Writing and Rhetoric B.A.

Learning Outcomes

The Department of Writing and Rhetoric prioritizes work that gets things done. Our courses emphasize the application of rhetoric according to the following five dimensions of learning and production:

Rhetorical Knowledge

  • Students identify varied rhetorical situations calling for a wide range of appropriate responses.
  • Students demonstrate a command of different rhetorical theories and approaches.
  • Students apply various rhetorical theories, putting them into practice in a range of situations.
  • Students evaluate the appropriateness of rhetorical choices in light of anticipated consequences.

Process and Collaborative Textual Evaluation

  • Student writers produce documents with other writers.
  • Students evaluate and respond to each other’s work using varied roles (peer, tutor, coach, editor).
  • Students demonstrate respectful negotiating behaviors during collaborative textual production (listening attentively, airing all viewpoints, valuing difference, coming to consensus or dissensus, dividing labor fairly, balancing competing agendas, expectations, and values).

Craft, Genre, and Editing

  • Students arrange the organization of their texts appropriate to the rhetorical situation.
  • Students can recognize and self-edit errors in written discourse.
  • Student writers produce complex texts with correctness in syntax, grammar, usage, punctuation, mechanics, and spelling.
  • Students demonstrate coherence and cohesion in written discourse.
  • Student writers consider, apply, and control stylistic options (prose style, figurative language, voice, register, tone, word choice, etc.).

Textual Production and Delivery

  • Students will choose effective strategies for processes, forum, genre, and technological tools for a range of situations.
  • Student writers will design visually effective texts for a range of situations using appropriate technology.
  • Student writers will identify and evaluate options for text production, circulation, and delivery.
  • Students will use current information technologies to produce and deliver their texts.

Reflective Learning

  • Students consciously synthesize and integrate insights from one project into another.
  • Students articulate a statement of their identities as writers.