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The Way of the Program
Guidelines and Resources for Composition Faculty at Humboldt State University

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Composition Program Outcomes Statement for First-Year Composition
Updated: 06/22/04
 
 

Developed from the WPA Outcomes Statement for First-Year Composition
Adopted by the Council of Writing Program Administrators (WPA), April 2000
http://www.ilstu.edu/~ddhesse/wpa/positions/outcomes.htm

Legend:
In General Practice
In Increasing / Partial Practice
In Little or No Practice

Rhetorical Knowledge: Upon successful completion of HSU’s first-year composition requirement, students should

  • Focus on a purpose
  • Practice responding to the needs of different audiences
  • Practice responding appropriately to different kinds of rhetorical situations
  • Use conventions of format and structure appropriate to the rhetorical situation, specifically academic situations
  • Adopt appropriate voice, tone, and level of formality for the rhetorical situation, specifically academic situations
  • Understand how genres shape reading and writing
  • Write in several genres

Faculty in all programs and departments can build on this preparation by helping students learn

  • The main features of writing in their fields
  • The main uses of writing in their fields
  • The expectations of readers in their fields


Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing: Upon successful completion of HSU’s first-year composition requirement, students should

  • Use writing and reading for inquiry, learning, thinking, and communicating
  • Understand a writing assignment as a series of tasks, including finding, evaluating, analyzing, and synthesizing appropriate primary and secondary sources
  • Integrate their own ideas with those of others
  • Understand the relationships among language, knowledge, and power

Faculty in all programs and departments can build on this preparation by helping students learn

  • The uses of writing as a critical thinking method
  • The interactions among critical thinking, critical reading, and writing
  • The relationships among language, knowledge, and power in their fields


Processes: Upon successful completion of HSU’s first-year composition requirement, students should

  • Be aware that it usually takes multiple drafts to create and complete a successful text
  • Develop flexible strategies for generating, revising, editing, and proofreading
  • Understand writing as an open process that permits writers to use later invention and re-thinking to revise their work
  • Understand the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes
  • Learn to critique their own and others' works
  • Learn to balance the advantages of relying on others with the responsibility of doing their part
  • Use a variety of technologies to address a range of audiences

Faculty in all programs and departments can build on this preparation by helping students learn

  • To build final results in stages
  • To review work-in-progress in collaborative peer groups for purposes other than editing
  • To save extensive editing for later parts of the writing process
  • To apply the technologies commonly used to research and communicate within their fields


Knowledge of Conventions: Upon successful completion of HSU’s first-year composition requirement, students should

  • Learn that different formats exist for different kinds of texts
  • Develop knowledge of genre conventions ranging from structure and paragraphing to tone and mechanics appropriate to the rhetorical situation
  • Practice appropriate means of documenting their work and acknowledge the variety of field-specific documentation styles
  • Control such surface features as syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

Faculty in all programs and departments can build on this preparation by helping students learn

  • The conventions of usage, specialized vocabulary, format, and documentation in their fields
  • Strategies through which better control of conventions can be achieved


Also available in Microsoft Word.

Tracy Duckart | Acting Director of Composition, Webmistress | 707.826.5958
Barbara Goldberg | University Writing Center Director, Developmental Writing Coordinator | 707.826.4442
Nicolette Amann | Writing Confidence Course Leader | 707.826.3318