Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

WR 122 offers focused preparation for academic communication. Provides opportunities for practice in academic writing and conventions, with an emphasis on the kind of independent research, thinking, and learning necessary for self-guided academic projects. 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 the course students should be able to:

1. ADAPT: Apply rhetorical concepts to achieve writing goals within a given discourse community.

2. INQUIRE: Locate, critically evaluate, synthesize, and integrate multiple perspectives from a variety of sources.

3. CONNECT: Engage in research and writing as recursive and inquiry-based processes, participating in the communal and conversational nature of academic discourses.

4. REFLECT: Develop strategies for generating, drafting, revising, and editing texts based on feedback and reflection.

5. REFLECT: Reflect on knowledge and skills developed in this and other courses and potential transfer to future contexts.

• Students will leave with the tools necessary to participate in academic discourse at PCC and beyond.
• Students will understand 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 critical participants in 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 academic essays, review articles, annotated bibliographies, mixed media presentations) 

• Regular (weekly) low stakes writing, and 2-3 significant, high stakes writing projects

• At least 2 high stakes writing projects that are academic in nature 

• Independent research

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

• Library Research session with a librarian

• Conferences

Assessment Tasks

• ADAPT: Negotiate academic genres with purpose and control

• INQUIRE: Locate multiple and various information sources that are appropriate to the given process of inquiry

• CONNECT: Craft an argument in conversation with others who are thinking about the same subject

• 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 academic genres.

• Compose with intention in multiple genres, including academic genres.

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

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

• Formulate a question that can be researched using academic methods.

• Find and analyze compelling and relevant information.

• Think critically about and evaluate complex information sources.

• Identify a conversation through research.

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

• Organize evidence purposefully, in support of a claim that furthers a conversation.

• Engage in an academic conversation.

• 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.

• Use rhetorical vocabulary to analyze their own writing.

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

• Composition in more than one academic genre

• 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

• Literature Review

• Academic Essay

• Conferences/conference preparation

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

• Academic essays

• Annotated Bibliographies

• Abstracts

• Proposals

• Review articles

• Multimodal compositions

• Other academic genres

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

• Learning journals

• Reading journals

• Writer’s memos

• Reader’s memos

• Letters

• Annotations

• Emails