APPENDIX A: Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)

The University Writing Program recognizes that all of the following student learning
outcomes are interwoven, and often happen simultaneously. We also recognize that rhetorical
awareness and critical thinking happen throughout all of composing and that it is artificial to try
to separate these acts from the highly complex work of composition. We developed the following
student learning outcomes in order to help a variety of audiencesincluding students and
colleagues in other departmentsto better understand concepts that we introduce and reinforce
in First-Year Writing (FYW) that will continue to be practiced and developed throughout a
students lifetime of literacy development.
Rhetorical Knowledge
Rhetorical knowledge is the ability to identify and apply strategies across a range of texts
and writing situations. Using their own writing processes and approaches, writers compose with
intention, understanding how genre, audience, purpose, and context impact writing choices.
By the end of FYW, students should:
1. Use rhetorical concepts to analyze and compose a variety of texts using a range of
technologies adapted according to audience, context, and purpose
2. Understand how genres shape and are shaped by readers' and writers'
experimentation with conventions, including grammar, structure, and style
3. Develop the flexibility that enables writers to shift voice, tone, formality, design,
medium, and layout intentionally to accommodate varying situations and contexts
Critical Reading
Reading critically is the ability to analyze, synthesize, interpret, and evaluate ideas,
information, situations, and texts. When writers think critically about the materials they use, they
separate assertion from evidence, evaluate sources and evidence, recognize and assess
underlying assumptions, read across texts for connections and patterns, and identify and evaluate
chains of reasoning. These practices are foundational for advanced academic writing.
By the end of FYW, students should:
4. Use reading for inquiry, learning, and discovery
5. Read their own work and the work of others critically, including analyzing diverse
texts and articulating the value of various rhetorical choices of writers
6. Locate and evaluate (for credibility, sufficiency, accuracy, timeliness, bias and so
on) primary and secondary research materials, including journal articles and
essays, books, scholarly and professionally established and maintained databases
or archives, and informal electronic networks and internet sources
7. Read a diverse range of texts, attending especially to relationships between
assertion and evidence, to patterns of organization, to the interplay between verbal
and nonverbal elements, and to how these features function for different
audiences and situations
Composing Processes
Writers use multiple strategies, or composing processes, to conceptualize, develop, and
finalize projects. Composing processes are seldom linear: a writer may research a topic before
drafting, then conduct additional research while revising or after consulting a colleague.

Composing processes are also flexible: successful writers can adapt their composing processes to
different contexts and occasions.
By the end of FYW, students should:
8. Develop flexible strategies for drafting, reviewing, collaborating, revising,
rewriting, rereading, and editing
9. Experience the social interactions entailed in writing processes: brainstorming,
response to others writing; interpretation and evaluation of received responses
10. Use their writing process in order to deepen engagement with source material,
their own ideas, and the ideas of others and as a means of strengthening claims
and solidifying logical arguments
Knowledge of Conventions
Conventions are the formal rules and informal guidelines that define genres, and in so
doing, shape readers and writers expectations of correctness or appropriateness. Most
obviously, conventions govern such things as mechanics, usage, spelling, and citation practices.
But they also influence content, style, organization, graphics, and document design.
By the end of FYW, students should:
11. Gain experience negotiating variations in conventions by genre, from print-based
compositions to multi-modal compositions
12. Understand why genre conventions for structure, paragraphing, design,
formatting, tone, and mechanics vary
13. Understand the concepts of intellectual property (such as fair use and copyright)
that motivate documentation conventions and practice applying citation
conventions systematically in their own work
14. Develop knowledge of linguistic structures, including grammar, punctuation, and
spelling, through practice in composing and revising
Critical Reflection
Critical reflection is the ability to articulate what you are thinking and why.
By the end of FYW, students should:
15. Have experience reflecting on their writing in various rhetorical situations
16. Use writing as a means for reflection
17. Explore their rhetorical awareness, their writing process, and their knowledge of
conventions with regard to their own writing
18. Understand that reflection is a necessary part of learning, thinking, and
communicating