PCC/ CCOG / WR

Course Content and Outcome Guide for WR 123

Date:
30-MAY-2007
Posted by:
Curriculum Office
Course Number:
WR 123
Course Title:
English Composition
Credit Hours:
3
Lecture hours:
30
Lecture/Lab hours:
0
Lab hours:
0
Special Fee:
 

Course Description

Uses extensive research writing to develop skills in critical analysis and documented argument. Students synthesize their considered response to designated text(s) and/or issues with the reactions of other writers. Includes paraphrasing, summarizing, quoting, and documenting using style appropriate to discipline researched. Prerequisite: WR 122.

Intended Outcomes for the course

Outcomes for this course require working through multiple drafts of several pieces of writing with time to separate the acts of writing and revising; in addition, the reading outcomes require time to read, reread, reflect, respond, interpret, analyze, and evaluate.
Upon completion of WR 123 with a "C" or better, student will be able to:

• Successfully organize and manage an extended, research-based, thesis-centered essay of 3500-4000 words or an equivalent in shorter essays using MLA, APA, or other appropriate documentation styles

• Demonstrate critical thinking and problem-solving in the context of research by showing observational skills, drawing reasonable inferences from a variety of sources, perceiving and establishing relationships among multiple sources, and analyzing the structure and organization of sources and own writing

• Independently locate, examine, select, evaluate, and use various sources, including electronic sources

• Practice and demonstrate skills necessary to research writing, such as paraphrase, summary, and use of direct quotation

• Articulate own problem solving process and self-assessment; demonstrate the ethics of research by identifying and avoiding plagiarism

Outcome Assessment Strategies


Reading and writing assessment tasks will include the following:

• At least one research-based, thesis-centered, appropriately documented essay of 3500-400 or an equivalent in shorter essays

• Class discussion

Other assessment tasks may include the following:
• Study questions and exercises to support the techniques of research and research-based writing

• Research journal used as a foundation for the research project

• Responses to assigned text(s), in or out of class

• Oral presentation

• Group collaboration and participation

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)

• Examine and discuss issues of plagiarism, ethics of research writing, credibility, authority, and self-directed learning

• Advance the concepts of independent study and research, self-knowledge, and the ability to assess own work critically

• Engage in inference, analysis, synthesis

• Solve problems involved in an extended writing project

• Perceive, connect, and integrate a variety of sources and positions, and establish own ideas in such a context

• Experience research in terms of scholarship and audience

Competencies and Skills
• Awareness of audience in the context of research writing

• Increased expertise in the process of research

• Proficient time management

• Engagement with scholarship and participation in a community of scholars

• A sense of responsibility for own ideas and progress

• Experience in applying skills and concepts of WR 121 and WR 122 in the context of an extended research project