English 112: Course Goals and Learning Outcomes

Goal One: Process

ENG 112 will help students understand that writing is a process that develops through experience and varies among individuals.

Outcomes

1.    Students will engage in all phases of the writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and reflecting.
2.    Students will incorporate reading and experience into their writing processes.
3.    Students will learn to conform their texts to instructor-specified document formats.
4.    Students will create, save, and print texts using word processing technology.

Goal Two: Rhetoric

ENG 112 will teach students to understand and apply rhetorical principles in order to improve the quality of their writing.

Outcomes

1.         Students will write for a variety of rhetorical purposes.
2.         Students will employ a clear focus that guides their choices of evidence,     language, organization, and rhetorical and persuasive strategies.
3.         Students will effectively apply organizational strategies to open and close their texts and to move the reader between and within ideas, paragraphs, and sentences.
4.         Students will synthesize information from a variety of sources.
5.         Students will write a minimum of 15-20 pages of finished, graded text, including at least one documented essay using MLA style formatting
6.         Students will write a text of a minimum of 1,000 words that incorporates documented research.
7.         Students will appropriately employ grammatical and mechanical conventions in the preparation of readable manuscripts.

Goal Three: Critical Thinking

ENG 112 will develop students’ ability to analyze and investigate ideas and to present them in well-structured prose appropriate to the purpose and audience.

           Outcomes

1.         Students will develop strategies for critical thinking, reading, and writing processes.
2.         Students will examine and analyze their experiences and readings as sources of material for writing.
3.         Students will competently read, summarize, analyze, evaluate, and write about college-level texts – their own and others' – of varying lengths.
4.         Students will examine subjects from multiple perspectives and formulate and express their own perspective.
5.         Students will apply their knowledge of composition to class discussions and peer response workshops.

Goal Four: Research

ENG 112 will develop students’ ability to locate, evaluate, use, and document information to support their thinking and writing.

           Outcomes

1.         Students will learn and apply methods of research, using primary and secondary sources in print and electronic formats.
2.         Students will learn to identify the merit and reliability of sources.
3.         Students will appropriately employ the mechanics of introducing, integrating, and documenting source material.

Course Topics:

Major Topics to be included in ENG 112

• The writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, reflecting
• Finding and narrowing a topic
• Purpose, audience, and voice
• Focus and unity
• Organization, including openings and closings
• Argumentative and persuasive strategies
• Locating print and electronic source material
• Evaluating sources and evidence
• Synthesizing sources
• Summary, paraphrase, and direct quoting
• Bibliography / list of works cited
• Clarity: syntax, semantics, and diction
• Sentence variety and coherence
• Critical self-awareness
• Critical reading
• Peer collaboration