argumentative writing.
3. Apply essay revision and editing skills.

1. Develop and apply reading skills and strategies for comprehension and critical analysis
   1. Identify essential elements
      1. Thesis (major claim)
      2. Minor claims (topic sentences)
      3. Purpose: to inform, persuade, entertain, raise an issue, or provoke thought
      4. Main ideas and sections as evidenced by topic signals or generalization of implied idea from detail (induction)
      5. Structure clues: topic sentences, coherence devices, signals that suggest organizational patterns
      6. Types of support: personal experience, statistics, anecdotes, etc.
   2. Infer elements of the text, such as audience, purpose, and bias
      1. Formatting, visual, and word clues
      2. Audience
      3. Informational, expository, and persuasive purposes
      4. Bias (e.g., exclusion of information, loaded language)
      5. Fact vs. opinion
      6. Message, if not directly stated
   3. Develop and apply various reading strategies
      1. Schema building
         1. Activation of prior knowledge
         2. Acquisition of culture-specific background and/or historical knowledge
      2. Previewing
      3. Distinguishing main ideas from supporting detail, i.e., distinguishing general from specific
      4. Annotating and note-taking
      5. Elaborative interrogation/self-questioning
      6. Outlining
      7. Paraphrasing and summary writing to check comprehension
   4. Critically evaluate text
      1. Author's credibility
      2. Author's underlying assumptions about the audience
      3. Evidence (appropriateness, effectiveness, relevance)
      4. Completeness of arguments
      5. Logic of arguments/claims
      6. Types of opinion (personal, considered, expert)
      7. Implications/consequences of ideas
2. Develop critical thinking strategies and production skills related to the process of expository and argumentative writing
   1. Analysis of a prompt for essential requirements
      1. Purpose, audience, appropriate content
   2. Brainstorming strategies
      1. Free-writing, concept mapping, listing, etc.
   3. Evaluating the focus of a thesis statement
      1. Narrow vs. specific
      2. Arguable
      3. Open vs. closed
   4. Determining the appropriateness of topic sentences
      1. Less specific than the thesis statement
      2. Directly support the controlling idea of the thesis statement
   5. Outlining to establish a hierarchy of ideas
   6. Applying knowledge of English rhetorical elements
      1. Organizational patterns
      2. Placement of support
      3. Quotation use (for support, counter-argument/rebuttal, introducing an idea, etc.)
      4. Task-specific types of introductions and conclusions
      5. Appropriate vocabulary and tone
   7. Identifying and incorporating task- and audience-appropriate evidence
      1. Determining evidence based on the topic and purpose
      2. Determining the needs of the audience
      3. Evaluating the depth and extent of evidence
3. Apply essay revision and editing skills
   1. Revision of essay content through:
      1. Self-assessment of the student's own product through application of instructional content
      2. Placing oneself in the position of the reader rather than writer
      3. Comprehending, evaluating, and incorporating feedback from classmates and the instructor
   2. Apply editing skills to achieve:
      1. Coherence
         1. Repetition of old information followed by new
         2. Transitional material: words, phrases, clauses
         3. Lexical coherence: repetition of terms or use of synonyms for topic continuity
         4. Terms that signal organizational patterns: chronology, compare/contrast, cause/effect, etc.
      2. Sentence efficiency
         1. Combining sentences for fluency
         2. Reducing clauses to phrases to eliminate redundancy
         3. Eliminating verbosity
      3. Grammatical accuracy
         1. Verb tense editing
         2. Complementation
         3. Clause formation (adjective, adverb, noun, and related punctuation)
         4. Comma splices, run-on sentences, and fragments
         5. Word form

Not applicable.

In-class assignments
Tests and/or quizzes
Midterm and final self-assessment

Lecture and small-group or whole-class discussions on the processes and products of reading and writing

Behrens and Rosen. Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum. 2021.

Graff and Berkenstein. They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing with Readings. 2021.

This course should primarily focus on texts assigned in ENGL 1A or other transfer-level, writing-intensive course.

1. Reading of books and/or articles on the process and purpose of reading and writing in an academic setting
2. Reading and evaluation of student's own work and that of peers
3. Written reflections and self-evaluations