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).

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.

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
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?".

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

Instructors should implement 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: Synthesis Practice

Category: Application of Writing Skills

Purpose:
Help students review synthesis, a key foundation for their research-based essays in this class. Have students read the short article, "Help...I've Been Asked to Synthesize!"

Student-Facing Prompt:
Part 1: Read "Help...I've Been Asked to Synthesize!" Then, in 2-3 sentences, explain how synthesis is different from summary and why synthesis is important for building a thesis.

Part 2: Below are three ideas from the reading. Write one short paragraph (4-5 sentences) that brings at least two of these ideas together into a single explanation of what synthesis does:

1. Synthesis combines ideas from multiple sources.

2. Writers should organize ideas around their own point, not the sources.

3. Synthesis helps readers see connections between ideas.

Suggested Deliverable:

2-3 sentence response for Part 1
4-5 sentence paragraph for Part 2

AI Extension:
After writing your paragraph, you may ask an AI tool to explain what synthesis is. In one sentence, note one way your explanation is clearer or more specific.

Week 2 Lab: Thesis Builder

Category: Application of Writing Skills

Purpose:
To reinforce thesis clarity and arguability beyond the required thesis workshops. Note to students that this is a separate assignment than the thesis workshop for Essay #1, but they should be working with the same proposed thesis they developed in the thesis workshop.

Student-Facing Prompt:
Rewrite your current thesis statement in 2–3 different versions, experimenting with clarity, scope, and precision. Then briefly explain which version is strongest and why.

Suggested Deliverable:

2–3 revised thesis statements
3–4 sentence reflection

AI Extension:
Students may submit their own thesis to an AI tool for feedback (not generation).
Reflection must identify one suggestion accepted and one rejected, with reasoning.

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 (CRAAP Method)

Category: Mini Skill Workshops / Research Practice

Purpose:
To strengthen source evaluation skills.

Student-Facing Prompt:
Evaluate the assigned online article using the CRAAP test (Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose). 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