The Outcomes Book: Debate and Consensus After the WPA Outcomes Statement

The "WPA Outcomes Statement" is important because it represents a working consensus among composition scholars about what college students should learn and do in a composition program. But as a single-page document, the statement cannot convey the kind of reflective process that a writing program must undertake to address the learning outcomes described. The Outcomes Book relates the fuller process by exploring the matrix of concerns that surrounded the developing Statement itself, and by presenting the experience of many who have since employed it in their own settings. For departments, programs, and individuals, this collection levers the Outcomes Statement in all its simplicity and its complexity into a rich discussion of the programmatic essentials of writing theory and pedagogy—and what these look like at writing programs informed by the Outcomes Statement. It is written in the hope that faculty and administrators alike will use the WPA Statement as a tool for cyclically reflecting on their own programs and practice.