In CO130: Academic Writing, you will develop and practice how to read and write for academic audiences. In order to effectively communicate in academic contexts, you will learn how to identify rhetorical situations, learn how to identify and revise purposes for writing, practice writing in a variety of genres, and read and research various topics and texts. Since the process of reading and writing is just as important as the final written product, you will practice drafting, outlining, writing, revising, summarizing, analyzing, close reading, and research. These are skills that you will use throughout your time at CSU as well as in the workplace. CO130 will support your learning and work with other classes, audiences, and writing situations.

In CO150: College Composition, you will be introduced to many of the key writing, reading, research, and communicating practices you need for success as a university student, professional, and citizen. In this course, you will learn to critically read and respond to a variety of texts, to write for a variety of rhetorical situations and audiences, to dialogue about different experiences and perspectives, and to develop and apply effective writing practices. You will have opportunities to practice the drafting, revising, peer editing, and polishing stages of writing and will produce several polished academic texts as well as lots of informal written reflections in this course.

In CO300: Writing Arguments, you will expand your argumentative skills in your specific academic, professional, public, and personal contexts. We use contemporary rhetorical theory to develop sophisticated understandings of effective communication as we write various persuasive texts. We explore the nuances of the rhetorical situation, audience analysis, and Rogerian argument. To help prepare you to write in increasingly digital environments, we may also practice visual, aural, and multimodal arguments. In order to practice advanced reading, note-taking, researching, writing, and revising arguments, you will write to annotate, reflect, inquire, respond, inform, and persuade. You will write as scholars, aspiring professionals, citizens, and consumers/co-creators of culture. CO300 is a writing- and reading-intensive course, and you can expect to have lots of opportunities to read critically, engage in conversations about writing, and produce arguments for a variety of audiences over the course of the semester.

In CO301A: Writing in the Disciplines--Arts and Humanities, you will focus (primarily) on writing for a range of public audiences interested in issues and content of the arts and humanities. Thus, the specialized discourse emphasized in this course is characterized by strategies that frame for, and appeal to readers outside academe (focused narrative, description, definition and elaboration of key critical terms, illustration as well as critical analysis, evaluation, and argument). CO301A provides you with multiple opportunities to extend your writing skills. In particular, you will begin the course analyzing selected texts in terms of rhetorical context, framing, target audiences, kinds and arrangements of evidence, uses of source material, genre conventions, stylistic options, format, etc. You will extend their rhetorical knowledge by practicing oral and written analysis and critique of issues important to audiences within the arts and humanities. In addition to a focus on deepening your understanding of composition as rhetorical practice and ability to produce effective discourse about/in the humanities for varied public contexts, you will have opportunities to transform content knowledge about the arts and humanities into discourse that educates, enlightens, provokes, influences, and connects with audiences beyond the classroom. You will also have opportunities to explore stylistic elements such as the virtues of the writing (clarity, correctness, appropriateness, and distinction), diction, figures of speech, schemes, rhythm, or types of styles as we produce writing for specific audiences.

In CO301B: Writing in the Disciplines--Sciences, you will write about complex scientific topics for diverse audiences, especially non-specialists. Audiences beyond scientific disciplines are often interested in scientific research for a variety of reasons, from entertainment to seeking information to inform making decisions in their daily lives. In CO301B you will write about science (including medicine and technology) for publications such as The New York Times and Scientific American, with particular attention to making choices about focus, structure, detail, and word choice with respect to what non-specialist audiences know and don’t know, want to know and need to know. In addition to learning practical strategies, you will think critically and strategically about how we consume science writing and their goals and purposes as science writers. You will also learn about rhetorical approaches to the function and structure of science writing, reading and analyzing articles from rhetoric and from the scholarship of science communication alongside many real-world examples.

In CO301C: Writing in the Disciplines--Social Sciences, you will focus on 1) developing a nuanced rhetorical understanding of disciplinary writing within various fields of the social sciences, 2) studying contexts for professional and non-expert social science writing, and 3) practicing similar kinds of writing for non-academic audiences and purposes. This course offers you multiple opportunities to both read and analyze varieties of social science writing and to research, write, and revise their own compositions on social science topics relevant to their majors and their emerging areas of expertise. You will have opportunities to develop an advanced understanding of rhetorical analysis, non-agonistic argumentation, and other rhetorical and writing strategies. In CO301C you will be introduced to and practice writing a series of texts that represent the ways that social sciences writing circulates within popular, workplace, and/or academic contexts.

In CO301D: Writing in the Disciplines--Education, you will read and explore current issues in literacy and English education and consider examples of professional writing both in print and in multimodal form. You will explore and practice a wide range of written genres in order to refine your existing theories of education, to develop your educational philosophies, and to engage in professional conversations in the field. Formal and informal writing assignments will give you space both to self-reflect and to write for others in your discipline. Teachers write to know, and they write to learn. The goal of this course is to prepare you to advance your own thoughts about classroom practice, pedagogy, and educational theory and to advance educational change.