Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

WR 121 offers broad preparation for both academic writing and professional communication. Includes composing for a variety of rhetorical situations, writing for both oneself and for external audiences. Provides self-guided learning opportunities alongside more structured opportunities for practice, with support as needed. All courses in the writing program teach writing as a process, requiring revision over multiple drafts; require 2 instructor conferences; and include principles of citation.

Upon completion of this course students should be able to:

1. ADAPT: Apply rhetorical concepts through analyzing and composing a variety of texts.
2. INQUIRE & CONNECT: Engage texts critically, ethically, and strategically to support writing goals.
3. REFLECT: Develop flexible composing, revising, and editing strategies for a variety of purposes, audiences, writing situations, and genres.
4. REFLECT: Reflect on knowledge and skills developed in this course and their potential applications in other writing contexts.

• Students will connect to resources and develop the metacognitive skills they need to succeed in WR 122 and at PCC generally.
• Students will begin to see themselves as lifelong students of reading, writing, and rhetoric.
• Students will transfer their learning to personal goals and larger initiatives that matter to them.
• Students will see themselves as contributors to larger conversations.  

• Low stakes writing for the self and the instructor (examples include journals, personal blogs, reflections, writer’s memos)

• High stakes writing for an (imagined or real) audience, i.e., rhetorical projects that have undergone revision and editing (examples include essays crafted for specific rhetorical situations, editorials, annotated bibliographies, mixed media presentations) 

• Regular (weekly) low stakes writing, and 1-3 significant, high stakes writing projects

• Composition in multiple genres (e.g., an editorial, a proposal, and an essay crafted for a specific rhetorical situation)

• Presentations, class discussion, small group work, peer review/workshop

• Library Research session with a librarian

• Conferences

Assessment Tasks

• ADAPT: Experiment with different genres

• INQUIRE: Locate relevant information sources in a process of inquiry

• CONNECT: Use rhetorical tools to convey and support a perspective

• REFLECT: Analyze their own learning in writing

Assessment Tools (the following is not an exhaustive or required list of assessment possibilities, but offers examples of how an instructor might gather information about a student’s learning)

Students’ ability to adapt may be assessed by considering how they:

• Read and analyze multiple genres.

• Compose with intention in multiple genres.

• Demonstrate an awareness of the ways genre conventions impact reader-writer interaction.

Students’ ability to inquire may be assessed by considering how they:

• Formulate a researchable question.

• Find and analyze relevant information.

• Think critically about and evaluate information sources.

• Identify a conversation.

Students’ ability to connect may be assessed by considering how they:

• Use evidence with purpose.

• Write in conversation with others.

• Consider multiple perspectives.

• Maintain focus and coherence through a single piece of writing.

Students’ ability to reflect may be assessed by considering how they:

• Articulate and reflect on their own reading process.

• Articulate and reflect on their own search process.

• Articulate and reflect on their own writing process.

• Develop a rhetorical vocabulary.

The following content is recommended for helping students learn to adapt:

• Composition in genres used in diverse rhetorical situations

• Low stakes and high stakes writing

• Reflective writing

The following content is recommended for helping students learn to inquire:

• Reading journals

• Research notes

• Annotations

• Annotated Bibliography

• Conferences/conference preparation

The following content is recommended for helping students learn to connect:

• Essays crafted for specific rhetorical situations

• Annotated Bibliographies

• Letters

• Editorials

• Review articles

• Multimodal compositions

• Other genres defined by specific rhetorical situations (recipe, product review, advice column, obituary, bio, profile, review, etc.)

The following content is recommended for helping students learn to reflect:

• Learning journals

• Reading journals

• Writer’s memos

• Reader’s memos

• Letters

• Annotations

• Emails