WRIT ProposalOffice of the Provost

About the Writing Across the Curriculum Program:

Courses proposed for Writing credit must clearly address the goals, criteria and Student Learning Outcomes stipulated by the guidelines for Writing courses, approved by the faculty in December 2015 and described in Appendix B of the Faculty Handbook (yellow pages;). Relevant selections from the guidelines are supplied here. Faculty should acquaint themselves with the Goals and Criteria discussed in the full guidelines and structure their courses accordingly.

General Expectations for WRIT courses:

The Writing Across the Curriculum Program affirms that students can best learn the conventions of academic writing by taking writing intensive courses in multiple disciplines. In the process, they use writing to discover and construct new knowledge and to communicate their ideas to others. Courses that fulfill the writing requirement focus on developing students’ rhetorical knowledge, meaning their ability to analyze and act on understandings of audience, purpose, and context. Such courses also should contribute to students’ growth in critical thinking, that is, their ability to analyze a situation or text and respond by making thoughtful decisions grounded in reading, research, and writing.

WRITD courses build on students’ existing writing skills but focus their attention on particular disciplinary conventions and research methods, as well as the forms and genres valued most within a given discipline. Taken together, all of the writing assignments in the course must count substantially toward the students' final grades in the course. Because WRITD courses require substantive writing projects and intensive revision cycles, enrollments should be limited to 20 or fewer students.

Student Learning Outcomes for WRITD Courses:

Students choose effective rhetorical strategies shaped by their appreciation for the purpose, audience, and context for the writing task.
Students use writing as a tool to explore ideas, assimilate new knowledge, and reflect on the purpose of their learning.
Students use writing to evaluate texts critically, and to create arguments that communicate effectively with varied audiences, while acknowledging the limits of their own judgments.
Students develop a flexible process for writing that includes self-reflection and strategies for responding to feedback, enabling them to draft, revise and polish written work effectively.
Students create written works that exemplify the structures, genres, and conventions of the discipline.


Specific expectations for Writing Intensive (WRIT-I) courses:

Writing Intensive (WRITI) courses build on and expand the goals set for writing in First Term Seminars. They require students to use writing as a tool for learning and as a way to enter scholarly conversations about topics presented in a course. As a general guideline, writing in various forms should account for at least 40-60 percent of the student’s final grade. Because WRITI courses require substantive writing projects and intensive revision cycles, enrollments should be limited to 20 or fewer students.

Student Learning Outcomes for Writing Intensive courses:

Students choose effective rhetorical strategies shaped by their appreciation for the purpose, audience, and context for the writing task.
Students use writing as a tool to explore ideas, assimilate new knowledge, and reflect on the purpose of their learning.
Students use writing to evaluate texts critically, and to create arguments that communicate effectively with varied audiences, while acknowledging the limits of their own judgments.
Students develop a flexible process for writing that includes self-reflection and strategies for responding to feedback, enabling them to draft, revise, and polish written work effectively.