Writing the Personal in an Outcomes-Based World. 6

Abstract : This essay explores the influence of the discourse and practices of the learning outcomes assessment (LOA) movement on three composition instructors' assignments and assessments. While outcomes assessment by itself can be a useful tool, it cannot be separated from the exigency that compels it, in which educational practices must be defended against a skeptical, product-oriented public. We contend that LOA has come to be interpreted at the local level as a stricture against writing the personal into the academic. Presenting our approaches one by one, we show how we engage personal writing within academic genres with differing student populations and institutional contexts-a selective liberal arts college, an urban community college, and a private religious university. We argue that the carefully planned use of personal narrative must have a role in composition precisely because it most effectively engages students in the writing process, fosters critical thinking skills, and moves students toward the true ends of a college education and the very learning goals that national LOA initiatives have articulated. 56

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