Area A Guidelines (prior to summer 2020)

In the sections that follow, you will see the specific learning goals for each area. Together, we refer to these requirements as "Guidelines."

• Generally speaking, "Educational Objectives" refer to what students will learn by completing that sub area while "Course Criteria" refer to how the course is designed to support that learning.

 

These guidelines pertain to courses in catalogs 2019-20 or prior.

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Area A: Communication
 

Introduction

A1: Expository Writing (writing intensive)

A2: Oral Communication

A3: Reasoning, Argumentation and Writing (writing intensive)

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Introduction

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The three lower-division courses in Area A provide a foundation in the skills of clear thinking, speaking, and writing. Courses in this area provide extensive practice in the principles, skills, and art of reasoning in both oral and written communication. Writing and speaking are fundamental modes of expression that rely on the principles of rhetoric and clear reasoning, and instruction in logic is an essential support for these modes. The sequence assumes that the mastery of reasoned communication must be developed and practiced over time and that this mastery is crucial to students' success at the university and beyond. By placing basic skills in a larger context, these courses also provide a vision of why this area is an important component of General Education.

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A1: Expository Writing

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Educational Objectives

Lower-division courses in A1 must fulfill EACH of the following objectives:

After completing the first course in writing, students are expected to have achieved facility in expository writing and should have an enhanced ability to:

• EO 1 — Explore and express ideas through writing;

• EO 2 — Understand all aspects of the writing act--including prewriting, drafting, revision, editing, and proofreading--and their relationship to each other;

• EO 3 — Assess the writer's audience and apply the appropriate organizational approaches and language;

• EO 4 — Recognize that writing and rewriting are necessary to the discovery, clarification, and development of a student's ideas;

• EO 5 — Write essays that are clear, unified, coherent at all levels, and free of significant errors in grammar and spelling;

• EO 6 — Read critically to derive rhetorical principles and tactics for the student's own writing;

• E7 — Understand the importance of ethics in written communication.

Course Criteria

The A1 course proposal and expanded course description must clearly indicate how the course will include at least 4,000 words of original writing for evaluation and provide both instruction and practice in EACH of the following criteria:

• CR 1 — The writing process (including prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading);

• CR 2 — Structuring effective paragraphs which focus on a single issue and reflect both unity and coherence;

• CR 3 — The major organizational approaches to expository writing (e.g. comparison and contrast, process, classification and division);

• CR 4 — Writing expository essays (which incorporate narration and description) that are appropriately adjusted to the writer's audience;

• CR 5 — Precise and concrete usage with the appropriate levels of diction, voice, imagery, and figures of speech adapted to the intended audience;

• CR 6 — The use of standard grammar and punctuation; close critical reading;

• CR 7 — Critically assessing students' own and others' papers;

• CR 8 — Writing both in-class and out-of-class analytic essays (with approximately one-third of the course exercises involving "speeded" writing).

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A2: Oral Communication

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Educational Objectives

Lower-division courses in A2 meet EACH of the following objectives:

• EO 1 — Hear and understand what is said, formulate relevant responses in complete sentences free of slang, and construct spoken messages in a variety of rhetorical contexts, including brief messages, conversations, group discussions, and oral presentations;

• EO 2 — Understand the place, function, and ethical use of oral communication; evaluate spoken messages critically, especially for their clarity, informative value, and use or abuse of rhetorical devices in oral persuasion;

• EO 3 — Recognize that writing and speaking are closely related, and that each is an effective act of rehearsal for the other;

• EO 4 — Locate, retrieve, evaluate, and incorporate material appropriate to oral presentation, and cite such material accurately;

• EO 5 — Recognize the common fallacies of thinking;

• EO 6 — Practice writing skills related to the subject matter of the course.

Course Criteria

The A2 course proposal and expanded course outline must clearly indicate how the course will include appropriate writing activities of not less than 2,500 words related to the content and the logic of oral presentations, provide an activity environment allowing four or more original oral presentations of 5-7 minutes (at least one must be a speech to inform and one a speech to persuade), and provide both instruction and practice in EACH of the following criteria:

• CR 1 — Applying techniques for attentive listening and accurate comprehension of spoken messages;

• CR 2 — The skills appropriate for a variety of oral presentations;

• CR 3 — The principles of outlining appropriate to various speaking situations;

• CR 4 — Using organizational patterns appropriate to various speaking situations;

• CR 5 — Evaluating the uses of language, including the abuses of language, in persuasive speaking;

• CR 6 — Locating, retrieving, reporting, evaluating, integrating, and accurately citing research material;

• CR 7 — Identifying the common fallacies of thinking, and understanding their implications in both written and oral forms.

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A3: Reasoning, Argumentation, and Writing

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Educational Objectives

After completing a course in A3, students should be able to understand, recognize, and apply principles of reasoning in argumentation to their own and others' written and oral communications; in achieving this objective, students should have an enhanced ability to fulfill EACH of the following objectives:

• EO 1 — Recognize lines of reasoning and the precise issues they address; determine the relevance of argument to issue and the relevance of premises to conclusion; and evaluate the strength of an argument by accurately applying principles of both formal and informal logic;

• EO 2 — Write out-of-class argumentative essays that are well composed, demonstrating a clear sense of issue and developing cogent lines of reasoning;

• EO 3 — Develop rhetorical awareness that will allow them to adapt their arguments to various audiences;

• EO 4 — Recognize the moral, as well as logical, dimensions of rational discourse;

• EO 5 — Write in-class analytical and argumentative essays typical of the critical-thinking component of "speeded" standardized graduate or professional-program admissions tests.

Lower-Division Criteria

Lower-division courses in A3 must meet EACH of the following criteria:

Because both the Expository Writing and the Oral Communication courses prepare students for this course, enrollment requires satisfactory completion of (or receiving credit by examination in) BOTH Expository Writing and Oral Communication. The course proposal and expanded course outline must clearly indicate how the course will include at least 3,000 words of original writing for evaluation and provide both instruction and practice in:

• CR 1 — The principles of organizing and writing argumentative essays for various rhetorical situations;

• CR 2 — Identifying issues; recognizing, analyzing, evaluating and constructing arguments (including treatment of deductive validity and soundness, inductive argument strength, and common deductive and inductive fallacies);

• CR 3 — Criticizing the written arguments of others;

• CR 4 — Discerning the relevance of premises to conclusions and the relevance of arguments to issues;

• CR 5 — Recognizing the uses and abuses of language in written argument;

• CR 6 — Finding, evaluating, and incorporating research materials, as well as attributing and documenting them accurately;

• CR 7 — Applying principles of fair-minded argument (including how to identify and respond to bias, emotion, and propaganda);

• CR 8 — Writing both in-class and out-of-class argumentative essays.

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