Paula Rosinski, director of Writing Across the University, and Jessie Moore, associate director of the Center for Engaged Learning, introduce how Elon's Writing Excellence Initiative plans to enhance the teaching and learning of writing across the disciplines.
Paula Rosinski, director of Writing Across the University and professor of professional writing and rhetoric, and Jessie Moore, associate director of the Center for Engaged Learning and associate professor of professional writing and rhetoric, co-authored an article in the booklet “An Introduction to Writing in the Disciplines.”
Rosinski and Moore explain how Elon’s Writing Excellence Initiative was developed, along with initiative goals and processes. The article is to be used as a case study in one in a series of commissioned booklets by the All Ireland Society for Higher Education and the Irish Network for the Enhancement of Writing as an introduction to Writing in the Disciplines curriculum in higher education.
A few excerpts from the article read:
“Through the Writing Excellence Initiative, Elon aspires to prepare every student, undergraduate and graduate, in every major, to be an excellent writer. The initiative focuses particularly on developing students’ abilities related to three kinds of writing that are aligned with the university’s goal of educating ‘engaged minds, inspiring leaders, and global citizens.’”
“Students, faculty, and staff are supported by the Writing Center, which helps all members of the university community with all of their academic, personal, and professional writing needs and questions.” “The Writing Center’s Fellows program deepens Writing Excellence Initiative efforts by pairing trained Writing Center consultants with faculty from any discipline who are interested in enhancing writing instruction in their classes. The consultants work closely with the course faculty to learn about writing assignments and discipline-specific conventions and they provide one-to-one support for students. Collectively, these programs provide WID instruction and practice across students’ four-year degree programs.”
“In addition to supporting students, Elon’s Writing Excellence Initiative offers academic faculty and staff with targeted professional development opportunities related to writing. Faculty who teach Writing: Argument and Inquiry, the first-year writing course, participate in monthly faculty development workshops about applying writing pedagogies, research, and theories to classroom instruction. Through the Center for Writing Excellence and the Writing Across the University program, all teaching faculty and staff have the opportunity to participate in an intensive one-week workshop on teaching writing in the disciplines, with support to develop and revise writing assignments based on best-practices. The Writing Across the University Program also provides professional development for all teaching faculty and staff through individual consultations, group workshops, and scholarship and teaching grants for writing-related projects.”
“The Writing Center extends this support by offering an Anonymous Assignment Feedback service. The service is designed to give teaching faculty and staff insight into the kinds of questions students often have about writing assignments, with the intention that this feedback can be used to make writing assignments clearer and more effective.”
“Now, as WID has a strong foothold in the university culture, we hope to extend the culture of writing research on campus. By fostering scholarship of teaching and learning about writing on campus, the university can help teaching faculty and staff build their confidence in their ability to teach writing in the disciplines and in co-curricular contexts and to better understand writing pedagogies that work most effectively in their situations. In turn, this investment in writing scholarship by faculty across campus would enrich existing efforts to teach students to write to learn, to write in a discipline, and to write as a citizen.”
Rosinski and Moore also outline Elon’s commitment for ongoing assessment of each department, which “assures success based on their needs and goals.”