Northwest Missouri State University FY courses (pilot version)

• 1. writing methods: the ability to
• a. describe and evaluate their own writing methods in general terms;
• b. draft fluently, with few blocks and little resistance, in response to clear requests for specific kinds of writing;
• c. draft, re-read, revise, and edit a writing in ways that improve the quality of what they could have written without using these stages.
• 2. rhetorical awareness: the ability to
• a. describe written documents, at least generally, in terms of rhetorical considerations like audience, purpose, content, tone and authorial stance;
• b. evaluate general rhetorical considerations in a writing of their own;
• c. base relatively simple choices on rhetorical considerations.
• 3. development: the ability to
• a. make a stated central idea more clear, full, and valuable than it would be merely by being stated;
• b. provide enough information to communicate a central idea fully to readers who were somewhat familiar with the idea when they started reading;
• c. add substantial detailed information that improves the writing even while excluding information that is neither appropriate nor helpful.
• 4. organization: the ability to
• a. present an idea in a planned order that makes sense;
• b. use, clearly if not always skillfully, the key markers of academic organization: introductory paragraphs, thesis statements, topic sentences, transitional devices, and standard analytic frameworks like comparison or categorization;
• c. develop a writing so that it is based on a stated idea that is central to the whole content of the writing.
• 5. style and correctness: the ability to
• a. write English prose that does not confuse or annoy a reasonably generous and skillful reader of student writing;
• b. edit a final, published document extensively, catching all careless errors and improving the worst kinds of confusing and annoying prose;
• c. understand the most obvious elements of correct usage, such as basic sentence punctuation, capitalization, and the idea that sentences consist of central actions and their modifiers.

• 1. writing methods: the ability to
• a. describe and evaluate the general features and purposes of their own writing methods;
• b. draft without great delay and hesitation in response to reasonably well-defined and structured writing assignments;
• c. evaluate the general needs of a writing for further work, revise fully according to the needs of a writing, and attend to the editing of a writing sufficiently to avoid errors and discourtesy that detract from the meaning or the attractiveness of the writing.
• 2. rhetorical awareness: the ability to
• a. define and explain major rhetorical issues like audience, purpose, content, genre, tone, and authorial stance;
• b. explain a written document, at least generally, in terms of rhetorical issues like audience, purpose, content, genre, tone, and authorial stance;
• c. create a writing that shows general attention to matters of audience, purpose, content, genre, tone and authorial stance.
• 3. development: the ability to
• a. provide enough information to communicate a valuable central idea to readers who may not have appreciated the idea when they started reading;
• b. use a general rhetorical awareness to select information of a kind appropriate to the writing;
• c. use better writing methods and command of patterns of development to generate valuable evidence.
• 4. organization: the ability to
• a. center a writing in its entirety on a valuable idea that moves beyond mere topics, clichés, or common knowledge;
• b. present an idea in a planned order that helps to make the idea and its development more clear;
• c. use with general success the key markers of academic organization: introductory paragraphs, thesis statements, topic sentences, transitional devices, and standard patterns of development like comparison or classification.
• 5. style and correctness: the ability to
• a. write for an intended audience with language and usage that does not confuse or annoy that audience;
• b. edit a final, published document extensively, catching all careless errors and improving the ways in which the language itself can help readers understand the ideas presented;
• c. define and explain key terms that describe the structures of essays, paragraphs, and sentences.

• 1. writing methods: the ability to
• a. describe, evaluate, and improve your own writing methods;
• b. draft fluently and fully, with few blocks and little resistance, in response to challenging writing assignments, including assignments that restrict the time, length, methods, or subjects of your writing;
• c. demonstrate the effectiveness of your chosen methods of writing, not only by producing a full record of evidence from which their process of producing a paper can be evaluated fully, but also by producing a reasonably good final paper using those methods.
• 2. rhetorical awareness: the ability to
• a. explain and evaluate documents clearly and thoroughly in terms of rhetorical issues like audience, purpose, content, argumentative structure, tone, and authorial stance;
• b. evaluate precisely the full range of rhetorical issues in writing of your own;
• c. create writings that demonstrate informed attention to all important rhetorical issues.
• 3. development: the ability to
• a. provide full and complete information that is, nevertheless, consistently appropriate and concisely stated;
• b. support an idea richly enough to permit readers to reconstruct the entire idea, including its underlying premises and assumptions;
• c. weave statements of others into a coherent, new statement in support of your own ideas.
• 4. organization: the ability to
• a. center a writing on a valuable idea that relates directly and thoroughly to the whole content of a writing;
• b. present an idea in a planned order that helps to make the idea and its development more clear and persuasive;
• c. use well, where appropriate, the key markers of academic organization: introductory paragraphs, thesis statements, topic sentences, transitional devices, and standard analytic frameworks like comparison or categorization.
• 5. style and correctness: the ability to
• a. use documentation, punctuation, and language precisely to indicate not only where and how the statements of others are used in a writing of your own, but also the exact, reviewable source from which those statements are taken;
• b. edit a final, publishable, researched document extensively, catching all careless errors and improving the ways in which documentation and the language itself can help readers understand the ideas presented;
• c. form reasonably complex sentences that do not obscure their central actions with poor punctuation, syntax, or word choice.

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