Preliminary
note: The following is a draft of a working document, posted here in order
to become an object of discussion, re-thinking, and revision. Even beyond
that, it is the work of only one member of the discussion, in no way ratified
by the Outcomes group as a whole or any official organization. We strongly
discourage any use or attribution of the following language that does not
take great care to represent it accurately.
KEITH RHODES'S "STUDENT VERSION" OF THE OUTCOMES STATEMENT
Here's what I get when I think of explaining outcomes to my students.
Here is what we think students should know when they get out of first-year
composition. None of this is easy to do, and it goes to waste unless students
keep getting help with these things all through college. Still, first-year
college composition needs to get the ball rolling by doing this much,
at least.
- Students should know what writing is and how to do it well. Thus,
they need to learn
- about language, because it is slippery stuff
- how to write differently for different readers
- how to write for success, not just for show
- how to find the right forms for what they write
- Students should know how writing works with reading and thinking.
Thus, they need to learn
- how writing can improve their thinking and reading
- how reading can improve their writing and thinking
- how thinking can improve their reading and writing
- to improve all of these things by re-doing them
- how research pulls all of these things together
- Students should know how to write better in less time. Thus, they
need to learn
- the tricks experts use to make writing better
- the tricks experts use to make writing easier
- how to work with others on writing projects
- how to use writing tools like computers and dictionaries
- why they can't just please themselves in their writing
- Students should know how to make their writing look good. Thus, they
need to learn
- how expert writers put their writing into useful, attractive
chunks
- how expert writers put their writing into useful, attractive
order
- to apply their thinking about chunks and orders to every level
of writing, from papers to paragraphs to sentences
- how to get their words spelled correctly
- how to write understandable, efficient sentences
- how to use the right "voice" for their readers
- how to write about research in the exact formats that experts
use, including especially how to tell readers exactly when the students
have used the ideas or words of their research sources
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