English 1101 Learning Outcomes (Spring 2008)

Rhetorical Knowledge

By the end of English 1101, students should be able to

• 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 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, Reading, and Writing

By the end of English 1101, students should be able to

• Use writing and reading 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

By the end of English 1101, students should be able to

• 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 re-thinking 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 English 1101, students should be able to

• 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.

• Perceive and analyze writers’ strategies 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 and Style

By the end of English 1101, students should be able to

• 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 organizations and controlling ideas.