Writing Course Review Form (12/1/08)
I. General Education Review – Writing Course
Dept/Program
Course # (i.e. ENEX
Liberal Studies
151/152
Subject
200)
Course Title
II. Endorsement/Approvals
Complete the form and obtain signatures before submitting to Faculty Senate Office.
Please type / print name Signature
Date
Instructor
Stewart Justman
Phone / Email
5793/stewart.justman
@umontana.edu
Program Chair
III Overview of the Course Purpose/ Description: Provides an introduction to the subject
matter and explains course content and learning goals.
LS 151/152 introduce students to major literary and sacred texts of the Western tradition, with
151 covering largely the Bible (both Hebrew Bible and New Testament) and the Greeks, and
152 selected masterworks from Dante to Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. LS 151 is not a prerequisite
for 152. These courses share, and in fact epitomize, the goal of the LS Program itself, which is
to foster critical understanding and appreciation of the texts and traditions that contribute to our
common inheritance. Because as many as seven or eight sections of 151 and 152 are typically
offered, there are many instructors at any one time, and their syllabi are not identical in every
particular. Every instructor of 151/152 possesses and responsibly exercises academic freedom.
Nevertheless, in every case 151 and 152 are writing-centered courses, meaning that they are
predicated on the principle that critical understanding cannot be achieved and true appreciation
cannot be demonstrated without being framed in writing. In token of the importance it places
on writing, LS has prepared an explicit, detailed set of writing standards (attached).
Learning Goal: To acquire and demonstrate a critical understanding and appreciation of the
Western humanistic tradition.
All courses offered by the LS program centrally involve writing, an incomparably sensitive
measure not only of basic understanding but critical understanding—the ability to make
distinctions, to move from the general to the particular and back again, to navigate uncertainty,
and to frame the text as a cultural crux. To judge from their comments, many LS students have
never before had their writing reviewed as carefully as in an LS course. Grades in all sections
of 151/152 are almost entirely determined by writing.
Learning Goal: To write clearly and cogently, with subtlety and accuracy, and to construct
arguments with skill.
All instructors of LS 151 and 152 adhere to the principle that reading and writing are
correlative acts. It stands to reason that such a reading-centered curriculum as that of LS must
also be writing-centered. While various modes and instruments of assessment are used in LS,
the backbone of assessment in the LS Program is undoubtedly paper-writing. However, other
assignments are also employed. Students may be asked to compose discursive summaries of
the plenary lectures that accompany 151/152; they may be asked to submit an abstract of their
paper before submitting the paper in full; they may be required to submit well-framed questions
in writing regarding the reading. Students entering 151/152 might not know what to make of
the principle that literary understanding entails writing, but as students they are putting that
principle into practice regularly. It is the basis of their course.
IV Learning Outcomes: Explain how each of the following learning outcomes will be achieved.
Student learning outcomes :
Use writing to learn and synthesize new
concepts
Students use writing to work out new
concepts by, for example, composing an
essay to work out their understanding of Job
or Hamlet. Anyone who takes on such a task
will come to understanding that paper-writing
is a lot more than just putting onto paper
ideas that are already fully formed in one’s
head: it means revising one’s thinking in the
act of writing, and then revising the writing.
Precisely because the ideas students are
working on are new to them, they need to be
rethought and refined in ways that only
writing enables. Writing is an enabling act.
Formulate and express opinions and ideas in
writing
Because knowledge in the humanities is
qualified with uncertainty, students in
151/152 are encouraged to form and
formulate interpretations for which they can
offer evidence. In other words, they express
opinions. Because a reader cannot be
expected to go along with their opinions in
the absence of supporting evidence, 151/152
students learn the necessity and value of
making their opinions persuasive to others by
backing them up with textual citations,
examples, and other sorts of documentation.
Compose written documents that are
appropriate for a given audience or purpose
By composing different sort of writing in
response to different assignments (for
example, a summary of a plenary lecture and
an abstract of their own paper), students learn
to adapt their writing to various purposes and
requirements. They learn by doing, which is
incomparably the most effective kind of
learning.
Revise written work based on constructive
feedback
Because revision is a part of writing, perhaps
the essence of writing, students in 151/152
are expected to revise and refine their work
over time. (Writing is a skill, skill requires
practice, practice requires time.) In one
section of 151, students revise the first part of
their paper (on the Hebrew Bible) when the
hand in the second (on the Greeks). In one
section of 152, students translate their
abstract into a paper, incorporating detailed
comments and criticisms by the course
instructor.
Find, evaluate, and use information effectively Students in 151/152 are expected to use and
(see http://www.lib.umt.edu/informationliteracy/) synthesize information from many sources:
from the plenary lectures, from the texts they
are reading, from class discussion. In 152
many, perhaps most readings are posted on
ERES; thus students must become familiar
with the use of that resource. (Students
unable to attend plenary lectures may also use
CDs of the lectures in the Mansfield Library.)
Instructors of 151/152 do not encourage
students to surf the web for information, as
this may short circuit the thinking process,
and they are wary of plagiarism and warn
students against it.
Begin to use discipline-specific writing
conventions
Students in 1511/152 are expected to quote
appropriately and accurately, document their
borrowings, marshal evidence, and write in a
way that impresses not only themselves but
an impartial reader. In these ways among
others they are being introduced to disciplinespecific conventions.. Many students
struggle with the idea that writing must be, in
fact, “disciplined.” Learning comes through
struggling. (Note, however, that most of
those who take LS 151/152 are not and do not
become LS majors. LS 151/152 are GenEd
courses.)
Demonstrate appropriate English language
usage
All instructors of 151/152 will point out
common ENEX errors such as misspellings,
faulty agreement, sentence fragments, run-on
sentences, breaks in parallelism, and misuse
of apostrophes. They also let students know
that these things are not just frills and
ribbons.
V. Writing Course Requirements Check list
Is enrollment capped at 25 students?
If not, list maximum course enrollment.
Explain how outcomes will be adequately met
for this number of students. Justify the request
for variance.
x† Yes † No
In the past LS 151/152 enrollments have
sometimes run to 30 or so, but I will see to it
that they are capped at 25.
Are outcomes listed in the course syllabus? If
not, how will students be informed of course
expectations?
† Yes † No Because LS 151/152 are
Are expectations for Information Literacy listed in
the course syllabus? If not, how will students be
informed of course expectations?
† Yes † No Syllabi for 152 explain the use
of ERES (Electronic Reserve), and all syllabi
for 151 and 152 warn against appropriating
uncited material from the Web. Beyond this,
different instructors will have different
information to convey about information
literacy.
Are detailed requirements for all written
assignments included in the course syllabus? If not
how and when will students be informed of written
assignments?
x† Yes † No Paper length, topic, and due
necessarily taught by a group of people (often
as many as five or six) and different
instructors run their sections somewhat
differently, the syllabi are not completely
identical. Sample syllabi from both courses
are attached to this document. In future I will
ask the various instructors to include a
statement such as: “These goal of this course
is to foster critical understanding and
appreciation of the texts and traditions that
contribute to our common inheritance. This
is a writing-centered course, predicated on
the principle that critical understanding
cannot be achieved and true appreciation
cannot be demonstrated without being framed
in writing.”
date, as well as grading formulas, are
explained on syllabi. Syllabi are not primers
in English Composition, although instructors
circulate a detailed, explicit set of LS Writing
Standards, as noted above.
What instructional methods will be used to teach
students to write for specific audiences, purposes,
and genres?
Along with appropriate practices like correct
spelling, punctuation, and diction, students I
1511/152 must learn that they are writing to a
professional standard—which means writing
not in a diary or in the manner of a letter to
the editor, or a text message, but to and for an
educated audience engaged in a quest for
knowledge. In short, the writer must respect
the reader. 151/152 students do a number of
kinds of written assignment, from abstracts to
full essays to summaries, but all are held to
this standard.
Will written assignments include an opportunity for x† Yes † No
revision? If not, then explain how students will
receive and use feedback to improve their writing
ability.
VI. Writing Assignments: Please describe course assignments. Students should be required to
individually compose at least 16 pages of writing for assessment. At least 50% of the course grade
should be based on students’ performance on writing assignments. Clear expression, quality, and
accuracy of content are considered an integral part of the grade on any writing assignment.
Formal Graded Assignments
In all sections of 151/152 written work
accounts for the lion’s share of the course
grade, and in most 100% of the grade. All
assignments are “formal” in the sense that
they are prepared outside of class, are
supposed to observe the rules of composition,
and are submitted for evaluation by the
instructor and then returned to the student.
(This is true even of questions on the reading
submitted for credit and evaluation in my
own section of 152.) All students in all
sections of 151/152 write papers on the
reading and write essay final exams. Clearly,
151/152 is and has been a writing-centered
course.
Informal Ungraded Assignments
VII. Syllabus: Paste syllabus below or attach and send digital copy with form. ⇓ The syllabus
should clearly describe how the above criteria are satisfied. For assistance on syllabus preparation
see: http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/syllabus.html