General Education Requirement
Developing the Liberal Arts: Core Skills for Freshmen
Effective Writing I

Goals:

  1. Read and write the English language with clarity, effectiveness, and discernment. (1.3a)
  2. Demonstrate competence in critical and creative thinking. (1.3d)

Knowledge Objectives:

  1. Knowledge of fundamental differences of the three broad categories of disciplines (humanities, sciences, social sciences), especially as they are shown in writing within the disciplines. Examples would include genre, evidence, and style.
  2. Knowledge of terminology for basic rhetorical concepts (including audience, purpose, thesis, etc.) and the writing process (including response, revision, and editing).
  3. Knowledge of basic terminology of grammar and punctuation, for editing purposes. Examples would include subject-verb agreement, conjunction, and semicolon.
  4. Familiarity with the Bridgewater College faculty’s plagiarism policy, “Ethics in Academic Work.”
  5. Understanding of the meaning of plagiarism, along with the vocabulary of using source material in their own writing. Examples would include documentation, citation, paraphrase, and summary.

Skills Objectives

  1. Ability to develop and sustain an original argument.
  2. Ability to recognize and adopt rhetorical conventions appropriate to the disciplinary area in which they are writing.
  3. Ability to reflect on and respond to their own and their peers’ writing for the purpose of facilitating revision for greater rhetorical effectiveness.
  4. Ability to revise and edit their own writing for greater rhetorical effectiveness.
  5. Ability to speak effectively about written texts in the context of class participation, individual oral reports, and/or group presentations.
  6. Ability to locate, evaluate, paraphrase/summarize, and integrate information from sources effectively as supporting evidence.
  7. Ability to document accurately and ethically in at least two documentation formats.

Praxis Objective

  1. Produce a writing portfolio of a minimum of five essays including an in-class essay, essays in three disciplinary areas, and a reflective cover essay.

Adopted Summer 2007