miami university

First-Year Composition Courses — ENG 111, ENG 112

Most students complete their Foundation I requirement by taking ENG 111 and ENG 112 in Fall and Spring of their first year at Miami. Incoming students who have earned three credits toward their composition requirement at Miami University—either through AP exam or first-year portfolio--are placed into either ENG 111 or ENG 112. See AP and Transfer Credit page for details.

English 111, Composition and Rhetoric

ENG 111 is a writing course focused on principles and practices of rhetoric and composition useful for producing writing that is effective for its purpose, audience, and context. ENG 111 focuses especially on helping students learn and apply rhetorical knowledge, methods, and strategies; analyze and construct arguments using rhetorical inquiry; understand, refine, and improve their composing practices; and develop the intellectual and analytical skills necessary to produce effective writing at the college level. The course emphasizes rhetorical invention: planning, analysis, research, and development of ideas for a particular academic or public audience. It also teaches principles of effective organization and style and strategies for revision, editing, and proofreading. A key purpose of the course is to teach students to deliver writing in a variety of contexts, including digitally networked environments.

Major Inquiries and Writing Assignments

ENG 111 will be centered on five major writing inquiries:

  1. Self Inquiry/Initial Reflection —> results in a shorter “warm-up” paper analyzing and reflecting on your rhetorical practices in a particular context
  2. Textual Inquiry/Rhetorical Analysis —> using rhetorical analysis as a method to analyze a public argument
  3. Issue Inquiry/Public Issue Argument —> researching and making a rhetorical argument about a public issue
  4. Media Inquiry/Remediation —> understanding how the medium affects the message by remediating a previous piece of writing (by changing the medium using digital media and perhaps multi-modality) to present your work to a new audience
  5. E-Portfolio Inquiry/Final Reflection —> reflecting on your writing and rhetoric through analysis of your coursework collected in an e-portfolio

Each inquiry is comprised of a number of components, including class activities, shorter writing assignments, drafts, peer responses, proposals, research notes, Writer’s Letter, and a major final paper (or the equivalent) for each inquiry. The major final paper for each inquiry will vary in length. Inquiry #1 will result in a shorter paper (~2-4 pages). The other inquiries will result in longer papers (~4-7 pages or the equivalent). At least two of the papers will require that you integrate secondary sources of research. Each of these major projects will require an accompanying Writer’s Letter that asks you to explain your purpose and audience for each assignment; to explain your rhetorical choices and strategies; to reflect on your writing process; to describe what you did in revision, etc. The major assignment for Inquiry #5, the e-portfolio project, is actually an extended Writer’s Letter asking you to collect, analyze, and reflect on your writing and rhetoric through the entire semester.

English 112, Composition and Literature

ENG 112 is a writing course focused on writing critically and analytically about texts — "texts" broadly defined as including literary, disciplinary, public, and popular texts; print and digital texts; and visual, video, and aural texts as well as verbal print text. The course explores the relationship between writing and reading and interrogates how knowledge and meaning are constructed through analyzing and writing about texts. Through four overlapping units, called “inquiries,” ENG 112 teaches you various tools for textual analysis with the aim of producing a new text — your own critical response to what you have read.

Major Inquiries and Writing Assignments

  1. Close, Critical Reading —> results in a shorter “warm-up” paper focusing on a close reading and analysis of a single complex text or artifact (what does it mean? where and how does it apply?)
  2. Cultural/Historical Interrogation —> focuses on understanding texts from different perspectives in time and place and on understanding texts from the point of view of different audiences and identities (such as gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, age, class, etc.); typically results in two longer papers
  3. Critical Application —> applying these various tools for textual analysis to understand a contemporary issue, problem, or scene; typically results in one longer paper
  4. E-Portfolio Inquiry/Final Reflection —> reflecting on your writing and reading practices through analysis of your coursework collected in an e-portfolio; typically results in one longer paper

Each inquiry is comprised of a number of components, including class activities, shorter writing assignments, drafts, peer responses, proposals, research notes, Writer’s Letter, and a major final paper or papers (or the equivalent) for each inquiry. The major final paper for each inquiry will vary in length. Inquiry #1 will result in a shorter paper (~2-4 pages). The other inquiries will result in longer papers (~4-7 pages or the equivalent). At least two of the papers will require that you integrate secondary sources of research. Each of these major projects will require an accompanying Writer’s Letter that asks you to explain your purpose and audience for each assignment; to explain your rhetorical choices and strategies; to reflect on your writing process; to describe what you did in revision, etc. The major assignment for Inquiry #4, the e-portfolio project, is actually an extended Writer’s Letter asking you to collect your writing and analyze it and to reflect on your writing and reading practices through the entire semester.