WID courses, intended as follow-up courses to UW20, are designed to facilitate student involvement with particular bodies of knowledge, their methods of scholarship, and modes of communication. They are discipline-based courses with a significant writing component, not writing courses per se. WID courses are not designed to teach students basic writing skills but rather to engage students in writing frequently and intensively with editing and rewriting to improve both learning and communication. WID faculty will hold students accountable for good writing. The Writing Center will provide support for students still requiring assistance with writing fundamentals following completion of UW20.

WID Course Goals
Students enrolled in WID courses will receive instruction in a variety of skills, including:

• How to write for a variety of audiences and communicate through several forms of writing relevant to a particular discipline (e.g., reports, outlines, proposals, research papers, course journals, essays, lab reports, letters, and reviews, among others)
• How to use writing as a means for engaging in research and developing analytical skills
• How to revise and edit drafts, individually and in collaboration with peers and faculty
• How to structure and organize writing, use documentation and styles of argumentation within specific disciplines

In general, WID courses will be limited to approximately 15-20 students and be taught by full-time faculty. Classes with larger enrollments will be supported by Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) or student assistants (graduate or undergraduate) with the goal of maintaining the same approximate student-to-teacher ratio. GTAs and student assistants will receive training to support the writing components of these courses. WID courses, as well as UW20 courses, will be supported by the Writing Center with tutors trained in writing in various disciplines or broad areas of knowledge (e.g., science/engineering, humanities).

Many different formats for WID courses are possible, including small sections (of 15-20) taught by full-time faculty, large lectures taught by faculty working with teaching assistants, or even large lectures with optional WID sections that require different or additional work from students. Each of these formats, and many more, have been successfully employed by other universities. As we initiate the WID program at GW, we encourage creative experimental approaches to implementing WID courses. However, as a general guideline, students taking a WID course should enjoy a student to instructor ratio of around 15 or 20 to one. Teaching assistants who work in a WID course may come from the department in which the course is offered or from a closely related discipline. These teaching assistants will receive training to support the writing components of WID courses; however, most writing instruction in a given course should be provided by the faculty member in charge. The WID program will also provide regular training opportunities for faculty who wish to offer WID courses.

WID Course Guidelines
Because appropriate amounts of writing will vary across disciplines (for example, mathematics students generally write less than philosophy students), the instructor, in consultation with UWAC, will determine appropriate course guidelines for assignments and target appropriate quantities of writing. While the amounts of writing may vary, all WID courses will

• require students to write throughout the course rather than at the end of the course;
• provide opportunities to revise writing assignments in collaboration with peers and faculty;
• require students to complete multiple writing projects designed to communicate for different purposes and with a variety of audiences;
• teach the conventions of writing and thinking in a particular discipline, or in a particular interdisciplinary context.

Some WID instructors may require students to take mid-terms, finals or other exams, but graded writing assignments, with opportunities for revision, will constitute a large percentage of the final course grade.

Faculty are encouraged to be innovative in their course design. Courses in different disciplines (for example, a biology course on evolution or genetics and an anthropology course on human paleobiology) may be linked together, occasionally meeting together in a larger group in order to explore the similarities and differences between the disciplines.

WID Requirements

1) All GW undergraduates entering in AY 2005-06 and after are required to complete two WID courses to graduate.

2) UW20 is a prerequisite for all WID courses. Students must complete UW20 before enrolling in a WID course for WID credit.

3) Students should take one WID course in their sophomore year and a second one in their junior year. (WID courses may be taken as late as the senior year to satisfy the requirement, but this is not recommended.)

4) Under special circumstances (for example, junior year abroad), students may take two WID courses in the same year to satisfy the WID requirement, but not in the same semester.

5) Students may not use two WID courses from the same semester to satisfy the WID requirement.