COURSE DESCRIPTION: English 106 is the standard 4-credit hour composition course for entering students at Purdue. To meet all your goals in this one-semester course, you should expect to produce between 7,500-11,500 words of polished writing (or 15,000-22,000 total words, including drafts) or the equivalent. Some of this text production will be done using multimedia, and some if it may be given through short assignments.
This course will help you develop your ability to write sophisticated and well-argued essays. It is assumed that you already have some understanding of how to write an organized essay. The focus of this course will be rhetorical analysis. We will analyze visual, digital, and written texts in terms of their purposes, audience, and contexts, and look at the rhetorical strategies they use in order to accomplish their purposes effectively. You will then be expected to apply the same kind of analysis and rhetorical strategies to your own writing. In order to succeed in this class you will have to do more than produce a coherent and organized essay. You will also have to demonstrate that you understand the rhetorical strategies we cover in class and are able to apply them in your own writing. In addition to demonstrating these strategies in writing, you will also be required to demonstrate them through multimedia projects.
This course will help you to communicate effectively through various modes of communication. We will discuss in class how communication has changed in a digital age, and the importance of understanding visual design and contexts in effective modern communication. In addition to traditional texts, we will also examine posters, magazine advertisements, and online forms of communication and persuasion.
Grading
4 Response papers (5 points each)
2 Short formal papers (10 points each)
1 Visual Rhetoric Assignment (10 points)
1 Research Project (30 points)
Discussion (including participation in class discussions, homework, and quizzes) (20 points)