Heavilon Hall 302
Department of English
Purdue University
500 Oval Drive
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2038
Phone: (765) 494-3730
English 10800 Goals, Means, and Outcomes
- To help students develop effective and efficient processes for writing by providing practice with planning, drafting, revising, and editing their writing in multiple genres using a variety of media.
- To provide students with opportunities to write as a means of discovery and learning about themselves; as an integral part of inquiry about the material, social, and cultural contexts they share with others; and as a means of exploring, understanding, and evaluating ideas in academic disciplines.
- To help students develop their abilities to create, interpret and evaluate a variety of types of texts integrating verbal and visual components.
- To prepare students for writing in later university courses across the curriculum by helping them learn to articulate, develop, and support a point through both first-hand and archival research.
- To help students understand that they can and should use writing for multiple academic, civic, and personal purposes.
- To help students understand the inherent rhetorical situation of writing.
- To teach students to use the conventions of form, style, and citation and documentation of sources that are appropriate to their purposes for composing in a variety of media for a variety of rhetorical contexts.
- To demonstrate that coherent structure, effective style, and grammatical and mechanical correctness contribute to a writer's credibility and authority.
- To encourage students to solve rhetorical problems on their own through the independent examination and exploration of various research methods, genres, and medias.
- Completion of textual interpretation and production assignments in a variety of genres and a variety of media, including print, computer-mediated, and mass media.
- Periodic review of and commentary on successive drafts of writing projects by peers and instructor.
- Production of 8,000 words of polished writing (or 12,000-18,000 words, including drafts) or the equivalent.
- Independent examination and exploration of various research methods, genres, and medias.
- Weekly instruction using a variety of modes for learning, including attending to lectures, participating in class discussions, contributing to collaborative learning in small groups, and providing critiques of peers’ writing.
- For designated sections, in-class instruction in using computers to compose.
By the end of English 10800, students should be able to:
- Demonstrate familiarity with concepts used to describe writing processes (planning, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading) and effectively use variation of these processes in their writing.
- Use appropriate and effective planning and organizing strategies.
- Evaluate others’ commentary on early drafts and incorporate useful suggestions into subsequent drafts.
- Edit and proofread their papers to maximize their credibility and authority.
- Identify and state the purpose of a writing task they have completed.
- Adapt their writing in ways appropriate for different audiences.
- Explain why a piece of writing is or is not effective and suggest strategies for improvement.
- Effectively evaluate others’ writing and provide useful commentary and suggestions for revision where appropriate.
- Distinguish among conventions for citing and documenting sources in various genres and various media for various audiences.
- Make stylistic changes to improve the effectiveness of their writing.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the basic elements of visual rhetoric.
- Distinguish between information that is best communicated in visual format and information best communicated in text and make transitions and connections between visual and textual elements.