As part of Cleveland State University’s general education curriculum, English 101—College Writing I and English 102—College Writing II (or their equivalents) are the only courses required of all undergraduate students. As such, these courses play a pivotal role in your beginning and future learning experiences as a college student. Not only will these courses introduce you to the intricacies of writing college-level essays, including those that require significant research components, but also they will foster your information, critical and technological literacies. Throughout these courses, you will focus on reading, understanding, analyzing and writing about academic texts, materials at the heart of your undergraduate experience. Therefore, your dedication to these courses is essential.

English 101—College Writing I is dedicated to a sequence of academic writing assignments beginning with summaries and progressing through critiques, synthesis, and analyses. During this sequence, you will also be exposed to the writing process, critical reading, and conducting, citing, and documenting college-level research. All of these writing activities can easily be found both in your personal and professional lives. For example, we often summarize the events of our day, whether in journals or web logs. We also summarize in the professional world, whether in abstracts of studies in the sciences or in executive summaries in business and industry. Therefore, this first course provides you with relevant and important writing skills.

English 102—College Writing II builds on the skills in English 101 by working with multiple texts, focusing on developing independent research skills, and diving more into the world of argumentation. In addition, students in English 102 are exposed to reading selections from several areas of contemporary culture, ranging from academic areas of study like media studies with popular culture topics such as advertising and racial profiling. In some instances, students in English 102 focus on a particular topic, major or area of study—philosophy, nursing, business, art history, engineering among others—through paired and focused versions of this course. Through reading and writing about diverse topics and issues, you will not only expand your understanding of college writing, but you will also expand your understanding of the world around us.

The goal of First-Year Writing, including its other courses such as English 085 and 090, in the general education curriculum at Cleveland State University is to develop writers who use English language effectively and who read and write critically. In addition to learning to use technology in the processes of reading and writing, helping other students’ in your class develop their writing, and reflecting on your development as a writer, this course prepares you to actively participate in the academic, professional and public worlds. Further, this website has been designed by composition teachers here at CSU to help you learn more about the teachers, courses and requirements in the First-Year Writing Program and the Department of English. On behalf of all of our instructors, we wish you the best in your studies in First-Year Writing and beyond.

Sincerely,

Dr. Randall McClure,
Director First Year Writing Program