| In the fall of 2002, College of Arts and
Sciences’ Dean David Hodge formed the
Undergraduate Curriculum Writing Committee (UCWC) and asked that
it follow up on the recommendations put forward in recent College
task force reports by developing “concrete plans that will
provide practical guidance for our College in creating a superior
program in writing for all of our undergraduates.” Accordingly,
during the 2002-2003 academic year, the UCWC studied current UW
programs, surveyed best practice models from peer institutions,
interviewed UW faculty and graduate students from more than 28 departments
to better understand writing needs across the UW curriculum, invited
three national experts to the UW to share their perspectives, and
invited input from the campus community both in a campus-wide forum
held in May and during visits from the national experts who visited
our campus.
New for 2005: The College's Writing Program web site is now available.
Conclusions
As a result of the nine-month study, the UCWC
has come to the following conclusions:
- In order to become proficient and flexible
writers, students must write in as many disciplinary contexts
and forms as possible. They need extensive and varied writing
experience in content-based courses in their majors as well as
in academic composition and in disciplinary-focused composition
courses.
- Faculty and teaching assistant training and
support are central to the success of student writing experiences.
- The College’s writing programs require
central coordination and advocacy both because of the breadth
of writing experiences required for a successful College writing
program and because many groups share responsibility for improving
undergraduate writing. At the UW, a partial list of partners in
the writing program includes the Expository Writing Program, the
Interdisciplinary Writing Program,
academic departments, departmental writing centers, the Academic
English Program, the Office of Educational Assessment, and the
Center for Instructional Development and Research.
- Regular assessment is crucial to the effectiveness
of a writing program.
Recommendations
These conclusions have led to the following
major recommendations for a College of Arts and Sciences Writing
Initiative:
- The College of Arts and Sciences should
include in its mission statement a commitment to students’
writing proficiency and a culture of writing that extends Transforming
Writing: Final Report of the UCWC 2 throughout students’
undergraduate experience. In addition, future departmental reviews
should include attention to departmental writing goals and achievements.
- The College should appoint a College Director
of Writing charged with advocating, coordinating, and overseeing
the college’s writing programs, centers, and writingintegrated
courses.
- The College should create a College Writing
Council broadly representative of programs, departments, faculty,
and teaching assistants engaged in the teaching of writing. This
Council would work with the Director of Writing on all areas of
College writing, and particularly in the development of writing-integrated
courses across the curriculum.
- The College should increase the college
writing requirement from its current 15 credits to 20 credits.
The components of the new writing requirement are: one 5- credit
course in general academic writing, one 5-credit course that focuses
on writing in a discipline, and 10 writing-integrated credits
in courses in which writing is central
to the thinking and learning students do in those courses. Students
would be required to take at least one writing-integrated course
in their majors, and they might take an Interdisciplinary Writing
Program course linked with an upper-division course in the major
for a portion of the writing-integrated credits.
- The College should develop an assessment
program to ensure ongoing improvement in its writing program.
The new Director of Writing and the Writing Council will lead
the development of this program in consultation with assessment
experts on campus and with the representatives from the various
components of the new writing
requirement.
Under the leadership of the Writing Director
and the Writing Council, the College should establish a new partnership
with departments in support of this initiative. Departments should
be involved at all levels, including (1) developing an inventory
of departmental writing goals, practices, and needs, (2) creating
incentives and providing assistance for departments to integrate
more writing into their curricula, particularly at the upper division,
(3) providing faculty development in the form of consulting, grants,
and appropriate course relief, (4) offering teaching assistant training
and support, (5) establishing appropriate class-size limitations,
and (6)
developing and implementing a writing assessment system.
Other recommendations that the College should
consider are (1) establishing a new Center for the Study of Disciplinary
Writing, (2) establishing a Writing Minor in one or more departments
and/or creating a Writing Endorsement for graduating students, (3)
developing a more flexible alternative to the current credit-structure
system for the writing requirement, and (4) convening an independent
task force to study the issues surrounding non-native speakers of
English.
The committee believes that the foundation for
an outstanding writing program already exists, and that the above
recommendations will build on the current strengths to create a
coherent and robust program that will make a profound difference
in student writing proficiency and learning.
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