It should also get you to take your writing more seriously, revising your ideas and ways of presenting them more thoroughly than you are used to, through interaction with readings and feedback from other writers and your instructor. In sum, this course should help you become more adept and confident in dealing with the wide variety of situations that might call on you to write in your career as a student, as a professional, and as a citizen. You will gain experience in library and field research, and you will learn how to intelligently utilize sources in your writing. If you already have one, you may use it. If not, copies of A Writer's Reference by Diane Hacker are available in the bookstore.
Writing is a skill that requires practice.
Practicing writing through revisions, tutoring, and collaboration typically leads to marked improvement in one's written texts. For these reasons, students in College Writing are encouraged to take part in class discussions, to revise their drafts, to seek advice from others, and to offer advice to other writers. Effort and class participation, though, are not intended as the primary products of this course and are therefore not graded components of English 200. Nor should students expect a direct correlation between the amount of effort expended on a paper and the final grade it receives. If you do all of these things, I will consider documenting your absence as excused.