Writing & Rhetoric/ENG170 is our SUNY/General Education required writing course that focuses on an introduction to college-level critical thinking and academic writing, thesis development and evidence-based support, academic research, synthesis of ideas, and ethical citation. All of our courses are interdisciplinary (not literary) in focus and revolve around the rhetorical situation.
Here are some definitions of rhetoric to consider.
Our ENG170 courses are framed around a Wicked Question or problem that fosters inquiry and provides a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to writing and research. Click here for more about Wicked Questions!
Some examples of Wicked Questions from our courses:
Spring 2020 ENG170 Wicked Questions
Note that for the 2023-2024 academic year, there are changes to Learning Outcomes for this course under General Education 5 standards, outlined here:
SUNY Learning Outcomes
· Students will research a topic, develop an argument, and organize supporting details. (BCW)
· Demonstrate coherent college-level communication (written and oral) that informs, persuades, or otherwise engages with an audience. (BCW)
· Students will demonstrate the ability to revise and improve written and oral communication. (BCW)
· Students will evaluate communication for substance, bias and intended effect. (BCO)
· Students will perform the basic operations of personal computer use. (IM)
· Students will understand and use basic research techniques. (IM)
· Students will locate, evaluate, and synthesize information from a variety of sources. (IM)
ENG 170 Writing & Rhetoric Course Objectives (our campus learning outcomes)
By semester’s end, students will:
1. Identify and analyze two or more rhetorical situations, including constraints, audience needs, genre options, speaker roles, and other contexts.
2. Develop a writing process that takes researched materials and ongoing conversations into account early and integrates those with original ideas and arguments.
3. Craft sustained, logically-organized, stylistic, and grammatical sentences, paragraphs and essays—leading to significant writing in academic and professional genres.
4. Analyze and evaluate arguments from multiple genres by considering aesthetic elements, rhetorical strategies, bias, premises and assumptions, deductive and inductive reasoning, logical fallacies, and forms of evidence.
5. Develop knowledge in at least one researched topic and use that knowledge to develop an evidence-based case to answer a research question of the student’s making.
6. Deliver a source-based oral presentation with preparatory materials and visuals.
7. Critique the content, delivery and impact of at least one oral presentation.
8. Create a multimodal text, usefully combining words with sound, images, or other media.
9. Select the best available information and use it ethically and legally, including practicing appropriate summary, quotation, and paraphrase.
10. Transfer learned communication strategies (written & oral) to assignments for another course or context.
11. Develop at least three strategies for taking an idea deeper and in new directions (stasis theory, freewriting, analogies, associative thinking, exploratory research, others).
12. Develop a process for sustained revision to written & oral communication
Assignment Policy
Students must COMPLETE the following to PASS the course:
· All six of the formal writing assignments
· Oral presentation & evaluation
· Library Instruction
· Consistent participation in class
· Consistent engagement with the Writing Journal (minimum
Oral Presentation
For ENG 170 (and ENG206/equivalents): A formal oral presentation of 5-6 minutes including an argument focus with sources is mandatory. Materials and strategies for planning will be shared during the term.
Here is a sample syllabus. Note: this is an example of a synchronous course taught remotely during the pandemic.
More recent examples are available upon request.