ENGL 1101/13 learning outcomes

Reading and rhetorical analysis. By the end of ENGL 1101/13, students should be able to do the following:

• Focus on a purpose for writing.
• Respond appropriately to different kinds of rhetorical situations and academic audiences.
• Use conventions of format and structure appropriate to the rhetorical situation.
• Support ideas with data and examples to interest and persuade readers.
• Demonstrate a sense of academic voice, tone and formality appropriate to the subject, the writer's purpose, the context and the reader's expectations.
• Write in several academic genres, such as expository, argumentative and/or narrative essays.
• Use a variety of technologies to address a range of audiences.

Critical thinking and writing. By the end of ENGL 1101/13, students should be able to do the following:

• Use reading and writing for inquiry, learning, thinking and communicating.
• Understand a writing assignment as a series of tasks, including finding, evaluating, analyzing and synthesizing appropriate sources.
• Develop critical thinking skills through narrative, expository and/or argumentative essays.
• Understand a variety of modes on a variety of subjects.
• Incorporate and synthesize thoroughly developed and complex ideas in longer readings.
• Recognize, explain and incorporate evidence in support of main ideas.
• Analyze, evaluate and write about assigned readings.
• Recognize writing techniques and logical strategies in professional model essays.
• Identify and use logical appeals, vocabulary and concepts that published authors use to make their points.

Processes of invention and revision. By the end of ENGL 1101/13, students should be able to do the following:

• Create and complete successful final essays through multiple drafts.
• Write papers using process strategies that include discovering, drafting, revising, editing and proofreading.
• Understand writing as an open, recursive process that permits writers to use later invention and rethinking to revise work.
• Recognize the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes and demonstrate an ability to critique their own writing and the writing of others.
• Balance the advantages of collaboration with the responsibility of doing individual work.

Extemporaneous writing. By the end of ENGL 1101/13, students should be able to do the following:

• Understand and analyze essay questions, topics, prompts and/or assignments.
• Demonstrate creativity, fluency and style to invent, organize, develop and support ideas on common knowledge topics in extemporaneous compositions.
• Interpret, digest and synthesize complex ideas in extemporaneous compositions.
• Demonstrate the ability to go through the writing process—inventing, drafting, revising and editing—in the available time.

Knowledge of research conventions. By the end of ENGL 1101/13, students should be able to do the following:

• Utilize common formats for different kinds of texts.
• Develop knowledge of genre conventions ranging from essay structure and paragraphing to tone and mechanics.
• Demonstrate appropriate means of documenting their work.
• Control surface features, such as syntax, grammar, punctuation and spelling.
• Demonstrate proficiency in basic elements of MLA (Modern Language Association) documentation style.
• Follow the conventions of Standard American English.
• Conduct research online and evaluate its appropriateness.
• Locate, evaluate, interpret and synthesize various types of sources to cultivate an academic perspective in the information age.
• Demonstrate skills in word processing and computer-based research.
• Write essays with coherent, clear organization and controlling ideas.