Welcome to English 103
Course Description
In this class, we’ll explore feminist methods of rhetoric—and the western traditions they respond to—by studying work from women who have called California their home. Making use of readings, viewings, discussions, exercises, lectures, and workshops, we’ll learn by generating informal and formal work. There’s no such thing as perfect rhetoric, but we’ll investigate what methods are most effective for different situations, audiences, and environments. And we’ll try them out ourselves, developing our intuition and critical thinking skills alike.
We’ll treat writing as a complex process which requires revision, listening, and community, and we’ll recognize composition as language, image, design, music, social media, and more. A song is a composition, as much as an academic essay, so studying rhetoric can be inspiring, affirming, entertaining and even, on occasion, fun.
Course Learning Outcomes
This is a course with a single but complex purpose: to make you a more thoughtful and intentional communicator. Our gaze will always be on rhetoric—the conscious use of written, spoken, and visual language. By the end of the semester, you should:
Understand the communal nature of composition and meaning-making
Compose with rhetorically effective use of language, form, voice, tone, and style
Contextualize and respond appropriately to various forms of rhetoric
Demonstrate how composition is a generative, multimodal, metacognitive, and ever-evolving process
Recognize the role of identity and intersectionality in the composition process, and care about considerate and responsible communication
Gain confidence in your abilities to engage in the ongoing discourse of the communities that matter to you
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Composition seminar devoted to rhetorical understanding and competence in a variety of specific academic contexts. Students may choose from a range of composing topics, each with its own sets of expectations, genres, forms, purposes, and audiences. Attention will focus on multimodal composing in differing discourse communities, but all sections of English 103 address rhetorical effectiveness in composition. Some sections of this course may be offered as hybrid courses or online only. Letter grade with Pass/No Pass option. (Offered every semester.) 3 credits
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Per Chapman University’s GE Learning Outcomes, students will compose texts that: Establish active, genuine, and responsible authorial engagement; Communicate a purpose—an argument or other intentional point/goal; Invoke a specific audience; Develop the argument/content with an internal logic-organization; Integrate references, citations, and source materially logically and dialogically, indicating how such forms of evidence relate to each other and the author’s position
Students will compose the text with: A style or styles appropriate to the purpose and intended audience; A consistent use of the diction appropriate to the author’s topic and purpose; The ability to establish and vary authorial voice(s) and tone(s); A choice of form(s) and genre(s) appropriate to purpose and audience (forms may be digital and/or multimodal), and rhetorically effective use of document design
Pictured above: Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Dolores Huerta, Maxine Hong Kingston, June Jordan, Corita Kent, Olivia Rodrigo
Instructor Bio
My name is Tess (she/her). I have a BA from Emerson College, and—like you!—I’m currently a student at Chapman, on fellowship to earn my MFA in Creative Writing. Prior to this, I’ve lived a few different professional lives in music business, tech, and interior design.
I grew up in the Midwest, spent about a decade on the east coast, and after a brief stint in San Francisco, now call Los Angeles my home. I love literature, visual art, making playlists, eating pasta, hiking with my dog, and traveling all over the world with my partner. I’m excited for this semester, and what we’ll learn together.