A composition course focusing on skills required for effective writing in a variety of contexts, with emphasis on exposition, analysis, and argumentation, and also including introductory use of a variety of research skills. Develops analytical reading and writing skills through the investigation of methods used in cultural and literary studies and the application of those methods to specific texts.
Rhetorical Knowledge
Rhetorical knowledge focuses on the available means of persuasion, considering factors such as context, audience, purpose, genre, medium, and conventions.
Explore and use with purpose key rhetorical concepts through analyzing and composing a variety of written texts. These concepts include:
- Rhetorical situation: purpose, audience, context
- Genre
- Argumentation: controlling purpose, evidence
Develop an understanding of the ways in which rhetorical concepts can be transferred to multimodal artifacts
Gain experience reading and composing in several genres to understand how genre conventions shape and are shaped by readers’ and writers’ practices and purposes
Develop facility in responding to a variety of situations and contexts calling for purposeful shifts in voice, tone, level of formality, design, medium, and/or structure
Critical Thinking, Writing, and Composing
Critical thinking is the ability to analyze, synthesize, interpret, and evaluate ideas, information, situations, and texts.
Use composing and reading for inquiry, learning, critical thinking, and communicating in various rhetorical contexts
Read a diverse range of written texts, attending especially to relationships between assertion and evidence, to patterns of organization, to the interplay between verbal and nonverbal elements, and to how these features function for different audiences and situations
Use strategies—such as interpretation, synthesis, response, critique, and design/redesign—to compose texts that integrate the writer’s ideas with those from appropriate sources
Processes
Writers use multiple strategies, or composing processes, to conceptualize, develop, finalize, and distribute projects. Composing processes are recursive and adaptable in relation to different rhetorical situations.
Understand that writing is a process
Develop a writing project through multiple stages
Develop flexible strategies for reading, drafting, reviewing, collaborating, revising, rewriting, rereading, and editing
Use composing processes and tools as a means to discover and reconsider ideas 
Experience the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes
Learn to give and to act on productive feedback to works in progress
Reflect on the development of composing practices and how those practices influence their work
Knowledge of Conventions
Conventions are the formal rules and informal guidelines that define genres, and in so doing, shape
Develop knowledge of linguistic structures, including grammar, punctuation, and spelling, through practice in composing and revising readers’ and writers’ perceptions of correctness or appropriateness
The Bedford Bookshelf (ISBN: 9781319530327)
WOVENText Open Educational Resource (https://woventext.lmc.gatech.edu)
Sasha Sagan. For Small Creatures Such as We. Putnam, 2019. (ISBN: 9780735218796)
Assignments
Common First Week Letter: 5% of final grade
Project 1: 15% of final grade
Project 2: 15% of final grade
Project 3: 30% of final grade
Final Portfolio: 20% of final grade 
Participation: 20% of final grade
A: 90-100
Superior performance—rhetorically, aesthetically, and technically—demonstrating advanced understanding and use of the media in particular contexts. An inventive spark and exceptional execution.
B: 80-89
Above-average, high-quality performance—rhetorically, aesthetically, and technically.
C: 70-79
Average (not inferior) performance. Competent and acceptable—rhetorically, aesthetically, and technically.
D: 60-69
Below-average performance. Needs substantive work — rhetorically, aesthetically, and/or technically.
F: 0-59
Unacceptable performance. Failure to meet minimum criteria rhetorically, aesthetically, and/or technically.
Attendance and participation are essential to success in courses in the Writing and Communication Program. Because of this, you are expected to attend class in person. Not attending a scheduled class session in-person results in an absence.
There may be times when you cannot or should not attend class, such as if you are not feeling well, have an interview, or have family responsibilities. Therefore, this course allows a specified number of absences without penalty, regardless of reason. After that, penalties accrue. Exceptions are allowed for Institute-approved absences (for example, those documented by the Registrar) and situations such as hospitalization or family emergencies (documented by the Office of the Dean of Students).
Your instructor can communicate with you about how to access materials or make up work you may have missed during your absence or suggest ways to participate in class remotely and/or asynchronously. Students may miss a total of four (4) classes for T/Th or M/W classes or six (6) for M/W/F classes over the course of the semester without penalty. Each additional absence after the allotted number deducts 2% from a student’s final grade.
Students are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity. All work submitted must be original and properly cited. Plagiarism, cheating, or any form of academic dishonesty will result in immediate consequences as outlined in the university's academic integrity policy.
One serious kind of academic misconduct is plagiarism, which occurs when a writer, speaker, or designer deliberately uses someone else’s language, ideas, images, or other original material or code without fully acknowledging its source by quotation marks as appropriate, in footnotes or endnotes, in works cited, and in other ways as appropriate (modified from WPA Statement on “Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism”). If you engage in plagiarism or any other form of academic misconduct, you will fail the assignment in which you have engaged in academic misconduct and be referred to the Office of Student Integrity, as required by Georgia Tech policy. We strongly urge you to be familiar with these Georgia Tech sites:
Honor Challenge — https://osi.gatech.edu/students/honor-code
Office of Student Integrity — http://www.osi.gatech.edu/index.php/
This is a Core IMPACTS course that is part of the Writing area.
Core IMPACTS refers to the core curriculum, which provides students with essential knowledge in foundational academic areas. This course will help master course content, and support students’ broad academic and career goals.
This course should direct students toward a broad Orienting Question:
- How do I write effectively in different contexts?
- Completion of this course should enable students to meet the following Learning Outcomes:
- Students will communicate effectively in writing, demonstrating clear organization and structure, using appropriate grammar and writing conventions.
- Students will appropriately acknowledge the use of materials from original sources. Students will adapt their written communications to purpose and audience.