Emphasizing writing analytically, it focuses on extending students writing repertoire beyond the five-paragraph essay. Students gain practice in generating ideas, revising, and editing. Students receive instruction on how to construct a perspective on a topic, develop it fully, situate that perspective in the context of other views, and communicate that situated perspective clearly to others through several drafts. Students learn critical reading habits, including re-reading, marking texts, asking questions, examining rhetorical strategies, making connections between their own experience and texts, and responding to others points of view.
Students meet with their instructors for individual conferences three times a quarter.
A Sequenced Approach to Thinking, Reading, and Writing . Kathleen McCormick, ed. Allyn and Bacon, 1999. The second-level writing course is designed to provide further instruction and practice for strengthening analytical reading and writing skills with an emphasis on integrating information from sources. The emphasis at this level is writing in the context of a discipline, so the specific strategies and assignments will vary depending on the particular disciplinary area.