Project Description:This project makes writing a vertical curricular experience through administrative reorganization, hiring of faculty members, class-size reduction, writing center resources, and writing across the curriculum. It includes:
- hiring or converting (from adjunct or visiting instructor lines) twenty-four permanent instructors and hiring five tenured or tenure-track faculty members over three years;
- increasing the rigor of the composition curriculum through professional, permanent staffing;
- lowering composition class sizes, including a three-year pilot program with19 students per class;
- increasing University Writing Center tutoring and campus support across sites and modes;
- implementing a writing-across-the-curriculum initiative; and
- creating the Department of Writing and Rhetoric for oversight, coordination, and assessment functions.
Objectives:Promoting and supporting sustained writing opportunities for students:
- increasing opportunities to write and receive feedback (writing-across-the-curriculum program is implementing writing-intensive requirements to ensure that all students write across disciplines and include instruction and revision opportunities).
- improving the quality of writing instruction (new composition instructors receive extensive professional development; student writing is carefully assessed at conclusion of basic composition courses; faculty members across disciplines will have numerous workshop and fellowship opportunities to improve their writing instruction).
- increasing students’ rhetorical dexterity across time and contexts (including creation of a longitudinal assessment plan to determine how student-writing abilities change and work across courses and contexts).