1. First-Year Composition: Your “Write” of Passage
ENG 108
August 29, 2012

2. 5 Minute Free Write (Part 1)
What kind of writing do you think you will do in your future career or profession? Make a list of all of the possibilities that you can think of (for example, s to co-workers, memos, reports, etc.)

3. Composition as a Write of Passage
“While the writing tasks in one’s chosen major or even in the world of work may not resemble FYC assignments, a thoughtfully crafted FYC course does prepare you for college level reading and writing and for the critical reading and writing that you will do every day in your career after college” (Singh-Corcoran 25).

4. Composition as a Write of Passage
FYC will help you:
Think through your ideas
Address a specific audience
Locate and incorporate sources
Get feedback to become a better writer

5. 5 Minute Free Write (Part 2)
Using the free write that you did a few minutes ago, make a list of the skills that you have learned in previous writing classes (or that you think you will learn in this class) that you think will be helpful in your future career or profession.

6. Composition as a Write of Passage
What you learn in FYC will transfer to other areas of your education and your life.
“As I began to write reports of a more technical nature, I realized the skills I acquired in my 101 and 102 classes could only serve to my advantage in areas of research, organization, and even citations.”
-Godwin Erekaife (Engineering Student)

7. Knowledge Transfers!
For example, you play basketball and soccer differently, but you still use some of the same skills in both sports (like understanding and following the rules, good sportsmanship, running, practicing, etc.)

8. 5 Minute Free Write
Think about Allen’s essay, “The Inspired Writer vs. the Real Writer” and jot down some answers to the following questions:
Why do you think Allen wrote this essay?
Who is this essay written for?
What is the main message the essay is trying to convey?

9. What is rhetoric?
Rhetoric is the way we use language effectively to persuade, inform, or entertain.
When we write, we usually do so because we want to do one of these three things.

10. What is rhetoric?
Rhetoric needs three elements for effective communication:
An author
A message
An audience
Message
Author
Audience

11. What is a rhetorical situation?
Any set of circumstances that involves at least one person using some sort of communication to modify the perspective of at least one other person.

12. Rhetorical Situations
Each individual rhetorical situation shares five basic elements with all other rhetorical situations:
Purpose (reason for writing)
Audience (the readers of the writing)
Genre (kinds of writing)
Stance (the writer’s attitude toward the topic)
Medium or design (how the information is conveyed from the writer to the readers)

13. 5 Minute Free Write (Part 1)
Write a text message to a friend using the abbreviations, capitalization, and punctuation style typically used for text messages. Explain that you are going to miss an upcoming social event (movie, football game, dance, trip to the local diner or coffee shop) because you are sick. Then as your friend to text you during the event to schedule another get-together. (Make up details as you need them.)

14. 5 Minute Free Write (Part 2)
Compose an message to your professor explaining that you cannot meet an assignment deadline because you are sick and asking for an extension. (Use the same sickness details that you used from Part 1.) Create a subject line appropriate for this new context.

15. Reflection on the Two Messages
How are the two messages different?
Why did the difference in the rhetorical context for the two messages cause you to make different choices as you wrote them?

16. What this all means for you as a writer…
You need to be aware that a rhetorical situation exists every time you write.
Your writing will always depend on your purpose and your audience.