CPN 100: One Text

Exploring a single text in depth is a crucial part of college writing. Effective writers read, examine, think about, discuss, make observations on, draw conclusions from, and reflect upon sources. Writers explore a single text for multiple purposes, including synthesis, analysis, argument, presentation, remix, and others. With this in mind, your CPN 100 instructor will ask you to explore a single text and reflect on how that text uses its own sources, grounding its purpose and conversation in some kind of cited evidence. Your instructor might ask you to use the single text to do any of the following: to take a stance on a debate, to analyze the information within the text for its usefulness, to consider how or if the text contributes to the conversation you are having, to explicate the text, or to explain and summarize it for a (different) audience, and /or to consider your own personal (subjective) or professional (objective) position in relation to the text. The exact genre of your assignment will depend on your instructor and your class, but may include annotations and reflection, mapping of source use and synthesis, or some other way of demonstrating engagement with the one text. However your instructor approaches exploring and using a single text, it is important to think critically and for a significant amount of time about the text, its own use of sources, and consider how its content will fit within the established purpose of the assignment and be presented to audiences. In CPN 100, students explore, develop and compose assignments that may include synthesis, analysis, making claims, and reflection, using a single source..

Through the One Text assignment, students will

• Read, discuss, reflect, and write about a single source for a specific purpose;
• Use composing styles and processes to develop their ideas supported by a single text; and
• Be able to produce a coherent text demonstrating understanding, interpretation, and analysis of the ways that a single text uses sources.

Things to Keep in Mind about One Text Compositions:

Writers may use the single text in multiple ways, depending on the assignment, the text’s genre and the information it provides. However, the main purpose of focusing on “one text” is to unfold and pursue the complexities in the way that text was composed and in turn how that author chose to include evidence and cite sources. Thus, it may be tempting to view the “one text” as a less complex assignment, when in fact it is a chance to really slow down the reading and critical thinking process before considering how multiple texts occur in a conversation.

An assignment using a single text may be combined with assignments for a variety of topics, so it is important to be sure you understand the requirements, complexities, and guidelines of your instructor. For example, your instructor may ask you to write using synthesis, personal experience, and one text. Or, your instructor may ask you to create an argument using one text. The nature of each assignment will have unique guidelines, but ALL will require careful reading and critical thinking about the text, topic, and use of sources.

To craft a successful composition using a single text, writers must consider the purposes of their writing assignment and their audiences’ relationship to the text or issue explored. Some audiences may be more or less familiar with the topic explored by the text or its use of sources. Rather than being a more “simplistic” assignment, the “one text” assignment will require careful, thorough reading, critical thought, and multiple iterations of engagement with a single text.