Feb. 4, 2004
The Voyage of UW20
The University Launches First Phase in Its Ambitious
Writing Program as Part of the Strategic Initiative
By Matthew
Nehmer
Buried in a nondescript Monroe Hall classroom overlooking Kogan Plaza
on an early December day sit 11 freshmen finishing their first semester
on campus. At first glance all seems very ordinary an overhead
projector displays outlines, a student nurses a half-empty Cherry Coke
bottle, as usual nobody sits in the front row but in a larger context
the class represents something far more significant. These students are
taking part in the inaugural stages of an endeavor that aspires to transform
the way undergraduates are taught writing at GW.
One of the attractions of this position as dean, when I was first
considering it, was that the remaking of the writing program was in the
works, said Columbian College of Arts and Sciences Dean William
Frawley. I think this is one of the efforts at GW, which, when we
work it through and have it running, will make GW a model school.
The dean is referring to the new UW20 freshman writing class and a larger
initiative to charter a University Writing Program. Once installed, this
component of the Universitys strategic plan will feature consistent
writing requirements for all GW undergraduates and empirical data on student
performance with the expectation that students will become better writers
and more engaged in their education.
The first-year students in that Monroe Hall classroom were among 300 randomly
selected pioneers from the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences and
Elliott School of International Affairs to enroll in one of 13 UW20 classes
offered last semester. Another 400 students are taking UW20 courses this
semester. These 700 students, one-third of the class of 2007, represent
phase one of a multi-year project. Next year, two-thirds of the incoming
class, or approximately 1,600 freshmen from all the schools, will take
one of the four-credit courses. By 2005, all incoming undergraduate students
will be enrolled.
According to Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Donald R. Lehman,
all students enrolled now must finish the program. Once fully implemented,
all GW undergraduates will be required to take this three-year journey.
Theres no opting out, said Lehman. It doesnt
matter if you have AP English or already published five books, you still
do it, he said jokingly.
Lehman emphasized the importance of all undergraduates having a rigorous
base of writing experiences prior to entering their sophomore year, where
writing and communicating occurs in different venues. He said one learns
how to write throughout their educational endeavors and careers.
In the previous writing program, different sections produced different
volumes of writing.
Now, broader guidelines for outcome and performance have been developed,
while preserving instructors flexibility in choosing topics and
assignments. A fixed number of pages will be expected from students, as
well as guidelines and expectations for revision (sometimes called iterative
writing). This approach features a writing pedagogy where the repetitive
cycle of submission, critique and revision is emphasized. According to
Cheryl Beil, executive director for academic planning and assessment,
such schools as Princeton, Cornell and Duke have similar writing-intensive
programs in place.
Previously, you could go through GW and not have to write past your
freshman year, Beil said. The whole point is to really engage
students. Research shows that writing is one of the ways that students
become more engaged in education. There is a sharp increase in the number
of hours studying when linked to writing.
Meanwhile, because UW20 is a different approach to composition, and is
University-wide, a new team of faculty had to be assembled from the ground
up.
Building the Team
We want people who understand writing and who are committed to intensive
writing instruction for freshmen, said Frawley on the faculty search.
In our search last year and in the one currently under way, we are
looking for people who can work together as a team, who appreciate the
broader context of writing across higher education and who understand
the role of a freshman course in a larger writing program. Interestingly
enough, the best credentials for such faculty are not only in the usual
fields that feed composition programs rhetoric and literature.
Historians, philosophers and engineers often are excellent writing teachers.
This variety is a lesson that Duke has learned very well, and we have
shamelessly appropriated their wonderful insight.
A writing program task force, co-chaired by Lehman and Frawley, recruited
Phyllis Ryder and Mark Mullen, assistant professors of English, last March
and charged them with forming a search committee and having the new faculty
in place by the beginning of the fall semester.
It was a very time-crunched search, recalled Ryder. We
were looking for people who would be helpful in getting this thing off
the ground.
Obviously we were looking for people who were already experienced
teachers, added Mullen. We were looking for people who came
out of different teaching and writing backgrounds. We have to make these
courses intellectually demanding. One of the things we always thought
would be important was if youre going to have courses that are going
to speak to the different interests of the student body, you want to have
faculty members coming from different disciplines.
By the end of May, the first hires were in place and a series of summer
workshops were planned. According to the faculty, the two weeks they spent
together over the summer generated a sense of camaraderie that continues
today.
It was our chance to help form the program, said Robbin Zeff,
assistant professor of writing, who was one of the new hires. It
really helped produce a great team.
Faculty members meet regularly, attend each others classes, circulate
assignments and put their teaching philosophies up for question, all in
an attempt to learn from each other.
The faculty is very diverse, said Zeff, which is good
because there isnt just one way to teach writing. Faculty members
who come from different perspectives allow us to cross pollinate.
Together they fashioned 13 unique themes that shape the programs
first batch of courses. Examples include Fear Factor: The Culture
of Fear in America, taught by Jessica OHara, another new member
of the faculty.
I chose my topic because its something that would engage students,
give shape to the course but also in such a way that theyll look
at diversity of genres, said OHara. Were trying
to have a captivating list of course themes.
OHaras students were even able to discuss the theme with filmmaker
Michael Moore, who was on campus last fall to appear on CNNs Crossfire.
Moores latest documentary film, Bowling for Columbine,
was required viewing in OHaras class as it examined contributing
factors behind Americas violent society.
He was amazed that there was a course on this topic, OHara
said. They sort of informed Michael Moore about how to theorize
a culture of fear in a way that he didnt expect.
Other theme classes include Abby Wilkersons He-Men, Girly
Girls, Tomboys and Sissies: Writing the Gendered Body; Cayo Gambers
War and Memory in the Twentieth Century; and Ryders
class, Sit in! Strike! Take it to the Street!: The Rhetoric of Social
Protest.
The idea is that students have a greater sense of accountability
for how they use their material because they are aware that everyone else
in the class knows this stuff, said Ryder. It puts them in
the role of scholar/researcher in a way that doesnt necessarily
happen if everyone is doing their own topic.
One Semester Down
Now with one semester in the books, faculty members, administrators and
students seem pleased with the progress.
Coming out of high school I thought I was a pretty good writer until
I got to college, said Nathan Imperiale, a freshman UW20 student
who took the course Youve Got Mail, The Social Side of Information
Technology. The class gave me a better grounding in how to
do research and better structure my writing. Its helped me with
a political science research paper in another class.
For at least the first semester, UW20s new format of students taking
one four-credit course instead of a pair of three-credit writing classes
has proved popular with the faculty, as has the new approach of capping
enrollment to 15 students per class.
From my own experiences this has made a huge difference, said
Mullen, who is in his fourth year at GW. The one-on-one time has
gone up. Its given me the opportunity to customize the education,
try different teaching techniques, to see where the class is as a whole.
Meanwhile, the program continues to undergo extensive evaluations. Starting
on the first day of class, again at mid-semester and once more at the
end of the term, student progress is assessed and feedback collected.
This process will continue each semester for the next several years.
The Next Step
In the interim, administrators and faculty are working to execute phase
two of the project. Starting this fall, the 700 freshmen who took UW20
will begin the Writing in the Discipline (WID) component by taking writing-intensive
courses in their field of study. Thirty-eight sophomore-level, three-credit
classes are being developed. From there, these students will take the
second and final WID course in their junior year. Like UW20, these classes
will ask students to produce a fixed, targeted page-count of finished
products using the iterative writing guidelines.
Meanwhile, an administrative structure is being expanded to accommodate
the larger volume of students taking the UW20 and WID classes, which includes
an executive director of the University Writing Program, director of freshman
writing, director of WID and director of the Writing Center. This group
will report to Frawley. A search is now underway to fill the executive
director position. The team is expected to be in place by July 1. In addition,
five more full-time faculty members are being hired to teach this falls
expanded lineup of UW20 classes. Once the program gets rolling at full
capacity, there will be roughly 4,800 undergraduates taking either UW20
or WID courses.
It will be another four years before the writing program is fully
implemented, Lehman said. If it achieves its goal, we shall
have several indicators: number one, our students will be saying that
they know how to write; number two, there will be evidence from the marketplace,
through feedback to us, they really do know how to write; third, that
as a consequence of this experience they will convey that they have been
academically challenged; and fourth, that they really feel engaged in
their education. Its exciting, it just takes time.
Looking back at the first stage of this endeavor, UW20, Frawley expressed
satisfaction with its evolution.
I believe we have established UW20 as an independent idea with its
own community and its own sense of future and purpose, Frawley said.
Two things that we hoped to produce as outcomes early on in the
process were the development of an effective writing-intensive, closely-mentored
experience in the freshman year and the establishment of an independent,
pedagogically-aware, University-wide writing group. Both have been implemented.
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu
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Related Links
University
Writing Program
GW's
Strategic Plan
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