Writing Across the Curriculum Program Annual Report
Spring and Fall 2007
Prepared by Dan Melzer, University Reading and Writing Coordinator and Writing Across the
Curriculum (WAC) Program Coordinator
WAC Mission Statement
The primary goal of WAC is to assist colleges, departments, and individual faculty members with
all aspects of the teaching of writing and reading in their disciplines, including designing writing
and reading assignments, responding to student writing, designing writing assessment, and using
writing to improve critical thinking. WAC collaborates with other faculty development and support
programs on campus and provides outreach to high schools and community colleges
Narrative Summary of WAC Activities
Univeristy-wide Outreach
WAC continued its campus-wide outreach through workshops and a faculty development retreat.
WAC presented a campus-wide workshop in the spring with the Center for Teaching and Learning,
“Teaching in Large Classes,” and a campus-wide workshop in the fall, “Designing Successful
Reading Assignments.” Before the fall 2007 semester, WAC organized a full-day faculty
development retreat led by Professor Christopher Thaiss, Director of the University Writing
Program at UC Davis, with a follow-up during winter break. There were over thirty attendees from
across disciplines from CSUS and local community colleges and high schools. The average
participant evaluation score for the workshop and the retreat was 4.6 out of 5, with 5 = workshop
was extremely helpful and 4 = workshop was helpful. WAC continued to offer thesis writing
workshops and thesis writing peer response groups each semester. WAC continued to publish a
campus-wide newsletter twice each semester. WAC continued to maintain a Web site at
www.csus.edu/wac.
University-wide Writing Program Changes
WAC continued to assist with implementation of the changes to the Comprehensive Writing
Program that the Faculty Senate and President Gonzalez signed off on in 2006. Dan Melzer
collaborated with the English Department Writing Programs Coordinator to organize meetings of
English 20 teachers to discuss and pilot the new writing in the disciplines-focused English 20.
Melzer also joined the GWAR Advisory Board to help with a pilot of the new version of the WPE
exam and the development of the new adjunct small-group tutorial course for Writing Intensive
courses, 109X. Melzer coordinated with CMS, Learning Skills, and the English Department to
oversee the changes to EPT cut score placements for fall 2008 that will reduce remediation and time
to degree. The flow chart in the appendix of this report outlines the Comprehensive Writing
Program changes to be implemented at the lower division in fall 2008 and the upper division in fall
2009.
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Departmental and College Outreach
WAC presented workshops for the Educational Opportunities Program, the Division of Nursing,
and the College of Health and Human Services. WAC presented classroom workshops for
instructors in Music, Nursing, English, and Sociology. WAC assisted Electrical and Electronic
Engineering with writing assessment. WAC provided tutoring support through its Tutoring in the
Disciplines program at satellite writing centers in Civil Engineering, the College of Health and
Human Services, Public Policy and Administration, and Sociology. The Tutoring in the Disciplines
program provides discipline-specific tutoring in reading and writing for a department or college: the
WAC program supports five hours of tutoring a week, which is matched by the department or
college. WAC generated $6,000 in departmental funding for tutoring through this program. Dan
Melzer recruited, hired, and supervised ten graduate and undergraduate WAC Tutors in 2007. In
addition to the WAC Tutors, Dan Melzer recruited, hired, and supervised four WAC Fellows
(undergraduate and graduate students who work five hours a week on WAC program projects such
as WAC research, newsletter articles, Web site materials, etc.).
Outreach
WAC participated in a number of activities that provided outreach to the Sacramento region. Dan
Melzer presented a WAC workshop at the CSUS Reading Institute for Academic Preparation (a
cross-disciplinary faculty development program for high school teachers) and visited Adelante High
School in Roseville for a WAC consultation. Faculty from local community colleges and high
schools attended the 2007 WAC retreat. WAC also mainained a presence beyond the Sacramento
region. Dan Melzer presented a workshop for New Community Jewish High School in West Hills,
California and WAC and the University Writing Center co-hosted the 2007 Northern California
Writing Centers Association Conference, with over two hundred writing center directors and tutors
from across California and Nevada attending.
Collaboration
WAC collaborated with a number of campus units in 2007. WAC collaborated with Graduate
Studies to present two thesis writing workshops. WAC collaborated with the University Writing
Center to host the 2007 Northern California Writing Centers Association Conference. WAC
collaborated with the Center for Teaching and Learning to present a workshop on teaching in large
classes.
Research and Scholarly Presentations
Dan Melzer presented a paper on the changes to the CSUS Comprehensive Writing Program,
"Using Systems Thinking Theory to Transform Writing across a University," at the 2007
Conference on College Composition and Communication. Melzer organized a panel, “New
Directions in Assessment and Placement,” for the spring 2007 CSU English Council meeting. The
panel focused on “best practices” in writing assessment and placement across the CSU.
Initiatives for 2008
In 2008, WAC will continue to provide faculty support through successful programs like
workshops, the faculty development retreat, and Tutoring in the Disciplines. WAC will host the 3rd
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Biannual Reading and Writing Across the Curriculum Conference at Sacramento State in spring
2008. WAC will continue to work with the English Department Writing Programs Coordinator to
fully implement the new version of English 20 in fall 2008 and with the GWAR Coordinator to
implement the 109X pilot in fall 2008. As Chair of the Senate Subcommittee for Writing and
Reading, Dan Melzer will organize a task force to continue to consider ways to reduce remediation
and time-to-degree while also providing more support to underprepared student writers. One of the
major projects for WAC in 2008 will be a qualitative and quantitative assessment of every aspect of
the WAC program. Up to the present WAC has relied on workshop evaluations and anecdotal
reporting from faculty at the WAC retreat follow-up to assess the effectiveness of WAC activities.
In 2008, WAC will interview professors, tutors, and students to systematically gather and analyze
qualitative data as well as examine trends using quantitative data collected since 2005 (number of
faculty participating in WAC, number of tutoring sessions, etc.). WAC will look to assess the
effectiveness of individual programs and activities, the affect of WAC on teachers’ pedagogy, and
students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the value of WAC.
Number of Faculty and Students Served in 2007
Number of faculty served by WAC
Campus-wide faculty development workshops: 35 participants
Workshops for colleges and departments: 70 participants
Faculty Development Retreat: 30 participants
Total number of faculty served by WAC: 135
Number of students served by WAC
Thesis writing workshops: 40 participants
Classroom presentations: 90 students
Disciplinary tutoring: 380 tutoring sessions
Total number of students served by WAC: 510
Number of students employed by WAC
WAC Tutors: 10
WAC Fellows: 4
Total number of students employed by WAC: 14
Workshops, Conferences, and Classroom Presentations
Campus-wide Workshops
“Designing Successful Reading Assignments.” October 17, 2007.
“Teaching in Large Classes.” March 20, 2007.
“Thesis Writing Workshop.” February 23 and September 28, 2007.
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Departmental and College-wide Workshops
“Creating Effective Writing Assignments.” College of Health and Human Services. December 7, 2007.
“Effective Tutoring.” CSUS Educational Opportunities Program. August 21, 2007.
“Preventing Plagiarism.” Division of Nursing. January 26, 2007.
Outreach Workshops
“Rhetorical Reading and Writing.” CSUS Reading Institute for Academic Preparation. June 9, 2007.
“What is Writing Across the Curriculum?” New Community Jewish High School. West Hills, CA.
November 2, 2007.
Operating Expenses for 2007
WAC Tutors: $4,500
WAC Fellows: $3,000
Newsletters: $2,000
Conferences/Professional Development: $3,000
Support for 2007 Northern California Writing Centers Association Conference: $2,500
Faculty Development Retreat: $3,000
Advertising: $1,500
Workshop food: $1,000
Office Supplies: $1,000
WAC library book purchases: $500
Total operating expenses: $22,000
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Appendix: CSU Sacramento Revised Comprehensive Writing Programs Flow Chart
English Placement Test (if not exempt)
Score of 148+
146-147
English 1A
or English 2
English 1A + 1X
or English 2 + 2X
142-145
141 or less
English 1
or LS87
LS15
or LS86
English 1A or English 2
English 20 or English 20M or equivalent
Pre-requisite: 30 units
Upper Division Placement
Students may choose either:
English 109W or 109M
3-unit course which ends
with portfolio placement in
one of the following:
WPJ (Writing Placement for Juniors)
Placement exam which gives one of
the following placements:
3 units: Upper-Division Writing Intensive Course
4 units: Upper-Division Writing Intensive Course +
109X
6 units: ENGL109W/M then Upper-Division Writing
Intensive Course
Course
10 units: LS86 (4 u) then ENGL109M
5
(3 u) then Writing Intensive Course (3 u)
Course