1. Keena P. Day, M.A. Victory University
Intro to Composition I
Keena P. Day, M.A.
Victory University

2. Classroom Norms
Silence all cell phones and other technological devices.
Do not hesitate to tell me to slow down or to ask questions.
Keep side conversations to a minimum.
Active participation is encouraged.

3. Important Information
Instructor: Keena P. Day
Contact Information:
Phone:

4. Course Learning Outcomes
See that writing is a form of social interaction.
Analyze rhetorical situations and make effective choices based on audience and context.
Responsibly synthesize material from a variety of sources.
Make claims and support them with appropriate evidence.
Use writing to critically explore, explain, evaluate, and reflect on their experiences and on those of others.
Understand and effectively use a range of genres/forms.
Use conventions of expression appropriate to situation and audience.
Effectively revise and provide substantive feedback to others on their writing.
Articulate a revision strategy based on an understanding of their own writing processes.
Recognize the importance of technology in research, writing, and other forms of social interaction.

5. Help During the course
Victory University. Online Writing Center. (
Storybird:

6. Essay #1: Learning Autobiography
Sometimes the moments and realizations that have most powerfully shaped the way we understand ourselves or our world happen in unexpected places and at unexpected times.
In this first essay, you will identify and explore one such moment: Something that has influenced the way you think or feel about yourself, others, or the world.

7. Getting Started
This account is an instructive experience or realization of your past.
Writer’s look to their pasts to attempt to learn something new, to understand the importance of some moment or to understand the significance of a situation.

8. Getting Started
Your goal is not only to tell a story or describe an experience, but also to analyze the experience and draw conclusions about how your experiences shaped your understanding or feelings, what your experience reveals about you or your world, and how others relate to that experience.

9. Preparing to Write
After exploring your experiences through invention strategies, you will want to focus on a particular experience to create a more cohesive and coherent essay with a central point.
You will also need to make decisions about which additional background information best supports the focus you’ve chosen.

10. Invention Brainstorming Ideas in order to write:
Pre-writing strategies:
Quickwrite
Web/clustering
Outlining

11. Assignments Read: Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Essay of focus: Bosley, “How I Lost the Junior Miss Pageant”

12. Rhetorical Considerations
The audience for your work is anyone who is unfamiliar with your background and experiences, upbringing, and/or culture. Therefore, you will need to develop your essay in a manner that will allow the reader to truly understand your experiences and attachments.

13. Putting It Together
There is not a single, correct way to organize your document. You might chose:
Narrative style, moving chronologically through time discussing the memories
Thematic style that identifies central issues pertinent to the moment you’ve chosen

14. Putting It Together
Makes sure each element of your essay flows by relating to and supporting your focus.
Your essay should be 3-4 pages (approximately words)

15. Paper Format 1” Margins 12 pt. font, Times Roman Double Spaced
First draft due: Thursday