Foundation Communication

English 1500: Critical Thinking and Communication
(3-0) Cr. 3. F.S.SS.
Application of critical reading and thinking abilities to topics of civic and cultural importance. Introduction of basic oral, visual, and electronic communication principles to support writing development. Initiation of communication portfolio. Concurrent enrollment in LIB 1600 is recommended.

English 1500 objectives

The purpose of English 1500 is to prepare students for communicating successfully in their academic courses, as well as in their work, personal, and civic lives. Because of what the National Council of Teachers of English calls the importance of 21st-century literacies, most of the course will be devoted to writing, but students will also practice and analyze oral, visual, and electronic communication. Students will also compile an ISUComm Portfolio to showcase and reflect their work.

Written

• Adapt your writing to specific purposes, audiences, and situational contexts.
• Integrate and document a range of informational sources, from personal interviews to print and electronic publications.
• Practice varied organizational strategies and transitional devices.
• Match expression to situation and audience, avoiding errors that distract or confuse.
• Develop strategies to revise your own writing.
• Reflect upon your communication processes, strengths, goals, and growth in a portfolio.

Oral

• Ask effective questions and listen actively.
• Function as an effective team member in small groups as contributor, listener, collaborator, and presenter.
• Develop basic oral presentation skills, focusing on meaningful information, clear organization, and engaging delivery.

Visual

• Design effective layouts by attending to spacing, margins, headings, color, and typography.
• Create an appropriate layout format for a visual document.
• Analyze visual communication.
• Use visuals effectively (e.g., imported, scanned, or digital pictures) and integrate them with written texts.
• Accurately document visual sources.

Electronic

• Use appropriate format, voice, and language in a professional email (e.g., correspondence with an instructor).
• Use word-processing skills, including making headings, attachments, tables, etc.
• Compose a communication portfolio using appropriate media.

Types of assignments in English 1500

Below are a few of the typical assignments included in English 1500. Learning communities often modify assignments to their specific field.

English 2500 objectives

The goals of English 2500 are for students to develop skills in written, oral, visual, and electronic communication. As a result, students should become not only a more perceptive consumer of information, but also a communicator better able to make effective decisions in their own academic life and work. A central concept in this course is that “arguments are all around us, in every medium, in every genre, in everything we do….An argument can be any text–written, spoken, aural, or visual–that expresses a point of view” (Everything’s an Argument 5). In this course, students will summarize, analyze, and evaluate various types of communication and then use those skills in four kinds of assignments: summaries, rhetorical analyses (both textual and visual), persuasive arguments, and research arguments.

Written

• Summarize accurately and responsibly the main ideas of others, especially published sources.
• Analyze professional writing to assess its purpose, audience, and rhetorical strategies.
• Explore and develop arguments that integrate ethical, logical, and emotional appeals (i.e., ethos, logos, pathos).
• Continue to integrate appropriate source material, providing accurate and consistent documentation.
• Continue to demonstrate an ability to conform to usage conventions and to adapt expression to purpose and audience.
• Continue to reflect systematically upon all of your communication processes, strengths, goals, and growth (e.g., an ISUComm Portfolio).

Oral

• Give an oral presentation, either individually or as part of a team, using effective invention, organization, language, and delivery strategies.
• Continue to improve as an effective team member in small groups as contributor, listener, collaborator, and presenter.

Visual

• Apply the visual communication principles related to pattern, contrast, direction, chunking, and color.
• Compose or analyze the rhetoric of visual communication (e.g., advertisement, documentary film, political cartoon, public service announcement).
• Create a visual argument (e.g., advertisement, poster, slide).

Electronic

• Apply the electronic communication principles related to content, layout, graphics, color, and interactivity.
• Analyze electronic communication (e.g., TV commercials, videos, websites) and compose a communication portfolio.
• Deliver a piece of communication to its intended audience, using one or more suitable media.

WOVE

• Ensure that all modes contribute to the primary message, purpose, and targeted audience.
• Develop clear, purposeful relationships between the modes.
• Exhibit a sensitivity to differences in modes and their cultural implications.
• Create a rich, interactive experience for the audience.
• Develop confidence in ability to adapt skills and knowledge used here to future situations.

Types of assignments in English 2500

Below are a few of the typical assignments included in English 2500. Learning communities often modify assignments to their specific field.

English 2500 Honors Sections

English 2500H sections are offered each fall semester for students who have been admitted to the University Honors Program. These sections offer Honors students an intensive communication experience while maintaining a focus on the university’s WOVE (written, oral, visual, and electronic) curriculum. Students come to know one another and work together in this course as part of their core academic experience in Honors.

For more information, please go to the University Honors Program website.

Learning community linked sections

Learning community linked English sections are sections of English 1500, 2500, 3020, 3090, 3120, or 3140 reserved for an Iowa State University learning community. Learning community linked sections have the same learning outcomes and types of assignments as non-linked sections, but follow an adapted curriculum that also connects to the learning outcomes of its learning community.

Students who are interested in becoming a member of (or simply learning more about) an Iowa State University learning community are to contact their academic advisor during their orientation advising session.

For more information, please go to the Learning Communities website.