WPA Outcomes Statement for First-Year Composition

Rhetorical Knowledge

·       Gain experience reading and composing in several genres to understand how genre conventions shape and are shaped by readers’ and writers’ practices and purposes

Define: 

This means I’ve written different types of essays and I know that different types have different appearances and rules.

Explain:

I’ve written several different types of essays in class.  The first was a narrative where the rule was to write about myself in first person.  Here is a quote from my narrative essay:  “I was a victim when I blamed others for my own actions.”  Since I’m using I, the reader can tell it is a narrative.  In another essay, I had to follow different rules.  For my argument essay, I had to use research from On Course and cite the information I provided the reader.  The rules for this are different from a narrative and I wrote, “In On Course Skip Downing writes, “Time is money” (24).  As you can see, this is not in first person, and I am following citation rules.  These examples show that I can write different types of essays with different rules.

Critical Thinking, Reading, and Composing

Use strategies--such as interpretation, synthesis, response, critique, and design/redesign--to
compose texts that integrate the writer's ideas with those from appropriate sources

Define:   I'm able to put together my ideas with those of others.

Explain: 


Processes

Develop a writing project through multiple drafts

Define:  I know that writing an essay takes lots of tries to be perfect.

Explain: 


Develop flexible strategies for reading, drafting, reviewing, collaborating, revising, rewriting,
rereading, and editing.

Define:  I have many ways to compose a great essay.


Explain:

Learn to give and to act on productive feedback to works in progress


Knowledge of Conventions

Develop knowledge of linguistic structures, including grammar, punctuation, and spelling,
through practice in composing and revising
. Learn common formats and/or design features for different kinds of texts
. Practice applying citation conventions systematically in their own work