Mission and Student Learning Outcomes

Mission Statement

The Department of Literature and Language contributes to UNC Asheville’s mission of inquiry and engagement through its talented faculty and program offerings. Students may choose a major in literature with tracks in creative writing, literature, and teaching licensure, or they may enroll in a variety of world literature and creative writing courses for minors and non-majors. The department fulfills its liberal arts mission and responsibility to the public through its preparation of teachers, its support of undergraduate research, and its cultivation of critical thinkers, leaders, and life-long learners. The Department of Literature and Language creates a strong learning community by encouraging interaction between faculty and students in small classes, individual conferences and creative learning opportunities outside the classroom setting. Our faculty help students to maximize their critical thinking and creative abilities through writing, reading, and verbal discourse, fostering skills essential to their participation as informed and active citizens in a diverse and changing world.

Student Learning Outcomes

At the conclusion of the major, students will demonstrate:

1. an understanding of the conventions, technical features and the historical and cultural contexts of literature and language.
2. reading competence and advanced literacy through their interpretation and analysis of a range of texts.
3. competency in all stages of the process of writing, and will develop techniques for recognizing, employing and adapting the technical, imaginative and rhetorical features of English as demanded by a range of writing situations.
4. competency in oral communication skills through discussions and presentations in formal and informal settings.

Student Learning Outcomes for Language 120, Foundations of Academic Writing

At the conclusion of Language 120, students will demonstrate:

1. 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. by repeated practice that they can apply the recursive writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing.
3. in specific assignments that they can respond appropriately to various communication situations: according to their purpose and audience.
4. by revision of several assignments that they recognize their individual strengths and revise weaknesses in organization, coherence, style, and structure.
5. 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. 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 Mission Statement
• University Student Learning Outcomes