English 110 and the Freshman Inquiry Writing Seminar

There are two courses in the CCNY composition program that students can take to satisfy the first semester of their two-semester composition requirement:

To satisfy the first semester requirement, students must take either:

• English 110: Freshman Composition
• The Freshman Inquiry Writing Seminar: Writing Section

Course Descriptions

English 110 is a stand-alone, English composition course. Courses can be theme-based or not, depending on the instructor’s preference. The course learning outcomes emphasize rhetorical knowledge, so instructors are encouraged to use a text book like the Norton Field Guide to Writing  which uses rhetorical knowledge to inform the rest or the textbook. There are multiple online sources for rhetorical knowledge. CCNY’s fully online composition textbook (which you are free to copy, adapt, and use) relies on the Purdue OWL for its definitions of audience, purpose, rhetorical situation, genre, and other terms.

The Freshman Inquiry Writing Seminar (FIQWS) is CCNY’s learning community program. In it, topic instructors from across the curriculum are paired with composition instructors. Each course appears on a student’s course as an independent entity, and instructors formulate grades separately. By pairing topic and composition instructors and placing students in learning communities that meet for six hours a week, the Freshman Inquiry Writing Seminar provides incoming students at CCNY with additional academic support and a communal learning experience. Since topic instructors focus on leading content-based discussions, FIQWS writing section instructors are able to devote more time to writing instruction.

Digital portfolios are required for every section of English 110 and FIQWS Writing.

English 110 and the Freshman Inquiry Writing Seminar Course Learning Outcomes

• Explore and analyze, in writing and reading, a variety of genres and rhetorical situations.
• Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing.
• Recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations.
• Engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes.
• Understand and use print and digital technologies to address a range of audiences.
• Locate research sources (including academic journal articles, magazine and newspaper articles) in the library’s databases or archives and on the Internet and evaluate them for credibility, accuracy, timeliness, and bias.
• Compose texts that integrate your stance with appropriate sources using strategies such as summary, critical analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and argumentation.
• Practice systematic application of citation conventions.