Session Results: Kathleen Blake Yancey (Overview)

I. Some Reporting of Points Made in Different Groups

*writing is only part of what we do: reading needs to be accounted for as well

*students need to become comfortable with writing

*students need to work with sources

*it is very difficult to get faculty consensus on first-year composition

*it isn't enough to use phrases like "the process approach to writing": we have to define them

*outcomes could be used to help faculty in other disciplines understand what we do, and to provide the vocabulary of the course

*how/do grades fit with outcomes?

*students expect writing to be efficient, so an outcome will need to deal with that

*in the outcomes, writing should be conceptualized as an intellectual activity, as the chance to pursue scholarship and truth

II. Some Interpretations/Implications of Outcomes

*outcomes can be used to define the course as much as to define what we expect from students

*the need to anticipate what students bring with them when they walk in the door and build on that: outcomes are situated, in other ways, in multiple contexts

*given outcomes, who will teach writing?

*how can we educate faculty?

*how can we prevent legislatures from writing outcomes that are not applicable to all institutions?

*outcomes could provide a starting place to inquire into what it is that we do with our students and how well we do it

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