Evidence of Changes in the Culture of Writing at Elon

74% of faculty who completed the FSSE for a lower-level class reported intentional development of clear and effective writing skills in 2016.

  • a 23% increase since 2013.

58% of faculty who completed the FSSE for an upper-level course reported creating assignments to address a real or imagined audience in 2016.

  • a 71% increase since 2013.

Snapshot of the Culture of Writing on Our Campus

Faculty/ Staff Culture of Writing: Survey, 111 Responses, Spring 2018

  • 66% very frequently/frequently “assign writing-to-learn, low stakes writing”
  • 65% very frequently/frequently “assign multiple drafts to students”
  • 79% very frequently/frequently “assign writing that is specific to the discipline”
  • 80% very frequently/frequently “provide feedback on student writing at multiple points”
  • 89% very frequently/frequently “take writing into account when planning classes”

“What are some positive things that have emerged out of your WEI work?”

From 2016-2017 EOY & WEI Reports

Economics: “It is helping us to think strategically about where writing goes and what the goals should be in each course. Rather than faculty independently creating writing goals, we are thinking of our curriculum as a whole.”

Human Service Studies: “We examined our curriculum and how it connects between courses more thoroughly and diligently. We are helping students make more intentional connections between the courses, letting them know that certain skills will be used again and then showing in the senior year where they have learned the skills needed to do well.”

Professional Writing and Rhetoric: “We identified in our curriculum mapping that our students weren’t getting consistent practice composing multimodal texts, which is something we’d like them to receive across the major. We’ve adjusted the WOs of several classes and added a new class to make sure that they do.”

75% of faculty very frequently/ frequently recommend the Writing Center (Spring ‘18)