Foundations of Verbal Communications is now in two components, and three courses. FVC 001 is the Writing Workshop to assist students identified as requiring support specifically in writing skills by the orientation writing sample, by instructor referral, or by self-identification. FVC 101 and 102 are together the general required Foundation year course of Listening - Speaking -Reading - Writing.

Without going into all the background of HOW I reached these conclusions, I suggest a few basic objectives to be met in FVC 101/102.

1. Students must demonstrate technical proficiency in
A. mechanics of writing (diction, document design, grammar, punctuation, spelling)
B. academic honesty (specifically, proper attribution of sources)
C. research and analysis of research (including "information literacy")

2. Students must demonstrate understanding of the rhetorical triangle in
A. listening -- be able to identify the likely credibility and purpose of a speaker, for example
B. speaking -- be able to establish appropriate rapport with their audiences in varied circumstances, for example
C. reading -- be able to discern centrally important points in written matter, for example
D. writing -- be able to establish credibility as a scholar as appropriate, for example

3. Students must demonstrate appropriate use of the dialectic
A. distinguishing between a topic and a thesis and
B. between a thesis question and a thesis statement and
C. advancing the thesis through antithesis and synthesis.

The main question before us is how much of this macro-aim should be accomplished in each semester, or whether we should present these objectives for both semesters, as though, in essence, FVC 101 and FVC 102 has the same objectives.

A corollary to this question must be in what way these general objectives should relate to the graded assignments, which in my view should be essentially the following:

in FVC 101

1. a reflective essay, in which an understanding of the rhetorical triangle is demonstrated

2. a "research" essay, in which the development of a thesis and all of the mechanisms of scholarship (MLA format, in-text citation, works-cited page) are demonstrated

in FVC 102

1. an analytic essay, in which a thesis is formulated and developed with "objective" intent

2. a persuasive essay, in which a "controversial" thesis is carried through a dialectic.

These assignments hit the reading and writing components of the course fairly well, and would sensibly be culminating assignments with prior development in, for example,

in FVC 101

short reflective pieces in which ethos, logos, and pathos are explored individually

topic and thesis formulation exercises

outlining exercises

annotated bibliography

in FVC 102

brief analytic pieces in which a thesis is supported with textual evidence (or formulated from textual evidence)

persuasive writing is explored from several angles in diverse literary forms before being cast in scholarly prose.

The oral component of the class could also be closely tied to the process of reading and writing through, for example

oral presentations and follow-up discussions of the material in persuasive essays

oral critique of written essays.

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I personally am inclined to reduce the number of graded assignments to about six in each semester, and as much as I would like to have parity between listening, speaking, reading, and writing, I'll lean most heavily on writing as the product we are assessing. I suppose in a certain sense one or two for each basic skill would be good -- that could be six or eight.

I am very interested to hear of any suggestions of exercises to assess listening and speaking skills.

I am also concerned that all of the exercises move, in a sense, toward a single project that pulls all the elements of grading together each semester: in my suggestions above, the "research" paper in FVC 101 and the "persuasive" paper in FVC 102 are intended to be culminant.

MEA