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Student Writing Outcomes: POINT

Writing plays a vital role at Moody. To help students grow as effective communicators, faculty in all disciplines can support students’ growth in five areas, identified as Student Writing Outcomes (SWO). Together, they form the acronym POINT,

Each outcome represents a research-identified type of writing expertise necessary for success in college. As a result, this framework can apply to the whole of undergraduate education.(See Anne Beaufort's College Writing and Beyond). Since these are undergraduate school-wide educational goals, they are similar to the goals of the core curriculum. They are shared commitments to ensure that students continuously grow toward excellence in these areas and that supports are put in place to aid that ongoing growth.To assess student performance in these outcomes, there are examples benchmarks underneath each outcome.

Purpose

Articulate a clear purpose and follow it throughout the paper

Students will be able to:

Focus their project around a clear goal, with a clear audience and reason for writing
Write thesis statements that a) respond to the reason for writing, b) make a clear claim, and c) preview the paper’s logic in defense of its claim.

Organization

Logically arrange ideas in ways appropriate for the genre and that flow from the purpose

Students will be able to:

Show alignment between the thesis statement and the content of the paper, with each main point previewed by the thesis given enough space and presented in the same order
Focus sections and paragraphs around easy-to-find main points, arranged so that they logically build on one another in ways fitting for the genre

Information and Ideas

Locate, evaluate, and critically engage others’ ideas

Students will be able to:

Locate and select appropriate sources, demonstrated by integrating material that fits the discipline, genre, and purpose
Critically engage with others’ ideas, demonstrated by source integration that goes far beyond repeating what was covered in class, usually by thoroughly analyzing, applying, or synthesizing key material from sources that address the paper’s central question(s)

Necessary Steps

Manage students’ own thinking and writing process, respond effectively to feedback, and proactively use school resources

Students should be able to:

Assess their own learning progress, demonstrated by explaining the learning outcomes and giving examples of how their papers show progress toward these goals
Manage their writing process, demonstrated by reflective memos that use examples from their papers/homework to explain their persuasive choices, time management, and use of feedback

Technical Details

Apply standard citation styles throughout the paper Write clear, precise sentences that demonstrate reasonable proofreading

Students should be able to:

Proofread for clarity and the most common issues, as demonstrated by sentences that are easy to follow and contain infrequent major errors
Apply citation styles correctly and consistently throughout their papers, demonstrated by appropriate integration of in-text citations (or footnotes) and few bibliographic errors