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General Education Writing

GEW 101B Course Content

Activities & Assignments 

While the specific activities and writing projects will vary based on instructor, all GEW students will: 

  • Engage in frequent, low-stakes writing (e.g., weekly discussion forums or blogs, regular reflections on the writing process).
  • Practice writing for specific audiences and purposes. 
  • Participate in a multi-draft writing process that requires substantial revision in response to peer and instructor feedback.
  • Experience two Writing Center “encounters” during the semester, such as a tutoring session, a workshop/webinar, or an info session.
  • Utilize CSUSM’s library to locate academic/scholarly sources. 
  • Produce an extended inquiry project equivalent to an academic research article. This project may take the shape of one long project that is drafted in stages (i.e., a 15-18 page academic article), or it may include 2-3 smaller projects (i.e., a synthesis or non-academic-audience project + a 9-11 page academic article, or a literacy narrative + a multimodal project + 8-10 page academic article). 
  • Instructors are encouraged to integrate multimodal composition in their courses.

Assigned Readings 

 Assigned readings will vary based on instructor, but all GEW students will engage with “instructional texts” and “mentor texts.” 

 Instructional texts introduce students to the writing process, to writing as a rhetorical act, and to academic research writing. These texts are written by Composition Studies scholars and grounded in current Composition Studies theory. 

Mentor texts (which might be non-fiction essays, podcasts, videos, works of fiction, etc) create opportunities for students to analyze how other writers employ rhetorical strategies, as well as how writing produces social constructions and power relations. Analyzing mentor texts helps students become more aware of the ways their own writing is socially situated.