SCC's Writing Across the Curriculum Quality Enhancement Plan

Shankle, Nancy W.

Shankle identified two main problem areas: teachers tended to work in isolation despite the best efforts of the project coordinator to prevent that from happening and faculty tended to the view the project coordinator as the final judge on quality issues, thus the program became “director centered” (3).

A problem with no apparent immediate solution is that faculty did not know each other’s jargon, affecting a WAC program which “by nature is an interdisciplinary program” (2).

Instructor attitudes about WAC included:

Most instructors lacked confidence

Instructors wanted to know more about teaching writing

Instructors knew little about writing-to-learn activities.(3)

Research papers were a major task.

Few used essay exams

“Virtually no one” used electronic media such as Powerpoint for assignments

The scoring weight for end-of-course grades ranged from 20 to over 90% (4)

Problem areas included:

Classes too large for workload

Students not motivated to take writing seriously

Faculty needed help on out-of-class writing assignments in developing and assessing

Guidelines for writing intensive courses (4)

Need for the creation of a Writing Center (5)

This article also had a useful set of appendices, covering such topics as collaborative activities, guidelines for writing intensive courses, etc.

# posted by Bob Harrison @ 11:54 AM