Writing Committee Annual Report 2014-2015
Membership
Faculty Members
Beverly Chin, English (Chair) 2015
Gene Burns, HHP 2015
Cathy Corr, Applied Arts & Science 2015
Megan Stark, Mansfield Library 2016
John Glendening, English 2015
Sherrill Brown, Pharmacy 2016
Irene Appelbaum, Linguistics 2016
Gallo, Jessica, C & I 2017
Douglas Raiford, Computer Science 2016
G.G. Weix, Anthropology 2015
Student Members
Taren Andrews
Danielle Sewell
Heather Jurva
Additional Representatives (Ex-Officio)
Nathan Lindsay, Associate Provost
Joe Hickman, Interim Registrar
Kelly Webster, Director, Writing Center
Amy Ratto-Parks, Interim Director, Composition Program
Business items:
Writing Symposium
A Writing Symposium: Effective Strategies that Improve Students’ Writing and Learning was
held on September 19th from 9:10 a.m. -12:00 p.m. with several co-occurring sessions.
It was well attended with an average of 40 guests at each session. The Committee is planning a
symposium for September 25th 2015 as well.
Revised Committee Charge
The Committee Charge was revised to accurately reflect what it does.
The primary responsibility of the Writing Committee is ongoing evaluation and assessment of the
appropriateness and effectiveness of General Education writing requirements and criteria. The Writing
Committee acts as an advocates for effective writing instruction, curriculum, and assessment; : proposes
revisions to the General Education writing requirements and criteria; and reviews writing course
proposals for the writing designation and transfer equivalency appeals for writing courses. In addition,
the Committee monitors the programs of the Writing Center, monitors the University-wide Programlevel Writing Assessment, and collaborates with campus groups to provide faculty development
workshops .assessment procedures, results, and appeals.
Review of Approved Writing and Upper-division Writing Requirement Courses
The Writing Committee reviewed existing writing courses in Professional Schools and Science in
accordance with the Writing Course Review Procedure (202.50.1). It renewed approval for 3
intermediate (formerly approved) writing courses, 16 advanced (formerly upper-division) writing
courses, and three distributed models. Four new courses were also approved for the intermediate
designation including two one-time-only experimental courses. Three new advanced writing courses
were approved. The consent agenda was approved by the Faculty Senate at the December 5th meeting.
The rubric worksheet created during the Writing Assessment Pilot was used to review the forms for
Approved (Intermediate) Writing Courses. The results were entered electronically into a Google form
for ease of data collection. Data analysis will be appended later in May.
Revised forms to be accessible.
All curriculum forms were revised to be accessible.
Writing Resource Website
A Writing Resource Website was created.
Resolution to Writing Program Label Confusion
The motion was approved by the Faculty Senate on April 9th.
Appeals to count transfer course as satisfying the approved writing course requirement
Five appeals were reviewed. Two were approved and three denied. The Committee is in the reevaluating the process. Most of the appeals were from students close to graduation. It needs to be
clear that the appeal is to determine course equivalency for transfer credit, not student’s ability. Given
the pending motion that will allow transfer students from outside the Montana University System to use
the MUS Core, there will likely be fewer students needing to appeal. The Committee will monitor
whether this is approved by the Faculty Senate and then update the policy.
Request to review Graduate Research Seminar for upper-division writing requirement
Two members of the Writing Committee reviewed the course to determine whether it met the criteria
and learning goals of the requirement. The outcome was sent to the instructor and the student was
advised to go through the graduation appeals process because the Writing Committee does not have a
mechanism to grant retroactive upper-division writing requirement status to a course.
Registrar’s office inquiry regarding whether students who transfer with WRIT 201 are
exempt from the approved writing course requirement.
The Committee briefly discussed whether it should take action with regard to the Registrar’s Office
question of whether WRIT 201 taken at other campuses fulfill the approved writing requirement. The
course that is more often transferred is LIT 101. The issue needs to be clarified so students are not
misinformed due to common course numbering. Students have the option to use the MUS Core and are
exempt from taking the approved writing course if they transfer with over 27 credits. The Committee
may need to communicate with programs that rely on LIT 101 to satisfy Writing and Literature.
Members agreed that the issue has not yet risen to critical mass to require further action. Students are
required to submit original papers with teacher comments to show that the course work was not
plagiarized.
University-wide Program-level Writing Assessment (UPWA)
The assessment collects data about student writing proficiency by assessing and scoring student-revised
papers from Approved Writing courses using a Holistic Scoring Rubric. The assessment process offers
professional development opportunities for faculty and staff that are committed to improving student
writing proficiency at UM. This is the second year of UPWA implementation. Natalie Pertesee was
hired as the Writing Assessment Coordinator and the position has become permanent. She
communicated frequently to approved writing course instructors regarding the requirement for
students to upload papers.
The following information literacy questions were added to the survey completed by students when
uploading their papers to Moodle.
1. Which of these resources did you search or consult to find, evaluate and synthesize
information to write your paper? Please check all that apply.
General web search (like Google)
Library database(s)
Librarian
Professor/Instructor
Peer
Writing Tutor
Other (open-ended)
I did not search or consult resources to find, evaluate and synthesize information in my
paper.
2. How did you integrate sources into your paper?
Directly quoted
Paraphrased
Summarized
Other (open ended)
I did not integrate sources into my paper.
The Writing Assessment Retreat was held on April 24th in the President’s Room in Brantley Hall from
8:30a.m. -4:00p.m. There were 48 participants (20 tenure- track / lecturer faculty, 3 adjunct faculty,2
guest professors, 10 graduate students, 6 staff members, 5 writing coaches, 1 high school teacher, and 1
administrator). Disciplines represented include Anthropology, Biology, Curriculum and Instruction,
Educational Leadership, English, Geosciences, Health, History, Journalism, Library, Linguistics, Music,
Sociology, Theater, and the Writing Center. Of the 200 random sample papers 166 student papers
were scored. The feedback from participants was positive with the opportunity for discussion the high
point for many. The final report will be completed and appended latter in May.
Given, the work involved in the ongoing refining of the writing assessment and planning for the writing
retreat, the committee needs to think collectively beyond the scope of the Writing Committee Chair to
sustain UPWA.
Consideration of requiring WRIT 101 to be a prerequisite for approved writing courses
This issue was discussed and all the ramifications of the change considered. The committee agreed not
to send a notification to instructors regarding the option to require WRIT 101 as a prerequisite.
Communication Items
Outcomes Assessment Workshop
The Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education sponsored an Outcomes Assessment Workshop on
September 22 from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. The 11:30 a.m. session focused on General Education.
Chair Chin, Chair-elect Stark and Director Webster co- presented information about the University-wide
Program-level Writing Assessment. They also traveled to MSU on October 2nd for a second presentation.
Writing Center’s annual report
Director Webster summarized the Writing Center’s annual report for the Committee at the first meeting
in September. The Writing Center’s primary goal is to help students become better writers. The Center
had 400 additional student visits than last year and provided 50 additional in-class workshops. More
graduate and international students are visiting the Writing Center. The lowest number of visits is still
from sophomores, so the Center is exploring ways to reach these students.
English Placement Test for International Students
Met with guests Peter Baker, International Program Development Officer & Julie Cahil, Associate
Director, International Recruitment to discuss the issues related to English placement tests for
international students.