WAC Faculty Handbook [web]

WRITING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM

AT WRIGHT STATE UNIVERSITY

A Brief Guide for Faculty

Contents

A Message from the WAC Coordinator

Assumptions Underlying WAC Programs

Writing Across the Curriculum at Wright State

Writing in General Education Requirements

Writing in the Major Requirements

Making Writing Assignments

Responding to Student Papers

Resources for WAC Teachers and Their Students

Appendix A: The Writing Center and WAC Courses

Appendix B: Dealing with Plagiarism

Appendix C: Writing Intensive Courses in General Education

A Message from the WAC Coordinator

This brief guide to the Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) program at Wright State University addresses the most frequently asked questions about the WAC program and its requirements. Also included are some general suggestions about making writing assignments and responding to student papers, some sample assignments, and a list of resources for WAC teachers and their students. More detailed information on these topics is available on the WAC web page <http://www.wright.edu/academics/wac/>.

One of my most important responsibilities as coordinator of this program is to work with faculty as they incorporate writing in their classes. I will be happy to do that in any way that I can, whether working with individual instructors or groups of instructors who teach different sections of the same course. If your department employs graders for large writing intensive classes, I will gladly help you design training sessions as needed. When your department or college is ready to begin assessing the impact of the WAC program, I may be able to assist as you develop the criteria and procedures that best fit your situation. In short, I hope you will call on me in whatever capacity you need.

Joe Law

Coordinator, Writing Across the Curriculum

Assistant Vice President for Articulation and Transfer

Professor of English

268 University Hall

Phone: 775-2155

E-mail: joe.law@wright.edu

GE Area

Learning Objectives

I. Communication and Mathematical Skills

English Composition

Mathematics

a. use writing processes to explore, think, and learn, and to write appropriately for various tasks and audiencesb. develop logical and fair arguments, and observe appropriate writing conventionsc. show ability to identify main ideas and evaluate, analyze, and synthesize primary and secondary sourcesd. use, formulate, and interpret mathematical modelse. summarize and justify analyses of mathematical models or problems using appropriate words, symbols, tables, and/or graphs

II. Cultural-Social Foundations

History

The Non-Western World

a. describe and analyze historical-social elements of western cultureb. describe and analyze historical-social elements of non-western culturec. describe and analyze the global interdependence of groups and of individuals

III. Human Behavior

Economics

Political Science

Psychology

Sociology

a. use multiple approaches/perspectives to systematically analyze complex individual and institutional behavior culturally, subculturally, and/or cross-culturally

b. recognize appropriate ethical uses of social scientific knowledge

IV. Human Expression

Great Books

Fine and Performing Arts

a. recognize and critically discuss significant creative, philosophical, and religious works

b. understand the complex blend of personal vision, social-cultural background, ethical values, and aesthetic judgment in such works

c. discuss the diverse means of communication in such works

V. Natural Science

Biology

Chemistry

Geology

Physics

a. understand the experimental basis of scientific inquiry

b. understand the importance of model building for understanding the natural world

c. understand the theoretical, practical, creative, and cultural dimensions of scientific inquiry

d. discuss some of the fundamental theories underlying modern science

e. understand the dynamic interaction between society and the scientific enterprisef. recognize appropriate ethical uses of knowledge in the natural sciences

VI. College Component

a. communicate with individuals who are in the student’s major, in allied fields, and non-specialists

b. understand important relationships and interdependencies between the student’s major and other academic disciplines, world events, or life endeavors

c. additionally meet the objectives of Area I, II, III, IV, or V

Additional information about the General Education program is available online at <http://www.wright.edu/gened/>.

Requirements for WI Courses in the Major

Any course in a major program may be designated “Writing Intensive” by the unit offering the course. Writing Intensive courses in the major will require a total of at least 4500 words (18 double-spaced pages) of writing, at least half of which will be evaluated formally and all of which will count as part of students’ performance in the course.

Grades in Writing Intensive Courses

Students are assigned two grades for a WI course - a letter grade for the course itself and a second grade indiacating whether they have satisfactorily completed the writing component of the course. The writing grade will be entered separately from course grades on student transcripts as PASS/NO ENTRY. In order to receive a PASS, students must complete the writing component of WI courses with a grade of C or better.

Students who do not successfully complete WI classes may satisfy these requirements in a number of ways. For more information you may consult the WAC office or the WAC web page <http://www.wright.edu/academics/wac/>.

Writing Across the Curriculum Committee

When this guide was printed, the WAC Committee for 2006-07 had not yet been appointed formally; an up-to-date list will be

posted to the WAC web page when those appointments are made.

MAKING WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

Planning Writing Assignments

Successful writing assignments are based on the following principles:

· Each writing assignment should reinforce the content base of the course.

· Writing assignments should be sequenced from easier and personal writing to more demanding and public writing.

· Writing assignments may be sequenced so that a complex task is carried out in several more easily managed stages.

· Writing assignments should build in an opportunity for response and revision.

· Writing assignments should be paced to allow feedback before the next writing assignment is due.

Setting Up Writing Assignments

A written assignment sheet is crucial. Even though instructors may be quite explicit in describing the writing assignment, it will be difficult for students to remember details unless the assignment is in print.

The sheet should include the following kinds of information:

· the kind of writing expected (analytical, argumentative, etc.)

· the range of acceptable subject matter or research questions

· the length requirements

· the source or citation requirements (if appropriate)

· the documentation form expected (if appropriate)

· the formatting requirements

· due dates for drafts, other preliminary materials, and final version

· penalties for not meeting basic requirements and deadlines

· any other criteria used in evaluating the paper

The following short writing assignments are meant to suggest some possibilities for your consideration. Additional ideas can be found in the resources listed at the end of this pamphlet.

Some Short Writing Assignments (In Class)

· In-Class Writings: Without taking more than five minutes of class time, impromptu in-class writing can be used in a variety of ways: to ask students to summarize the key points covered, to stimulate flagging discussion, to provide an opportunity for reflection on complex issues, to check comprehension of reading material, and the like. These brief writings need not be graded, though you might use them as an indicator of class participation in determining a course grade.

· Essay Exams: Instructors often ask if essay exams “count” as part of the writing requirement, and the answer is yes. The easiest way to keep track of the number of pages of writing is to specify an approximate number of words for each answer on the exam itself. Students find the guidelines useful, too.

Some Short Writing Assignments (Outside of Class)

These assignments may be adapted to fit a variety of classes and instructional purposes. They can be especially helpful in giving students an opportunity to grasp and synthesize new concepts.

· Abstracts or Précis: Ask students to write brief summaries of their readings in their textbook or supplementary materials. Writing a one-sentence précis requires careful reading and revision. The resulting sentence can reveal much about how well a reader has grasped a writer’s argument.

· Critiques: Have students critique the material they are reading, perhaps asking them to identify the writer’s claim and the evidence used to support that claim and then to assess its effectiveness. Such assignments should be helpful in getting students to think in terms of argument, something that they can be encouraged to carry over into their own papers.

· Position Papers: Ask students to write a one-page paper justifying a given position on a controversial issue. A series of two or three papers on the same topic might become the basis of a longer paper. You could also provide a thesis for students to support or refute.

· Definition and Application: Ask students to define an important term or concept and then illustrate the definition by applying it to some situation outside the classroom. Alternatively, you might ask whether a definition applies in a given case.

· Focused Responses: Give students a question to consider as they read assigned material. A one-page answer might be the starting point for class discussion.

· Annotated Bibliography: Have students identify and evaluate potential sources for a longer research paper.

· Partial Research Paper: Ask students to submit individual sections of a research paper in progress. For example, writing a brief statement defining the nature and scope of the research problem might prove useful, as might a survey of the literature on the subject.

· From Exam to Essay: If you give essay exams, brief answers might become the basis of longer papers written outside of class. You might also ask students to write more briefly about other sorts of exams; for example, they might explain how and why calculations went awry or explain their reasoning for incorrect choices on multiple choice exams.

Some Sample Assignments from WSU

Professors frequently express concern that students fail to grasp certain key points in their reading. The following assignments, drawn from a variety of classes at Wright State, all require careful reading and reflection before students begin to write. The general strategies can be adapted readily to all sorts of subject matter.

In COM 453 (Communication and Conflict) Dan DeStephen provides students several alternative ways of using writing to connect theory and practice in the field. His goal is to offer a range of assignments that students can select among according to their own learning style. Some opt to keep a journal in which they describe the connections between the theory they are learning in class and their own experiences with conflict. Other possibilities include a set of article abstracts, a paper analyzing a particular conflict, a conflict intervention paper, or an extended interview with a professional in the field.

When Mari O’Brien (Modern Languages) teaches Comparative Literature 310 (Literary Autobiography), she asks students to select a short passage (no longer than a paragraph) in each autobiography that they feel is the most characteristic or most revealing—the passage that holds the key to understanding the entire work. A short paper (1-2 pages) explaining that choice is due on the first day a work is discussed. Not only do these papers get students to read more analytically, but they stimulate lively class discussion as class members discover the passages others have chosen.

David Dominic (Geological Sciences) occasionally gives his students in an advanced course a scientific article without its abstract and asks them to supply one. When the resulting summaries are shared in class, students are sometimes surprised at the differences in what has been identified as a key point, especially when they are given the actual abstract prepared by the original author.

In English 204 (Great Books) Joe Law asks students to write a series of short responses to questions he gives them as they read. For instance, students nearing the end of Emma may be asked to review an earlier chapter and explain the significance of events in light of subsequent information. With Candide, they may be asked to identify a twenty-first century event Voltaire might satirize if he were writing today. Because responses must be written before these texts are discussed in class, students cannot simply repeat what was said during class. These brief responses are sometimes the starting point of longer papers as well.

These four examples merely begin to suggest some of the possible writing activities that might be used to encourage students to read more carefully. Still others developed by WSU faculty are described in some detail in the WAC newsletters, available at <http://www.wright.edu/academics/wac/>. Assignments range from casual letters to formal technical reports. You can find illustrations of position papers, sequences of short papers leading to a larger term paper, and ways to encourage students to synthesize large amounts of information at the end of the term. The disciplines represented include music history, economics, engineering, classics, geology, modern languages, and biology. This collection of assignment ideas increases with each newsletter, so be sure to check the web site on a regular basis. Copies of the newsletter are also available in the WAC Coordinator’s office.

What Students Want to Know About Writing Assignments

The staff of the campuswide writing program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa interviewed over 200 students about their experiences in writing intensive classes. Their responses—which will seem very familiar to any experienced teacher—can be condensed into four questions. Here are their questions, along with some commentary and suggestions.

(1) “How will the writing assignment help me to learn the course material?”

It’s easy to forget that the purpose of an assignment isn’t automatically clear to students. Explicitly linking it to the goals of the course will help students see its value. Saying something like “I want to be sure you understand the difference between Concept A and Concept B” or “Your notebooks show what you’ve learned about collecting and evaluating data” confirms that an assignment is a way of learning the material, not busy work.

(2) “If you had to do this assignment yourself, how would you do it?”

In addition to encountering new ideas, students are often encountering new cognitive tasks. Models are especially helpful in such cases. For example, if you’re asking students to evaluate research methodology, you might demonstrate ways that can be done or provide a printed example with key features marked.

(3) “How does this writing assignment or topic relate to the work that specialists do in this field?”

Such a question is most likely to occur in advanced classes as students think more in terms of professionalism. In fields where written records have legal implications, that concern ought to be stressed; questions about the amount and type of writing done on the job might be asked of visiting professionals as well.

(4) “If you evaluate my work on this assignment, what exactly will you be looking for?”

A clear statement of criteria for evaluating written work can be provided in the course syllabus or the assignment itself. The answer to this question should be clearly connected to the purpose of the assignment as well. Here, too, examples of successful papers can be helpful.

The same survey that produced these four questions includes some student comments that confirm the suspicions of seasoned teachers—what we think we say is not always what our students think they hear.

How Students “Read” Writing Assignments

This distance between instructors’ expectations and students’ perceptions reinforces the importance of clear communication about the purpose of the writing we assign. We cannot simply assume that our intentions are always understood.

What Instructors Expect	What Students Understand
“For the short paper on a video, I wanted students to make connections among the archeologist’s questions, the methods used to get answers, and principles from their reading.”	“This assignment was like writing a high-school movie review. I wanted to give my own personal understanding about the video, so I was going to write a narrative.”
“In the journals I wanted students to really wield their own opinions and grapple with issues, to really think about course material.”	“When I first heard the assignment, I thought I was supposed to write anything, like a reaction, just to show if I learned something.”
“I wanted students to really wrestle with the questions on the assignment sheet, to give in-depth answers. I wanted students to distinguish between the author’s words and their own interpretation.”	“I was supposed to write a 6-page analysis on a reading and juice up the answers. I tried to make it sound good by adding lots of details and sounding excited in my writing.”

Source: <http://mwp01.mwp.hawaii.edu/resources/wm1.htm>

RESPONDING TO STUDENT PAPERS

Two objections to implementing writing in content area courses are particularly frequent. First, responding to papers is always work, sometimes unrewarding work. Moreover, instructors not trained as teachers of writing often feel hesitant to comment on student writing because they feel they are outside their area of expertise. Neither of these problems will go away, but the burden of grading can be reduced. More importantly, judicious minimal marking can help students learn the course material and improve their writing at the same time.

A number of strategies can reduce the amount of time required for marking papers. For example, assigning several short sequenced essays should reduce the overall time involved because later papers will build on what has gone before. In addition, sustaining the writing over a longer time gives the student more opportunities for improving. Suggestions for short assignments appear in the previous section of this booklet, and the resources listed at the end contain more.

Sometimes the amount of time required to mark a paper could be spent more beneficially in a conference with a student. That may not be practical with large groups of students, but preparing a short list of concerns and putting the student(s) in touch with the Writing Center would provide a chance for more sustained feedback. (See Appendix A for more information about the Writing Center and its services.)

Grading Rubrics

Using a grading rubric can reduce the amount of time spent commenting on the papers themselves. Rubrics also highlight the objective criteria used in evaluating papers and may be used to advantage with drafts and completed papers alike. Categories vary according to the assignment, but the following are fairly common:

· content (depth of coverage, thoroughness of development, quality of argument)

· organization and coherence

· readability

· mechanical and grammatical correctness

Normally, the first category will be weighted more heavily than the others. Rubrics are often presented in the form of a table, something like this:

	Exceptional	Strong	Average	Weak
Content
Organization
Readability
Correctness

A rubric should be used in conjunction with a summary comment addressing specific features of the individual paper. An explanatory sheet describing the qualities of each characteristic might also be supplied with a table.

Instead of using a generalized rubric, you can tailor one to the a specific assignment. Rick Wantz (Human Services) designed the following one for his courses on behavioral assessment. It identifies such assignment-specific requirements as a minimum number of sources and adherence to APA guidelines.

Minimal Marking

You don’t have to mark every mechanical error in a paper in order to give good feedback. Attempting to do so is often counterproductive, in fact. Research indicates that studying the mechanical aspects of writing in isolation has little long-term impact on writers, whereas things learned in context are likelier to be retained and applied. Thus, you can best help students by responding primarily to subject matter and putting comments about their writing in that context. Asking writers to clarify ideas requires them to address writing.

Limiting marks to the most important concerns can also foster independent learning. The thorough marking of a representative passage or two can provide a useful model for other revisions; submerging a paper in a sea of red ink is likelier to result in the correction of surface error than real revision. Extensive marking of mechanical problems also may obscure much more important comments about content. In a draft, there is no reason to spend much time identifying individual surface errors if the writer is going to be making extensive changes to the text.

Some WAC specialists suggest avoiding grammatical terminology and relying instead on simple language and pointed questions to guide revision: “How does this evidence support your argument?” “Where do Brown’s findings fit in?” “No need to quote so much. Summarize instead.” “Better—your evidence is stronger here.”

To draw attention to mechanical errors that do not impede understanding, point out that errors distract a reader from the writer’s message. It is often effective to describe errors in terms of what is or is not acceptable in professional writing in the field. A reminder that career advancement is often linked to writing abilities may also have an impact on our highly pragmatic students.

Identifying things that interfere with reading does not require an extensive vocabulary of arcane terms. In “A Quick Guide to Lite Marking,” Ray Smith, Director of the Campus Writing Program, Indiana University, recommends using only a few symbols, abbreviations, and words in the margins:

Symbols

1. circles locating errors confined to one or two words

2. wavy underlines noting larger errors

3. checks praising good word choices

4. straight underlines highlighting well-put phrases or sentences

5. arrows and question marks pointing out puzzling connections of words

Abbreviations/Words

1. AGR (agreement)

2. FRAG (fragment)

3. MM (misplaced modifier)

4. CS (comma splice)

5. REF (reference)

6. PRED (illogical predication)

7. //STR (parallel structure)

8. Wordy

9. Choppy

10. Unclear

11. Awkward

12. Good