ENG 101 & 102 Learning Outcomes

If you'd like to know how we understand these outcomes and what kinds of specific textual skills they include in greater detail, here's a more fully elaborated description:

With respect to Writing, students completing ENG 102 will be able to:

1. Employ effective writing processes and reflect thoughtfully on their own written work

This outcome includes:

• using critical reading and informal writing to generate ideas

• editing and revising effectively, recognizing the two as distinct activities and developing strategies for generating critical distance when rereading

• developing a reasonable and informed system of criteria for judging texts

• assessing the effectiveness of individual pieces of writing

• considering how one’s writing skills and practices are related to one’s broader intellectual predispositions and habits of mind

2. Make ideas cohere effectively in texts

This outcome includes:

• imagining meaningful shapes for ideas, so that a text's form is a natural manifestation of what one wants to say

• recognizing identifiable genres and shaping texts around different generic expectations where appropriate

• sequencing thoughts effectively, articulating connections between a text's individual discussions

• marshaling and presenting meaningful evidence for claims

3. Write fluently and effectively at the sentence level

This outcome includes:

• demonstrating an evolving mastery of standard written American English

• developing a facility with some range of complex sentence forms

• understanding the conventional, historical, and rhetorical nature of grammatical prescription

With respect to Rhetoric, students completing ENG 102 will be able to:

1. Participate as writers in an academic discussion, understanding the conventions, features, and objectives of academic texts

This outcome includes:

• developing a sense of intellectual purpose and stake

• making academic writing articulate a process of thinking, not just recite information

• recognizing the differences between the kinds of writing academic writers are called upon to do

• understanding that readers in different disciplines approach text with different expectations and preferences

2. Write in a way that's responsive to the texts and voices around one, developing strategies for negotiating the rhetorical dynamics of language and social privilege

This outcome includes:

• analyzing and responding thoughtfully to competing claims

• evaluating and choosing appropriate texts for citation

• citing effectively and properly, conforming to academic expectations concerning paraphrase, quotation, attribution, and bibliographical forms

• making informed choices about voice and style, using one's reading as a resource for rhetorical models

3. Adapt to emerging textual technologies and media

• consider how different media lend themselves to the expression of different sorts of ideas

• consider how texts acquire new meanings as they circulate through new media to different and sometimes unexpected audiences

• evaluate the perspective, reliability, and utility of electronic sources