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One Destination

Our First-Year Writing program meets students where they are in their writing journey. Based on ACT, SAT, or English EdReady initial scores, students are placed into one of three First-Year Writing pathways.

No matter the path, our students all meet in one shared destination. All First-Year Writing course sequences . . .

Are a total of 6 hours toward a degree

Cost the same amount of tuition

Use the same textbooks

Complete "Area I: Written Composition" of the General Studies Curriculum

Are prerequisites to 200-level English courses

Prepare students for upper-level Writing-Intensive courses in every major as part of JSU's Writing Across the Curriculum program

Three Paths

Placement

ACT English Subtest: 17 and Below

SAT English Subtest: 420 and Below

English EdReady Initial Score: 55 and Below

Placement

ACT English Subtest: 18 and Above

SAT English Subtest: 430 and Above

English EdReady Initial Score: 56 and Above

Placement

ACT English Subtest: 25 and Above

SAT English Subtest: 610 and Above

English EdReady Initial Score: 71 and Above

The Enhanced Path is for writers who thrive at a slower pace and with extra help along the way, provided through the EH 115 and EH 116 Writing Studios

The Traditional Path is for writers who have a strong writing foundation and skill set

The Honors Path is for advanced writers who grow when challenged - not by harder assignments, but by different assignments

English EdReady

All new students take English EdReady and work their study paths to a score of 90 for college preparation. Students without ACT/SAT scores may use their English EdReady Initial Score for placement.

After working the English EdReady study path to a score of 90, students who place into EH 105 and wish to move to EH 101, or students who place into EH 101 and wish to move to EH 103, may take an additional self-assessment to be considered. Students must first be logged in to their MyJSU accounts in order to access the form:
First-Year Writing Self-Assessment
Questions about English EdReady should be directed to Learning Services & Analytics at 256-782-5570.

All other questions about First-Year Writing should be directed to the Coordinator of First-Year Writing, Dr. Raina Kostova, at rkostova@jsu.edu or the Head of the English Department, Dr. Andrea Porter, at aporter@jsu.edu.

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Our First-Year Writing program meets students where they are in their writing journey. Based on ACT, SAT, or English EdReady initial scores, students are placed into one of three First-Year Writing pathways. No matter the path, our students all meet in one shared destination. All First-Year Writing course sequences .

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Yes, we know this says "Noun" and "to perform."

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It was a Wednesday morning, when I first heard of it. I was scrolling through twitter and saw an article about something called "hopepunk". Naturally, I kept it moving because with the amount of random information available online, it is near impossible for most of it to stick. But another minute into my feed, I found myself taking a U-turn because, "WTF is Hopepunk?"

Hopepunk is a literary movement born as a counter to Grimdark. If grimdark is dystopian, amoral or violent, hopepunk is its utopian, moral and peaceful balance. As Vox explains, "In the era of Trump and apocalyptic change, hopepunk is a storytelling technique for #resistance - and hanging onto your humanity at all costs." OK - I'm into this.

It only took nine words for hopepunk to catch fire. As with many current progressive movements initiated by the people, it was born on social media, this one on tumblr. In July of 2017, a writer from Massachusetts named Alexandra Rowland used her platform to post a simple message sparking movement: "The opposite of grimdark is hopepunk. Pass it on." And the people did.

Rowland's description of hopepunk appealed as a response to the Trump election's dystopian "what now?" aftermath. It became an answer for some, reminding them "how to act when faced with what seems to be encroaching darkness." Rowland cited political examples like Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Robin Hood and John Lennon as "heroes who chose to perform radical resistance in unjust political climates, and to imagine better worlds." (To make this concept as clear as possible to anyone new to it: though The Handmaids Tale is dark, its protagonist's resistance qualifies the Margaret Atwood novel and the Hulu show its based on as an example of hopepunk.)

So where does hopepunk exist in a Black world? At first I attempted to find examples in Black entertainment - and there are plenty. I think Rowland would approve of Get Out as a hopepunk film thanks to the lead character's tenacity to get himself out of a hellish situation. The truth is, hopepunk might just be the formerly unnamed way of life for Black people. Perhaps its finally been given a name because in the Trump era, the oppression club has revealed some new non-Black members. Loud, aggressive oppression is no stranger to Black people; but those who had not experienced its blatancy until the current regime's rejection of quiet polite discrimination, are learning to navigate. Seeing that oppression includes them and is the status quo, they've found a word to name their resistance.

While I stand for what hopepunk represents - and appreciate the sentiment - I do not think it is for us. Black people don't need a name for unwavering hope and perseverance because it's always been a part of us! We practice Hopepunk every single day, it comes natural to us. We communicate it through our head nods and locked eyes. Hopepunk exists in our shady smiles, in the way we run in circles and fall to the ground when we laugh, in the clever rhymes we think of while we stamp our boots on the streets with picket signs, in our babies and our grandparents who still look like babies, in our purple box braids and our shaved heads, in our lack of volume control at movie theaters, in our music (especially when deciding that it should top the country charts when we feel like it), and in our fashion that they can't help but steal. Our, our our.

So even though this movement is not for all, it is a better narrative to see from our allies than the ones we have been since November 2016. There is no room for people with privilege to have no hope - that in itself is a privilege. Remember: those who do not have access to fundamental human necessities, are not afforded the time or energy to just not care. They have hope, it is not an option - and it keeps them alive. To the allies-in-training, horrified by those who look like them: channel that rage to radical hopeful resistance. Maybe read what hopepunk is about and apply it to your life.

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wtf is hopepunk? and why allies should find out - AFROPUNK

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It was a Wednesday morning, when I first heard of it. I was scrolling through twitter and saw an article about something called "hopepunk". Naturally, I kept it moving because with the amount of random information available online, it is near impossible for most of it to stick.

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Salvagepunk and hopepunk share an antipathy for many of the so-called “realisms” that have come to dominate our culture.

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Tahani, Jason, Eleanor, and Chidi from THE GOOD PLACE walk arm in arm with Janet behind them. 

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Using THE GOOD PLACE in first-year writing has created opportunities for students to discuss various ethical theories. We've been debating what it means to be a "good person," and next, we'll start thinking about what it will mean to be "good" researchers and writers in our disciplines.

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Creating environments where students can count on one another when they need additional support. Students work in small groups and on a class gDoc together. If someone wasn't able to complete the reading or fully prepare, I encourage them to be the "group leader," whose job is to ask questions and stir up conversations. Students are encouraged to do the work when they're able, so that when they aren't able, they can count on their peers to help and lift them up. I think this helps to create an environment that acknowledges the difficulties of this moment while still encouraging the kinds of thinking and creating we very much need. Students don't have to be ashamed to admit they haven't done the reading. They can be honest with their peers and ask for help.

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Ted Lasso Afc Richmond GIF - Ted Lasso AFC Richmond Believe - Discover & Share GIFs

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The perfect Ted Lasso AFC Richmond Believe Animated GIF for your conversation. Discover and Share the best GIFs on Tenor.

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Chidi Goes Insane and Eats Peeps Chili - The Good Place (Episode Highlight)

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I try to practice radical kindness in my comments to student writing. I work hard to explain myself carefully, with attention to how the student might interpret my words. I want them to understand me, for what good is it if we don’t communicate? I also practice radical kindness in my interfacing with online students. Some teachers I know become enraged when their students don’t understand their directions and eviscerate them accordingly; I try to empathize with my students who don’t understand by practicing radical kindness, empathy, and patience; it’s hard work, and tiring, but I’m pleased with the results. The students respond well to it.

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I love this session, thank you so much. I'm just sorry I'm not there in person to play with the pipe cleaners.

So... I relate really deeply to the idea that we cannot solve the problems and it's not all going to turn out nice, but we CAN still hold space for healing and recovery, we can take care of each other, we can show our students that other ways of being are possible. I am already doing this in so many ways, but I can see how your articulation of how all this goes together could help me fuel my work.

I'm curious if you see ungrading as a natural part of hopepunk. I definitely do, at least based on what I understand so far. In my classes I use ungrading to help me push back on the worship of perfection and productivity, and to encourage students to humanize themselves through their writing, instead of robotically following the academic rules they've internalized and that have shut them down.

The terrible ideas and beliefs about writing and about themselves as writers that my students bring to my fycomp classes, through which they believe they will hate my class and expect that I will harm them, enrage me.

Yesterday, I wrote this comment to a student which seems apropos: "I appreciated your [post] this week, the one about pressure. There's a lot packed in there, and I wonder where that thought-thread could go, if you followed it further. Those assumptions about how you are supposed to keep yourself under control while you spend your entire life following the rules that got laid down before you got here, I feel you. I hope you know there are a lot of people in the world talking about other ways of living."

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For me, not having rigid assignment due dates is one way to practice hopepunk pedagogy. I had a student thank me for such practices yesterday, and I said to him that I know he's a human being first.

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For me, not having rigid assignment due dates is one way to practice hopepunk pedagogy. I had a student thank me for such practices yesterday, and I said to him that I know he's a human being first.

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Geoffrey Sirc, CCC article 1997, Never Mind the Tagmemics, Where's the Sex Pistols?

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Pedagogy of the Pissed -- Seth Kahn-Egan

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Pedagogy of the Pissed -- Seth Kahn-Egan

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Pedagogy of the Pissed: Punk Pedagogy in the First-Year Writing Classroom on JSTOR

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Seth Kahn-Egan, Pedagogy of the Pissed: Punk Pedagogy in the First-Year Writing Classroom, College Composition and Communication, Vol. 49, No. 1 (Feb., 1998), pp. 99-104