Rowan's Core Values of First Year Writing
The Rowan First-Year Writing Program’s five Core Values are informed by extensive research in the field of composition and rhetoric, and they align with research outcomes and objectives for First-Year Writing Programs that have been established by the Council of Writing Program Administrators (CWPA), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and the National Writing Project (NWP). These national organizations of scholars have agreed on a series of “habits of mind” that are associated with successful college and post-college writing (in other words, things that successful college writers know and are able to put into practice, regardless of their major or area of study).
The Reflective Statement
You are probably here because your Composition professor has asked you to write a Reflective Statement to include in your final portfolio. This paper is meant to be a reflection of your growth as a writer over the course of the class, which you will demonstrate by showing how you have utilized the following 5 Core Values as "habits of mind" that help guide your writing in the class.
You can think of these Core Values as 5 goals that spreading your writing abilities in different directions in an effort to make you a more versatile and complete writer. While you may be stronger in some than others, these are targeted goals which our Composition classes are built to teach towards.
And writing is a process (as you will see in Core Value 1). So even if you maybe aren't showing a "strong" connection with one of these Core Values, talk about where you think you struggle with it. Explain where you've tried to use it in your writing. Give yourself the space to talk about what you don't understand about it. This can demonstrate your growth as well. You're showing that you are resourceful and that you are trying to work towards this goal. And you're probably still further along than you started off at the beginning of the class. That's progress.
You can think of these Core Values as 5 goals that spreading your writing abilities in different directions in an effort to make you a more versatile and complete writer. While you may be stronger in some than others, these are targeted goals which our Composition classes are built to teach towards.
And writing is a process (as you will see in Core Value 1). So even if you maybe aren't showing a "strong" connection with one of these Core Values, talk about where you think you struggle with it. Explain where you've tried to use it in your writing. Give yourself the space to talk about what you don't understand about it. This can demonstrate your growth as well. You're showing that you are resourceful and that you are trying to work towards this goal. And you're probably still further along than you started off at the beginning of the class. That's progress.
The 5 Core Values
Click on the corresponding Core Value below to be taken to an infographic which explains the Core Value, offers how you can demonstrate it in your writing, and provides you with some questions to help you reflect on these skills as you move to write your Reflective Statement.
Core Value I. Writing is a practice that involves a multi-stage, recursive and social process.
Core Value II. Close and critical reading/analysis is necessary for listening to and questioning texts, arriving at a thoughtful understanding of those texts, and joining the academic and/or public conversations represented by those texts.
Core Value III. Writing is shaped by audience, purpose, genre, and context.
Core Value IV: Information literacy is essential to the practice of writing.
Core Value V. Writing has power and comes with ethical responsibilities.
Core Value I. Writing is a practice that involves a multi-stage, recursive and social process.
Core Value II. Close and critical reading/analysis is necessary for listening to and questioning texts, arriving at a thoughtful understanding of those texts, and joining the academic and/or public conversations represented by those texts.
Core Value III. Writing is shaped by audience, purpose, genre, and context.
Core Value IV: Information literacy is essential to the practice of writing.
Core Value V. Writing has power and comes with ethical responsibilities.
For more information on the 5 Core Values of Rowan's FYW Program, visit the program's Student Support Site.
