SCC's Writing Across the Curriculum Quality Enhancement Plan

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"Harmonizing General Education Programs in Career and Professional Curricula"
Prager, Carolyn

The thrust here was an accounting school that was attempting to harmonize its offerings with general education (1). Prager makes an observation that A.A. degree schools usually have 25%-33% of offerings devoted to general education, while four-year schools usually require 40%-50% of total hours be taken in general education courses (2).

"Less is not more in matters of general learning," according to Prager (3). She goes on to make a strong argument that hiding behind accreditation requirements in order to offer little general education is not defensible based on accrediting standards, She uses health occupations and health science to make the point (4). She also argues that general education is more than just communication and critical thinking courses.

Faculty, Prager says, should be not be expected to teach writing, but rather "to facilitate writing" (6).

"Re-examining Writing Requirements Across the Curriculum: Assignments and Assumptions"
Hunter, Linda.

A basic list of assumptions included:

1) Once students learn the value of writing and revising, they will want to do it.
2) That emphasis on the process is more likely to produce the instructor's definition of good writing.
3) That revision is an important site for growth in writing and learning.
4) That students will improve at identifying the rhetorical situations and will be able to write in a variety of them.
5) That students' confidence and competence will grow with time and practice.
6) That students will come to find writing satisfying as they are successful (1).

Hunter's conclusion was that #1 was a definite "No"; #4 was a definite "Yes"; everything else was shade of "Maybe"(6).

The study consisted of following three students from developmental courses through a four-year degree and was largely based on questionnaires and interviews.

“Turning WAC Skeptics Into WAC Participants On 55ç/Day “

Smith, Barbara

The 55ç part of the title comes from dividing the annual $100 budget for WAC by school days. The main thrust of the article was a “Writing to Learn” initiative, which included the usual stages such as data gathering from curriculum faculty, a low-key public relations campaign. These are two examples of their seven strategies(3).

Smith also discussed pitfalls of the “Writing to Learn” initiative:

• Edicts from the administration
• Placing blame for poor writing skills on objective tests
• Overwhelming faculty with writing theory
• Designation of a writing coordinator as the writing authority
• Constantly speaking in negatives instead of positives (8)

“Writing To Lean” selling points include:

• teaching a particular course’s content
• teaching the writing skills specialized within a discipline
• teaching students to become active learners(9).

“Going It Alone: Supporting Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) When There Is No WAC Program”

Gale, Charlotte

This article is centered around a university that has up to a six-year program in pharmacy science with other medical-related curricula, which relates to the author’s statement that it is an “unfriendly place for writing” (2). The students believe that anything that is important should rotate around the facts they need to know. [btw—a major issue in teaching critical thinking.] Many of the students have chosen certain careers because they believed that the available jobs in that career would not involve writing (3).

The author wanted to promote “thinking and writing” but did run into several obstacles (4). One of the obstacles was that faculty were concerned about the increased workload (4). Professors seemed to always want the “writing specialist” to talk about writing and explain its importance (6).

A writing proficiency examination is used by the school; about 39% of the students fail the examination and have to take a remedial course. Most of the students failing said they have never had to write or think about a complex problem (7).

One of the successful WAC activities at the school began in the students’ second year, when they created a cover letter and a resume, and was followed up the fourth year by an updated cover letter and resume. Another successful activity was the use of drug research article abstract writing (6).

Buried away at the end of the article was a final notation that might be the most important element in the entire article: faculty who used writing assignments in their classes received poorer student course evaluations than those who assigned no writing. Apparently, the students felt being asked to write was unreasonable (11).

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.