ENC 2135 fulfills the second of two required composition courses at Florida State University. While continuing to stress the importance of critical reading, writing, and thinking skills emphasized in ENC 1101, as well as the importance of using writing as a recursive process involving invention, drafting, collaboration, revision, rereading, and editing to clearly and effectively communicate ideas for specific purposes, occasions, and audiences, ENC 2135 focuses on teaching students research skills that allow them to effectively incorporate outside sources in their writing and to compose in a variety of genres for specific contexts.

 

The course is composed of three main units, each one focusing on helping students develop research skills and compose in a genre appropriate for a specific context. Each unit feeds directly into the next, so that the assignments for this course are designed to help students develop their ideas in great detail and sophistication, altering and revising them for new purposes. The first asks students to compose in an academic genre: the researched essay. We'll examine and employ the rhetorical strategies and conventions unique to this genre. Each student will research a topic chosen based on his or her interests, incorporating no fewer than ten sources. In addition to composing multiple drafts of the essay, students are asked to submit several preliminary assignments that contribute to the completion of the research essay.

 

The second project asks students to write an essay in which they develop the strategies to engage with rhetorical concepts. Students will pick and discuss a place that has shaped and/ or continues to shape his or her life, and then compose a personal essay on that topic. Through multiple drafts, we’ll analyze and employ the distinct rhetorical strategies and conventions found in creative nonfiction (which is itself a genre).  

 

The third project asks students to take the research they curated and analyzed in the first project and remediate it into three new genres of their choice. In addition, students will be asked to compose an artist's statement that examines the genre conventions they are honoring (or breaking) and the rhetorical strategies they're using, while considering how their choices are effective for their purpose, message, and audience. Students will also be asked to compose a final semester reflection that explores what they've learned about genre, genre conventions, and rhetorical strategies, and how this class has challenged and/or complicated their views and experiences of composing.