ENGL 106 is an accelerated three-credit hour composition course is a fundamental introduction to critical reading and writing. Your success in this course will dictate your success in all other courses involving a presentation of ideas because that’s what college is about: your ability to think to formulate ideas and then to express them clearly and rationally, independently and in group situations. To prepare you for this, we will thoroughly devour the reading and writing processes. We will study the texts through careful reading, essay analysis, and response to the author’s ideas. By analysis, I mean that we will study the author’s argument and the means by which she or he supports her or his statement, as well as her or his linguistic structure, development of ideas, critical approach, and overall validity (i.e., did the author prove her or his argument?). Studying works by other authors will guide you through your own writing. Reading is all fine and good and essential and necessary and your life depends on it, but the true beauty of an English course comes from your own creation. If you want to get really corny, a solid piece of writing can constitute a lasting legacy of yourself. You will write first drafts; you will write second drafts; you will write third drafts; you will write until your fingers fall off (in this class, at least). Multiple revisions are the key to writing, and we will accomplish this through peer editing, writing workshops, one-on-one consultations, and class discussion.