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Writing, BA/BS

Student Outcomes

Assessment of Student Outcomes

Outcome D Information Literacy (undergraduate)

Identify, access, evaluate, and synthesize multiple forms of information.

The General Education objectives associated with this Outcome are listed below. You can use these objectives as is or modify them in the next step in GVAssess.

Students will:
• Articulate the specific information needed.
• Access information using appropriate search tools.
• Evaluate the quality, usefulness, and relevance of the information.
• Ethically communicate synthesized information.
Objective 3 Students will practice strategies to identify, access, evaluate, and synthesize multiple forms of information.

Measure 1

2019 Status
Archived
On average, students used between 4.26 to 8.82 sources per paper. The portfolios that earned higher grades typically had more sources than those that earned lower grades. Interestingly, the average sources per paper is identical in this sample group of portfolios from 2019 as it was the last time this assessment was conducted in 2017.

2017 Status
Achieved
On average, students used between 14-21 sources per portfolio, and the portfolios that earned higher grades typically had more sources than those that earned lower grades (with the exception of C portfolios). Students most frequently relied on web or highly regarded news sources for evidence, and over 60% of the sources cited were used to provide statistical or factual pieces of information.

Outcome M Writing Process

Students will articulate their social and/or cognitive writing processes.
Objective 1 Students are reflective about how they write. Students learn to articulate their implicit and received writing processes. Students will recognize different faculty perspectives on writing process.

Measure 1

2018 Status
Achieved
Faculty and students both have some clear ideas of what is meant by “writing process” and agree about its importance within the context of our writing major curriculum. Whereas faculty might tend to think more abstractly about process—for example, as a rhetorical dynamic or as user-centered design—students tended to focus more concretely on revision, planning, disciplines, and the work-a-day world. Both faculty and students pointed to the ultimate outcome of writing process as revision stemming from an organic sense of the importance of a piece of writing as a project, not as a product that needed merely to be completed. Students are indeed "develop[ing] cognitive and social writing processes" and are able to articulate them. Their individual processes, as well as those they choose for group extracurricular activities, are generally consistent with the processes writing faculty model pedagogically.

Outcome N Reading/Analyzing

Students will develop the ability to write well by reading and analyzing models.
Objective 4 Students will be able to analyze published works (nonfiction, fiction, and poetry).

Outcome O Cognition

Students develop cognitive writing processes that yield successful written products.
Objective 5 Students will be able to articulate basic design principles as it relates to their own document designs.

Outcome P Analyze and understanding rhetorical situations

Students will develop the ability to write well by analyzing and understanding rhetorical situations.
Objective 6 Students will be able to analyze different stylistic techniques and their rhetorical effects.

Measure 1

2019 Status
Achieved
The assessment of the learning outcome “Students will be able to Analyze Different Stylistic Techniques and Their Rhetorical Effects” in WRT 210: Introduction to Style found that 75% or more of the students are accomplishing every category of the rubric created for the assessment. This study suggests that the existing curriculum is successful in helping students accomplish this outcome. No major changes appear necessary to the course curriculum.