CO150 College Composition

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Prerequisite: Satisfactory completion of COCC192 or CO130 OR SAT verbal score of 500 and above OR ACT English score of 20 and above OR Composition Challenge Exam.

CO150 is CSU's all-university requirement in writing. The primary goal of CO150 is to teach learning, thinking, critical reading, and written communication at a university level. The course requires students to learn and practice the following types of writing:

1. Narrative
2. Summaries of Texts and Arguments
3. Responses to Texts (Responding to a text and/or the argument advanced in a text by agreeing/disagreeing, reflecting, or analyzing)
4. Syntheses of Texts (Understanding and being able to write about relationships among texts and the arguments made by authors of those texts)
5. Analysis of Text (Critically evaluating arguments and approaches to an issue)
6. Arguments (Advancing an academic position within the context of other positions and supporting it with evidence--a research paper)

Assumptions:

1. Writing in CO150 is rhetorically based: audience and purpose figure prominently in writing assignments.
2. Students practice writing for multiple purposes, some intended primarily for the writer (writing to learn, discover, remember); some intended for specific audiences/readers (writing to explore, inform, explain, persuade).
3. Writing is taught as a recursive process that varies for each writer and writing task. Writing, thinking, talking, reading, organizing, drafting, and revising are mutually assisting acts which help achieve the writer's purpose(s) and meet the audience's needs.
4. Instructors and peers intervene in the students' writing process by knowing the writer's purpose and audience.

Instructors and peers evaluate the written draft as well as the final product on how well it fulfills the writer's purposes and meets the audience's needs.

Key Topics and Writing Skills:

1. Determining purposes or aims for writing.
2. Adapting writing for defined audiences.
3. Practicing writing processes: invention, to include reading, researching, collaborative activities, summarizing and outlining, free writing, heuristics; shaping and organizing paragraphs and essays; revising based on changes in audience, purpose, methods of development, quality and quantity of support, or style; and editing for appropriate usage, punctuation, grammar, and mechanics.
4. Using Web-based Instructional programs to support writing process activities.

Assignments in CO150 range from writer-based journal and daybook entries to reader-based expository and argumentative writing. Essays must provide students with regular practice in revision strategies. Normally, five essays of approximately 600-2500 words (or the equivalent) are required. At least one essay should demonstrate that the student is familiar with basic library and field research procedures and with appropriate citation and documentation formats.

Placement: Students who score 500 or higher on the SAT verbal or 20 or higher on the ACT English section of the exam are placed into CO150. Students who score lower than 500 on the SAT verbal or lower than 20 on the ACT English must take the Composition Challenge Examination to be placed in a composition course. Students are placed into the Writing Center Individual Tutorial, CO130 Academic Writing, or CO150 College Composition -- or are given credit for CO150 College Composition -- based on their performance on the examination. For more information on the Composition Challenge Examination, visit the Composition Challenge Examination page on the Writing Center Web site.