This research hub organizes assignments from the required First-Year Composition (FYC) courses, Rhetoric & Composition Foundation/Rhetoric & Composition I and Rhetoric & Composition II, taught across a single academic year, presenting them in chronological order by assignment to reflect skill development, with detailed requirements and rubrics available on each Writing Projects page.
Rhetoric & Composition Foundation: A16-week course that includes fourmajor assignments:
| Rhetoric and Composition Foundation |
Description
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| Literacy Narrative: Foundation (5 weeks) |
Students compose a literacy narrative about learning a new skill or adapting to an unfamiliar environment, remediate that narrative into a multimodal format, and reflect on the rhetorical choices they made for audience, genre, and medium.
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| This I Believe (5 weeks) |
Students write a personal “This I Believe” essay that connects a core belief to meaningful life experiences while reflecting on the rhetorical, persuasive, and stylistic choices they made throughout the writing process
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| Discourse Community Analysis (4 weeks) |
Students analyze a new discourse community by observing its language, genre conventions, and interactions in order to make an argument about what the community values as “good” communication while reflecting on their rhetorical and multimodal choices.
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| Reflection Overview (2 weeks) |
A capstone reflection where students analyze their growth as writers and explain how they will transfer their learning to future writing contexts.
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Rhetoric & Composition I: A 16-week course that includes four major assignments:
| Category |
Description |
Purpose
|
| Literacy Narrative Assignment (5 weeks) |
Students write a personal anecdote and remediate it into a new medium (e.g., video, podcast, website) followed by a reflection explaining their rhetorical, genre, and audience-based choices. |
Help students understand how writing changes across media and practice making intentional rhetorical decisions for specific audiences.
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| Observation and Value Analysis Assignment (5 weeks) |
Students compare a departmental artifact from the Northern Illinois University (NIU) with a similar artifact from another university and analyze rhetorical differences in language, design, purpose, and audience, supported by media examples and reflection. |
Develop genre awareness and teach students how context shapes communication across institutions and discourse communities.
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| Making Change Assignment (4 weeks) |
A collaborative persuasive project where students address a local problem, integrate outside perspectives, choose an appropriate genre/media, present their solution, and write an individual reflection on rhetorical and teamwork decisions. |
Apply rhetorical strategies and research to real-world persuasion and demonstrate how writing can influence actual audiences.
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| Reflection Overview Assignment (2 weeks) |
Students compile prior reflections and write a final reflective essay explaining their learning, growth as writers, future applications, and areas for improvement using evidence from their coursework. |
Promote metacognition by helping students recognize transferable writing skills and articulate their development over the semester.
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Rhetoric & Composition II: A 16-week course that includes four major assignments:
| Category |
Description |
Purpose
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| Comparative Source Analysis Assignment (5 weeks) |
Students collaboratively design a credibility rubric and individually apply it to compare multiple sources, explaining how source evaluation works and why credibility matters. |
Teach students how to evaluate research sources critically and understand credibility as a core part of the research process.
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| Make A Change Assignment (6 weeks) |
Students work in teams to propose a local research topic, conduct primary and secondary research, and present findings publicly through a multimodal presentation and collaboration report. |
Develop research skills, teamwork practices, and the ability to investigate real-world problems using multiple research methods.
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| Research Paper Assignment (3 weeks) |
Students individually build on their group research to write an APA-formatted paper that explains the issue, presents research results, and argues for specific future actions. |
Synthesize research into an evidence-based academic argument and practice formal research writing conventions.
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| Reflection Overview Assignment (2 weeks) |
Students compile prior reflections and write a final reflection discussing learning, writing development, future applications, and areas for improvement. |
Encourage metacognition by helping students articulate transferable research and writing skills gained throughout the course.
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