Updated July 2010
FAQ About 223 Second-Year Writing Seminar
BROAD OVERVIEW OF THE COURSE
How can I teach a Second-Year Writing Seminar?
Any full-time faculty member (instructor, probationary or tenured) with Writing-Intensive certification may
teach a Second-Year Writing Seminar. In order to publicize the course and ensure the proper assignment of
FTEs certain materials need to be submitted for review and approval.
First, your department must submit a “223 SECOND-YEAR WRITING SEMINAR COURSE PROPOSAL
FORM” to the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee with all appropriate approval signatures.. Read the “FAQ
about 223” guidelines before submitting a 223 Proposal form. All 223 forms are available on the UCC page
located through the Provost’s website (http://www.cnu.edu/ucc/forms.html).
The proposal process will then follow this order: Complete 223 SECOND-YEAR WRITING SEMINAR
COURSE PROPOSAL FORM and acquire your chair’s signature. The entire signature process will be:
1) Department Chair
2) All College level Curriculum Committees
3) Deans’ Signatures
4) Liberal Learning Council
5) UCC 223 Second-Year Writing Seminar Subcommittee review
6) UCC recommendation to Provost
7) Provost Approval
After the course has been approved, your department chair must submit a course description of the particular
special topics focus of your 223 to be advertised along with all other 223 topics at the time of registration. This
description should be sent to the Registrar and Lorraine Hall, Assistant to the Deans (lkhall@cnu.edu).
What is the Second-Year Writing Seminar?
Catalogue Description:
The Second-Year Writing Seminar enhances the critical reading and writing foundations introduced in English
123 and fuses them with oral communications skills. Seminars center on topics of intellectual and academic
interest selected by the course instructor. Seminar topics will be discipline-specific, but accessible to students in
any major. Each topic will require students to evaluate, synthesize, and present primary and secondary sources
in two formats: a) a polished 10- to 15- page research paper and b) a formal oral presentation. ULLC courses are
taught by faculty from across the university. Students must earn a C- or higher to satisfy University degree
requirements.
Full Course Description:
The Second-Year Writing Seminar encourages students to continue practicing and reflecting upon the
conventions of reading and writing appropriate for liberal arts learning, in particular the ability to evaluate,
synthesize, and present primary and secondary sources in a research project. This course introduces students to
the conventions of academic research and its presentation, in both oral and written forms.
Designed around a unifying topic or theory selected by the instructor, the course will include a selection of
common readings that establish the course’s core ideas—that is, these readings will provide critical, historical,
and/or theoretical perspectives to encourage students to develop their individual interests related to the course
topic.
The Second-Year Writing Seminar features various opportunities for students to research independently and in
groups as they explore and pursue issues related to the course topic. As they probe multiple issues surrounding
the common topic, students will create and participate in a collaborative research community.
As part of the research process, students will learn to discern credible and non-credible sources in both print and
electronic formats; they may make oral presentations to class members of their research-in-progress; they may
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also present written versions of their research in a variety of formats, from traditional print to visual to
electronic.
The course centerpiece is a polished 10-15 page research paper incorporating multiple sources and providing the
opportunity for an oral presentation component. Students will research, write, and revise the large paper in
stages throughout the semester as they work toward the final, polished product (possibilities for staged
assignments are presented below). Throughout the assignment stages, professors and peers will review student
work so that revisions are informed by suggestions to extend, clarify, and sharpen the writing. A final, formal,
oral presentation of conclusions derived from the research process will comprise the final examination.
How many students are in the course?
The course is capped at 25 students. We now cap the course at 22; although many sections go to 23, 24, or 25
depending on enrollment. The Provost has mandated that this course will not be overloaded so that no more
than 25 students will be permitted in one section of the course.
What are the prerequisites for this course?
A grade of C- in ENGL 123 and sophomore standing.
COURSE ADVERTISEMENT AND DEPARTMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS
How will the course be advertised?
Second-Year Writing Seminar topics will be advertised through the registrar’s course listings and on the Liberal
Learning Core website; through email announcements to the entire university; and through individual
department publications.
How narrow or broad should the course topic be?
Topics should neither be narrow enough to demand prior specialization nor so broad that any take on a subject
seems relevant. Students should recognize how research occurs within powerful discourses with definite stakes
and consequences. Consequently, students can be positioned (and often they prefer to be) within clear
boundaries that oblige them to learn new ways of writing and speaking about a subject, and not rely solely on
their own languages and viewpoints. Conversely, the topic should be something that a range of students could
investigate given the interests they bring to the course.
For instance, a Second-Year Writing Seminar entitled, “Issues in Film” might be too broad a topic if the “issues”
are not limited to perhaps four or five, with a set of common theoretical/contextual texts to provide students with
a shared language or terminology for discussing those issues collectively. A Second-Year Writing Seminar
entitled, “Film in 1925” might be too narrow, requiring that students have a ready understanding of 1920s
American culture. If there are texts and examples that permit students various avenues into such a particular
historical moment, however, then that topic might permit more individual exploration than the title alone
suggests.
Overall, the Second-Year Writing Seminar should permit students to explore what it means to acquire
specialization in and to some degree mastery of defining issues and questions in academic fields pertinent to a
liberal arts education. At the end of a course titled, “Film in the 1980s” students should have some facility with
film production in the 1980s, but more importantly, what it means to conduct research in past times, what it
means to incorporate diverse historical materials into an argument, what it means to analyze closely various
texts, and what it means to draft and revise long papers.
How discipline specific should the course be?
The Second-Year Writing Seminar is best understood as a liberal learning introductory course to major issues in
the liberal arts and/or academic disciplines that students can research through their writing. Conversely,
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writing-intensive courses are conceived as more discipline specific, with attention to issues of format, style,
and depth of understanding of a discipline’s practices.
Do the course and its topics have to be certified by the University every time it is offered?
No. Once a 223 has been approved for the department, the individual topics of the course are determined by the
department chair and the instructors interested in teaching the course. The UCC does require that departments
submit course materials (syllabi, writing assignments) for new topics to the UCC every three years for the
purposes of creating an archive of support material and of charting the growth of the course, as is the case with
writing-intensive courses.
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NOTE: ULLC 223 courses must be recertified every three years. Directions and the recertification
form can be found at the following location: http://provost.cnu.edu/ucc/forms.htm
Does the course require any specific training?
All faculty members who teach the course must have writing-intensive certification, which may be obtained
through the attendance at the Writing-Intensive Workshop held every year in the fall.
Isn’t this really an English course?
Primarily, this course is a research writing course. Forty years ago, most writing courses and writing across the
curriculum courses were centered and based within English departments. However, the trend of the last twenty
years has involved diversifying the types of writing courses offered, recognizing the multiple writing
communities that form a university.
Can a department teach multiple sections of the same topic?
Yes.
Can a department teach sections with different topics?
Yes.
WRITING IN THE COURSE
What kind of writing is there in the course?
Types of Writing:
The purpose of informal and semi-formal writing is to provide students with chances to practice parts of the
formal assignment, to engage important concepts in smaller chunks, or to engage these concepts in a “lower
stakes” environment in preparation for the formal writing task.
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Informal Writing: a variety of writing opportunities, including freewriting, journal writing, notes, early
drafts, peer-editing responses to other students’ essays, exercises on structure and style, paraphrases,
reading responses, posts to online forums, and in-class writing. Informal writing is evaluated (if it is
evaluated) on content, rather than on organization or style, although a basic level of clarity is assumed.
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Semi-Formal Writing: 5-10 writing tasks, including mid-level drafts, reading responses, posts to online
forums, quizzes, exams, and in-class essays. Semi-formal writing is evaluated (if it is evaluated) more
on content and organization and less on style, although a basic level of clarity and correctness is
assumed.
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Formal Writing: a target of 2-6 writing tasks, including final drafts that carefully integrate multiple
sources and papers with polished, effective prose styles, and one 10-15 page research piece. Formal
writing is evaluated on content, correctness, organization, and style.
How many writing assignments do I need to have?
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Scholars who research student writing have concluded that students learn to become better readers and writers
through weekly practice in writing and discussion of their writing. Instructors teaching the Second-Year
Writing Seminar are encouraged to develop their own writing sequences, or the series of writing assignments
that accrue skills and ideas over the course of the entire semester, leading to (and even becoming a part of ) the
final research paper.
Below are some examples of writing sequences:
Sample Assignment Structures: Common to all of these assignments is the sequencing, or breaking into
component (often informal and semi-formal) parts, of a larger, formal assignment.
Model A
 Small group investigations, exploratory discussions, informal writings on the research topic, and
presentations of preliminary shapings/findings.
 Several summaries and/or brief analyses (informal or semi-formal writing) of primary or secondary
sources that may be used as sources for final paper.
 A short paper that treats the research topic, and may include a working thesis, a methodology, and sources
(about 3 pages—informal/semi-formal writing). This writing assignment may focus on the creation of a
prospectus, an annotated bibliography, or a recognizable chunk of the extended paper such as the
theoretical, critical, or historical section.
 A short paper (about 6 pages—semi-formal writing), that takes the previous paper one step further—e.g.,
revising or developing the working thesis, considering opposing research findings, articulating the
student’s voice, or developing other building block elements that take the short paper further into the
writing process and the goal of a final paper.
 A longer paper (about 10 pages—semi-formal writing), a revision and expansion of the six-page paper
with a clear thesis and an appropriate number of sources.
 A final research paper (which is an expansion of the six and ten page papers with subsequent drafts 10-15
pages—formal writing).
Model B
 Class/group guided investigations, discussions, and presentations of research topics.
 2-5 assignment-building pieces or informal writing “jobs” that begin with a central task like explicating
a term, sub-genre, or short reading in order to build a knowledge base for expansion into a formal paper.
 1-3 semi-formal papers that demonstrate further articulation and attention of smaller pieces and are
shaped by working theses, methodologies, and sources.
 1 paper (about 6 pages formal writing) that follows the previous assignments requiring students to
articulate a focus on a central issue, theme, or topic while employing a thesis, and demonstrates ability
to articulate the writer’s voice with research.
 1 paper (about 10 pages formal writing), a revision and expansion of the six-page paper with a clear thesis
and an appropriate number of sources.
 1 final research paper which is an expansion of the six and ten page papers and subsequent drafts (10-15
pages formal writing).
Model C
 Class discussion of essays providing background and terms for the analysis of research topics. Focus
group workshops analyzing research material; oral presentations of analyses; draft of essay; writing
workshop (1-2 pages informal and semi-formal), guided peer reviews; revision and final essay (3 pages
formal writing).
 Draft of essay building from one example to analysis of larger research area (essay guided by questions
and focus guiding exercises to culminate in semi-formal writing); workshop; revision; final draft (3-5
pages formal writing).
 Series of summaries, paraphrases, and paragraphs integrating quotes as informal and semi-formal
writing.
 Library orientation and series of hands-on workshops on evaluating print sources, Internet research
search engines and online databases, and Internet sources.
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Research proposal: semi-formal writing to include working thesis, outline of methodology, annotated
bibliography (minimum five sources)
Draft of final research paper (10 pages semi-formal writing); writing workshop.
Final paper, revised and potentially developed from previous longer paper and subsequent drafts (10-15
pages formal writing).
Do I need to comment on every draft of every paper?
No; writing is a collaborative effort as well as an individual one; consequently, students are encouraged to learn
the value of reading/writing groups or peer groups where people share materials, ideas, and questions.
However, learning how to comment on writing is a challenging task that most students cannot perform without
guidance and training. Consequently, papers that are more formal papers (ones that will be graded, for instance)
or papers that represent crucial milestones in a writing sequence, might require more instructor attention than
papers that are more informal (in-class writing, journal writing, etc.)
READING IN THE COURSE
What kinds of reading are suitable for the course?
The course features several types of reading. First and foremost are the assigned texts for the course. These
may be books, articles, essays, or chapters. They may serve, collectively or individually, as:
Models of research – revealing how scholars compile their research, present it to specific audiences,
work among sources, introduce new research into traditional issues or debates.
Historical, theoretical, or contextual overviews – providing frameworks within which students will
conduct their research. Consequently, such materials should provide a certain terminology students may
borrow, apply, and add to with their research; offer a sense of the larger consequences or stakes of these
research; establish certain traditions or ongoing debates which students through their research will take
up and argue within.
Case studies – appearing as texts upon which students may practice their analyses collectively, before
they conduct this research on their own texts and research.
Another way to consider these assigned texts is as a combination of secondary and primary materials, or
documents that represent the scholarly review and assessment of a topic, and documents that represent first-hand
and/or contemporary views about a topic.
Student papers are a text in the course as well. Students in the Second-Year Writing Seminar are encouraged to
analyze, discuss, and peer edit one another’s papers throughout the course, both in groups and as a class
together. Students who examine fellow students’ papers, it has been shown in studies of student writing, learn
examples of how other students negotiate similar or related challenges in writing research papers.
How many texts should be read in the course?
As this is a course that invites students to take part in a researchable subject, the readings for the course should
offer them guidance on how to conduct their research and parameters for what they need and need not examine
as part of their research. The readings need not be exhaustive of an entire field of work (as perhaps would occur
in a senior seminar). But they should provide a terrain with distinct milestones within which students may
explore and develop their own interests.
Instructors who have taught this course have assigned as few as four substantive essays and as many as twelve.
Instructors have relied on a single book devoted to the topic, while other instructors use anthologies of readings
related to the theme of the course. Too many common texts can overwhelm the class, especially when students
are asked to write in response to the texts. This course is designed to help students to learn how to write in
conjunction with other texts, and too many texts can overwhelm them rather than teach them how to navigate
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through them. Conversely too few texts may offer students few models from which to draw from as they
conduct their research, making it difficult for students to claim the significance of the research they perform.
Ultimately, the Second-Year Writing Seminar is a writing course that depends upon interesting, challenging
readings that model for students the kinds of academic research writing the university privileges and that invites
them to join the conversation and debates about a particular special topic by engaging and applying with those
readings’ arguments, methods, and terminologies.
How much of the course should be devoted to reading and to the paper?
Most classes devote about one half to two thirds of the course to the readings (a section of the course that also
consists of several writing assignments in response to those readings) and the remainder to the drafts of the final
paper. The first half to two thirds of the course should not be separate from the drafting of the final paper.
Many classes use some of the assignments in that early part of the course to have students draft outlines, create
annotated bibliographies, and compose certain sections of what would eventually become a part of the final
paper.
SPEAKING IN THE COURSE
What does the oral presentation part consist of?
The oral presentation component of the course may be satisfied by any activity such as the following, at any
point in the course. Length of presentations is to be determined by individual instructors.
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Brief, informal presentations of source summaries/analyses to the class, or to a small group
A brief, informal presentation of the prospectus to the class or a small group
A formal presentation of the research project—its process and/or its conclusions
At the instructor’s discretion, these presentations may focus upon the research process rather than the product.
Formal presentation formats might consist of mini-conferences where students become part of panels according to
similar subject matter interests and present parts of their findings; formal presentations may also include
evaluations and feedback from the classroom audience, and they may incorporate any of the classroom
technological and media devices available. Informal presentations may occur in small group sessions in which
students practice presenting summaries or part of a prospectus as a way of building speaking skills.
Concerns about time constraints might be addressed by having students present their work informally to smaller
groups within the class. Formal presentations could be reserved for the final exam period.
SUPPORT AND FURTHER INFORMATION
What workshop/support is there for this course?
The Writing Center provides the most information on issues of teaching writing, from information on writing
assignments, workshops students and faculty can attend, and websites with further information on teaching
writing.
Whom may I contact for further information?
Dr. Susan Booker, Center for Academic Success, Trible Library.
Originality checker required.
All students purchase a two-semester passcode to Cengage’s InSite. All students taking English 123 and ULLC
223 post their papers on InSite (against the originality checker/Turnitin).
http://turnitin.com/static/index.html