May 22, 2003
Committee calls for more student writing, more coordinated writing programs
If recommendations of the Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Curriculum Writing Committee are accepted, students will be writing more and college writing programs will be more coordinated.
The preliminary recommendations were presented at a forum last week that was very much a working session for participants. Seated around a number of tables, those who came heard presentations by committee members, after which they had a chance to give their feedback. Committee members will take what they heard into consideration as they formulate their final report.
The preliminary recommendations addressed four areas of concern:
- Central coordination
- Student requirements
- Faculty and teaching assistant development
- Assessment
Speaking on central coordination, committee member Juan Guerra, English, said that the teaching of writing has been rethought in recent times, moving from being located in a particular department — usually English — to being integrated into the college experience as a whole. And although the UW has been moving with the trend with such innovations as the Interdisciplinary Writing Program and departmental writing centers, coordination has been insufficient.
“We had to try to strike a balance between the need for coordination and the University’s historic commitment to decentralization,” Guerra said.
Accordingly, recommendations call for a new position, College Director of Writing, and a College Writing Council made up of representatives from throughout Arts and Sciences. The council would be chaired by one of its members, not by the director. And departments would be involved in a college-wide inventory of writing needs and efforts to serve those needs.
Recommendations also call for an increase in student writing requirements. Students now are required to take five credits of composition and 10 credits of “W” courses — courses that include significant writing. Under the recommendations, students would take an additional five-credit composition course.
Committee member John Webster, English, who spoke about this part of the recommendations, called this “a small change with a big effect.” The new course, he said, is meant to be an introduction to writing in the student’s discipline. Whereas W courses focus on the discipline’s subject matter and include writing primarily as a tool for learning, the new composition course would focus on the writing itself.
The committee is also recommending the expansion of Interdisciplinary Writing Program link courses and the development of a writing minor.
The committee’s recommendations on faculty/TA development are designed to overcome some barriers to teaching writing that many faculty see. Committee member Betsy Cooper, dance, who presented this section of the recommendations, said she and other committee members interviewed 28 faculty in 21 departments who are in the “writing trenches” as a way of gathering information.
Recommendations call for creating incentives for departments to integrate writing more fully into their curricula, particularly at the upper division level. Specifically, the committee suggests those incentives might come in the form of consulting, grants and appropriate course relief for faculty, along with strengthened training and support for TAs.
Of all the speakers at the forum, committee member Carolyn Plumb, technical communication, had the fewest recommendations to present. Speaking about assessment, she said the committee had decided only that student writing needs to be assessed, and that the writing initiative launched by the recommendations should itself be assessed. The committee will be talking more about assessment recommendations over the next two weeks.
The committee was created last fall by Arts and Sciences Dean David Hodge, who was in turn responding to two A&S task force reports that raised concerns about student writing. The committee was charged with looking at what is currently being done in writing instruction both on campus and nationwide, and making recommendations for improvements.
The committee is still open to feedback from the campus community. Send comments to committee chair Gerry Philipsen, gphil@u.washington.edu. The final report is expected to be given to Hodge by June 6 and will be posted on the A&S Web site.
