ENG 101
Download PDF of the full ENG 101 Learning Outcomes or ENG 101 Learning Outcomes (Summary)
The Illinois State University Writing Program has developed nine Learning Outcomes to explain to students what they can expect to learn when they take ENG 101 at Illinois State. Each ENG 101 class is unique, because each ENG 101 instructor designs his or her course individually (with input from the Writing Program); however, all of our instructors match up their courses to these Learning Outcomes, so you will encounter a similar list of terms and concepts as you work your way through the projects in the course.
1) Writing Research Identity: Living and Writing in the World
Students will learn to understand and articulate how learning new skills and ideas affects their thinking and behavior as writers. Students will use knowledge gained in all of the other seven learning outcome areas to demonstrate this ability.
What this Outcome Means
Being a successful writer in different settings requires more than just learning specific skills, like where to put a comma or how to write a thesis statement. A successful writer must also use their knowledge flexibly in different situations, and must be able to determine when new skills and knowledge are required. Building a “writing research identity” means you are able to think beyond just acquiring skills and begin to understand how all of your skills (and the skills you haven’t yet acquired) change what you can and can’t do as a writer. For this outcome, you’ll be assessed on your ability to do the following things:
- Understand and articulate what skills and knowledge you do and don’t have that might be useful in a particular writing situation
- Understand and articulate skills you need to work on when you approach new writing situations.
- Understand generally how your knowledge about writing shapes you as a writer.
- Understand specifically how your existing knowledge (or lack of knowledge) can create limitations in your ability to engage in different kinds of writing (a key skill for becoming stronger as a writer).
- Understand how your knowledge and expertise can be adapted successfully to different writing situations.
Skills and Activities
- You will practice identifying and assessing your own writing skills. This will include reviewing how you managed to learn the skills you already possess, as well as identifying skills you still need to learn.
- You’ll work to map out how your existing and to-be-acquired skills will help you successfully engage with new kinds of writing (in the class and in your future writing life).
- You’ll work to identify all of the ways you are already a writing researcher and to better understand how your experiences have shaped you as a writer and as a researcher.
- You’ll be asked to think about your attitudes about writing and about the learning you need to do in new writing situations.
The Backstory
Research in Writing Studies, Education, and Literacy Studies indicates that people create fairly strong “writing identities” that shape how they learn (and even what they are able to learn) about new writing situations. The more flexible your knowledge of your writing skills is, the more likely you’ll be to be able to successfully learn different kinds of writing. In our program, we try to help writers think about their identity as writers and researchers. Understanding your own experiences and the ways these experiences have shaped you can help you better understand how to use the writing research skills we offer.Instructor Resources
2) Peer and Self-Assessment: Learning to Assess What’s Working and What Isn’t Working
Students will learn to assess their own and others’ writing productions, to provide specific and accurate evidence to document the successes and problems in their writing productions, and also offer this kind of evidence-based assessment to their peers.
What this Outcome Means
Skills and Activities
The Backstory
Instructor Resources
3) All About Genres: Exploring, Researching, and Analyzing Genres
Students will learn to identify key features of genres, use specific techniques for studying and analyzing genres (genre studies and cultural-historical activity theory – CHAT), and produce texts with clear explanations of how genre conventions have been adhered to, modified, or even resisted in a particular production.
What this Outcome Means
Skills and Activities
The Backstory
Instructor Resources
4) Researching your Content: How to Find and Evaluate Information and Cite What You Know
Students will learn to identify effective information seeking behaviors for a range of research situations. These include skills for finding information, evaluating sources for validity and usefulness, documenting and citing sources, and learning to research literate activity.
What this Outcome Means
Skills and Activities
The Backstory
Instructor Resources
5) Cultural-Historical Activity Theory: CHATting about Literate Activity (and Other Terms and Concepts)
Students will be expected to demonstrate familiarity with the terms of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory and other important terms and concepts – this specifically includes your ability to use Activity Theory and other concepts as practical writing research tools for making decisions about new genres and writing situations.
What this Outcome Means
Skills and Activities
The Backstory
Instructor Resources
6) Uptake and Antecedent Knowledge: Documenting Knowing and Learning
Students will be expected document knowledge in new writing situations by clearly articulating how existing knowledge and skills have adapted and changed over the course of a new writing experience.
What this Outcome Means
Skills and Activities
The Backstory
Instructor Resources
7) (Multi)Media and (Multi)Modalities: The Forms, Structures, Tools, and Modes of Writing
Students will be expected to demonstrate skill at moving content between different modes and media.
What this Outcome Means
Skills and Activities
The Backstory
Instructor Resources
8) Cultures and Communities: Culturally Responsive and Ethical Representations in Writing
Students will be expected to demonstrate awareness of how writing is accomplished differently in cultures and communities beyond the university environment, including social, civic and workplace settings. Learning to make ethical and responsive decisions about writing within (and especially between and across) different cultures and communities is a key activity related to this learning outcome.
What this Outcome Means
Skills and Activities
The Backstory
Instructor Resources
9) Translingual and Transnational Literacies: Attention to Diverse Language Practices
This learning outcome specifically addresses two aspects of language use: (1) students will be expected to demonstrate knowledge of the ways that language difference can shape our knowledge and activities as writers, and (2) students will also be expected to demonstrate awareness of English as a “global language.”
What this Outcome Means
Skills and Activities
The Backstory
Instructor Resources
ENG 145
Download PDF for Full Learning Outcomes for 145
If you took ENG 101 with us here at ISU, you’ll notice that the learning outcomes are largely the same. For students who’ve taken ENG 101 here at ISU, our expectations are that you will advance your skills in these areas, and specifically begin to apply them to the kinds of writing/communicating that happen in your academic discipline and potential workplace settings. For students who took a course equivalent to ENG 101 elsewhere, we’ll expect you to move into our course at an advanced level, which may mean that you’ll want to review some of the resources for the learning outcomes, since they won’t be familiar to you.
10) Discourse Communities: The Impact of Professional Communities
Students should demonstrate an understanding of how written, oral, and digital communication is shaped by discourse communities within the student’s academic discipline and or/professional field. Exploring a range of disciplinary genres will give students experience with many different kinds of texts. Students will focus on the changes (the affordances and limitations) that happen when they produce content in different modes for specific discourse communities.