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Professor Bonnie Cox
Composition Coordinator
Faculty Offices 115
(408) 924-4449
bmcox@email.sjsu.edu

Committment to Composition

The Department of English has traditionally committed itself to a quality writing program. To affirm the value and dignity of composition instruction, the Department has for many years followed a policy of having all faculty, from temporary Lecturers to full professors, teach writing courses.

To support and reinforce this policy and all activities related to writing instruction, the Department has a standing Composition Committee. The Composition Committee reviews and revises course guidelines, evaluates course syllabi, keeps the faculty informed of current pedagogy, and makes recommendations to the department chair and the Policy Advisory Committee on all policies and procedures regarding writing instruction in the Department.

Department of English efforts on behalf of writing instruction extend to the School and University level. Many years ago, the Department lobbied successfully to establish first, a second-semester Freshman writing requirement at SJSU, and then a university- wide additional writing requirement at the Junior-Senior level, a course for which all students must take an entrance exam.

In addition, two professors, the Composition Coordinator and another member of the Department Composition Committee, sit on the University Writing Requirements Committee, where English has the strongest and most influential representation. The Composition Coordinator also sits on the University General Education Advisory Panel for Written Communication.

Learning Objectives

The Composition Committee has established a set of learning objectives (read them here) that each instructor must include on the greensheet (syllabus).  At the conclusion of each semester, instructors complete an assessment of their integration of learning objectives in the classroom.  (See assessment documents in Faculty Corner under Composition.)

University-Wide Holistic Exam

To monitor and assess the effectiveness of Freshman Composition the Committee establishes topics for a standardized final departmental essay for all course sections. This final essay is graded holistically by a reading committee comprised of all the current Freshman Composition instructors.

Training our Faculty

In conjunction with our commitment to writing instruction, the Department of English Graduate Program has for many years aided the training of instructors by including in its curriculum two Composition seminars, one in Composition theory and one in the history of rhetoric as it pertains to the teaching of composition.

Also, the Department, through the Graduate Program, ensures that all Freshman Composition students receive fully competent and effective Composition instruction by providing for intensive supervision of Teaching Associates, those specially trained exceptional graduate students given responsibility to teach Composition.

The Department of English takes justifiable pride in its guardianship of quality writing instruction at San Jose State University.

Composition Offerings

English 1A. Composition
Expository writing, supplemented by critical reading.
Prerequisite: English Placement Test.
A,B,C/NC grading.
1A Course Guidelines

English 1B Composition
Continuation of expository writing, supplemented by critical reading and analysis of expository prose or literature.
Prerequisite: English 1A and English Placement Test.
A,B,C.NC grading.
1B Course Guidelines

English 100W. Writing Workshop: English Studies
Advanced writing course required of all English majors before they achieve senior standing. Analysis of literature, methods of research, documentation style.
A,B,C/NC grading.
100W Course Guidelines

English 100WB. Advanced Writing Workshop: Business Majors
Prerequisite: Completion of core General Education, satisfaction of Writing Skills Text, and upper-division standing.
100WB Course Guidelines

English 105. Seminar in Advanced Composition
Advanced expository writing.
Prerequisite: 6 units of lower division composition instruction and completion of the Written Communication II requirement (100W).
Repeatable once for credit with different instructor and department chair consent.

Recommended handbooks (updated soon)

The Allyn and Bacon Handbook , Leonard J. Rosen & Laurence Behrens
The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers, Chris M. Anson & Robert A. Schwegler
The Mc-Graw-Hill College Handbook, Richard Marius & Harvey S. Wiener
Scribner Handbook for Writers, Robert DiYanni & Pat C. Hoy
How English Works, Ann Raimes