Departmental Programs
Criteria for Departmental Writing Programs
- Compliance with the goals of the College Academic Writing Program. The Writing Program Committee encourages departments to develop their own writing programs because we believe that they are the best ways to meet the goals of the College Writing Program. The College Writing Program encourages departments to consider the needs of their students in written, oral, and visual rhetoric as well as research fluency, and how faculty can best meet these learning needs.1 The following list distills the essential features of our Writing Program and will be our primary guide in reviewing proposals for departmental writing programs.
- Frequency. The total number of pages that students write appears to be less important than writing often. Students should always be at work on some writing project—researching, planning, drafting, revising, etc. Students learn course material and improve their own writing best when assigned both formal and informal (“write-to learn”) exercises.
- Feedback. Response—written and oral, from professors and peers—that is coupled with the opportunity for revision is essential for improving writing.
- Variety. Students should be taught, and have opportunity to perform, a variety of rhetorical types and practices that are common in a discipline. Departments may therefore decide that, in addition to traditional academic writing assignments, students should gain experience in varieties of new genres of composition: portfolios, individual and group oral presentations, web documents, and Powerpoint presentations. A variety of assignments in a department also should ensure that students gain research fluency as well as experience in writing longer research papers.
- Frequency. The total number of pages that students write appears to be less important than writing often. Students should always be at work on some writing project—researching, planning, drafting, revising, etc. Students learn course material and improve their own writing best when assigned both formal and informal (“write-to learn”) exercises.
- Integration throughout the major curriculum. Writing should not be limited to two or three junior-and senior-level courses. Rather, departments should give students opportunity to develop skills in disciplinary writing throughout the curriculum.
- Courses offered early in the major should acquaint students with differences between characteristics of writing taught in English 101 and those in the discipline, using a discussion of writing characteristics as a means of explaining the defining emphases and values of a discipline. These courses should acquaint students with research skills that are common to all disciplines, build upon research skills introduced in English 101/RIT, and that are essential to good academic writing.
- Through the sequence of courses required in the major, students should be progressively apprenticed in the various kinds of writing and other forms of rhetoric composed in the discipline. As part of this composition instruction, research instruction should become more discipline-specific, including disciplinary communication strategies, specific research tools, and the research methods and techniques by which practitioners gather sources.
- A senior capstone course is often an effective place for students to synthesize what they have learned about writing in the discipline. (Possible assignments include a research paper that picks up on a project the students started in the sophomore or junior year and a portfolio of writing collected throughout the major curriculum and analyzed to summarize the characteristics of disciplinary writing and a student’s development as a writer.)
- Courses offered early in the major should acquaint students with differences between characteristics of writing taught in English 101 and those in the discipline, using a discussion of writing characteristics as a means of explaining the defining emphases and values of a discipline. These courses should acquaint students with research skills that are common to all disciplines, build upon research skills introduced in English 101/RIT, and that are essential to good academic writing.
- Consideration of the role of departmental offerings in the core. Non-majors taking core courses in a department should have the opportunity to practice “writing-to-learn” techniques that our college writing program affirms; they could, for example, be required to compose informal journals, responses to readings, email postings, etc., as well as traditional writing assignments.
- Faculty awareness and development. Departments should introduce new faculty to their writing program and revisit their writing programs, especially when the department revises its course offerings. Departments should avail themselves of the research expertise of the librarians. In addition, departments should consider what type of writing program works best for them and how they can encourage their members to routinely participate in faculty development regarding written, oral, and visual rhetoric.
- Assessment. Assessment of departmental writing programs now occurs with the overall departmental assessments. Assessments of writing programs should be both descriptive (reviewing what type of rhetorical skills are currently being practiced in the courses) and outcome based (considering student learning outcomes). For a comprehensive picture of student learning outcomes, departments should complete both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The departmental liaisons to the writing program can consult the Writing Program Director, Assistant Director, or members of the committee about effective assessment.
1. The inclusion of oral and visual rhetoric and research fluency into the College Writing Program reflects the Writing Program’s ongoing focus on student needs. These additions reflect the blurring of boundaries between types of rhetorical assignments—group papers that serve as the basis for group presentations; research papers that are given as poster presentations; PowerPoint presentations, etc. As more and more faculty and departments require students to use all forms of rhetoric within the classroom, the Writing Program should signal those changes. The Writing Program also acknowledges the need for research skills in completing many of these rhetorical assignments.
