Course: English Composition (ENGL 1A) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Lindgren
Module: Week 1 of 16 · Fall 2026 · in-person, two 75-minute sessions
Objective covered: Objective 1 — Analyze the rhetorical situation and approach writing as a recursive process.

This file holds two pieces: (A) the Module 1 Overview page ("Start Here") and (B) the Welcome Announcement that drips out when the module opens. Dates below assume a Tuesday/Thursday session pattern with Week 1 meeting Tue Sep 1 and Thu Sep 3, and end-of-week work due Sunday Sep 6, 11:59 p.m. Adjust the day-of-week and times to match your section.

(A) Module 1 Overview — Start Here

Welcome to Week 1: The Writing Process & the Rhetorical Situation

This is your home base for the week. Read it first, then work the checklist below from top to bottom. Everything you need is linked inside the module.

This week is the foundation the whole course is built on. Before we draft a single essay, we answer two questions that change how you write forever: why does the same writer write differently for different readers, and why do strong writers almost never get it right on the first try? The answers are this week's two big ideas — the rhetorical situation (every piece of writing has a writer, an audience, a purpose, a genre, and a context) and the writing process (writing is a loop of inventing, drafting, revising, and editing — not a single sprint).

The week's big question

"Who am I writing to, why, and in what form — and how do good writers use a process to get there?"

By Friday you'll be able to name the five parts of any rhetorical situation, tell revising apart from editing, and see your own writing as a series of choices you can control.

By the end of this week, you can…

Use this as a checklist. If you can do all four out loud, you're ready for the quiz.

• [ ] Name the rhetorical situation — writer, audience, purpose, genre, and context — and explain how each one shapes the writing.
• [ ] Adapt a message to different audiences and purposes (the same request, written for a friend vs. a professor).
• [ ] Walk through the writing process — invention/prewriting → drafting → revision → editing → reflection — and explain why it's recursive, not a straight line.
• [ ] Tell revision from editing — revision is re-seeing ideas and structure; editing is the surface clean-up. (We go deep on both in Weeks 13–14.)

What's due this week, and when

Work these in order — each one gets you ready for the next.

Heads-up on the AI work: you'll use a chatbot to draft and react, and then you judge its work. Ask a chatbot to "write my essay" and you'll see the lesson of this course in five seconds — it writes for no one in particular, in a voice that's no one's, and if you ask it for sources it will sometimes invent them. The tool drafts; the writer decides.

Late policy reminder: 10% off per day late. If life happens, reach out before the deadline — I'd much rather hear from you early.

How to succeed this week

• Lead with the idea, not the jargon. "Rhetorical situation" just means: who's writing, to whom, why, in what form, and when/where. The word comes after the idea clicks.
• Memorize one tiny hook. "Writer · Audience · Purpose · Genre · Context — every piece of writing has all five." (Some books fold "message/subject" in; we'll keep these five.)
• Separate the two passes. "Revision re-sees; editing cleans up." Most weak grades come from skipping the first and only doing the second.
• Treat the chatbot as a fast intern, not an author. It drafts; you check — for fit to your audience, for your voice, and (later in the term) for whether its quotations and sources are even real.
• Write badly on purpose first. A messy first draft you can fix beats a blank page you're "perfecting" in your head. That's the whole reason we teach a process.

You don't need any background for this week — just a willingness to see writing as a set of choices instead of a mysterious talent. Come to class ready to argue about whether there's such a thing as "good writing" that ignores who's reading. See you Tuesday.

(B) Welcome Announcement — Module 1

Release setting: post on the module's start day (offset = 0 days), i.e., Tue Sep 1, 2026 — not before. If your platform won't preserve the scheduled date on import, post this as a draft labeled "Release: Tue Sep 1."

Subject: Welcome to Week 1 — the two ideas that change how you write ✍️

Hi everyone, and welcome to English Composition!

Quick warm-up before we start. Picture this: you need a deadline extension. How would you ask a close friend? Now how would you ask me, in an email? You already changed almost everything — your tone, your word choice, your level of detail, even your greeting. You did that without thinking, because some part of you read the rhetorical situation. This week we make that instinct conscious and put it to work.

This week — The Writing Process & the Rhetorical Situation — we tackle the big question: Who am I writing to, why, and in what form — and how do strong writers use a process to get there? By Friday you'll be able to name the five parts of any writing situation and tell the difference between revising (re-seeing your ideas) and editing (cleaning up the surface).

Four things not to miss:
1. Lecture Tutorial 1 — work through the week's ideas with one approved chatbot (Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT) and submit the share link. Due Sun Sep 6.
2. Quiz 1, Discussion 1, and Assignment 1 also close Sun Sep 6 — the discussion is a quick AI dialogue you summarize and post, so start early and leave time to reply to classmates.
3. Writing Studio 1 — our weekly workshop. This week you'll rewrite one short message for two different readers and watch how much has to change. It's hands-on and quick.
4. Open the Start Here page first — it lays out everything in order with due dates.

One promise: this is a course about writing as a craft you can learn, not a talent you either have or don't. We lead with plain-language moves every single week, and you'll leave with a process you can use in every class you ever take. The next time a blank page stares you down, you'll know exactly where to start.

Bring your curiosity (and maybe a strong opinion about whether AI should write your essays) to class on Tuesday.

See you soon,
Prof. Lindgren