ASCRC Writing Committee Minutes, 11/5/12
TODD 203
Members Present: G. Burns, B. Chin, C. Corr, J. Drew J. Glendening, D. Raiford, M. Stark, G. Wiex,
Ex-Officio Members Present: K. Ryan, K. Webster
Members Absent/Excused: J. Melcher, M. Triana, F. Rosenzweig, R. Sattler,
Guest: C. Coder
The meeting was called to order at 10:10 p.m.
The minutes from 10/1/12 were approved.
Communication Items:

New members Professor Wiex and Joey Moore were welcomed and members introduced
themselves.

The first Writing Symposium was last Friday, Nov 2nd. There were between 20-30 attendees
at each of the three one-hour sessions (see attached flyer). It was valuable to have presenters
across disciplines and authentic audience participation. The feedback will be shared with the
committee, once summarized. The Writing Committee hopes there will be future symposiums
in collaboration with the Faculty Development Office and the Pedagogy Project.

The Writing Course Transfer Equivalency Appeal Guidelines (Procedure 202.50.5) were sent
back to committee by the Executive Committee of the Faculty Senate. ECOS felt that the third
requirement was unclear. The Committee revised the language to specify that the three papers
should be from the equivalent writing course or courses following the completion of the course.
The revised procedure will be sent to ASCRC for reconsideration, and then on to ECOS and the
December Faculty Senate meeting.

Professor Raiford asked whether a student pursuing a second bachelor’s degree is required to
take the UDWPA. The student should be directed to the Writing Center to request that the
UDWPA be waived.
Business Items:

Group Two reported on the draft survey. The Group wondered if the problem is well defined.
The Committee discussed additional questions including: How are students advised to fulfill
the writing course requirement and does your department offer a lower-division writing course
(why/why not)? The survey results should show the need for more transitional courses across
disciplines that teach writing to learn. The survey will be revised and resent to committee
members.
Student member Moore had to wait three semesters to get into WRIT 101. The enrollment data
is misleading for this course. It is fully enrolled at the beginning of the semester, but students
often drop because of the workload.

The Writing Course consent agenda below was approved. SPNS 315 and BIOM 415 are
pending follow-up. An additional six upper-division writing course forms were submitted from
English and are currently under review.
The electronic form was used to collect rubric data on the approved writing courses. It was
suggested that only one response be submitted for each course given the courses are reviewed
in teams. There is still a uniform lack of clarity regarding the need for writing outcomes on the
syllabus. One suggestion was to create a template for the syllabus. Information literacy is
often not addressed properly. Completing the forms is time intensive. Some members
wondered whether time would be better invested in faculty development. An information
literacy workshop is needed.
The draft letter to all writing instructors reminding them that writing learning outcomes are
required on approved writing course syllabi was reviewed and revised. It will be sent to the
committee for further comment. One suggestion was to inform instructors that their syllabi
failed to be in compliance.
Several of the Literature courses submitted on the wrong forms in September were not
resubmitted. Many of the faculty elected to drop the upper-division writing course designation.
A few may submit a form next semester. A grace period may be considered for these courses.
English majors have many options to meet the upper-division writing requirement, so the
department was not overly concerned about the situation.

Consideration of new labels for the writing program requirements (approved writing course &
upper-division writing requirement in the major) was postponed.

The Committee considered the issue of writing courses not having an attribute or identifier on
students’ transcripts. It recommends a WR attribute be added and the title include (writing),
similar to service learning courses. The recommendation will be forwarded to ASCRC.

Group One has concern regarding the time and training necessary to use the analytic rubric for
phase two of the writing assessment project. Members have not completed the review of
sample student papers. They questioned whether using an analytic rubric for this scale of a
project is feasible given the demands on everyone’s time and the extensive work required for
accurate scoring. The committee still needs to establish anchor papers with annotations. Chair
Chin will meet with Associate Provost Walker-Andrews to relay the committee’s concerns.
Kate Ryan, Kelly Webster, Carl Coder, and Doug Raiford volunteered to attend the meeting.
(Due to scheduling constraints, Associate Provost Walker-Andrews was invited to the next
Committee meeting on December 3rd.). The group should research how other universities have
conducted large scale writing assessment. There are likely examples of best practices at other
Universities such as Portland State and Purdue.
The Committee should do some preparation for the possibility of transitioning the existing
analytic rubric into a holistic rubric. How many score points are needed (4,5, or 6)?

Members should bring their calendars to the next meeting in order to establish monthly
meetings for spring semester.
The meeting was adjourned at 12:00 p.m.
Approved Writing Courses
BGEN 200
CSCI 215E
FILM 320
HSTA 315
HSTA 385
HSTR 334
HSTR 358
LIT 110L
LIT 120L
LIT 201
LIT 210L
LIT 211L
LIT 220L
LIT 221L
LIT 222L
WRIT 121
WRIT 201
WRIT 240E
WRIT 325
NRSM 200
Business Communication
Social and Ethical Issues in Computer Science
English Literature Shakespeare
The Early American Republic 1787-1848
America Families and Children
Latin American: Reform and Revolution
Russia since 1881
Introduction to Literature
Introduction to Poetry
Introduction to Literary Studies
American Literature I
American Literature Survey II
British Literature: Medieval to Renaissance
British Literature: The Enlightenment to Romanticism
British Lit: Victorian to Contemporary: Lecture
Introduction to Technical Writing
College Writing II: Advanced Composition
Arguments and Contemporary Issues
Writing in the Sciences
Natural Resources Writing
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Upper-Division Writing Courses
ANTY 403E
HSTA 468 UG
(467)
HSTA 417
HSTR 422
LIT 494
LS 484
BGMT 444
BMGT 426
SW 310
SW 300
Ethics and Anthropology
Researching and Writing Early America and the
Atlantic World
Prayer and Civil Rights
Historical Research Seminar: Postwar America
Capstone Seminar in Literature
Novel Ancient and Modern
Management Communications
Strategic Management
Social Welfare Policies and Services
Human Behavior in the Social Environment
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