Composition 1 is a first-year required course. This course introduces students to the writing process and to the conventions of written English, teaches students to write grammatically accurate sentences, well-formed paragraphs with clear topic sentences and supporting details, and coherent short essays. Written assignments include journals, paragraphs, and short essays in one or more drafts. This course is taught in tandem with Oral Training 1.

In Composition I, students will learn to: 1. Utilize various strategies for generating ideas, such as brainstorming, freewriting, and clustering. 2. Recognize and produce writing with a clear main idea (topic sentence and thesis statement) and supporting details. 3. Write narrative paragraphs organized in chronological order. 4. Write descriptive paragraphs organized in spatial order. 5. Write expository paragraphs organized by importance, familiarity, or time. 6. Use transitions to enhance coherence. 7. Use of AI tools in writing The first semester focuses on paragraph writing with various methods of support, while the second semester emphasizes the five-paragraph essay, comprising an introduction, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. This structure is foundational for basic academic writing and serves as a platform for more advanced writing forms. Throughout the course, students will engage in numerous activities and exercises, both in and out of class, to master the rhetorical structures common in English composition. They will also address sentence-level and word-level challenges. The course incorporates the use of AI tools and includes two weeks of self-study to reinforce these skills. To pass the course, students must demonstrate proficiency in executing these objectives.

Refining Composition Skills: Rhetoric and Grammar, 6th edition, by Smalley, Ruetten, and Kozyrev