English 101: Introduction to College Writing

English 101 focuses on recognizing and responding to different rhetorical situations and developing effective writing processes. A student writer in English 101 should expect to: create and revise works in multiple genres; establish a clear purpose and sense of his or her presence and position in each work; and compose the equivalent of 18 - 20 pages of text over the course of the semester.

Student Learning Outcomes from English 101:

The Student Outcomes Statement for English 101 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 this course. The student learning outcomes are intended to create a sense of common purpose for the courses and clear expectations for the students. At the same time, the student learning 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.

 

Rhetorical Knowledge

Students will produce writing that responds appropriately to a variety of rhetorical situations. Their writing should:

    • Focus on a clear and consistent purpose
    • Analyze and respond to the needs of different audiences
    • Employ a tone consistent with purpose and audience
    • Use a variety of genres or adapt genres to suit different audiences and purposes
    • Choose evidence and detail consistent with purpose and audience
      Recognize the utility of digital technologies for composition

Critical Reading and Thinking

Students will produce writing that abstracts, synthesizes, and represents the ideas of others fairly. Their writing should:

  • Summarize argument and exposition of a text accurately
  • Demonstrate awareness of the role of genre in the creation and reception of texts
  • Provide an understanding of knowledge as existing within a broader context, including the
  • purpose(s) and audience(s) for which a text may have been constructed
  • Incorporate an awareness of multiple points of view
  • Show basic skills in identifying and analyzing electronic sources, including scholarly library databases, the web, and other official databases

Processes

Students will produce writing reflective of a multi-stage composing and revising process. Their writing should:

  • Reflect a recursive composing process across multiple drafts
  • Illustrate multiple strategies of invention, drafting, and revision
  • Show evidence of development through peer review and collaboration

Conventions

Students will produce writing that strategically employs appropriate conventions in different writing situations. Their writing should:

  • Use structural conventions such as organization, formatting, paragraphing, and tone
  • Demonstrate control of such surface features as syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling
  • Provide an understanding of the conventions of multimodal composition that comprise developing communication in the 21st century

Ownership

In fulfilling the above outcomes, students will take ownership of their work and recognize themselves as writers who:

  • Have a growing understanding of their own voice, style, and strengths
  • Demonstrate confidence in their writing through frequent drafts
  • Can articulate their own positions relative to those of others