The purpose of Composition II is for you to continue building your skill in college-level writing.  Our main course goals are three-fold: for you to become more precise and thoughtful at interpreting literary works, to become comfortable with using sources in your writing and with the process of literary research, and (particularly) to become a more careful and proficient writer.  To accomplish these goals, you will read fiction, poetry, and drama, visit the library often, and write regularly.  

Proficiency:  The English Department explains proficiency with the following elements of the writing process, to which we will be paying particular attention this semester.  These elements describe what each student should be able to do after completing the two-semester Composition sequence (EN 1110 and 1120). 

   1.      Use the steps of the writing process: pre-writing, composing, revising, and copy-editing.

   2.      Unify a composition by limiting the materials to a significant and clearly defined topic.

   3.      Plan a paper that progresses by necessary stages which can easily be comprehended by a reader.

   4.      Develop ideas with concrete, substantial, and relevant detail with consistent attention to proportion and emphasis.

   5.      Connect all parts of the paper with effective and explicit transitions that unify the paragraphs.

   6.      Select words that are precise, idiomatic, and economical.

   7.      Construct unified, coherent, forceful, and varied sentences.

   8.      Copy edit so that there are no more than two sentence form errors (run-ons, fragments, etc.), no more than one spelling error per 250 words, no more than one punctuation error per page, no more than two grammar errors in the complete piece.

   9.      Use the required method of development effectively.

  10.      Demonstrate knowledge of the purpose of the paper.

  11.      Show awareness of the audience for whom the paper is written.

  12.      Make use of the tone that successfully interacts with the purpose and audience.

  13.      Format the paper according to the appropriate form.

  14.      Incorporate material from other sources into a longer and documented thesis paper.