Writing Across the Curriculum

FOR FACULTY

To have a W designation, courses must meet the following criteria recommended by the Core Council and endorsed by the Faculty Senate (April 7, 2000 ):

1. The course takes improvement in student writing as one of its central goals and communicates this focus to students in the syllabus.
2. The course is conspicuously writing-intensive.  It should use a variety of types of writing (e.g. journals, in-class writing, reaction papers, etc.), in addition to or in place of more conventional, formal papers.  The course should use these writing tasks in a variety of roles in the course, and writing should be a frequent mode of interaction between students as well as between students and faculty.
3. The course curriculum includes explicit discussion of writing issues, whether this relates to matters of form and style, or matters of grammar, sentence structure, and punctuation.
4. The course effectively promotes the habit of revision, as well as the skills needed to make this effort productive.
5. The course acquaints students with the writing-related resources that are available at USM.
6. The course enrolls at most 25 students per section.
7. The course is taught by faculty who have participated in activities specifically intended to prepare them for teaching writing.
8. The faculty member teaching a W course and the sponsoring department agree to participate in an ongoing effort, organized through the Core office, to collectively assess the effectiveness of W courses in relation to student writing ability.

This page was last updated on March 5, 2004.