Course Description & SLOs

English 120 Student Learning Objectives:

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1)     Critical Thinking:

a.     Analyze issues from multiple perspectives and apply ideas in texts to real-world contexts and their lives.

b.     Identify and discuss the context, assumptions, values and implications in author’s ideas.

2)     Reading:

a.     Read a variety of texts analytically. Analysis of written texts will be introduced, and students will gain experience identifying audience and purpose, evaluating arguments, assessing the credibility of evidence, and identifying rhetorical appeals in multiple texts.

b.     Use written texts as models for their own writing.

3)     Writing:

a.     Write effective essays that engage readers and present original ideas or points of view.

b.     Create thesis-driven essays, which will demonstrate the principles of argumentation, including claims, evidence, and analysis, as well as addressing counterarguments through refutation and concession.

c.     Edit their own writing for errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation.

4)     Process:

a.     Employ all stages of the reading and writing processes—including pre-reading, reading, post-reading, pre-writing, writing, and editing—in order to critically analyze readings and produce clear, well-organized essays predominantly free of grammatical and proofreading errors.

5)     Research:

a.     Engage in the research process—including narrowing a topic, researching the topic, evaluating a variety of source material, and correctly documenting sources in MLA format—in order to produce a researched argument.

6)     Career Connections:

a.     Communicate the relationship between course concepts and career goals, with an emphasis placed on effective communication (both oral and written), critical thinking and the ability to develop creative solutions to real-world problems, and effective analysis of information.

**Per the GCCCD course outline, writing assignments require a total of at least 10,000 words.