As part of the university’s general education requirements, all students must take an introductory writing course (or meet the requirements to test out). Introduction to Academic Writing (ENG 101) is the first-course students will take as part of these requirements to properly prepare them for the academic rigor and writing expectations of the college level. My section of the course in particular has been structured explicitly as a Teaching for Transfer (TFT) course based on a variety of research conducted by experts in composition studies. My primary objective for the course is for students to be able to actively channel writing skills from the first-year composition (FYC) course into other contexts they will encounter throughout their educational (and likely professional) lives.

Much of the rationale for the course is based on research conducted in Writing Across Context by Kathleen Blake Yancey, Liane Robertson, and Kara Taczak. One of the major concepts the authors propose “is that students need a vocabulary for writing in order to articulate knowledge and ensure more successful transfer” (Yancey 101). To help support writing knowledge transfer, we will actively be using composition vocabulary in our major assignments. A part of the grading contract will require students to write reflection responses to their major composition projects, and in these writings, students will be expected to actively use such vocabulary to demonstrate their knowledge when reflecting on their projects. With this expectation, our objective would be that we become more familiar with the terminology and understand how to utilize it in other contexts outside of FYC. 

Along with writing skill transfer, another objective I hope to accomplish during our time in ENG 101 is to promote the understanding that as academics we should be building a community based on exchanging knowledge. A Teaching Subject by Joseph Harris explains how often some views of academia see it as a “community [that] becomes little more than a metaphor, a shorthand label for a hermetic weave of texts and citations” (101). The perspective dehumanizes academia by defining it as a force fixated on written texts. However, in our course, I encourage you to embrace the idea that as an educated people, our composed work should act as a conversation. The recipient of these conversations is not limited to only the reader but should include other authors through academic inquiry and citations. 

As for our composition projects, one objective I aim to accomplish is to provide a variety of writing experiences for students that allow them to practice different composition skills. We will be writing personal statements, descriptive essays, annotated bibliographies, and expository essays, which will then be compiled into a final portfolio. Our goal as a learning community will be to not only exchange ideas but also to help each other foster connections to contexts outside of our classroom. One way we will be accomplishing this is by including additional pieces of composition from other writing situations outside of FYC. 

By the end of the course, students should have a polished portfolio prepared that they can continue to add to throughout their academic experiences. The final portfolio should provide students with an opportunity not only to exhibit their work completed during the semester but also to continue contributing to other projects and essays completed from their respective disciplines to showcase their knowledge. By the time of graduation, students should have a decent display of their academic work that could potentially be used for a variety of situations after college, such as applying to graduate school or other professional opportunities.