Student Learning Outcomes

As Writing staff we realize most of these student learning outcomes can and will be used at the
same time throughout different readings. We also know that rhetorical knowledge occurs
throughout all forms of writing so it is redundant to try and separate it. He have done this to try
and make things easier for students, staff and other members of the University system.

Rhetorical Knowledge
Rhetorical knowledge is the ability to recognize different writing strategies throughout a portion
of text. Authors can use these strategies to push their ideas, beliefs, opinions or to set moods or
feelings in a genre.
By the end of FYW, students should be able to:
• Use rhetorical concepts to analyze and compose a variety of texts using a range of
technologies adapted according to audience, context, and purpose
• Assess how genres shape and are shaped by readers' and writers' experimentation with
conventions, including mechanics, structure, and style
• Develop the flexibility that enables writers to shift voice, tone, formality, design, medium, and
layout intentionally to accommodate varying situations and contexts

Critical Reading
Critical reading is the ability to “read between the lines”. This allows a reader to feel what the
author is trying to portray without directly stating it. They can make connections or assumptions
about what is going on without the author having to spell it out for them.
By the end of FYW, students should be able to:
• Use reading for inquiry, learning, and discovery
• Analyze their own work and the work of others critically, including examining diverse texts and
articulating the value of various rhetorical choices of writers
• Locate and evaluate (for credibility, sufficiency, accuracy, timeliness, bias) primary and
secondary research materials, including journal articles and essays, books, scholarly and
professionally established and maintained databases or archives, and informal electronic
networks and internet sources
• Use a diverse range of texts, attending especially to relationships between assertion and
evidence, to patterns of organization, to the interplay between verbal and nonverbal elements,
and to how these features function for different audiences and situations

Composing Processes
Composing processes can be used by an author to evaluate and finalize their work before they
publish it. This can be used in a way that the author researches facts about a specific field of
interest before starting a paper on it.
By the end of FYW, students should be able to:
• Demonstrate flexible strategies for drafting, reviewing, collaborating, revising, rewriting,
rereading, and editing
• Recognize and employ the social interactions entailed in writing processes: brainstorming,
response to others’ writing; interpretation and evaluation of received responses
• Use their writing process in order to deepen engagement with source material, their own
ideas, and the ideas of others and as a means of strengthening claims and solidifying logical
arguments.

Knowledge of Conventions
Conventions are the unspoken law of a genre. They are the boundaries that separate a science
fiction genre to a horror genre and so on and so forth. They can be very miniscule in their
differences but can be labeled a complete different genre.
By the end of FYW, students should be able to:
• Demonstrate how to negotiate variations in conventions by genre, from print-based
compositions to multi-modal compositions
• Investigate why genre conventions for structure, paragraphing, design, formatting, tone, and
mechanics vary
• Use the concepts of intellectual property (such as fair use and copyright) that motivate
documentation conventions to practice applying citation conventions systematically in their own
work.
• Develop knowledge of linguistic structures, including grammar, punctuation, and spelling,
through practice in composing and revising

Critical Reflection
Critical reflection is a way that the author should be able to explain why they made certain
decisions through their writing and how it improved on the text.
By the end of FYW, students should be able to:
Demonstrate reflecting on their writing in various rhetorical situations Use writing as a means
for reflection Demonstrate their rhetorical awareness, their writing process, and their knowledge
of conventions with regard to their own writing Illustrate that reflection is a necessary part of
learning, thinking and communicating