WR 121_H - Academic Composition-Honors

4 Credit(s)

This fundamental course for all writing students introduces students to the conventions of academic writing. It emphasizes defining and developing a significant topic and using principles of clear thinking to support an assertive or argumentative thesis. Students will gain an understanding of their subject matter, audience, purpose, and point-of-view, and demonstrate that understanding through the organization and development of their essays. Students will learn how to analyze and evaluate other writers’ work to sharpen their critical abilities as readers and writers. The course also introduces students to skills in source analysis, documentation, and beginning research methods. This honors class delves deeper into course topics and requires a high level of student motivation; the pace may be faster than non-honors courses. See lanecc.edu/honors for information. Students cannot receive credit for both WR 121_H and WR 121.

Prerequisite: WR 115  or placement 
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, the student should be able to:

1. The course also introduces students to skills in source analysis, documentation, and beginning research methods

2. Demonstrate critical thinking and reading skills of situations or challenging college-level texts

a. Read actively and rhetorically: engage with complex ideas in order to evaluate and interpret texts

b. Evaluate, use, and synthesize sources in support of the thesis, which may include primary and secondary, and found in media-captured, electronic, live and printed forms

c. Develop and organize essays using logic, examples, and illustration, and research to support his/her ideas

d. Engage in the research process as part of an inquiry process

3. Make appropriate and effective rhetorical choices during all stages of the writing process:

a. Adopt an appropriate point of view, which takes into account voice, tone, and ethos

b. Choose strategies of development appropriate for the purpose and audience–including narration, cause/effect, description, comparison/contrast, classification, process, and definition (recognizing that effective writing usually involves combinations of these modes”)

c. Identify audience and a clear purpose; d. Shape a thesis and/or controlling idea (implicit or explicit) that expresses a focused approach to ideas, insights, and/or applications