English

Western Writing Program Outcomes

Welcome to Western’s Writing Program. We recognize writing as influenced by complex intuitive, cognitive, rhetorical, social, and ecological processes that develop through social acquisition, training, and reflective practice. Our curriculum is built around five Guiding Principles:

  • Language is social—and so is writing.
  • Writing is work that involves play.
  • Thinking, reading, and writing are intimately connected to each other and to identity.
  • Writing concepts and practices are transferrable.
  • Community is important to the process of writing.

To help students learn how to learn to write, we offer a sequence of three courses: ENG 100 (Introduction to Writing), ENG 180 (College Writing I), and ENG 280 (College Writing II). Each course is designed around five primary areas of study: 1) Writing Processes; 2) Discourse Communities; 3) Rhetorics; 4) Genres; and 5) Critical Thinking, Reading, and Research. Students engage each primary area of study with increasing sophistication as they move through our sequence of courses.

Our program objectives, based on five areas of study, align closely with the objectives in the Council of Writing Program Administrators’ Outcomes Statement for First-Year Composition (language below that is taken directly from the Outcomes Statement is placed in quotation marks). Specific learning outcomes for each course are listed at the end of this document.

Writing Processes

Writers use multiple strategies, or processes, to engage in the conceptual and physical activities involved in composing texts. For example, writers discover ideas for writing through invention strategies such as handwriting notes or tossing around possible topics with friends; drafting can be done with pen and paper or on a computer or even while dreaming; revising may involve moving paragraphs around in a word processing program or literally cutting and pasting paper. Writing processes are recursive: that is, though we may describe writing as a step-by-step activity, we very rarely move in a straight line from idea to finished product. Because writing is a complex activity, students of writing benefit from examining their writing processes, adopting flexible strategies for writing, and engaging a variety of conceptual and physical tools to compose texts.

Discourse Communities

Groups of people who share common values and methods of communication are called discourse communities. We may belong to multiple, often overlapping, discourse communities, each of which influences the way we view the world. Because of the social nature of writing, students of writing benefit from examining the role of discourse communities in shaping the contexts and conventions of the varieties of writing they will read and compose.

Rhetorics

“Rhetorical knowledge is the ability to analyze contexts and audiences and then to act on that analysis” when composing texts. Because writers must negotiate “purpose, audience, context, and conventions” when producing texts, students of writing benefit from acquiring rhetorical knowledge that they practice by composing a variety of genres.

Genres

While generally associated with conventions, or formal and informal rules that govern writing, genres are more than just those common features we associate with different types of writing (such as lab reports or literature reviews). Genres develop and change over time in response to the interactions between discourse communities and recurring rhetorical situations (Wardle and Downs 216). Because genres, and thus conventions, are not stable over time or across communities, students of writing benefit from examining the way genres develop as well as the relationships among genres.

Critical Thinking, Reading, and Research

“Critical thinking is the ability to analyze, synthesize, interpret, and evaluate ideas, information, situations, and texts.” Because writing is used both to support these critical thinking activities and to compose new texts as a result of engaging in these critical thinking activities, students of writing benefit from considering the relationships among thinking, reading, and writing and how these activities are shaped by discourse communities and rhetorical situations.

Course Learning Outcomes

English 100

In ENG 100, you will be introduced to writing as a social activity with the goal of providing you with the knowledge and strategies that will help you develop as writers. Specifically focusing on writing processes, you will:

Practice a range of writing processes
  • Identify your strengths and challenges as a writer and develop a confidant attitude for your writing
  • Examine how your social identities, values, beliefs, and behaviors affect your writing
  • Learn about and practice invention, drafting, and revision strategies
  • Learn about and practice grammar, mechanics, and usage conventions
  • Identify the audience, purpose, and context when you read and understand your audience, purpose, and context when you write
  • Practice working with others during invention, drafting, and revision
  • Develop and practice your writing process and adapt it to different situations
English 180

This course focuses on writing as a social activity with the goal of providing you with the knowledge and strategies that will help you succeed as a writer in college and beyond. You will start to identify how rhetorics and genre influence your writerly choices. In doing so you will: 

  • Identify your strengths and challenges as a writer and how they impact your attitude toward
    writing;
  • Examine, analyze, and compose a variety of texts, considering features such as genre, purpose,
    audience, discourse community, and cultural context;
  • Employ flexible writing processes, including various invention, drafting, revising, editing, and
    proofreading strategies; using relevant, available technologies; and revising based on regular
    peer and instructor feedback;
  • Apply an understanding of rhetorical situations (how audience, purpose, author, and message
    interact) and rhetorical appeals when engaging in writing and reading as social practices and
    forms of communication;
  • Select, evaluate, and interpret a variety of sources and integrate the writer’s ideas with those of
    the sources;
  • Demonstrate an understanding of citation methodology and an ability to use one or more
    citation styles appropriate to the genre and audience;
  • Demonstrate an understanding of language conventions and the ability to make informed
    choices that reflect the purposes and aims of the rhetorical situation.
  • Examine how your social identities, values, beliefs, and behaviors impact your writing
English 280

In this course you will continue to learn about writing as a social activity with the goal of providing you with the knowledge and strategies that will help you succeed as a researcher and writer. You will learn to choose writing processes and genres appropriate for research-based writing. 

Practice reading and writing based on research and the use of sources
  • Explore how power, privilege, and oppression affect the topics that are selected for research and the decisions writers make
  • Examine how your social identities, values, beliefs, and behaviors affect your writing
  • Learn the role discourse communities play in shaping writing expectations, grammar conventions, and genres and consider when these expectations should be followed or challenged
  • Employ flexible writing processes, including various invention, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading strategies; using relevant, available technologies; and revising based on regular peer and instructor feedback;
  • Apply an understanding of rhetorical situations (how audience, purpose, author, and message interact) and rhetorical appeals when engaging in writing and reading as social practices and forms of communication
  • Acquire strategies for formulating and articulating research questions and methods for primary and secondary research, including library research
  • Evaluate research for credibility, reliability, and relevance
  • Practice synthesizing, integrating, and citing multiple different sources in multiple citation styles

Works Cited

Council of Writing Program Administrators (CWPA). WPA Outcomes Statement for First-Year

Composition (3.0). 17 July 2014. Web. 18 July 2019.

https://wpacouncil.org/aws/CWPA/pt/sd/news_article/243055/_PARENT/layout_details/false

Wardle, Elizabeth, and Douglas Downs. Writing About Writing: A College Reader. 2nd ed. New

York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014. Print.

 

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