Assignment Sequence for English 101

During the semester, English 101 students should write 4-5 formal essays—revised, polished, typed papers—in addition to their informal writing.  They will choose some of this writing to be included in a final portfolio that they submit to the teacher for evaluation.

The Core Writing Committee has provided this sequence for your reference as you design your syllabus and develop your assignments for formal student papers.  Assignments based on this sequence of work will address all the English 101 objectives.  We advise new teachers in particular to use these guidelines as a way to acclimate to the goals of the program.

We have also provided some sample assignments that fit with the sequence.  These have all been developed by Core Writing teachers.  When you make a formal assignment, please do not simply direct students to “write a personal narrative”—as you will see, our Core Writing assignment sheets offer a good deal more information and help.

Paper #1:       A personal narrative.

We want students to begin their college writing with what they know, based on their own experience and observation.  This essay gives students practice in shaping a story for an audience and in representing an event or experience clearly in vivid, well-chosen language.  We do not believe that narratives are easier than other forms; however, by having students work with somewhat familiar material in this assignment, we hope to help them develop a sense of “voice,” engagement, and purpose in writing.  

Paper #2:       An essay about place.

Building on the “identity” themes that generally arise from the first paper, this assignment directs students to look at themselves “in context."   Some instructors may ask students to focus on a physical place or setting.  Others may emphasize cultural or social “place,” perhaps asking writers to define a group to which they belong.  An assignment in this category might even invite comment about cyberspace.  To write a successful second paper, students will have to draw not only on memories and experiences but also on observation, interviews, and/or reading.  In this essay as in the first, students should be working toward rhetorical awareness, focus and effective organization, and strategic use of vivid detail to evoke a mood or support their claims about “place.”

Like #1, this essay may have elements of narrative, but students should also be practicing analysis and reflection. 

Paper #3:       An informative essay with a thesis.

We want students to learn that all writing (even memoir) needs to be researched.  Assignments in this category may invite students to supplement their experience-based knowledge with observation or interviews or information from printed and electronic texts.  This is not to be a “research paper,” and it is not necessary to teach MLA citation form in English 101, but students should be invited to ask critical questions about their topics that take them beyond what they already know from personal experience.  We also want them to develop the confidence to test what they have “found out” against what they “already know.”

The thesis of this paper may or may not be  “persuasive” or “argumentative” in purpose, but we want all students to practice writing a focused, coherent, well-developed and supported informative piece.

Paper #4:       A paper that specifically refers to two or more texts.

At this point in the semester, students should practice incorporating and negotiating “outside voices” in their writing.  Although other assignments may have directed them to observe or to listen, this paper highlights reading and the use of verbal and visual texts.  This assignment should direct students to synthesize, compare, or critique two or more texts: these may be essays or other works they have read and discussed in class.  The topic, too, may be one that has been discussed in class, and then students can be asked to extend the discussion, thinking critically about the implications of the ideas that have been presented by classmates and printed (or other) texts.  In short, students should gain practice in “entering a (written) conversation.”  Again, we are not looking for a “research paper” here, nor do we stress formal documentation, but student comments about the texts should be well supported with references from the texts.

Fifth Paper (optional):  Some instructors assign one final paper to appear in the portfolio.  These alternatives are relevant to the course:

a) a reflective essay reviewing the student’s writing development over the course of the semester

b) an expansion of a journal entry into a paper directed at a specific audience

c) an(other) observation- or interview-based essay

d) an examination of personal values or of the student’s aims for her or his college education

 

Download an RTF version of English 101 Assignment Sequence