First Year Writing

Language 120

Learning Foundation courses at UNC Asheville offer students an opportunity to develop intellectual breadth and to lay the groundwork for their later studies. The mission of UNC Asheville’s First Year Writing course is to provide a concentrated classroom experience in the best practices of clear, effective writing. These include developing the ability to recognize and effectively employ composing processes in a variety of communication situations according to audience and purpose.        

Through their participation in their classroom writing communities, students also engage closely with texts written by themselves, their classmates and professionals. Thus they hone their expressive, interpretive and critical abilities.

In addition, students expand and strengthen their research writing skills. They increase their abilities to pose good questions and to find and analyze valid sources to develop and inform their ideas. They practice appropriately integrating materials from these sources into their own writing using appropriate academic documentation conventions. Through these activities, students construct the foundation for their growth as writers throughout their academic careers and beyond.

The UNC Asheville First Year Writing course, Language 120, aligns itself with the best practices of teaching first year writing as articulated by the Writing Program Administrators (WPA)—the national, professional organization charged with establishing standards for the teaching of academic writing especially in composition programs. According to their Outcomes Statement, “learning to write is a complex process, both individual and social, that takes place over time with continued practice and informed guidance.” Thus, at the completion of Language 120, students must demonstrate competency as outlined in the course student learning outcomes, ratified by a final course grade of at least a C-.

Student Learning Outcomes, Language 120

1. Students demonstrate through writing multiple drafts marked by increasing clarity and understanding that they can use writing as a tool of discovery, learning, and creative thinking.
2. Students demonstrate by repeated practice that they can apply the recursive writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing.
3. Students demonstrate in specific assignments that they can respond appropriately to various communication situations: according to their purpose and audience.
4. Students demonstrate by revision of several assignments that they recognize their individual strengths and revise weaknesses in organization, coherence, style, and structure.
5. Students demonstrate in the annotated bibliography assignment that they have developed the ability to pose an authentic research question, and find, summarize, analyze, and evaluate relevant sources accurately.
6. Students demonstrate in a complete research essay that they can integrate material from primary and secondary sources according to appropriate documentation conventions, using source material honestly and appropriately.

• University Writing Center