Learning Outcomes
Department of English: Student Learning Outcomes
The Department of English has adopted student learning outcomes for all general education courses in writing and literature and for all degree programs in English.
First-year and sophomore English courses address the general education outcomes listed below. Please note that these are the core outcomes currently being assessed by the Department. Additional goals, outcomes, and policies are listed in the Department’s first-year and sophomore syllabi, which are both available online at http://www.english.txstate.edu under the “Student Resources” menu.
Learning Outcomes for General Education Courses in Writing
English 1310 and English 1320
1. Students will demonstrate command of oral, aural, written, and visual literacy skills that enable people to exchange messages appropriate to the subject, occasion, and audience. (Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board [THECB] Competency: Communication)
2. Students will demonstrate creative thinking, innovation, inquiry, and analysis, evaluation and synthesis of information. (THECB Competency: Critical Thinking)
3. Students will effectively develop, interpret and express ideas through written, oral and visual communication. (THECB Competency: Communication)
4. Students will relate choices, actions, and consequences to ethical decision-making. (THECB Competency: Personal Responsibility)
5. Students will recognize different points of view and work effectively with others to support a shared purpose or goal. (THECB Competency: Teamwork)
Learning Outcomes for General Education Courses in Literature
1. Students will examine ideas that foster aesthetic and intellectual creation in order to understand the human condition across cultures. (THECB Competency: Language, Philosophy, and Culture)
2. Students will demonstrate creative thinking, innovation, inquiry, and analysis, evaluation and synthesis of information. (THECB Competency: Critical Thinking)
3. Students will effectively develop, interpret and express ideas through written, oral and visual communication. (THECB Competency: Communication)
4. Students will relate choices, actions, and consequences to ethical decision-making. (THECB Competency: Personal Responsibility)
5. Students will demonstrate intercultural competence, knowledge of civic responsibility, and the ability to engage effectively in regional, national, and global communities. (THECB Competence: Social Responsibility)
Learning Outcomes for the BA with a Major in English
1. Students will demonstrate knowledge of literary terms.
2. Students will demonstrate the ability to apply critical theory to literary texts.
3. Students will demonstrate an understanding of audience and purpose in written communication.
4. Students will demonstrate the ability to use the conventions of the essay or research paper (or the conventions of fiction or poetry for creative writing; or the conventions of the professional document for professional writing).
5. Students will demonstrate the ability to perform stylistic or rhetorical analysis on a passage appropriate to the discipline.
Learning Outcomes for the MA with a Major in Literature
1. Students will demonstrate the ability to produce correct and effective professional-level academic writing.
2. Students will demonstrate a graduate-level ability to use current theoretical approaches to literary study.
3. Students will demonstrate the ability to produce independent and original research.
4. Students will demonstrate a graduate-level ability to analyze a variety of literary texts.
5. Students will demonstrate a graduate-level ability to synthesize literary characteristics, themes, and/or approaches in several literary texts.
Learning Outcomes for the MFA with a Major in Creative Writing
1. Students will demonstrate graduate-level knowledge of literature in their genre.
2. Students will demonstrate graduate-level knowledge of theory in their genre.
3. Students will demonstrate skill as advanced practitioners of their genre.
4. Students will demonstrate ways in which the elements of craft learned in graduate workshops have shaped their development as writers.
Learning Outcomes for the MA with Major in Technical Communication
1. Students will demonstrate graduate-level writing and editing.
2. Students will demonstrate a graduate-level understanding of rhetorical theory and research methods as they pertain to the field of technical communication.
3. Students will demonstrate a graduate-level understanding of key scholarship and research, history, current issues, and cultural matters in technical communication.
4. Students will demonstrate a graduate-level ability to connect theory with practice in one or both of the following ways: (1) creating effective documents in technical communication genres, (2) performing proficiently in the use of software technology.
5. Students will demonstrate a graduate-level understanding of ethical issues for technical communicators.
Learning Outcomes for the MA with a Major in Rhetoric and Composition
1. Students will demonstrate a graduate-level understanding of rhetorical theories, including visual rhetoric and the history of rhetoric, as these relate to the field of rhetoric and composition.
2. Students will demonstrate a graduate-level understanding of research methods and practices in rhetoric and composition.
3. Students will demonstrate a graduate-level understanding of contemporary composition theory, such as core issues, debates, research, history, ethics, and technology.
4. Students will demonstrate a graduate-level understanding of contemporary composition pedagogy, such as core issues, debates, research, history, ethics, and technology.
5. Students will demonstrate a graduate-level understanding of larger disciplinary issues surrounding writing (for example, the myriad theoretical, pedagogical, and research implications of the “social turn” in writing, and the role of theory or theorizing in the field), not just about the teaching of writing.
If you have any questions about learning outcomes, please ask your instructor or contact the Chair of the Department of English.