MLO 1 Critical Communication Skills

MLO 1: CRITICAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Ability to communicate critically and empathically in both oral and written contexts, including reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

What does this mean?
• Critical and empathic oral and written communication requires sensitivity to audience and occasion, the ability to reflect, understand, and synthesize disparate points of view, familiarity with major forms of oral and written expression (such as expressive, interpretive, technical, rhetorical, argumentative, invitational, and creative), and the appropriate application of speech and writing conventions.

Criteria for Assessment
• Does the portfolio demonstrate reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills that enable empathic and critical communication and advocacy?
• Does the portfolio demonstrate effective use of invitational communication as a means of ethical engagement with the subject matter, audience, and occasion?
• Does the portfolio address a significant issue or set of issues?
• Does the portfolio demonstrate a clear sense of purpose and utilize skillful means of oral and written expression to achieve that purpose?
• Does the portfolio demonstrate the ability to ask relevant questions and critically identify and explore significant information?
• Does the portfolio respectfully address, analyze, and assess divergent points of view?
• Does the portfolio demonstrate the ability to draw reasonable inferences with adequate support?
• Does the portfolio demonstrate effective use of conventions such as format, voice, style, grammar, mechanics, and punctuation?
• Does the portfolio demonstrate the speaker or writer's knowledge of different types of oral and written expression such as descriptive, expository, expressive, interpretive, argumentative, rhetorical, technical, and creative?

Pathways
Course-based Assessment

• HCOM 312: Cooperative Argumentation
• HCOM 317S:Advanced Composition/ Composition Theories:Service Learning
• HCOM 318: Advanced Composition Theory and Practice for K-8 Teachers

Independent Assessment
Students submit:
1. Writing samples fulfilling the above criteria and from each of the following three groups:
Research paper (approximately 12-15 pages)
Position paper (approximately 7-10 pages)
Paper demonstrating a different type of writing (e.g., expressive, interpretive, technical, etc.) than either of the other two written submissions (approximately 10-15 pages)
2. One videotaped oral presentation performed before an audience (minimum length: 15-20 minutes) with a written explanation of how the presentation fulfills the oral communication criteria cited above.

MLO 1: Critical Communication Skills Assessment Standards
(A level of 3 is necessary to fulfill the built-in assessment).

5. Exemplary
The portfolio meets all of the criteria stated above. The work demonstrates critical communication skills that are empathic, invitational, and ethical. A self-reflexive analysis is brought to bear on substantive issues. Divergent perspectives are considered respectfully and understood on their own terms. Appropriate evidence is considered and inferences soundly supported. The criteria for evaluating the issues are explained clearly and evenly applied. Conclusions are arrived at through a cooperative argumentation process and are well-founded. Sensitivity to audience and occasion is explicit and incorporated throughout. Written and oral communication projects are focused, organized, and skillfully presented according to the applicable writing and speaking conventions. Errors in spelling, punctuation, mechanics, and usage are rare.

4. Very Good
The portfolio meets all of the criteria stated above. The work demonstrates critical and ethical communication skills. A largely self-reflexive analysis is brought to bear on substantive issues. Divergent perspectives are considered respectfully and understood on their own terms. Appropriate evidence is considered and inferences are supported. The criteria for evaluating the issues are explained and evenly applied. Conclusions are arrived at through a cooperative argumentation process and are well founded. Sensitivity to audience and occasion is explicit in most areas. Written and oral communication projects are focused, organized, and competently presented according to the applicable writing and speaking conventions. Errors in spelling, punctuation, mechanics, and usage do not impede understanding.

3. Satisfactory
The portfolio meets most of the criteria stated above. The work demonstrates critical and ethical communication skills. A partially self-reflexive analysis is brought to bear on substantive issues. Divergent perspectives are considered respectfully and understood largely on their own terms. Appropriate evidence is considered and inferences are supported. The criteria for evaluating the issues are evenly applied. Conclusions are arrived at through a cooperative argumentation process and are well founded. Sensitivity to audience and occasion is apparent. Written and oral communication projects are focused, adequately organized, and competently presented according to the applicable writing and speaking conventions. Errors in spelling, punctuation, mechanics, and usage do not impede understanding.

2. Needs Improvement
The portfolio meets some of the criteria stated above. The work demonstrates critical communication skills exclusively dependent on logic or an uneven application of logic and empathic/ethical communication skills. An analysis is brought to bear on substantive issues. Divergent perspectives are presented but may not be understood on their own terms. Appropriate evidence is considered at times and inferences are supported on occasion. The criteria for evaluating the issues are applied unevenly. Conclusions may be sound but disconnected from the evidence or analysis or are unexplained. Sensitivity to audience and occasion is in question. Written and oral communication projects may need more focus, better organization, and to be more competently presented according to the applicable writing and speaking conventions. Errors in spelling, punctuation, mechanics, and usage may impede understanding.

1. Needs Considerable Improvement
The portfolio meets only a few of the criteria stated above. The work demonstrates critical communication skills exclusively dependent on logic or an uneven application of logic and empathic/ethical communication skills. The analysis may not engage a substantive issue or divergent perspectives may be underrepresented or their own terms distorted. Appropriate evidence may be lacking or even absent; inferences are frequently unsupported. The criteria for evaluating the issues are absent or applied unevenly. Conclusions are disconnected from the evidence or analysis or may be absent. Sensitivity to audience and occasion is not in evidence. Written and oral communication projects needs more focus, better organization, and to be more competently presented according to the applicable writing and speaking conventions. Errors in spelling, punctuation, mechanics, and usage impede understanding.