College Writing Proficiency

Goucher Commons Requirements

Program Goals

  1. Read critically, think deeply, and connect and synthesize ideas ​(process-focused)​. 

  2. Collaborate with others and respond to other writers’ work, increasing their ability to read any text critically, including their own ​(process-focused)​.

  3. Develop strategies for drafting, reviewing and revising to improve  global issues with development, structure, voice, register and the quality of the evidence, analysis and/or argument purpose, audience, and genre ​ (partially product- and partially process-focused)​.

  4. Develop strategies for drafting, reviewing and editing to improve local issues of precision and conformity to the conventions of Edited American English for the given purpose, audience, and genre.  ​ (partially product- and partially process-focused)​.

  5. Choose an appropriate register for the given purpose, audience, and genre. 

  6. Demonstrate an awareness of different genres and discourse communities and their conventions, and write essays that reflect this understanding  (product-focused)

  7.  Demonstrate an ability to develop a specific thesis, purpose, and/or focus that analyzes, argues, synthesizes, speculates, evaluates, and/or reflects (and does not merely report or summarize) for the given purpose, audience, and genre  ​(product-focused)​.  

  8. Choose and implement effective organization strategies at the sentence, paragraph, and global levels for the given purpose, audience, and genre (product-focused)​.

  9. Correctly employ appropriate citation and documentation (for example, MLA, APA or Chicago Manual Style) and employ correct use and appropriate amount of direct quotation, paraphrasing, and summarizing for the given purpose, audience, and genre  ​(product-focused).

  10. Find, analyze, interpret, and evaluate multiple texts in varying modalities (including digital formats) for the given purpose, audience, and genre (product-focused)​.

  11. Engage with multiple texts in varying modalities (including digital formats) to develop and support the thesis, purpose or focus with substantial, convincing evidence for the given purpose, audience, and genre  ​(product-focused)​.

Updated: February 2018