CWP: English 098

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Description of English 098

English 098 is a composition course that emphasizes techniques of prewriting, writing, and revising. Students work on building fluency and focus in essays through paragraph development, revision techniques, and critical reading of both professional and student essays. They write four or five essays over the semester. A mandatory University Writing Center component is included, both to introduce students to the facility and to insure individual attention to writing projects. Students are placed in English 098 based on test scores, but they can be moved into English 101 as a result of a portfolio or a placement essay submitted prior to the beginning of classes. English 098 is taken for "S" (A, B, C) or "U" (D, F). Although students receive three credits while taking the course, English 098 does not transfer and does not apply to a baccalaureate degree. Students who show marked improvement in the course may, with the instructor's and department's approval, matriculate directly to English 102.

English 098 Course Outcomes

The University of Nevada, Reno's English 098 program has developed course outcomes based on the input from experienced developmental writing teachers, which they have gained from being developing writers themselves and from indirect and direct student feedback over the years. The following list presents the course goals and possible outcomes, which deal with aspects of intellectual development as a university student in many disciplines and as a student writer in the English department.

In English 098, students will:

• Build understanding of writing context by writing for and within a community;
• Become familiar with the writing process and the difference between revision and editing;
• Practice the writing process, including prewriting, writing, and revising, and editing;
• Develop a sense of using different writing voices for different purposes;
• Learn to write with authority;
• Build fluency and focus;
• Develop familiarity with the conventions of written language;
• Develop rhetorical awareness of using audiences and purposes to stimulate and focus the writing process;
• Use narrative, description and explication to write about personal experiences.