Student Learning Outcomes

• Develop his/her own reading, writing, and thinking processes by taking an active role in the class and by accepting responsibility for the work produced and the learning accomplished;

• Practice effective verbal and written communication skills in both academic and social situations, assess the critical thinking skills in use, and interact and respond appropriately;

• Write a number of essays that effectively employ such writing strategies as analysis and synthesis and that emphasize such writing tasks as causal analysis, advocacy of ideas, persuasion, evaluation, refutation, interpretation, and definition. In pursuit of this demonstration, each student will be required to write at least 8000 words during the semester;

• Write a number of essays that effectively employ such writing strategies as analysis and synthesis and that emphasize such writing tasks as causal analysis, advocacy of ideas, persuasion, evaluation, refutation, interpretation, and definition. In pursuit of this demonstration, each student will be required to write at least 8000 words during the semester;

• Use these outside sources to support the development of his/her own ideas and logical reasoning;

• Practice research skills by finding outside sources, separating facts from opinion, drawing inferences, validating reliability;

• Analyze assignments for underlying assumptions, valid arguments, logical structure, clear reasoning patterns, sound evidence, and rhetorical appeals (ethos, logos, and pathos), the aim being not only to identify these points in general occurrence but also effectively to practice them in one's own work;

• Identify common formal and informal fallacies of language and thought and distinguish between denotative and connotative language as well as deductive and inductive reasoning;

• Distinguish among fact, opinion, belief, and prejudice and adequately evaluate the standards used when making these determinations;

• Read and critically evaluate college-level material from a variety of sources, such as essays, pieces of fiction, and media presentations (e.g., presidential debates, ad campaigns, etc.)

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