ENG 102 / College Composition II: Lab Hours Manual

Purpose of Lab Hours

Lab hours in ENG 102 provide students with structured practice in critical reading, writing, and research strategies. The focus is on application, reflection, and skill-building, not necessarily on heavy new instructor or optional help time. Instead, they are a required and integral part of this course, aligned with course outcomes.

The goal is to give student time, space, and guidance to apply strategies introduced in lecture, strengthen core skills, and reflect on their learning.

Instructor Do’s & Don’ts:

Do:

Make lab hours hands-on opportunities for applied practice — connected to course skills.
Keep new content to a minimum. Some new content is okay, but the main focus is practice/application of existing course content.
Keep lab activities confined to regular course expectations (lab hours shouldn’t be large homework add-ons).
Be thoughtful about how many points to make each lab assignment. Consider how you weight other assignments, how much you are asking of students in each lab task, and how much time you expect them to dedicate to labs.

Don’t:

Require students to live Zoom sessions for lab hours — this would change the modality requirements for an online asynchronous class (for example). You could host optional Zoom sessions to support student lab work, but requiring an additional Zoom component is not how lab hours are intended to be used.
Position lab hours as “extra help time” for students who might need it. Lab hours must be integrated, required instructional practice for every student, not optional extensions for a few students.

Recommended Lab Activity Categories

Below are a set of recommended categories for lab activities. You are welcome to modify these categories to suit your teaching style and student needs. Feel free to modify the sample assignments that follow this list as needed.

Application of Writing Skills
1. Reverse Outline Revision: Students revise their drafts using takeaways from their Reverse Outlines.
2. Thesis Builder: Submit 2-3 revised versions of a thesis statement (on top of the required thesis workshops for each paper).
3. Evidence Check: Identify 2 piece of evidence in their draft and revise for strength.
Mini Skill Workshops
1. Grammar Quizzes in Canvas (commas, fragments, word choice) based on The Little Seagull Handbook.
2. MLA Scavenger Hunt: Fix citation errors in a sample Works Cited.
3. Credibility Test: Evaluate an online article with the CRAAP method.
Research Practice
1. Database Scavenger Hunt: Locate scholarly sources and provide MLA or APA citations.
2. Paraphrase, summarize, and quote a short, assigned passage.
3. Synthesis Practice: Blend two sources into a short paragraph.
Reflection-Based Tasks
1. Watch a 5-10 minute skill video and write a short reflection: What did you learn? How will you use it in your essay?
2. After peer review, submit a 100-word note on how feedback will shape revisions.
3. After a tutoring visit or grammar check using AI or other tools, reflect: What’s on one revision you will implement and why?
Exploring Ethical & Transparent AI Use
1. AI Brainstorm Comparison: Students generate a topic or question on their own first. Then, they use AI to brainstorm ideas, & reflect: What ideas overlapped? What ideas felt off-base? Which did you ignore, and why?
2. AI Thesis Evaluation (NOT GENERATION): Students paste their own thesis statements into an AI tool and ask for feedback on clarity, scope, and arguability. Then, they identify one change they accepted and one they rejected, explaining their reasoning.
3. Paraphrase Accuracy Test: Students paraphrase a short passage themselves first. Then they compare to an AI paraphrase of the same passage. Reflection: Which version better preserves the overall meaning? What risks do we notice?
4. AI Hallucination Awareness: Students ask AI tool for sources on a topic and then verify them. Reflect: Identify one incorrect or fabricated citation and explain why verification matters.
5. AI Course Boundaries: Students categorize AI sample applications of student AI use into “Allowed,” “Questionable,” and “Not Allowed” based on the course AI policy. Reflect: Identify one gray area and explain how you would handle it ethically.
6. AI Disclosure Practice: Students use AI in an “Allowed” application (according to course/instructor policies) and practice drafting AI-use citations. See MLA Style Center's "How do I cite generative AI in MLA style?"Links to an external site..

Sample 16-Week Asynchronous / In-Person / Hybrid Adaptable Lab Manual

Instructors should implement up to one lab activity per week. Lab activities should be supplemental to your syllabus assignments, low-stakes, and graded for completion. These activities may be adapted for in-person, hybrid, or fully online modalities.

Student-facing prompts can easily be copied and pasted into Canvas as assignments or discussion prompts, and may be modified to suit your teaching style. The suggested deliverables may also be adapted as needed.

Some weeks include optional “AI Extension” components. These are designed to support ethical, transparent use of AI as a learning tool for students — not to generate student work. When used, AI should function as a point of comparison, feedback, or reflection, and should always be paired with student-generated writing and brief reflection. Instructors may include, modify, or omit these options based on your approach to AI in your course.

MODULE 1: ARGUMENT FOUNDATIONS & DEFINITION (Weeks 1–4)

Week 1 Lab: Reverse Outline Practice (Published Text)

Category: Application of Writing Skills

Purpose:
To help students recognize paragraph purpose and organizational logic before applying these skills to their own essays.

Student-Facing Prompt:
Create a reverse outline of an assigned article by listing the main idea of each paragraph in your own words. Then write a short reflection explaining what you noticed about how the author structured the argument.

Suggested Deliverable:

Reverse outline of assigned article (bulleted list or numbered)
100-word reflection

AI Extension:
After completing your reverse outline, ask an AI tool to summarize the structure of the article.
Reflect: Where did the AI oversimplify or misinterpret the argument?

Week 2 Lab: Practice Identifying Strong Thesis Statements

Category: Application of Writing Skills

Purpose:
Quick practice identifying what makes a strong definition thesis before sharing thesis statements in the workshop. Note that students are not working on their own thesis in this lab—they are practicing identifying features of strong thesis statements.

Student-Facing Prompt:
Read the five sample thesis statements below. For each one:

Label it as strong, developing, or weak.
Write 1-2 sentences explaining your choice.

Sample Statements:

Success means different things to different people.
True success should be defined not by wealth or status, but by personal fulfillment, meaningful relationships, and the ability to contribute to one's community.
Social media is an important part of modern life.
A healthy friendship is one built on mutual respect, honest communication, and the freedom for both people to maintain identities outside the relationship.
College is an experience that can be both good and bad.

Then, choose one weak or developing thesis and revise it into a stronger definition thesis (1-2 sentences). Finally, explain: What is one feature of a strong definition thesis you will try to use in your own Essay #1?

Suggested Deliverable:

Labeled (strong/developing/weak) for A-E
1-2 sentence explanation for each label
One revised thesis (from a weak or developing example)
Explanation of a feature of a strong definition thesis students will use in their own work (1-2 sentences)

AI Extension:
You may use AI only after completing your work to compare feedback on one sample thesis. Briefly note one similarity and one difference between your response and the AI’s.

Do not use AI to write or revise your Essay #1 thesis.

Week 3 Lab: Audience Adaptation Exercise

Category: Application of Writing Skills

Purpose:
To build rhetorical awareness and adaptability.

Student-Facing Prompt:
Take one definition claim and rewrite it for two different audiences:

An academic audience
A general public or social media audience

Reflect on how tone, word choice, or emphasis changed.

Suggested Deliverable:

Two versions of the claim
2–3 sentence reflection

Week 4 Lab: Grammar Mini-Workshop

Category: Mini Skill Workshops

Purpose:
To reinforce sentence-level correctness before final submission.

Student-Facing Prompt:
Complete the grammar practice activity on commas, fragments, or fused sentences. Afterward, identify one sentence-level issue you will watch for when revising your essay.

Suggested Deliverable:

Completed quiz or exercise
1–2 sentence reflection

AI Extension:
Students may run one paragraph through a grammar checker.
Reflection must explain one suggested change accepted and one rejected.

MODULE 2: EVALUATION & VISUAL RHETORIC (Weeks 5–8)

Week 5 Lab: Credibility Test (SIFT Method)

Category: Mini Skill Workshops / Research Practice

Purpose:
To strengthen source evaluation skills.

Student-Facing Prompt:
Evaluate the assigned online article using the SIFT Method for source evaluation (Stop, Investigate the Source, Find Better Coverage, Trace Claims, Quotes, and Media to their Original Context). Summarize your findings.

Suggested Deliverable:

3–4 bullet points or short paragraph

AI Extension:
Students ask AI for sources on a topic and verify them.
Reflection: Identify one unreliable or fabricated source and explain why verification matters.

Week 6 Lab: Style Revision Practice

Category: Application of Writing Skills

Purpose:
To develop sentence variety and effective diction.

Student-Facing Prompt:
Revise the provided paragraph to improve clarity, sentence variety, and word choice. Then explain one stylistic change you made and why.

Suggested Deliverable:

Revised paragraph
2–3 sentence reflection

Week 7 Lab: Visual Rhetoric Analysis

Category: Mini Skill Workshops

Purpose:
To build multimodal analysis skills ahead of the final project.

Student-Facing Prompt:
Choose an advertisement, meme, or visual argument. Explain how it uses ethos, pathos, or logos to persuade its audience.

Suggested Deliverable:

Image/link
4–5 sentence analysis

AI Extension:
Compare your own caption/analysis with an AI-generated one.
Reflect: Which is more rhetorically effective—and why?

Week 8 Lab: Paraphrase & Source Integration Practice

Category: Research Practice

Purpose:
To reduce plagiarism and improve source handling.

Student-Facing Prompt:
Paraphrase the assigned passage in your own words. Then compare your version to the original and reflect on the challenges of paraphrasing accurately.

Suggested Deliverable:

Paraphrase
2–3 sentence reflection

AI Extension:
Compare your paraphrase with an AI paraphrase.
Reflect on accuracy and risk.

MODULE 3: RESEARCH & PROPOSAL WRITING (Weeks 9–12)

Week 9 Lab: Proposal Brainstorm & Stakeholders

Category: Application of Writing Skills / Reflection

Prompt:
Identify a real-world problem, list key stakeholders, and briefly explain why the issue matters.

Deliverable:

Short paragraph or bullet list

AI Extension:
Compare your problem framing to AI’s.
Reflect on oversimplification.

Week 10 Lab: Database Scavenger Hunt

Category: Research Practice

Prompt:
Locate one scholarly source related to your proposal topic using library databases. Provide the correct citation.

Deliverable:

MLA or APA citation
1-sentence annotation

AI Extension:
Verify AI-generated citations.

Week 11 Lab: Synthesis Practice

Category: Research Practice

Prompt:
Write a 150-word paragraph synthesizing two sources. Explicitly connect the ideas.

Deliverable:

Paragraph with highlighted synthesis sentence

Week 12 Lab: Quote Integration Workshop

Category: Application of Writing Skills

Prompt:
Integrate two quotes into a paragraph using signal phrases. Avoid quote dropping.

Deliverable:

Paragraph
1-sentence explanation

MODULE 4: MULTIMODAL PROJECTS (Weeks 13–16)

Week 13 Lab: Multimodal Tool Exploration

Category: Application of Writing Skills / Multimodal Practice

Prompt:
Explore one multimodal tool (Canva, PowerPoint, Prezi, podcasting app). Create one draft element for your final project.

Deliverable:

Screenshot or audio clip
2–3 sentence reflection

Week 14 Lab: Copyright & Fair Use

Category: Mini Skill Workshops

Prompt:
Review the Fair Use material and apply it to a sample scenario.

Deliverable:

Quiz or short response

AI Extension:
Discuss ethical limits of AI-generated images/audio.

Week 15 Lab: Multimodal Draft Check-In

Category: Reflection-Based Tasks

Prompt:
Upload one element from your multimodal draft. Explain one design choice and its rhetorical purpose.

Deliverable:

Screenshot/audio
100-word reflection

Week 16 Lab: Final Reflection & Transfer

Category: Reflection-Based Tasks

Prompt:
Reflect on what you learned about writing, research, multimodal composition, and ethical technology use this semester.

Deliverable:

100-word reflection