Researchers agree that writing is a tool for thinking (Menary, 2007; Klein & Boscolo, 2016; Miller and Jurecic, 2016; Reis, n.d.). As Reis explains, ‘The bodily act of writing externalizes our thoughts, and the imposed structure (the written word) provides a vehicle by which those thoughts may be reorganized into new thinking, a new way of seeing the thoughts or a new way of organizing thoughts.’ Miller and Jurecic similarly argue that ‘writers discover what they think not before they write but in the act of writing’ (2016, p. 60). One of the main aims of this course is to allow you to experience writing as a tool for thinking and to practice expressing ideas in formal writing and oral communication. While you will have the opportunity to understand and practice the genre conventions that are specific to your discipline later in your studies, this first common communication course is designed to help you form habits of mind that will serve you across the university and even in the world outside of the university. Taken by all first-year undergraduates, this foundational course will develop your written and oral communication skills, as well as your ability to read and analyze texts. It will help you to understand revision as integral to the process of composition, to convey your interpretations and ideas with confidence and clarity, and to consider audience and purpose when you communicate.
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