English 101 at Illinois State University
Composition as Critical Inquiry
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Course Overview
“Composition as Critical Inquiry” (ENG 101) challenges students to develop a range of rhetorical and intellectual abilities.  Students learn how to analyze the multiple dimensions and meet the multiple demands of a variety of written rhetorical situations.  These dimensions and demands include:  topic, audience, purpose, forum, genre, media/technologies, ethos, and kairos (timing).  Students also develop an array of strategies to help them navigate any rhetorical terrain.  These strategies include:  reading, brainstorming, writing to learn and think, drafting, research (both textual and empirical), giving and receiving helpful responses, revision, editing and proofreading, publication, and critical reflection on one’s own rhetorical processes. 

Course Portfolio
Students complete several written projects in the course.  These projects require student writers to analyze a rhetorical situation, draft a rhetorical performance, gather responses from peers and their instructor, research, revise, and reflect on the entire composing process of that unit.  During the last few weeks of the course, students revise the texts they composed earlier in the course.  At the end of the course, students submit their ENG 101 portfolios, which include a minimum of 30 pages (about 8000 words) of revised writing, plus the final analytical text, for a minimum of 35 pages (about 9000 words) of polished writing.

Course Goals
Students in Composition as Critical Inquiry:

1. Develop strategies for critical inquiry, especially as it relates to rhetoric, writing, and information literacy.
2. Read critically for the purpose of using information and evidence to develop authority in their writing.
3. Use writing to learn.
4. Engage in the social and collaborative production of texts.
5. Write effectively for a variety of rhetorical situations (audiences, purposes, forums, etc.).
6. Identify and incorporate rhetorical, stylistic, and grammatical conventions appropriately.

Use technology effectively to compose texts and communicate with different audiences for a variety of purposes.

ENG 101 and General Education
ENG 101 is one of the two courses that comprise the inner core of the Illinois State University General Education Program. For more information on the structure and requirements of the General Education Program, visit the General Education homepage.