OUTCOMES FOR EXPOSITORY WRITING PROGRAM COURSES

To compose strategically for a variety of audiences and contexts, both within and outside the university, by

recognizing how different elements of a rhetorical situation matter for the task at hand and affect the options for composing and distributing texts;  
coordinating, negotiating, and experimenting with various aspects of composing—such as genre, content, conventions, style, language, organization, appeals, media, timing, and design—for diverse rhetorical effects tailored to the given audience, purpose, and situation; and  
assessing and articulating the rationale for and effects of composing choices.

To work strategically with complex information in order to generate and support inquiry by

reading, analyzing, and synthesizing a diverse range of texts and understanding the situations in which those texts are participating;  
using reading and writing strategies to craft research questions that explore and respond to complex ideas and situations;  
gathering, evaluating, and making purposeful use of primary and secondary materials appropriate for the writing goals, audience, genre, and context;  
creating a ‘conversation’—identifying and engaging with meaningful patterns across ideas, texts, experiences, and situations; and  
using citation styles appropriate for the genre and context.

considering, incorporating, and responding to different points of view while developing one’s own position;  
engaging in analysis—the close scrutiny and examination of evidence, claims, and assumptions— to explore and support a line of inquiry;  
understanding and accounting for the stakes and consequences of various arguments for diverse audiences and within ongoing conversations and contexts; and  
designing/organizing with respect to the demands of the genre, situation, audience, and purpose.

To practice composing as a recursive, collaborative process and to develop flexible strategies for revising throughout the composition process by

engaging in a variety of (re)visioning techniques, including (re)brainstorming, (re)drafting, (re)reading, (re)writing, (re)thinking, and editing;  
giving, receiving, interpreting, and incorporating constructive feedback; and  
refining and nuancing composition choices for delivery to intended audiences in a manner consonant with the genre, situation, and desired rhetorical effects and meanings