Learning Outcomes
Program Goals and Student Learning Outcomes (Writing)
Goal #1 Develop knowledge of rhetoric and literacy and their links to various cultural contexts, histories, and theories.
- Identify and apply key terms and concepts in rhetoric and literacy studies.
- Identify and contextualize particular schools of thoughts.
Goal #2 Acquire and implement the aesthetic tools necessary for competent writing in drama, poetry, and prose
- Use concrete images to develop purpose of a text.
- Use effective tropes, figures, voice, and other elements of style that develop the purpose of the text and are appropriate to that purpose and the text’s audience.
Goal #3 Apply theoretical approaches to the study of texts and/or artifacts.
- Demonstrate knowledge of rhetorical, critical, and/or literacy theory in one or more social and/or historical contexts.
- Apply knowledge of a rhetorical, critical, and/or literacy theory and tradition in on or more social and/or historical contexts.
Goal #4 Find, retrieve, evaluate, and present information relevant to a question.
- Demonstrate understanding of secondary sources.
- Engage with secondary sources.
- Integrate sources and document them accurately.
Goal #5 Acquire and apply knowledge and skills from the major in professional and public writing situations.
- Extend classroom learning in extra-curricular and co-curricular contexts (English Club, Courier, Angle, local/national publications and conferences; internships, writing center, service learning.)
- Represent the skills and knowledge gained in professional documents (resume, personal statement, other public opportunities).
Goal #6 Formulate and support well-developed arguments using language appropriate to the subject and occasion.
- Make and support an effective argument (thesis).
- Provide appropriate and sufficient evidence to support claims.
- Analyze a text or artifact closely in order to interpret persuasively.
- Structure a paper in a logical and organized manner.
- Write a paper relatively free of errors, and uses a register appropriate for the assignment.
Program Goals and Student Learning Outcomes (Literature)
Goal #1 Know the main outlines of British and American literary history, including the history of formerly marginalized writers, and be able to place works in that context, with informed references to the cultural forces that produce and influence literature and other forms of art.
- Identify major literary periods and authors and works associated with those periods.
- Define and recognize major literary genres.
- Know the nature of debates about literary canons.
- Articulate the connections between culture and literature.
Goal #2 Students will discern how design or form influences meaning.
- Understand the discipline-specific terminology connected with each art form.
- Learn the elements, principles, and form inherent to a work of art.
- Understand that writers use design/form to communicate meaning.
Goal #3 Apply theoretical approaches to the study of literature.
- Identify major theoretical schools of criticism.
- Apply a theoretical approach towards literary interpretation.
Goal #4 Find, retrieve, evaluate, and present information relevant to a question.
- Demonstrate understanding of secondary sources.
- Engage with secondary sources.
- Integrate sources and document them accurately.
Goal #5 Acquire and apply knowledge and skills from the major in professional and public writing situations.
- Extend classroom learning in extra-curricular and co-curricular contexts (English Club, Courier, Angle, local/national publications and conferences; internships, writing center, service learning.)
- Represent the skills and knowledge gained in professional documents (resume, personal statement, other public opportunities).
Goal #6 Support a well-developed, well-written argument with evidence.
- Make and support an effective argument (thesis).
- Provide appropriate and sufficient evidence to support claims.
- Analyze a text or artifact closely in order to interpret persuasively.
- Structure a paper in a logical and organized manner.
- Write a paper relatively free of errors, and uses a register appropriate for the assignment.