Courses in the composition program are often held in a workshop setting and feature small groups. Faculty members engage students through project-based learning and active learning strategies. Students are usually asked to create several drafts of a writing project and seek feedback from classroom peers and interns in the University Writing Center before submitting it for a grade.
The time needed for the work varies based on the type of writing, so you will want to allocate plenty of time for invention, production, and revision of texts. A typical college class requires three hours of classroom engagement and a minimum of six hours outside of class. Therefore, plan to spend a minimum of nine hours a week to complete the work in this course. Your faculty will provide timely feedback on your progress and projects. Feedback on projects typically addresses higher-order concerns (focus, audience, content, organization, and development) and helps students identify patterns of errors in lower-order concerns (grammar, mechanics, word choice, and spelling). We strongly encourage you to seek out your faculty member for support throughout the semester.
Below is a brief overview of the courses in our program.
RHET 0321: Academic Literacy
This course offers practice in academic writing and reading with an emphasis on developing strategies and skills for college success: reading and writing fluency, editing techniques, reading comprehension, and vocabulary development. This fulfills the requirement for developmental reading and writing, but does not fulfill a core curriculum requirement.
RHET 0310: Composition Fundamentals
The Composition Fundamentals course features practice in writing, with an emphasis on developing fluency and editing. This course does not fulfill the core curriculum requirement. RHET 0310 is cross-listed with RHET 1311: Composition I as part of UA Little Rock’s Accelerated Learning Program for first-year writing. You must be jointly enrolled in each section, and if you decide to add/drop the class you must do so for each corresponding section.
RHET 1311: Composition I (first-semester sequence)
The first-semester course of first-year composition is a research-intensive course. All writing projects are designed to help students understand how to locate, analyze, and integrate sources into their writing. Students will leave RHET 1311 with the ability to determine reliability and validity of sources, including use of databases and search engines. To facilitate this curriculum, assignments will ask students to explore concepts and use research as support for the topic. RHET 1311 exposes students to both academic conventions and writing for real-world audiences and purposes.
RHET 1312: Composition II (second-semester sequence)
The second-semester course of first-year composition is an argument-based course that uses Stephen Toulmin’s model of persuasion. All writing projects are designed to help students understand how to develop arguments with integrated sources. The course provides practice in rhetorical analysis, audience analysis, and examination of real-world rhetorical situations. Students will identify and avoid logical fallacies and learn uses for appeals and reasoning within the context of their writing. The course offers strategies in civil discourse and a foundation in information literacy. RHET 1312 exposes students to both academic conventions and writing for real-world audiences and purposes.
RHET 1320: Honors Composition
Honors composition is a one-semester course of first-year composition that accelerates students who scored a 27 or better on the ACT and received at least a B in high school English through the composition sequence. The course focuses both on writing with sources and on students’ development of argumentative texts. RHET 1320 exposes students to both academic conventions and writing for real-world audiences and purposes.
