Mission Statement and Learning Outcomes Overview

Link to mission statement


TME001 – English Composition First Writing Course 3 Semester Hours/4-5 Quarter Hours
Learning Outcomes

Outcomes marked with an asterisk are essential and must be taught.

1. Rhetorical Knowledge*
By the end of their first writing course, students should be able to recognize the elements that inform rhetorical situations. This understanding should enable them to produce expository texts that

• Have a clear purpose 
• Respond to the needs of intended audiences 
• Assume an appropriate stance 
• Adopt an appropriate voice, tone, style, and level of formality 
• Use appropriate conventions of format and structure 

2. Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing*
By the end of their first writing course, students should be able to

• Use reading and writing for inquiry, learning, thinking, and communicating 
• Analyze relationships among writer, text, and audience in various kinds of texts 
• Use various critical thinking strategies to analyze texts 

3. Knowledge of Composing Processes*
By the end of their first writing course, students should be able to

• Understand writing as a series of steps that includes generating ideas and text, drafting, revising, 
• and editing 
• Recognize that writing is a flexible, recursive process 
• Apply this understanding and recognition to produce successive drafts of increasing quality 

4. Collaboration*
By the end of their first writing course, students should understand that the writing process is often collaborative and social. To demonstrate that understanding, students should be able to

• Work with others to improve their own and others’ texts 
• Balance the advantages of relying on others with taking responsibility for their own work 

5. Knowledge of Conventions*
By the end of their first writing course, students should be able to

• Employ appropriate conventions for structure, paragraphing, mechanics, and format 
• Acknowledge the work of others when appropriate 
• Use a standard documentation format as needed 
• Control syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling 

6. Composing in Electronic Environments*
Developments in digital technology are expanding our understanding of “writing.” To the extent that technology is available and appropriate, by the end of their first writing course students should be able to

• Understand the possibilities of electronic media/technologies for composing and publishing 
• texts 
• Use electronic environments to support writing tasks such as drafting, reviewing, revising, editing, and sharing texts 

7. Minimal Course Requirements*
By the end of their first writing course, students will have written

• A variety of texts with opportunities for response and revision 
• A minimum of 5000 total words (roughly 20 total pages of written work). Electronic or other 
• projects of equivalent rigor and substance may be included, but the primary focus of the course must be the composing of formal written work