Student Learning Outcomes

As writing faculty, we recognize that all of the following student learning outcomes are interwoven, and often happen
simultaneously. We also recognize that rhetorical awareness and critical thinking happen throughout all of composing
and that its artificial to try to separate these acts from the highly complex work of composition. We have done so to
help a variety of audiencesstudents, colleagues in other departments, for exampleto better understand concepts
introduced and reinforced in FYW so that they will continue to be practiced and developed throughout a students
lifetime of literacy development.

Rhetorical Knowledge
Rhetorical knowledge is the ability to identify and apply strategies across a range of texts and writing situations. Using
their own writing processes and approaches, writers compose with intention, understanding how genre, audience,
purpose, and context impact writing choices.
By the end of FYW, students should be able to:

Examine and write from a variety of genres based on audience, context, and purpose. Audience, context,
and purpose
Determines how genres shape and are shaped by readers' and writers' experimentation with conventions,
including mechanics, structure, and style
Expand freedom of writers to shift voice, tone, formality, design, medium, and layout that will satisfy different
situations and contexts

Critical Reading
Reading critically is the ability to analyze, synthesize, interpret, and evaluate ideas, information and texts. When
writers think critically about the materials they use, they separate assertion from evidence, evaluate sources and
evidence, recognize and assess underlying assumptions, read across texts for connections and patterns, and identify
and evaluate chains of reasoning. These practices are foundational for advanced academic writing.
By the end of FYW, students should be able to:

Use reading for inquiry, learning, and discovery

Being able to examine yours and other writings, also examining different text and convey the benefit of
rhetorical choices of writers.
find and examine (for credibility, sufficiency, accuracy, timeliness, bias) primary and secondary research
materials, including journal articles and essays, books, scholarly and professionally established and
maintained databases or archives, and informal electronic networks and internet sources
Use a diverse range of texts, attending especially to relationships between assertion and evidence, to
patterns of organization, to the interplay between verbal/nonverbal elements, and to how these features
function for different audiences and situations

Composing Processes
Writers use many strategies, or composing processes, to conceptualize, develop, and finalize projects. Composing
processes are rarely linear: a writer may research a topic or consult a colleague before drafting. Successful writers
adapt their writing styles to varying situations and contexts.
By the end of FYW, students should be able to:

Demonstrate flexible strategies for drafting, reviewing, collaborating, revising, rewriting, rereading, and
editing
Recognize and use the social interactions involved in writing processes: brainstorming, response to others
writing; interpretation and evaluation of received responses

Use writing process that can bring your writing together.

Knowledge of Conventions
Conventions are the formal rules and informal guidelines that define genres, and in so doing, shape readers and
writers expectations of correctness or appropriateness. Most obviously, conventions rule things like mechanics,
usage, spelling, and citation practices. As well as content, style, organization, graphics, and document design.
By the end of FYW, students should be able to:

Demonstrate how to negotiate variations in conventions by genre, (print-based compositions and multi-
modal compositions)
Investigate why genre conventions: structure, paragraphing, design, formatting, tone, and mechanics.
Learn the use of citation properties this can be learned to through intellectual properties.
Develop knowledge of linguistic structures, including grammar, punctuation, and spelling, through practice in
composing and revising.

Critical Reflection
Critical reflection is a writers ability to communicate and explain what s/he is thinking and why. For example, to
explain the choices made in a composition, to contextualize a composition, to address revisions made in response to
reader feedback etc.
By the end of FYW, students should be able to:

Being able to reflect and show effectiveness in various rhetorical situations.

Use writing as a means for reflection
Use knowledge of conventions and rhetorical awareness to create their own writing processes.
Illustrate that reflection is a necessary part of learning, thinking and communicating