Writers develop rhetorical awareness by negotiating purpose, audience, context, and textual conventions as they compose a variety of texts for different rhetorical situations.

Rhetorical awareness is illustrated by the student writer’s ability to:

• 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

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:

• 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

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. 

Information literacy is illustrated by the student writer’s ability to:

• 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

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:

• 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