The ESL Composition Sequence at Rutgers-Camden
The ESL composition sequence, consisting of Composition 098 and Composition 100, were introduced to the curriculum in their present form in fall 2010. The courses are designed to address the unique learning needs of students for whom English is not a first language. Composition 098 (Basic Writing for Non-Native Speakers) is the ESL equivalent of our Composition 099, and Composition 100 (Composition I for Non-Native Speakers) is the ESL equivalent of our Composition 101.
Composition 098
After completing Composition 098, students should be able to do the following:
- Apply active reading strategies to comprehend, summarize, analyze, and evaluate texts.
- View the creation of insightful, coherent prose as a recursive practice, requiring planning, organization, and revision throughout several stages of drafting.
- Address the rhetorical demands of context, subject, and audience to communicate effectively through speaking and writing.
- Apply grammatical and stylistic concerns discussed in class as a means of shaping ideas and clarifying meaning at the sentence level.
- Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their own compositions as well as write appropriate commentary about peer writing.
Composition 100
After completing Composition 100, students should be able to do the following:
- Have a good understanding of the various stages involved in constructing a written argument.
- Coherently express their ideas and opinions about a given passage / idea in writing.
- Distinguish between summary and analysis in their own and others’ writing.
- Close-read any given passage in a primary text (i.e., derive meaning from passages in a primary text and trace implications through the language of that text).
- Write a strong, argumentative thesis and claim-based topic sentence for each paragraph of a five-page paper.
- Distinguish between a strong and weak argumentative thesis in their own and others’ writing. Distinguish between strong and weak topic sentences in their own and others’ writing.
ESL students will merge with native speaking students in Composition 102 (or English 220 for English majors).