COURSE OBJECTIVES FROM VARIOUS ENGLISH COURSES
CWR (Fall 2008)
Course Objectives
·Explore the different ways writing is used as a tool, a skill, a practice, and a process
·View writing as a means of communication necessary throughout college and beyond in the
work force
·Recognize that college-level writing is varied, situational, and context driven
·Understand that the writing process is fluid and circular – there’s no formula!
·Craft works that are clear and logical, both in organization and content
·Avoid mistakes that hinder meaning
·Develop good research habits
CWR Fall 2008
Purposes/Objectives of the Course
The purpose of College Research and Writing is to prepare you to successfully complete the
reading, writing, and research activities in your University studies and in your careers; to develop
your critical thinking skills; and to contribute to your evolving status as an educated person. The
purpose of this course will be met through the following objectives.
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Learn to use available tools for academic writers and researchers.
Use critical thinking to analyze and relate information to other ideas and information
found in and out of the classroom. Everything connects.
Actively read texts in order to understand and analyze their content.
Conduct university-level research that includes the selection of appropriate sources and
the use of MLA documentation.
Produce competently written papers and assignments including an academic research
paper that analyzes and synthesizes its sources as support for the writer’s position on an
issue.
Recognize and learn to avoid plagiarism.
Course Goals for CWR Fall 2008
The materials and activities in this course, as described in UNI’s
2006-2008 catalogue of courses, emphasize “critical reading and writing
of a variety of texts with attention to audience, purpose, and
rhetorical strategies. Attention to integrating research materials with
students’ critical and personal insights” is also a major focus. This
particular section of the course includes reading and writing about
intercultural issues and experiences.
Selected Learning Objectives:
• How to read like a writer, and to apply critical reading strategies to
a variety of texts.
• How to develop ideas for writing projects by using invention
strategies such as free-writing, questioning, lists, clustering,
brainstorming, and outlining.
• How to choose writing processes appropriate to the context and goals
of different writing tasks.
• How to develop, frame, and support and present an argument that will
be effective for your target reading audience.
• How to do research: to locate, analyze, and evaluate sources in order
to use them effectively in a range of writing tasks.
• How to use research to incorporate source material in your writing in
effective and honest ways, to accord full respect to your own and
others’ ideas, and thus to avoid plagiarism.
• How to evaluate the effectiveness of your own writing, and when to
employ revising strategies at the global and local levels to improve
coherence, cohesion, succinctness, and readability.
• How and when to edit, and how to comply with a professional style format.
From a Fall 2008 CWR course:
I hope to see Student Outcomes in these areas:
READING: The student will know
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the Principles of Reader Expectations and demonstrate their use in analyzing a text.
the importance of metaphorical analysis in creating knowledge and in understanding a text.
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how to read a text for structure and for metaphorical implications as well as for literal content.
WRITING: The student will
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know and utilize assumptions about writing that increase one’s chances of writing a competent
college level document.
demonstrate knowledge and use of the attitudes appropriate for the stage of writing one is in
and doing the right activities at the right stage
know that the important stages of writing are Invention/draft and Revision. For Invention/draft
the key activity is quantity production and attitude is play and discovery. For Revision, the key
activity is re-thinking and re-seeing the quantity via reader’s eyses and then examining a text
developed for content for its quality of structure and metaphor.
RESEARCH: The student will
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demonstrate wide reading in a topic and presentation of one’s findings in a coherent
research document.
demonstrate advanced research techniques using the paper resources at the university
library
620:034:02 Critical Writing About Literature
(one of three writing courses that meets the LAC writing requirements)
Fall 2008
Course Objectives:
The students will
1. read widely and to develop abilities to evaluate what they read;
2. use reading- and writing-to-learn strategies to enhance comprehension;
3. make connections between literature and their lives;
4. understand and practice the stages of reading process: prereading, during reading, post
reading
5. understand and practice the stages of the writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising,
editing, and proofreading;
6. expand understanding and use of critical terminology;
7. develop and refine critical reading skills;
8. understand and appreciate literary genres, including fiction, poetry, and drama;
9. begin to internalize evaluative criteria for effective analytical and interpretative reading
and writing;
10. use appropriate terminology to analyze and discuss literature;
11. begin developing competencies related to literary scholarship and research.