CORE 101
CORE 101: Essentials of Written and Oral Communication
Prerequisites: None
Credit Hours: (3)
Introduction to college-level reading, writing, and speaking, with attention given to the writing process, genre, style, audience, and standard written English. The course will also introduce students to basic oral communication skills. Ther course has been appproved for Core Curriculum credit in University Core A.
Detailed Description of Course
The course uses five major components to organize instruction:
• the composing process;
• the relationship of reading, writing, speaking, and critical thinking;
• rhetorical principles that inform successful communication;
• the generation of ideas;
• the synthesis of complex information.
Students examine both writing done by others and their own writing to determine how subject, audience, purpose, and context provide choices and constraints for the writer and speaker. They read, discuss, and analyze college-level texts.
Students also write essays that receive written and oral responses from both the instructor and classmates, which guide the process of revision. Concepts of interpersonal and small group communication are introduced in the context of student-teacher conferencing and peer review sessions.
Detailed Description of Conduct of Course
The course will include both formal and informal writing exercises. Students will compose multiple drafts of each essay in response to peer and instructor comments.
The University Core A Handbook is a required text. Instructors may choose additional readings in order to develop the theme of the course.
Required projects for course completion:
Approaches to Written Argument
This component asks students to compose an essay analyzing how two or more texts approach the same subject, paying special attention to their specific language, assumptions, and methods of argument.
Objectives:
1) Identify rhetorical appeals (ethos, logos, pathos, and Kairos).
2) Demonstrate and evaluate how rhetorical appeals (ethos, logos, pathos, and Kairos) contribute to the arguments.
3) Integrate quotations and paraphrases into an essay.
4) Cite sources correctly, intext and in a list of sources.
5) Use tone, mechanics, and style appropriate to a college-educated audience.
Personal Essay
Through this component, students will employ various writing processes to develop an essay on a personal topic, using standard written English.
Objectives:
1) Explore a focused topic in writing.
2) Demonstrate awareness of an audience and purpose through language and style choices.
3) Use topic sentences and appropriate transitions.
Academic Argument
Students will write a thesis-driven essay, articulating reasons and examples to support their claims.
Objectives:
1) Make a debatable claim about a topic.
2) Support all claims with evidence.
3)Analyze a multifaceted issue in writing.
4) Acknowledge the legitimate concerns of others.
Writing Process Reflection
Students will evaluate their progress as writers by reflecting upon foundatinoal concepts in rhetoric and composition and discussing their approaches to the writing process.
1) Assess efforts to write for different audiences, purposes, e.g. argument, personal expression, rhetorical analysis
2) Reflect upon the relationship between writing and critical thinking
3) Distinguish between composing, revising, editing, and proofreading
4) Propose goals for writing progress
Goals and Objectives of the Course
This course combines the goals and objectives of the four Core A areas, which are to be fulfilled by the entire Core A sequence. Developmental outcomes for each course have been constructed according to these goals:
Upon completion of University Core A, Radford University students will have achieved competency in four key concept areas: written communications, oral communication, critical thinking, and information literacy.
Goal 1: Radford University students will be able to prepare coherent and well-written essays that effectively integrate material from a variety of sources. By the completion of Core 101, Radford University students will be able to:
• Analyze a multifaceted issue in writing.
• Explore a focused topic in writing
• Integrate quotations and paraphrases from a reading into a written essay.
• Write a thesis statement and use topic sentences and appropriate transitions to lead a reader through a complex set of ideas.
• Demonstrate awareness of an audience and purpose through language and style choices.
Goal 2: Radford University students will be able to deliver an effective and organized oral presentation and appropriately communicate in interpersonal and small group settings.
Goal 3: Radford University students will learn to distinguish knowledge from opinion, challenge ideas, and develop reasonable strategies for belief formation. By the completion of Core 101, Radford University students will be able to:
• Identify an argument.
• Distinguish the arguments of the primary source from those arguments discussed in the source.
• Identify ethos, logos, pathos
• Make a debatable claim about a topic.
• Support all claims with evidence.
• Acknowledge the legitimate concerns of others.
Goal 4: Radford University students will be able to locate, evaluate, and cite information. By the completion of Core 101, Radford University students will be able to:
• Cite sources in-text and in a list of sources correctly.
Assessment Measures
Students will produce a number of informal and formal texts which will be graded according to criteria designed with the outcomes in mind.
Assessment of Curriculum. For program assessment, a designated set of assignments of the students’ work will be gathered in consultation with the Core Curriculum coordinators.
Other Course Information
None
Review and Approval
Approved by Faculty Senate April 20, 2017
March 4, 2013 Chuck Vehorn, CCAC chair; Laurie Cubbison, Core Director