The University of Toledo

Composition II - Course Descriptions

ENGL 1130: Academic Discourses and Disciplines

In Academic Discourses and disciplines, we study the written practices of various professions and disciplines to see how those discourse communities construct the problems and objects they study, how those written practices then produce consensus among members of that community, and allow that group to make claims to knowledge. Each instructor will bring their particular scholarly expertise to the shape of the classes they teach, so assignments and focus will vary class to class, but assignments are likely to include examinations of how discourse communities use varying writing strategies to produce different kinds of agreements and understandings, learning to move within those disciplines as ways of understanding the world.

While discourses and disciplines are our topics of discussion, our primary purpose in this course is to explore how and why we write for an audience.  Though not every assignment will ask you to write a traditional academic essay, the skills you will be refining in your writing can be applied to such a task.  To that end, you will be expanding on the things you worked on in Composition I (focus, rhetorical sensitivity, essay development, argumentation, research, citation, and revision) expanding your capabilities in academic writing.  Significant time will also be devoted to the research process, including discussions on finding, evaluating, and incorporating research into texts, reviewing at least two documentation practices, and establishing ethical practices when researching human participants.

Most ENGL 1130 courses are web-enhanced with Blackboard sites.  Expect to post responses to discussion boards, submit papers online, and engage in chatroom discussions and live collaborative sessions as well as meeting in a traditional classroom. Critical reading and a research paper are required.

For more information concerning Composition II courses, please see our Common Syllabi page:  http://www.utoledo.edu/llss/english/programs/composition/geninfo/program_goals.html