No matter what career you pursue, you must be able to communicate effectively and clearly if you want to be successful. This course will enhance your ability to do so by sharpening your critical thinking and writing skills.
We will begin with a unit designed to change the way in which you think about writing. First, you will learn to think of writing not as a solitary act but as a conversation between yourself and an audience. In this light, writing becomes a dynamic, interactive, and creative rather than a rote practice. You will also begin to value writing as a process—an admittedly difficult one—rather than a product. You will come to see that writing is an act of discovery rather than a recitation of prefabricated ideas.
Because this course is designed specifically for students in a university setting, the second unit will focus on academic writing. We will learn how to respond to an assignment or test question by using the “PWR-Writing” or “Power-Writing” Method (PWR: Pre-write, Write, Revise) while learning the ins and outs of building a solid thesis and supporting that thesis with evidence. The remaining units will focus on the minutiae of good writing practices from style to citation methodology.
Because the goal of this course is to improve your ability to write clear, grammatically-sound expository and persuasive prose, every unit will include a “Grammar Capsule,” focusing on a specific grammatical issue.
