Rhetoric & Composition II

Rhetoric & Composition II is a sixteen-week research-based First-Year Composition (FYC) course focused on evaluating sources and making persuasive, research-based arguments. Through four scaffolded assignments aligned with the department’s Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) and a digital ePortfolio, students conduct individual and collaborative research and reflect on their growth as writers.

The course consists of four writing projects:

COMP 2	Description
Comparative Source Analysis (5 weeks)	Students collaboratively create a source-credibility rubric, apply it in an individual comparative analysis across academic, popular, and digital texts, and complete a major reflection (50% of the grade) on collaboration, rubric design, source choices, and audience awareness.
Make A Change (6 weeks)	A multi-phase group project in which students investigate a local community issue through primary and secondary research, present evidence-based recommendations in a multimodal showcase, and complete a major reflection (50% of the grade) on collaboration, research choices, and audience awareness.
Research Paper (3 weeks)	An individual project in which students expand their Make A Change research into an APA-style paper that presents background, reports primary methods and findings (with limitations), and offers evidence-based recommendations or a call to action, while emphasizing source synthesis, clear argumentation, and reflection on revision.
Reflection Overview (2 weeks)	A capstone project in which students synthesize earlier reflections with new analysis to evaluate their growth as writers, identify strengths and areas for improvement, and explain how they will transfer their learning to future contexts.