Advanced Writing Course Objectives:

The PAS 350 Advanced Writing student has ten (10) primary objectives in taking this course. Those objectives are:

ü The course will increase the student’s ability to analyze and comprehend university-level texts;

ü The course will expand and enhance, through culturally diverse readings, the awareness of rhetorical strategies as well as the abuses and uses of language;

ü The course will increase the critical reasoning skills as they reflect the interdependence of critical thinking and written discourse;

ü The course will build confidence, reduce writing anxiety, and strengthen personal voice;

ü The course will reinforce the theory and practice of writing as a recursive process;

ü The course will help students understand the many contexts for writing, including timed writing, and develop appropriate strategies for the writer’s multiple purposes and audiences;

ü The course will develop fluency and style by encouraging word and sentence variety, increasing vocabulary, and using Edited American English;

ü The course will increase proficiency in research techniques required by various University disciplines and familiarizes students with appropriate style sheets;

ü The course will definitely facilitate the use of basic computer applications – word processing, email, and Internet access – and other technological media including HyperNews and PowerPoint; and

ü The course will promote writing as a means of participation in democracy and as a tool for social change.

Course Outcomes

The PAS 350 Advanced Writing student may expect to realize 21 outcomes directly and/or indirectly as a result of meeting the stated objectives for this course. Those outcomes include the following:

ü A developed facility at examining explicit relationships that exist between general concepts and specific details;

ü An enhanced understanding of the relationships among sentence structures, word choice, and meaning;

ü The ability to read critically about ideas and issues, including multicultural perspectives; analyze and synthesize information; draw inferences from data; draw conclusions from arguments; and distinguish fact from fiction;

ü The ability to analyze message, audience, language choice, tone, purpose, and author’s ethos in selections from a text;

ü The ability to comprehend and critically assess writings that reflect multicultural images and perspectives;

ü The ability to recognize logical fallacies, biased language, idioms, slang, jargon, and tone;

ü The ability to develop ideas with logical support, including the use of informed opinion, facts, and their interpretations;

ü The ability to write critically about ideas, including multicultural perspectives; analyze and synthesize information; draw inferences from data; draw conclusions from arguments; and distinguish facts from opinion;

ü The ability to write both independently and in collaboration with others;

ü The ability to assess and address appropriately the character and needs of an explicit audience;

ü A facility in using different genres in writing (e.g., autobiography, editorials, and case studies) for different academic disciplines or discourse communities;

ü The ability to apply the concepts of subordination/coordination; abstract/concrete words; general/specific examples; and cohesion;

ü Development of vocabulary appropriate to the subject and/or topic;

ü The ability to effectively use the syntactic and mechanical conventions of Edited American English (.g., grammar, usage, mechanics, and diction);

ü The ability to integrate one’s own ideas with those of others, using appropriate documentation;

ü The ability to effectively use library and online resources;

ü The ability to use a style sheet consistently, such as MLA or APA style sheets;

ü Knowledge and mastery of basic word processing, email, WebCT, PowerPoint and the Internet;

ü The ability to use computer technology in the writing process, including research and documentation;

ü An awareness and appreciation of diverse cultures and contexts of human experience;

ü The ability to show ways that writing can contribute to society and be an instrument for change; and

ü Lastly, the student will be able to demonstrate the ability to write for possible publication.