Writing Instruction in the Disciplines (WID) Committee
October 27, 2014
12:00 pm, Horrabin Hall 60
Present: Nathan Miczo (chair), Samit Chakravorti, Courtney Blankenship, Tawnya Adkins
Covert, Magdelyn Helwig, Neil Baird, Mei Wen. Guest: Jim Rabchuk
1. The meeting was called to order at 12:00 pm.
2. Approval of Minutes from 10-6-2014. Approved as written.
3. Announcements:
SGA Representative. Miczo has been communicating with Annette Hamm regarding the
requirements, no student has been appointed yet.
CITR Sessions. Miczo informed the committee the session on 10/21/14 went well with a
good number of attendees. Issues that were raised will be discussed in future meetings.
Next CITR Session is 10/29/14 in the Quad Cities from 3-4 p.m. in Room 229.
Update on list of WID Instructors. Blankenship still needs to contact Institutional
Research and Planning.
4. Discussion of WID Journal. Jim Rabchuk provided a history of how the WID Journal
came to be. The intention of the journal was for it to be used as a way to increase the
visibility of the WID requirements, to highlight their purpose and showcase the best
examples of writing across the disciplines. The concept was based on a similar journal for
the California State University, Sacramento. Submission requirements included a
submission from the student author/faculty sponsor, and the work was to be from a WID
course. Itemized list of submission includes: final draft of work from student; rough
drafts; cover letter from student; and letter of introduction from faculty sponsor to help
the reader understand the context of the writing.
15 papers were submitted, five went through the review process and those five are ready
for publication (articles were from Women’s Studies (1) and English and Journalism (4)).
While Rabchuk did work with the Library to try and make the journal part of the official
university archives, library staff had concerns about formatting and were unwilling to
publish the examples as they were. The California journal was published online with
links to the pdfs of the writing samples.
Discussion then shifted to how to make the journal a sustainable project. Rabchuk offered
1) the publishing aspects must be clarified and; 2) more broad representation is necessary
and there needs to be more guidance and lead time provided. Discussion also focused on
the idea of rolling submissions to assist with deadline issues; an affiliation that is directly
related with the current WID website; and the possibility of a less traditionally academic
publication, maybe with a different title than “Journal” that would still provide students
exposure but also fulfill the need of exemplary WID class work. These examples could
also serve as a tool for faculty to see sample assignments within their discipline and
others. Rabchuk thought that the WID committee did not originally want any oversight
with the Journal. However, ideally he would like the journal, in whatever capacity, to be
part of the committee’s charge, internally overseen, and part of the WID website. He said
he would share the five papers that are publication ready with the committee members via
dropbox.
5. The meeting was adjourned at 1:00 p.m. The next meeting time, Noon, November 3,
Union Board Room.
Respectfully, Courtney Blankenship