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Goal 1: Communication

Goal: To develop writers and speakers who use the English language effectively and who read, write, speak, and listen critically. As a base, all students should complete introductory communication requirements early in their collegiate studies. Writing competency is an ongoing process to be reinforced through writing- intensive courses and writing across the curriculum. Speaking and listening skills need reinforcement through multiple opportunities for interpersonal communication, public speaking, and discussion.

LEP Objective: Develop, convey, and evaluate oral and written communication in various academic, professional and personal contexts.  Use oral and written communication characterized by clarity, critical analysis, logic, coherence, precision, and rhetorical awareness.  Students can meet this requirement through 1 approved course or experience in written communication and 1 approved course or experience in oral communication.

Students will be able to:

  1. Understand/demonstrate the writing and speaking processes through invention, organization, drafting, revision, editing and presentation.

  2. Participate effectively in groups with emphasis on listening, critical and reflective thinking, and responding.

  3. Locate, evaluate, and synthesize in a responsible manner material from diverse sources and points of view.

  4. Select appropriate communication choices for specific audiences.

  5. Construct logical and coherent arguments.

  6. Use authority, point-of-view, and individual voice and style in their writing and speaking.

  7. Employ syntax and usage appropriate to academic disciplines and the professional world.

Consistent with LEP Student Learning Outcomes, students will also demonstrate their ability to:

  • Use writing and speaking processes (such as inventing, organizing, drafting, revising, editing, and presenting) as appropriate for specific tasks and audiences.

  • Listen, think critically and creatively, reflect, and respond appropriately to group tasks, relationships, and processes.

  • Locate, evaluate, and synthesize material from diverse sources (print and non-print) and multiple points of view, using them in a responsible and ethical manner.

  • Evaluate communicative situations and use rhetorical tools appropriate for those situations.

  • Construct logical and coherent arguments, recognizing the role and value of credibility (ethos), point of view, emotional appeals (pathos), and individual voice and style in writing and in speaking.

  • Employ syntax, usage, and style appropriate to academic disciplines, for professional environments, and for personal expression and interpersonal exchange.

  • Describe, summarize, and analyze written and spoken discourse, noting how language affects and reflects our perception of human values, cultural perspectives, and gender identities.

  • Identify and use appropriate skills for diverse types and levels of listening and/or reading.

The following courses are pre-approved to fulfill this goal requirement and further indicate what other goal area(s) or Diversity courses of the Liberal Education Program (LEP) or Racial Issues Graduation Requirements (RIGR) the course fulfills.

Requirements (2 courses)

Select one of the following:

English
course: Introduction to Rhetorical and Analytical Writing: Supplemental, 4 Cr.
course: Introduction to Rhetorical and Analytical Writing, 4 Cr.
course: Analytical and Research Writing in the Humanities, 4 Cr.
course: Introduction to Analytical and Rhetorical Writing (course should be taken only in consultation with an advisor), 2  Cr.

Theatre
course: Rhetorical and Analytical Writing for Theatre, 4 Cr.

Students are also required to complete:

Communication Studies
course: Introduction to Communication Studies, 3 Cr.