All FYW courses share a set of core goals, or learning outcomes, which are detailed below and are also reflected in the program Grading Rubric and Capstone Electronic Portfolio assignment.

English 1101: First-year Composition I

English 1101 focuses on informational, analytical, and argumentative writing (the principal genres of academic discourse that students will encounter in many courses across the curriculum), and on research skills and critical thinking. There are different varieties of English 1101 classes and instructors design their own syllabi.

Prerequisites

Students must either place into English 1101 or pass out of the Academic Enhancement Program.

• Fulfills General Education Core Area I: Foundation
• Fulfills Institutional Competencies Learning Outcomes:
  
  • Communication: The ability to effectively develop, express, and exchange ideas in written, oral, interpersonal, or visual form.
  • Critical Thinking: The ability to pursue and comprehensively evaluate information before accepting or establishing a conclusion, decision, or action.

Goals

The following outcome statements are linked to threshold concepts, or ideas that promote transformation and growth. Our learning outcomes are arranged under four threshold concepts that are most important for students in UGA’s English 1101 courses. Each concept includes a bulleted list of the learning objectives, suggesting how students will engage with these ideas in their 1101 courses.

• Writing is a process. Students learning this threshold concept should:
  • Produce writing through a sophisticated process that involves managing projects through multiple drafts, authoring new information, and using writing as a form of abstract problem solving;
  • Reflect on how they evaluate their own and others’ work;
  • Develop individual practices for writing and revision.
• Writing responds to a specific rhetorical situation. Students learning this threshold concept should:
  • Engage with and respond to elements of various rhetorical situations such as audience, context, purpose, genre, multimodality, and discipline;
  • Analyze and develop arguments made in response to varying rhetorical situations;
  • Select, organize, and apply evidence appropriate to the writer’s argument and readers’ needs;
  • Employ specific citation style guidelines and understand the underlying concepts behind discipline-specific citation practices.
• Writing is a social act. Students learning this threshold concept should:
  • Investigate written voice and writerly identity;
  • Consider how context-specific identities or personas are generated through acts of writing;
  • Give constructive feedback to peers, and thoughtfully incorporate feedback from others.
• Writing relies on technologies. Students learning this threshold concept should:
  • Create a variety of projects in different modes and media;
  • Recognize that different technologies provide distinct advantages and limitations to the writer’s process, peer review capabilities, and project design.

Requirements

Students will write a minimum of three essays (1,000-1,500 words or longer) that count for at least 50% of the students' final grades. In addition to writing papers and doing other work, all students will create a final electronic portfolio that counts as 30% of their final grade.

Course Texts

First-year Writing Guide (Digital version) 

The Norton Field Guide to Writing, 7th edition

Primary texts must be chosen by Course Instructor.

English 1102: First-year Composition II

Course trains students to adapt their writing to meet various educational, professional, and civic expectations for written communication. Students will engage in genre analysis, critical reading, and primary and secondary research as they draft and revise their writing projects.

Prerequisites

To enroll in English 1102, students must have either exempted English 1101 or passed it with a “D” or better. To graduate, however, students must have earned a grade of “C” in English 1101 and have a combined average grade of “C” in English 1101 and 1102. Students therefore are strongly advised not to enroll in English 1102 until they have received a "C" in English 1101.

According to the University policy on plus-minus grading, a grade of “C-” will not satisfy the requirement for a “C” in ENGL 1101; a combined average of “C-“ or 1.7 in English 1101 and 1102 will not satisfy the requirement for a combined average of “C” in the two courses. For more information on plus-minus grading, refer to the Grading Policy on the UGA Bulletin. 

• Fulfills General Education Core Area I: Foundation
• Fulfills Institutional Competencies Learning Outcomes:
  
  • Communication: The ability to effectively develop, express, and exchange ideas in written, oral, interpersonal, or visual form.
  • Critical Thinking: The ability to pursue and comprehensively evaluate information before accepting or establishing a conclusion, decision, or action.

Goals

• Learning and applying rhetorical terms to better understand audience, purpose, and context 
• Exploring different disciplinary approaches to writing and genre 
• Crafting writing styles appropriate for a variety of rhetorical situations and readers 
• Using a variety of technologies and modalities to develop writing 

• Developing productive writing processes across multiple drafts and stages 
• Using ongoing writing processes to discover and develop ideas 
• Providing meaningful critiques of others' work 
• Assessing and applying feedback from others 

• Analyzing and interpreting published texts 
• Practicing research skills on primary and secondary texts 
• Considering multiple perspectives within professional, scholarly, and civic conversations 
• Establishing criteria and techniques for assessing source reliability and applicability 
• Using disciplinarily and rhetorically appropriate documentation techniques 
• Discovering and conveying rhetorically sound interpretations of texts 
• Situating arguments within scholarly, professional, and social conversation 

Requirements

Students will write a minimum of three essays (1,000-1,500 words or longer) that count for at least 50% of the student’s final grade. In addition to writing papers and doing other work, all students will create a final electronic portfolio that counts as 30% of their final grade.

Course Texts

Primary Required: First-year Writing Guide (Digital version found on departmental website)

Text(s) must be chosen by course instructor. 

English Composition for ESOL Students

Special sections of English 1101 and 1102 are reserved for students who have a native language other than American English and who can benefit from an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) emphasis in these classes. Students enroll only with the permission of the department (POD), but the classes are not marked differently on their transcripts. The ESOL sections, like classes for native speakers, focus on writing academic argument in English 1101 and writing about literature in English 1102. 

First-year Writing classes for ESOL offer non-native speakers opportunities for vocabulary development, for grammar practice, and for orientation to American styles of writing and organization. Residents of the United States whose first language is not American English, as well as international students, may qualify for these classes. To determine your eligibility and to obtain a POD to register for the ESOL classes, contact the First-year Writing Program Office (706-542-2128) or Clare Reid Baeckeroot (clare.reid@uga.edu).

First-Year Writing Online

In the regular, eight-week "Thru Term" of summer school, the First-year Writing Program offers English 1102E, a fully online, asynchronous course. Students in 1102E meet all the standard FYW ENGL1102 requirements while completing a series of units (or "modules"). Students work as a cohort between specified dates, but do not meet as a group during particular class times, either online or face-to-face.  

Service Learning Courses:

English 1101S allows students to hone their developing writing skills through community service while still fulfilling the goals of a standard 1101. Depending on the focus of the course, 1101S may involve field trips and out-of-class community service as well as community based writing projects. The ultimate goal of service-learning is to promote students' civic and academic learning while contributing to the public good.