Assignment: First Writing

Please take one hour (60 minutes) to complete this assignment, including reflection and writing. Choosing an essay might take some time but you should only spend an hour writing your response. Please type your University ID on your document. Save it in my Instructor Folder under First Writing.

1. Consider topics, audiences, and purposes that are of personal interest to you as a writer. You might want to jot these down as a list to refer to as you proceed.

2. From your copy of the Mercury Reader or the Redbird Reader, select one (1) essay related to a topic, audience, and/or purpose of interest to you.

3. Read the essay you selected. Engage with the text creatively and critically.

4. Write a response to the reading. Please note: This is “writing to learn.” Writing to learn has special features. It is focused, informal, exploratory writing the purpose of which is to generate knowledge, insight, and new ideas. Write in a relaxed but focused way. Write continuously, and try to find the most interesting and useful things you can say in response to what you read. Don’t worry very much about mechanics and correctness; if you come up with good ideas you want to develop, you can address mechanics at a later stage in your writing process.

Turn your First Writing in to your Eng. 101 instructor. S/he will read what you wrote to assess your abilities in writing to learn. Your instructor will also share a copy of your First Writing with the Director of the Writing Program. The Director will use anonymous copies of students’ First Writings as part of evaluations of the Writing Program (that is, efforts to find out how well the Writing Program is meeting its goals).