Written Communication

Written communication is defined as the ability to develop, convey, and exchange ideas in writing, as appropriate to a given context and audience.  Degree graduates will express themselves effectively in a variety of written forms.

Student Learning Outcomes:

• Use standard English
• Understand and interpret complex materials
• Assimilate, organize, develop, and present an idea formally and informally
• Employ the writing process to compose various compositions: narrative, expository, descriptive, and argumentative that are satisfactory on the collegiate-level in focus, content, organization, style, and conventions
• Apply critical thinking skills to locate, read, evaluate, and incorporate print and non-print sources into their written communication
• Use various writing strategies to convey a well-developed written text
• Define and apply the elements of logic and critical thinking to develop writing
• Apply a documentation style to create a formal writing

Sample: Students who are considered prospective graduates.  This group includes students enrolled in a degree program and who have earned 40 or more credits and are enrolled in ENG 112, HIS 121, HIS 122, MTH 155 and MTH 245.  Assignments for these students will be collected regardless of instructional modality (online, hybrid, in-person).

Measures:

Direct- Professional Readiness will be assessed utilizing course-embedded assignments.  The course-embedded assignments will be collected from the following general education courses: in ENG 112, HIS 121, HIS 122, MTH 155 and MTH 245. Student work will be evaluated with a rubric using the Association of American College & Universities open source Written Communication rubric as a template. 

Indirect- Camp’s Graduate Survey and the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE)

Target:  80% of students will score a (3) or higher, on direct assessment, which demonstrates proficiency.

Findings: 

Direct: In AY 2020-21, there were 61 students total who were enrolled in the designated courses that meet the criteria set out in Camp’s Assessment Plan. Of these 66, 41 pieces of student work was collected. Student work was not collected from students for a number of reasons including withdrawal from the course, work was not submitted by the student, or work was flagged for plagiarism. Of the work that was reviewed only 12% of students met or exceeded the target score. Weakness for those student work that scored below 2.0 were specific to students’ lacking ability to develop a strong claim/thesis statement, demonstrate an academic voice, and form logical agreements to support claim/thesis. Student work also lacked cohesiveness and organization, the writing was more expository and summary than argumentative.

Indirect:

Graduate Survey

% Moderate and Great Extent

Action Plan: The General Education Workgroup removed ENG 111 from the assessment plan and ENG 112 was added to the plan. All the instructions for each assignment were reviewed and made uniform to ensure the same instructions over sections of each course. Written communication will be assessed next in 2023-24.