Upon completion of required Writing Program courses, students should demonstrate the following learning outcomes.

(100-level composition courses)

Rhetorical knowledge

  • Learn to identify rhetorical situation, including audience, purpose, exigencies, and constraints
  • Identify rhetorical appeals (pathos, logos, ethos)
  • Use voice, tone, format, and structure appropriately
  • Read and write academic texts

    Experience in the writing and research process

  • Develop invention, revision, editing, and proofreading strategies through multiple drafts
  • Learn to critique others’ work and receive feedback from a variety of sources including peers, one-on-one conferencing, and/or campus support services
  • Use at least one research tool appropriate to library/campus resources
  • Utilize primary and secondary sources while maintaining official standards of academic integrity

    Critical thinking and communication strategies

  • Establish rhetorical situation in own writing
  • Apply course concepts to appropriate situations
  • Utilize rhetorical appeals
  • Use content and style appropriate to academic audiences

    Awareness of writing conventions

  • Develop effective organizational strategies
  • Use specialized vocabulary, format, and documentation
  • Develop and support a main claim through a cohesive and structured argument
  • Demonstrate competency in mechanical and stylistic features

    (200-level composition courses)

    Rhetorical knowledge

  • Establish main and secondary claims, evidence, and consideration of multiple viewpoints
  • Understand how voice, tone, format, and structure affect content
  • Read and write texts in several genres, for specific discourse communities (may include professional or disciplinary)
  • Develop awareness of authorial bias in readings

    Experience in the writing and research process

  • Develop invention, revision, editing, and proofreading strategies through multiple drafts to complete an in-depth project
  • Use a variety of technologies to develop information literacy skills, utilizing campus resources as needed
  • Conduct original research by selecting a specific topic and using primary and secondary sources to understand and explicate it
  • Understand and practice ethical research methodologies

    Critical thinking and communication strategies

  • Incorporate research methods that utilize multiple perspectives
  • Develop presentation skills that incorporate multimodal genres
  • Create a deliberative argument that seeks to move audience to action or address a defined problem or gap in the scholarship
  • Recognize and communicate to a variety of audiences within specific disciplines, discourses, or professions

    Awareness of writing conventions

  • Use appropriate format for specific writing task, including visual design
  • Apply genre conventions such as structure, tone, voice, and mechanics
  • Use disciplinary vocabulary, format, and documentation
  • Control features such as syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling

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