Writing Program

Coordinator: Tisha Bender

Course Description:
Expository Writing (English 101) is the required writing course for all students at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, and it is usually completed in the first semester. The course is designed to prepare students for the writing they will do at the university and in their professional lives. Both at school and at work, writing usually involves three fundamental activities:

• reading articles, reports, or books intended for an educated audience
• making connections among multiple sources
• using this knowledge to develop an independent thesis that responds to the ideas of others 

Expos 101 with Kurt Spellmeyer

All three activities play a central role in “Expos.” The first weeks of the course focus primarily on reading to understand, explain, and interpret. Then the focus shifts to connecting the ideas of multiple authors who are writing on related subjects. Later, the principal emphasis falls on the crafting of a coherent and well-developed thesis.

We conceive of a thesis as an argument which answers the assignment question in an essay form and does one of the following:

• takes a position in a debate
• presents a new way of looking at an issue
• helps readers to understand a problem more clearly
• answers an unanswered question

In Expos, “argument” does not mean “taking sides.” Instead, it presupposes that the writer will arrive at an informed position of his or her own. This kind of writing differs from an opinion paper because it requires a more detailed use of evidence and more attention to the strengths of different points of view.

The Spirit of the New Humanities with Richard E. Miller

Writing Exercise: One Text, Close Reading

The first assignment of the semester focuses on a “close reading” of a single text—an article, essay, or book chapter. A “close reading” is a response that requires more than a cursory summary. Close reading asks students to explore the specific details of the text’s argument as well as the larger implications. Even though many of the readings assigned in Expos are challenging on the first try, students can improve their understanding through class discussion, writing, re-reading, and revision. 

Assignment One: Two Texts, Connecting Ideas, and Tracing Lines of Thinking

The first graded assignment asks students to make connections between the first assigned text and a second one. When texts are placed in “conversation” this way, the two may not address the same explicit topic or employ the same key terms, but careful reading and analysis will reveal commonalities that can be developed into a sustained claim or a line of thinking. Finding connections and developing claims are essential to writing in virtually every field.

Assignment Two: Three Texts, Independent Thesis

The second assignment adds one additional reading. Again, students need to explore and explain inter-textual connections, but the second assignment also requires them to develop an independent thesis that synthesizes all three readings. The first and second assignments therefore present students with multiple points of view, and ask them to make connections, solve problems and arrive at a new level of understanding based on creative and synthetic thinking.

Assignments Three, Four, and Five

Taken together, Assignments One and Two constitute the first “sequence” of the course. The second half of the course will be devoted to a new sequence of assignments with three new readings. The second sequence closely parallels the first, but greater emphasis falls on improvement in the following areas:

• formal organization
• the use of evidence
• the quality of the arguments
• paragraph coherence and transitions
• clarity and correctness at the sentence level

The final grade for the course is based on an average grades for three of the five papers: the best grade from the first sequence and the two best grades from the second sequence.

Required Texts:
The course texts may be purchased directly from the publisher in a low cost bundle from their i-Chapters website.

• Miller and Spellmeyer, The New Humanities Reader, 3rd edition
  
• Grammar Book
  
• Sample Student Papers
  

Tutorials:
The website for The New Humanities Reader offers tutorials to assist students with the skills they will need to be successful in Expository Writing.  Please visit this website's Tutorama for week-by-week tutorials that will complement instructors' lessons.

Grading Criteria:
All instructors grade students' papers according to the same standards in Expository Writing.  We suggest that students refer to this grading criteria throughout the writing and revision processes.  Please see the attachment below for a guide to the grading criteria.