Recommended Writing Course Guidelines (March 13, 2007)
This document describes the
Writing Course Guidelines for The University of Montana-Missoula.
I. Overview
The ability to write
effectively is fundamental to a liberal arts education, essential to academic
inquiry, and better prepares students to succeed in their academic,
professional, and civic endeavors. Composition and writing courses at The
University of Montana (UM) help students become adept at writing for a variety
of audiences and purposes. Students should learn to use writing as a means of synthesizing
and retaining course material.
Writing Requirements
To satisfy the writing
requirements at UM and to demonstrate writing proficiency, students must
complete:
·
College
Composition (ENEX 101), with a grade of C or better
·
One
lower-division writing course (numbered 100-200), with a grade of C or better
·
The
Upper-Division Writing Proficiency Assessment, with a score of 3 or better
·
Departmental upper-division
writing requirement consisting of one of the following options
o
One
upper-division writing course (numbered 300-400), with a grade of C or better
defined by the department and approved by the ASCRC Writing Committee
o
Upper-division
writing expectation defined by the department and approved by the ASCRC Writing
Committee
College Composition
The Composition Program seeks to
advance the University’s mission to pursue academic excellence in the context
of writing instruction. Composition courses facilitate students’ achievements
in exploring and enacting rhetorical knowledge; critical thinking, reading,
writing and research processes; and knowledge of conventions. Writing is a
powerful means of purposeful inquiry, communication, and action in the
classroom and in the world.
Lower-Division Writing Courses
Courses numbered 100-200 and accompanied
by a “w” designation are lower-division writing courses. These courses use
informal and formal writing to enhance writing skills and promote critical
thinking in content areas. Students are required to complete the College
Composition course (ENEX 101), or its equivalent, prior to taking a
lower-division w-course.
Writing
Proficiency Assessment
The Upper-Division Writing
Proficiency Assessment is a two-hour essay exam that all students seeking their
first undergraduate degree must pass. Students pass the exam if their essay
demonstrates adequate critical reading, writing, and reasoning skills as
measured against a published scoring rubric (available at
http://www.umt.edu/writingcenter/documents/17.WPAScoringCriteria.pdf). The exam
may be taken after students complete 45 credits and passed before earning 70
credits.
Upper-Division Writing Courses
Courses numbered 300-400 and accompanied
by a “w” designation are upper-division writing courses. Unlike the lower-division
w-courses, these writing classes typically focus on the student’s major area of
study; as such, the courses are developed by faculty members according to their
expertise in disciplinary conventions for research, analysis and writing in
their fields and focus on teaching those same skills to their students.
Samples of Writing Tasks
Writing tasks may include formal and
informal, graded and ungraded, and in-class or
out-of-class exercises. The range of possible writing tasks includes
journal entries; case studies; lab reports; free writing; annotated
bibliography; essay; analyses; proposals; abstracts; reviews; field notes;
electronic postings; research papers; or proofs.
II. Guidelines
W-courses
are designed to fit into a logical progression of writing development as
students move through the college curriculum. Therefore, lower and
upper-division writing courses have different expectations. Courses that are
designated as w-courses are reviewed and approved by the Writing Committee and
Academic Standards and Curriculum Review Committee (ASCRC). Faculty
proposing writing courses or those that are assigned to teach departmental
courses are encouraged to seek guidance from the
Lower-Division Writing Courses
Upon completing the lower-division
w-course, students should understand writing as means to practice academic
inquiry and be able to formulate and express opinions and ideas in writing. Upon
completing the lower-division w-course, the student should be able to:
Learning Outcomes
·
Use writing to learn and synthesize new
concepts
·
Formulate and express opinions and ideas
in writing
·
Compose written documents that are
appropriate for a given audience or purpose
·
Revise written work based on feedback
·
Give constructive feedback on written work
·
Begin to use discipline-specific writing
conventions
·
Apply appropriate English language usage
Requirements for Lower-Division Writing Courses
·
Limit enrollment to 25 students per
instructor or grader
·
Identify course outcomes in the syllabus
·
Provide students with detailed written
instructions, including criteria for evaluation, for all formal writing
assignments
·
Require students to write frequently for a
range of audiences, purposes, and genres
o
Formal or informal
o
Graded or ungraded
o
In-class or out-of-class
·
Provide feedback on students’ writing and
give students the opportunity to revise and resubmit at least one formal
writing assignment
·
Require each student individually to
compose at least 16 pages of writing for assessment over the course of the semester
·
Base a significant portion (at least 50%
of a 3 credit course or equivalent hours) of the course grade on student
performance on writing assignments
Upper-Division Writing Courses
Upon completing the upper-division w-course, students should be more active,
confident, and effective contributors to a body of knowledge and should
understand the ethical dimensions of inquiry. Upon completing the
upper-division writing course, the student should be able to:
Learning Outcomes
·
Identify and
pursue more sophisticated questions for academic inquiry
·
Find, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize information from diverse
source material
·
Manage multiple perspectives and voices in
writing
·
Recognize the purposes and needs of discipline-specific audiences
and adopt the academic voice necessary for the chosen discipline
·
Understand the value and use of multiple
drafts, revision, and editing in conducting inquiry and preparing written work
·
Follow the conventions of citation, documentation, and formal
presentation appropriate to that discipline
·
Develop competence in information technology and digital literacy
Requirements
for Upper-Division Writing Courses
·
Limit enrollment to 25 students per
instructor or grader
·
Identify course outcomes in the syllabus
·
Provide students with detailed written
instructions, including criteria for evaluation, for all formal writing
assignments
·
Require students to write frequently for a
range of audiences, purposes, and genres
o
Formal or informal
o
Graded or ungraded
o
In-class or out-of-class
·
Provide feedback on students’ writing and
give students the opportunity to revise and resubmit at least one formal
writing assignment
·
Require each student to individually
compose at least 20 pages of writing for assessment over the course of the
semester
·
Base a significant portion (at least 50%
of a 3 credit course or equivalent hours) of the course grade on student
performance on writing assignments
Recommended
Department and Campus Support for Writing Courses
To
ensure sufficient support for faculty members who teach writing courses,
academic departments and the administration are encouraged to consider the
following recommendations:
·
Provide teaching and grading support when class enrollment exceeds
25
·
Compensate for the additional time and effort required for
w-courses in unit standards
·
Provide for a reduction in teaching load for faculty who teach
w-courses
·
Provide one-time grants for faculty members interested in
developing a writing course
·
Provide a venue (e.g., a listserv) for faculty members to share
ideas on writing courses
·
Provide development programs and support for faculty members
teaching w-courses
·
Develop a list of ideas or examples of writing exercises designed
to promote critical thinking
·
Ensure that Banner supports the guidelines for class size,
course sequence, and grade requirements