This course is an introduction to college composition. Here you will learn to think critically and express your ideas through different modes of writing. Our approach to writing will be process-oriented, emphasizing the importance of creativity, workshopping, rethinking, and revision. You are expected to be an attentive listener as well as an engaged writer, and your final grade will be based on your level of participation as well as your ability to produce strong texts. You will be asked to write a personal essay, an interpretive essay, and a research essay, in addition to completing short writing exercises designed to help you learn about different writing or revision strategies. All of your completed writing assignments (including the final draft of the essay) will be included in a portfolio that you build for each essay. All assignments should be sent to me as word documents via email (Annika.Ljung-Baruth@uvm.edu). Sometimes you will also be asked to post assignments in workshop group wikis (Brightspace), and/or to bring hard copies to class. You are required to bring the assigned reading material to class at all times, as well as writing equipment (computer, iPad, or pen and paper). Reading assignments will include (but not be limited to) Toby Fulwiler's The Working Writer, Jane Smiley’s novel A Thousand Acres, and Shakespeare’s King Lear.