USU English 1010 and English 2010 Outcomes
All English 1010 and 2010 courses at USU have four main outcomes: Rhetorical Awareness, Critical Thinking, Information Literacy, and Composing Processes. Courses focus on writing, supplemented by oral and visual communication. Teachers and students have the agency and flexibility to meet these outcomes throughout each course in a variety of ways. These outcomes should be understood as interconnected and recursive to reinforce key concepts, rather than as four distinct areas of proficiency. The USU English 1010 and 2010 Outcomes are based on the Outcomes for First-Year Composition from the Council of Writing Program Administrators and the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education.
Rhetorical Awareness
Writers develop rhetorical awareness by negotiating purpose, audience, context, and textual conventions as they compose a variety of texts for different rhetorical situations. Student writers engage in rhetorical awareness through both written and oral communication.
Rhetorical awareness is illustrated by the student writer’s ability to:
English 1010
- Focus on a purpose appropriate to the writer’s rhetorical situation
- Identify and compose for a variety of audiences and contexts
- Analyze and respond appropriately to different rhetorical situations, including as outlined in assignment prompts
- Identify and analyze rhetorical appeals, including ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos
- Understand and rhetorically negotiate the conventions that govern genres, formats, grammar, mechanics, and the use and citation of sources
English 2010
- Engage with a research-based question, focus, or purpose
- Rhetorically consider and integrate a variety of
perspectives into an argument - Apply rhetorical appeals, including ethos, pathos, logos,
and kairos - Participate in conversations within discourse communities,
while skillfully addressing assignment requirements - Rhetorically apply or challenge language conventions that govern genres, formats, grammar, mechanics, and the use and citation of sources based on purpose and audience
Critical Thinking
Writers practice critical thinking when they analyze, synthesize, interpret, and evaluate ideas, information, situations, and texts. Student writers display critical thinking through both written and oral communication.
Critical thinking is illustrated by the student writer’s ability to:
English 1010
- Recognize the relationships among language, knowledge, and power in texts and research
- Use writing, reading, and dialogue for inquiry, learning, and communicating
- Identify and respond to problems or questions in texts
- Analyze rhetorical patterns and conversations across
multiple texts - Integrate personal authority within a larger conversation
English 2010
- Analyze the relationships among language, knowledge, and power in research and argument
- Investigate and evaluate underlying assumptions in source material
- Negotiate the influence of positionality, background, and personal bias on research and argument
- Synthesize multiple perspectives through the use of primary and secondary research, including lived experience and counternarrative
- Compose nuanced arguments that contain appropriate and sufficient evidence
Information Literacy
Writers practice information literacy when they understand research as a process of critical inquiry, consider the influence of power on texts, and become creators of information through both written and oral communication. In English 2010, writers also employ research to develop multiple-step scholarly projects.
Information literacy is illustrated by the student writer’s ability to:
English 1010
- Identify relevant information and questions in relation to audience and purpose
- Understand the strengths and limitations of a variety of primary and secondary sources
- Examine the value of multiple perspectives and personal authority while accounting for individual bias in reading and composing texts
- Begin to synthesize conversations and texts to engage in critical inquiry
- Develop academic integrity by accurately summarizing, paraphrasing, quoting, and citing a variety of texts and perspectives
English 2010
- Develop and investigate a nuanced research question for a specific audience and purpose
- Evaluate the relevance and credibility of a variety of primary and secondary sources and apply the evaluation to the student researcher’s rhetorical purpose
- Negotiate the implications of the research on multiple groups and seek perspectives that complicate notions of credibility and authority in research
- Join a conversation by seeking multiple perspectives, recognizing gaps in the research, reflecting on personal bias, and synthesizing texts and perspectives
- Demonstrate academic integrity by accurately and effectively summarizing, paraphrasing, quoting, and citing a variety of texts and perspectives
Composing Processes
Writers employ multiple composing processes to conceptualize, draft, write, revise, and finalize both written and oral projects. Writers’ composing processes are flexible and seldom linear.
Composing processes are illustrated by the student writer’s ability to:
English 1010
- Organize ideas, claims, and support according to audience and purpose
- Collaborate with other writers on drafts and revision
- Apply collaborator feedback to revise for a purpose
- Revise to learn more about a topic or problem
- Identify opportunities for continued revision and inquiry
English 2010
- Skillfully organize ideas, claims, and support according to audience and purpose
- Collaborate with other writers on drafts and successive revisions
- Respond to collaborator feedback, identify additional opportunities to revise, and incorporate feedback and self- assessment into revision
- Research and synthesize additional texts or perspectives to revise or complicate arguments, claims, and analysis
- Critically reflect on the challenges and strategies of the
composing, research, and revision processes
General Education Communication Literacy 1 and 2 Outcomes (CL1 and CL2)
Completion of English 1010 and English 2010 with a minimum of a C- fulfills the university’s CL1 and CL2 general education requirements. The outcomes for courses with a CL1 and CL2 designation, like English 1010 and English 2010, can be found on the general education website.