First-Year Writing Curriculum

The English 1301 and 1302 curriculum was redesigned in 2018 to provide a stronger rhetorical foundation for students at Texas Tech and to provide students with practice in the habits of mind of rhetoric and writing in university life and in public deliberation. This curriculum was designed to support students in accomplishing Core Curriculum Student Learning Objectives and course goals. This page offers information on the principles and values guiding the First-Year Writing Program and explains the curriculum and projects in English 1301 and 1302.

Principles and Values Guiding the First-Year Writing Program

English 1301 and 1302 are two of the first courses students will take at Texas Tech. As gateway courses into university life, these two courses are designed to assist students in making the transition into academic writing and to help prepare them to engage with issues and problems of shared and public concern. In order to most effectively assist students in this transition, the English Department has designed a curriculum and textbook that builds on the following principles and values, which we believe are fundamental to a successful college writing course:

1. A rhetorical education is foundational to academic writing.
2. A rhetorical education is also foundational for healthy and meaningful public deliberation.
3. Academic writing involves habits of mind like curiosity, inquiry, listening and paying attention, and dwelling in complexity.
4. Improving your writing involves a lot of practice.
5. Effective writers seek feedback from a variety of other people, including peers and experts; evaluate and incorporate that feedback into their planning, drafting, and revision; and can evaluate a writing situation to provide useful feedback to others.
6. Increasingly, public and academic writing takes place in a variety of media or modes, and a rhetorical education can help prepare you for that multimodal work.
7. Lastly, teaching, learning, and writing are about being in relationships with other people.

English 1301 & 1302 Curriculum

This curriculum was designed drawing on recent theory and practice in rhetoric and writing studies and drawing on models used at award-winning programs like the University of Oklahoma's First-Year Composition Program, the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire's Blugold Seminar in Critical Reading and Writing, and Western Washington University's First-Year Writing Program.

English 1301: Essentials of College Rhetoric

This course is designed to ground first-year students in the reading, writing, and rhetorical demands and practices necessary for engaging in civic discourse and for success in college and beyond. This class teaches students to be both critical readers of complex texts and critical writers and creators of effective texts. This course assumes that the key to critical reading and effective writing is rhetorical knowledge. Rhetoric is foundational for this course because it helps you to understand how other people's texts work and have effects on audiences and helps you to compose effective and purposeful texts yourself. Rhetorical knowledge prepares you to participate in and respond to a variety of writing situations, whether it be in public arenas, professional settings, personal situations, or future college courses. This course teaches you how to identify other writers' choices and how to make your own choices across a variety of writing situations.

Project 1: Mediated Values Essay. This low-stakes essay asks students to reflect on how a particular piece of media has shaped a value that they hold.

Project 2: Summary & Synthesis Essay. Students practice critical and rhetorical reading, summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting by writing a brief essay that places two course readings in conversation with each other.

Project 3: Rhetorical Analysis. Students analyze a text for how it works rhetorically to make meaning and have effects on a particular audience.

Project 4: Inquiry-Based Multimodal Project. Students investigate a question related to a local place and explore that research question through primary research and by creating a multimodal project that shares that research. This project is accompanied by a Statement of Goals and Choices that asks students to explain their rhetorical and personal goals and their choices as researchers and rhetors.

Project 5: Final-Self Assessment Essay. Students argue that their work in their course shows they accomplished the goals of the course.

English 1302: Advanced College Rhetoric

This course is designed to ground first-year students in the reading, writing, and rhetorical demands and practices necessary for engaging in civic discourse and for success in college and beyond. This class builds on the work of English 1301 to teach students to be both critical readers of complex texts and critical writers of effective texts. English 1302 focuses particularly on inquiry, conducting research, evaluating sources, incorporating source material in your own writing, mapping out a conversation around an issue, and entering that conversation through your own writing. This course assumes that the key to researching, evaluating sources, and responding to writing contexts is rhetorical knowledge. Rhetoric is foundational for this course because it helps you to understand how other people's texts work and helps you compose effective and purposeful texts yourself in a variety of genres, media, and forms.

Project 1: Rant. Students deliver a passionate (yet polite) short speech to their classmates explaining why a public issue is both important to them and an issue of social importance.

Project 2: I-Search Essay. In this low-stakes essay, students explore their personal interest in an issue or problem and explore what questions they currently have about the issue.

Project 3: Annotated Bibliography. To prepare for a semester-long research project, students gather, summarize, and evaluate four sources related to a stakeholder relevant to the issue or problem they're researching.

Project 4: Mapping the Conversation Essay. In this scholarly essay, students introduce the background and context of a current public issue and demonstrate its important and then analyze five stakeholders to the issue, synthesizing and analyzing their perspectives and arguments on the issue.

Project 5: Final Project with Statement of Goals and Choices. Students create a project designed to persuade a stakeholder from their previous project.

Project 6: Final Speech. Students deliver a formal 6-8-minute persuasive speech to persuade their classmates on a perspective related to the issue or problem they've been researching.

Project 7: Final Self-Assessment Essay. Students argue that their work in their course shows they accomplished the goals of the course.

Special Sections of English 1302 for Writing in the Disciplines

The First-Year Writing Program at Texas Tech also offers special sections of English 1302 designed for students in engineering or for students preparing to work in the health professions.

English 1302: Writing in Engineering

This course is designed to ground first-year students in the reading, writing, and rhetorical demands and practices necessary for success in college and beyond. This class builds on the work of English 1301 to teach students to be both critical readers of complex texts and critical writers of effective texts. This section of English 1302 focuses particularly on the ways of knowing, doing, and writing in engineering disciplines and introducing students to some of the writing, genre, and research conventions practiced in engineering fields. This course assumes that the key to researching, evaluating sources, and responding to writing contexts is rhetorical knowledge. Rhetoric is foundational for this course because it helps you to understand how other people's texts work and helps you compose effective and purposeful texts yourself in a variety of genres, media, and forms.

English 1302: Writing in the Health Professions

This course is designed to ground first-year students in the reading, writing, and rhetorical demands and practices necessary for success in college and beyond. This class builds on the work of English 1301 to teach students to be both critical readers of complex texts and critical writers of effective texts. This section of English 1302 focuses specifically on effective and ethical writing, representation, and research practices and conventions commonly utilized in health and medical fields. This course assumes that the key to researching, evaluating sources, and responding to writing contexts is rhetorical knowledge. Rhetoric is foundational for this course because it helps you to understand how other people's texts work and helps you compose effective and purposeful texts yourself in a variety of genres, media, and forms.