Welcome to the second semester of Focused Inquiry. This spring we will continue to explore the theme, "Memory, History, Possibility," while focusing more intently on preparing you for UNIV200, the university's research writing course. This semester we will transition from 111's unit on technological change by reading the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? We will also move backward through the themes of 111 by looking again at community and invididual narratives, focusing primarily on VCU and its surrounding communities. As always we will continue to read contemporary culture through memoirs, poetry, and critical non-fiction.

Our final unit this spring, wherein we return to individual perspectives, will approach ethics and critical thinking more systematically than in our fall semester, and will rely more closely on producing thoughtful written texts. Our course, like other 112 courses, will, among other things, prepare you to

• apply critical thinking strategies to analyzing and creating arguments,
• analyze and evaluate your own writing process(es),
• effectively collaborate on activities and projects
• present your ideas orally, in formal and informal contexts,
• recognize and assess the moral implications of issues, draw inferences from moral judgments to address an issue, and articulate moral viewpoints, and
• evaluate quantitative information used as evidence.

By the end of the course, you will be able to articulate the makings of a responsible citizen and embody those traits in your own critiques of the modern world. It is my hope that when you leave our course you will be ready not only to begin training and writing in your own disciplines, but to embrace your place in the university and in the global community.