- As the umbrella term for the FYE program, critical literacy is defined as the ability to recognize, analyze, employ and, when necessary, interrupt discourse conventions (e.g., accepted topics, genres, and styles) within particular discourse communities (e.g., home, work, church, school, civic).
- For example, an academic history essay requires different writing conventions than does an academic chemistry report, and both require different writing conventions than do a letter to the editor or a business report.
- The First-Year English Program at Marquette University is designed to help students learn both general conventions of good writing and context-specific conventions so that students may present their ideas, values, and beliefs most effectively.
- According to Quintilian, a famous Roman rhetorician, this ability to analyze and employ language effectively in a variety of situations is called facilitas.
