Writing for a Purpose

This is Unit One of College Composition. The course begins where every piece of writing begins: with a writer, a reader, and a reason to write. Carry one idea through this lecture. Every text is written in a rhetorical situation, and the writer's choices answer to its purpose, its audience, its genre and its context. A worked example at the end reads a writing prompt that way before a word is drafted. By the end you will be able to describe the rhetorical situation of a text. To analyze purpose, audience, context and genre. To explain how academic writing joins a conversation and where standard written English fits. And to move through a writing process that loops back on itself.

Two entries: what this course covers, and the rhetorical situation that frames every text you will read or write.

What the course teaches.

CMP 0001 What This Course Covers

This course teaches what a one-semester college writing course covers: correct sentences, revision, using sources, and analyzing persuasion. It is an independent course preparing you for a multiple-choice exam on those skills, with no connection to the exam's owner. Most of that exam asks you to judge and improve other people's drafts, so this course practices revising, not only writing.

The situation behind every text.

CMP 0002 The Rhetorical Situation

Every act of communication happens in a rhetorical situation. Its parts are the agents, the writer and the audience; the purpose, such as to inform or persuade; the genre, the form the message takes; the stance, the writer's position; the context of time and place; and the culture writer and audience bring. The same message can work in one situation and fail in another. Describing a trip to friends and describing it to grandparents are different situations, so the details and the language change, though the trip did not.

Five entries on the parts a writer reads first: purpose, audience, context and timing, and genre.

The reason for writing.

CMP 0003 Purpose

Purpose is the writer's reason for communicating, and it shapes every choice in a text. Common purposes are to inform, to explain, to persuade and to entertain, and one text can serve several at once. When a passage wanders, ask what it is for. Material that does not serve the purpose is usually what revision removes.

Who the text is for.

CMP 0004 Audience

The audience is the readers a text is written for, and knowing them tells you what to include and how. Writers ask what the audience already knows, what view they hold on the subject, and how the writer relates to them. Writing for no one in particular usually means writing for no one; name the reader first.

Questions to ask about readers.

CMP 0005 Analyzing an Audience

Analyzing an audience means asking questions before choosing content, tone and language. How much do readers already know? That decides how much background to give. Do they agree or doubt? Skeptical readers need more evidence and a fairer account of other views. How do you relate to them, and what do they expect from this kind of text? The answers shape message, tone and structure. Audience analysis is not guessing what readers want to hear; it is deciding what they need to understand and weigh your point.

Time, place and timing.

CMP 0006 Context and Kairos

Context is the setting of a text, its time and place, and it changes what a writer must explain or can assume. The Greek term kairos names timing: an appeal can succeed or fail depending on when it is made. A text that ignores its moment, arguing about yesterday's question, can be correct and still fail to persuade.

The kind of text it is.

CMP 0007 Genre and Its Conventions

A genre is a recognizable kind of text, such as a lab report, a review or a social media post, and each has conventions readers expect. Conventions cover structure, paragraphs, tone and mechanics, and they are shaped by audience, purpose and culture. Breaking a genre's conventions by accident confuses readers; a report written like a text message looks careless, not creative.

Three entries on reading rhetorically, writing as a conversation, and the place of standard written English among the varieties of English.

Reading and writing on purpose.

CMP 0008 Writer, Text, Reader

Reading rhetorically means asking why a message was built the way it was, and writing rhetorically means building your own on purpose. A critical reader asks whether a text is fair, whether its evidence is credible, and whether its reasoning makes sense, before accepting its conclusions. Reading once, quickly, rarely reaches that level; plan to reread and to question the text.

Joining the conversation.

CMP 0009 Academic Writing as Conversation

Academic writing is a conversation: writers respond to what others have said and add something of their own. That is why college writing uses sources, names them, and shows where the writer agrees, disagrees or extends an idea. A paper that only reports what others said has not yet joined the conversation; it needs the writer's own point.

One variety among many.

CMP 0010 Standard Written English and Other Varieties

English has many dialects, and the one used in most academic and professional writing is called standard English, with set rules of syntax, vocabulary and grammar. A dialect is a version of English used by a region or group, such as African American Vernacular English or Appalachian English, and each has its own grammar. Standard English is one of these, the one expected in formal settings, and writers often move between varieties, a practice called code-switching. Other varieties are not broken English. When this course calls a sentence an error, it means an error against the conventions of standard written English.

Six entries on the writing process, which loops back on itself, and a worked example on reading a prompt. The opening idea is paid off at the last.

A process that loops back.

CMP 0011 The Writing Process Is Recursive

The writing process moves through prewriting, drafting, revising, editing and proofreading, but rarely in a straight line. Writing is recursive: writers push forward, step back and repeat steps as ideas develop, adding, deleting and reordering as they reread. Expecting a good writer to finish in one pass sets a false standard; returning to earlier steps is normal, not failure.

Planning before drafting.

CMP 0012 Prewriting Strategies

Prewriting is the planning and idea-gathering done before drafting full sentences. Start with the rhetorical situation: purpose, audience and genre. Freewrite quickly without stopping, ignoring grammar. Brainstorm every idea, question and example. Ask who, what, when, where, why and how. Then sort what you have into rough groups and consider how to arrange them. Prewriting is not judged as a draft, and skipping it usually moves the thinking into the draft, where it is slower and messier to sort out.

A first draft, to be revised.

CMP 0013 Drafting to Discover

Drafting is putting your ideas into sentences and paragraphs, and a first draft exists to be revised. With strong prewriting and revision habits, drafting becomes a smaller part of the process, and writers often discover their real point while drafting. Stopping to fix every comma while drafting interrupts the thinking; fix sentences later.

Rethinking versus polishing.

CMP 0014 Revising Versus Editing

Revising means reseeing and rethinking a draft's content, structure and organization; editing improves sentences and words. Global revisions change the piece as a whole; local revisions change a sentence or a word. When feedback asks for both, prioritize revision first. Polishing the grammar of a paragraph you later delete wastes the work; revise before you edit.

The final check.

CMP 0015 Proofreading Last

Proofreading is the final check for small details: spelling, punctuation, typing mistakes and formatting. It includes checking that the paper follows the required style guide, such as the Modern Language Association or the American Psychological Association. A spell-checker misses correctly spelled wrong words, such as their for there, so read the final draft yourself.

Reading a prompt first.

CMP 0016 Reading a Prompt Before Writing

A worked example, constructed for this course, pays off the opening idea. A prompt asks for a letter to a city council proposing one change to make a neighborhood safer for people who walk. The purpose is to persuade, because the letter wants a change adopted. The audience, council members, knows the budget but not your street, so it needs local detail and a reason the change is worth its cost. The genre is a formal letter, with a clear request near the start. The context matters: a recent accident or an upcoming budget vote makes the letter more urgent. Brainstorm changes, choose the one you can support best, such as a marked crosswalk near the school, and gather the evidence the council will need. The commonest early mistake is answering a different prompt from the one given. Reread the prompt after drafting, and check that every paragraph serves its purpose and audience.

Look at what you can now do. You can describe the course's four skill areas, and the rhetorical situation behind any text: its agents, purpose, genre, stance, context and culture. You can analyze purpose, audience, timing and genre, asking what readers know, believe and need. You can explain academic writing as a conversation, and standard written English as the variety the academic setting calls for, not the only correct English. And you can move through a writing process that loops back on itself, reading the prompt before you draft. Unit Two begins the conventions of the sentence: what every sentence needs.