Course Description

ENG 208: Composing Research

(3) Applies principles of diverse rhetorical traditions to research processes, including understanding audience, purpose, and genre in disciplinary contexts; ethics and methods of research; the varieties of researched, multimodal writing; and planning and executing a research project. Prerequisite: ENG 103; or appropriate placement.

Course Goals

  • Demonstrate proficiency in reading, evaluating, analyzing, and using material collected from electronic sources (such as visual, electronic, library databases, Internet sources, other official databases, federal government databases, reputable blogs, wikis, etc.).
  • Plan, develop, and complete individual research projects that include generating a research question; finding, evaluating, and documenting relevant sources; analyzing and synthesizing researched information.
  • Demonstrate cultural and disciplinary awareness of issues of audience, purpose, and conventions (including genre, grammar, format, and citation).
  • Understand principles of relevant, effective, and ethical primary and secondary research.
  • Draft and revise research-based writing in multiple, disciplinary and multimodal (where appropriate) formats, including a research report or paper using relevant research to support an organized argument that addresses a research question.

Course Content and Format
The content and format of ENG 208 are designed to enable students to achieve the course goals:

  • Discuss, analyze, and respond to texts composed in a variety of disciplinary genres and a variety of media; from a variety of cultural perspectives; and using different kinds of research and addressing diverse audiences.
  • Analyze the connections among research questions, research methods, audience, and genre, including digital, multimodal, and multimedia writing.
  • Discuss and analyze the rhetorical history and impact of conventions (grammar, citation, format, and genre) as they vary by culture and discipline.
  • Design research projects that involve generating a question; collecting data through various forms of primary and secondary research; and analyzing and interpreting that data using diverse perspectives and methods.
  • Compose proposals, progress reports, final research reports, and other forms of disciplinary specific writing in multiple drafts, involving peer and instructor feedback, teacher-student conferences, and self-reflection.

Requirements
As an outcome of the course content and format, students in English 208 are required to
complete:

  • Three or more research projects that address different audiences, contexts, and data collection/analysis processes.
    • One project will be a Research Proposal and Annotated Bibliography.
    • One project will culminate in a research-driven, academic essay of 8-12 pages (not including appropriate documentation of sources).
    • At least one project must be multimodal. (Multimodality refers to “the use of more than one semiotic mode in meaning-making, communication, and representation” (Oxford Reference). In the field of rhetoric and composition, there are generally five recognized modes: linguistic (alphabetic representations of language), visual (including charts, graphs, and diagrams), aural, spatial, and gestural).
  • Reading assignments for discussion, analysis, and response, including texts created through a variety of media, in a variety of disciplinary genres, from a variety of cultural perspectives.
  • Informal writing assignments (such as journals, reading reflections, in-class writings, or smaller pieces intrinsic to major research projects).

NOTE: In order to fulfill the University's Core Curriculum requirement in Writing Program courses, students must earn a minimum grade of C- to pass. Writing Program courses may be repeated as many times as necessary to meet the requirement but:

  • The first and all other grades will show up on the transcript.
  • Only the most recent grade earned in the course will be used to compute the cumulative GPA.
  • A grade of W will not replace a previous grade.
  • Course credit hours apply only once to graduation requirements.

(Please see Ball Point for a more complete explanation of these policies.)

Evaluation
Students provide anonymous evaluations of the course. Instructors are urged to evaluate and revise individual syllabuses on a regular basis. ENG 208 is subject to curriculum review by the writing committee.

Approved Primary Text For English 208 

  • The primary text for English 208 is Ball Point volume 2. Faculty may also order an approved supplemental text.