Learning Outcomes/First-Year Writing
Approved by the Liberal Studies Council - June 2008
Taken together, the courses in the First-Year Writing Program at DePaul University seek to develop student competencies in five general categories: rhetorical knowledge; critical thinking, reading and writing; writing processes; and knowledge of conventions. Individual faculty will naturally incorporate these competencies into their courses in different ways, but all faculty in the program should be prepared to demonstrate that their courses include attention to these matters.
Rhetorical Knowledge
By the end of FYW, students should be able to demonstrate that they can:
· Define and focus on a purpose or purposes
· Interpret and respond to different audiences
· Respond appropriately to different kinds of rhetorical situations
· Apply conventions of format and structure appropriate to the rhetorical situation
· Apply appropriate tone, diction, and level of formality
· Demonstrate how genres shape reading and writing
· Write in several genres
Critical Thinking, Reading and Writing
By the end of FYW, students should be able to demonstrate that they can:
· Employ writing and reading for inquiry, thinking, and communicating
· Respond and evaluate texts in multiple genres and media
· Demonstrate that a writing assignment is a series of tasks that includes finding, analyzing, and synthesizing appropriate primary and secondary sources
· Integrate their own ideas with those of others
· Interpret and explain the relationships among language, knowledge, and power
Processes
By the end of FYW, students should be able to demonstrate that they can:
· Recognize and articulate the value of using multiple drafts to create and complete a successful text
· Exhibit flexible strategies for generating, revising, editing, and proof-reading
· Demonstrate understanding that writing is an open process that permits writers to use later invention and re-thinking to revise their work
· Explain the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes
· Critique their own and others’ works
· Apply a variety of technologies to address a range of audiences
Knowledge of Conventions
By the end of FYW, students should be able to demonstrate that they can:
· Demonstrate competency in using common formats for different kinds of texts
· Apply a variety of genre conventions ranging from structure and paragraphing to tone and mechanics
· Correctly document their work
· Correctly apply in their writing such surface features as syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling
