ICaP Advisors' Guide to First Year Composition (FYC)

Table of Contents

• ENGL 10600 and 10800 Foundational Learning and Program Outcomes
• Composition Courses at Purdue: An Overview
• Course Descriptions: Selecting an English Composition Course
• Dropping and Adding
• Composition Transfer Credit
• Other Composition Credit Policies
• Grade Reviews (Department) and Appeals (University)

ENGL 10600 and 10800 Foundational Learning and Program Outcomes

All versions of English 10600 and ENGL 10800 may be used to meet the foundational learning outcomes for Written Communication (WC) and Information Literacy (IL). See Purdue’s Undergraduate Core Curriculum website and the Advisor Guidelines for the core curricula on the Office of the Provost’s website.

In the spring of 2015, the Introductory Writing Committee approved basic outcomes for ENGL 10600 and ENGL 10800. These outcomes are based on the Council of Writing Program Administrators’ Outcomes Statement for First-Year Composition.

Composition Courses at Purdue: An Overview

Students at Purdue have diverse academic interests and professional goals. Although not every student at Purdue is an English major or strives to become a career writer, the ability to communicate creatively and effectively is important to all of us for several reasons:

• It provides us an outlet for sharing our ideas and an opportunity for making those ideas better;
• It empowers us to understand different conventions, genres, groups, societies, and cultures; and
• It allows us to have a voice in multiple academic, civic, and personal situations.

In short, writing is a way of learning that spans all fields and disciplines.

Specifically, our courses are designed to help students:

• Build confidence in their abilities to create, interpret, and evaluate texts in all types of media;
• Develop knowledge by inspiring new ideas through writing;
• Understand, evaluate, and organize their ideas;
• Articulate, develop and support a topic through first-hand and archival research;
• Become an effective writer who can respond credibly and accurately to a variety of composing situations.

Dropping and Adding

Department of English Policy: Instructors will not add new students to their class rosters beyond the first week of classes. This policy includes section changes. This policy applies to all sections of all courses.

Students may drop and add composition courses during the first week of the semester using the Registration Workflow. Instructors will not grant requests for section changes or add new students to their rosters after the first week of classes because these changes make it too difficult for students to make up even a week’s worth of missed work.

The Department of English will intervene only under extenuating circumstances.

Composition Transfer Credit

Equivalency credit for courses taken at other accredited colleges or universities are reviewed through the Office of the Registrar and Credit Evaluation (See “How Purdue Awards Transfer Credit”). The Registrar will request from our program an evaluation for composition courses that have not yet been evaluated. These program-level evaluations are completed by the Associate Director of Composition.

If a writing course is determined not to be the equivalent of ENGL 10600 or 10800, the student’s academic advisor may submit a request to the Undergraduate Curriculum Council (UCC) to review the course. The UCC may determine that the course satisfies the Written Communication requirement, the Information Literacy requirement, or both (ENGL 1XUWC, 1XUIL, or 1XILW).

The student and advisor must observe any prerequisites for higher-level writing courses in the student’s plan of study. In some cases, a single 3-credit hour composition course (like ENGL 1XUWC) does not fulfill the prerequisites of other writing courses or for program requirements. Students and advisors should pay close attention to these prerequisites. Please see the Professional Writing Course Information for more details.

English composition courses taught at non-English speaking international institutions are not awarded credit.

Other Composition Credit Policies

Retake Policies for Composition Courses

Students who are attempting to take ENGL 10600 or ENGL 10800 a third or fourth time require special permission from their college. University Regulations state that students may enroll in a non-repeatable course up to three times (and a withdrawal counts as an enrollment). After that, they must petition for an exception to enroll. Check with your college’s Director of Advising or with the Office of the Registrar for the full policy and for the procedure to request an exception.

• Students who take ENGL 10800 and then take ENGL 10600 (and vice versa) will receive the grade and credit for BOTH classes.
• The policy of the Registrar is that if two courses are not equivalent courses, one should NOT replace the other’s grade and credit.
• ENGL 10600 and 10800 are NOT equivalent courses.
• Neither of these courses are repeatable for credit.

AP Credit

Students beginning at Purdue in Fall 2005 and thereafter must receive an AP Credit score of 4 or 5 on the English Language and Composition exam to receive credit for ENGL 10600.

Test-Out/CLEP

Grade Reviews and Grade Appeals