Outcomes Statement for English 303—Scientific and Technical Writing

The Outcomes Statement for English 303 is intended to provide instructors and students with a sense of what kinds of knowledge students should be expected to acquire and demonstrate by the end of each course.  The course outcomes are intended to create a sense of common purpose for the courses and clear expectations for the students.  At the same time, the Outcomes have been written to maintain the flexibility in the program that allows individual instructors to continue the tradition of innovation and creativity in the classroom that is one of the great strengths of the University of Louisville Composition Program.
 
The focus of English 303 is recognizing and responding in writing to different rhetorical situations in scientific and technical discourse communities.  A student in English 303 should expect to create and revise documents in multiple genres.  Each document should establish a clear purpose, sense of audience awareness, and sense of the writer’s presence and position.  A student in English 303 should expect to complete four-to-six projects.
 

Rhetorical Knowledge (responding appropriately to a variety of rhetorical situations)

By the end of English 303, students should demonstrate the ability to produce writing and use oral communication skills that 

• Demonstrate knowledge of audience, which includes the ability to determine appropriate scope, genre, technical vocabulary and detail, and tone when writing for both technical and non-technical audiences

• Demonstrate knowledge of context, which includes analyzing professional cultures, social contexts, and audiences to determine how they shape the various purposes and forms of writing

• Demonstrate an ability to use, explain and integrate quantitative information with verbal prose to achieve particular rhetorical purposes
• Demonstrate knowledge of research methods that produce professional documents, including analyzing professional contexts and assessing and summarizing information resources
  

Processes

 
By the end of English 306, students should demonstrate the ability to produce writing that

• Demonstrates knowledge of the writing process, which means engaging various strategies for planning, researching, drafting, revising, and editing documents that respond effectively and ethically to scientific and technical situations and audiences

• Demonstrates knowledge of collaborative strategies, such as writing in a team setting, working and communicating on-line, setting and achieving project goals, and responding constructively to peers’ work

Conventions

 
By the end of English 303, students should demonstrate the ability to produce writing that

• Demonstrates control of the editing process, including the production of documents which exhibit concise language, appropriate technical vocabulary, appropriate format, proper sentence structure, and standardized grammar

• Demonstrates knowledge of document design, including the implementation of various principles of format, layout, and design of professional visual/verbal documents that meet multiple needs and integrate a variety of written, visual, and oral elements of design