Students have a range of options to meet the advanced writing requirement. As one option, the composition program offers English 225, an advanced writing course suitable for students from all majors. English 225 (“Advanced” composition) focuses on writing in diverse genres for specific audiences. Students engage in an in-depth research project across the term, integrating sources and methods from multiple academic disciplines. Advanced composition will teach you to analyze how writing strategies and genre conventions differ across academic disciplines and broader communities. Some instructors may choose an interdisciplinary inquiry theme to focus student research and writing while others may guide students in generating their own inquiry questions to spur individual or group research across disciplines.

Outcomes

Although themes for the course vary (and are listed on the course schedule), all sections pursue the following outcomes:

Genre Knowledge

Students will learn to analyze academic and community genre expectations, understanding how conventions for writing differ across contexts and media.

Inquiry-Driven Research

Students will engage a specific inquiry question in depth over time, conducting intensive research to examine an issue from multiple disciplinary perspectives.

Audience Adaptation

Students will critically analyze the expectations of various audiences, adapting their writing to meet those expectations.

Revision

Students will revise work in response to peer and instructor feedback, deeply re-seeing their work in light of genre conventions, audience expectations, and rhetorical knowledge.

Reflective Transfer

Students will reflect about the writing strategies they have learned throughout their coursework, considering how they can apply and adapt those strategies to meet the writing challenges they will face in their majors, careers, and civic lives.

Style and Editing

Students will learn editing techniques to enhance clarity, concision and reader engagement while also recognizing how stylistic conventions and citation formats differ across contexts.