Writing Across the Curriculum
Ellen M. Millsaps
Prof. of English, Dir. Of
WAC/Composition
emillsaps@cn.edu
Basic WAC Definition
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“Students use written language to
develop and communicate knowledge in
every discipline and across disciplines.”
--Art Young
What WAC Is Not:
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An add-on to the school’s curriculum: it
is a way to teach the curriculum.
Accomplished by assigning a term
paper in every class
Designed to add more work for you
Busy work
An effort by English faculty to have
others do their work for them
Why Write??
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The National Commission on Writing
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First report to Congress, 2003: The
Neglected “R”: The Need for a Writing
Revolution
Second report, 2004: Writing: A Ticket to
Work. . .Or a Ticket Out, A Survey of
Business Leaders
Third report, 2005: Writing: A Powerful
Message from State Government
Some Overall Guiding
Assumptions about Writing
1. Writing is a mode of learning.
** Assigning writing is a powerful
mode of teaching.
Writing Promotes Active Learning
—National Training Laboratories, Bethel, Maine
--Writing Assumptions, cont.
2. Learning a discipline also means
learning the particular ways of
writing in that discipline.
Writing Assumptions, cont.
3. Informal writing exercises both
complement formal writing
assignments and are valuable in
their own right.
Some Informal Uses of Writing
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Five-minute free writes at the start of class to
focus discussion on the topic.
A “one-minute essay” to summarize the most
important points of class or to ask a question
to be addressed at the next class meeting.
An answer to someone’s question about a
problem, process, or concept.
As an exit ticket from class.
Some Uses of Writing Other
than Research Papers
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Article Summary/Abstract
Annotated Bibliography
Review of Literature
Case Studies
Lab Reports
Program/Exhibit Notes
Lesson Plans
News articles about disciplinary topic
Reviews of lectures, performances
“F.I.T” essays (Fact, Interpretation, Tie-in)
Writing Assumptions, cont.
4. Learning to write is not like getting
vaccinated against measles.
Adapted from Doug Hesse, Univ. of Denver, 2007
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“A geology professor in teaching students the
knowledge that is geology as well as how to
think, communicate, and solve problems like
a geologist is initiating students into geology
as a discipline and into science as a
profession. Sometimes teachers fear that
becoming involved in WAC means taking time
away from geology—becoming an English
teacher for 30 percent of the time—and they
are understandably reluctant to do so.”
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“WAC says that a geology professor should
not attempt to become an English professor
at all. Geologists should teach geology, its
knowledge and its ways of developing and
communicating knowledge, and they should
utilize written language as a tool to
strengthen this teaching and learning of
geology.” -Art Young, Teaching Writing Across the
Curriculum
Courses that Use Writing vs.
Courses that Teach Writing
Courses That Use Writing
Courses That Teach Writing
1.
Emphasis on teaching course
content through having
students actively engage
information and ideas.
Emphasis on students developing
writing skills and strategies
2.
“Getting better” as a writer is
an indirect side benefit.
“Getting better” as a writer is a direct
and primary goal.
3.
Class time features relatively
little direct instruction in
writing.
Class time features direct instruction
in writing.
4.
Frequent shorter writings are
prominent.
Frequent shorter writings are
prominent.
5.
The focus of the course is on
assigned readings, practices,
or topics.
The focus of the course is on the
students’ texts created by writing.
Courses that Use Writing vs.
Courses that Teach Writing
Courses That Use Writing
6. Response tends to focus on
quality and accuracy of student
thought and engagement.
7.
Courses That Teach Writing
Response tends to focus on these
plus matters of presentation
(rhetorical effectiveness,
adherence to conventions, correct
mechanics, etc.)
Types of writing assigned may be Ditto.
to facilitate learning or to
emulate professional discourse.
8. Can be used in any class, large
or small.
Requires relatively fewer students
because of time involved.
9. Presumes no special knowledge
on the part of the instructor.
9. Asks instructors to possess
knowledge about developing
writing abilities and conventions of
target genres. Doug Hesse, Univ. of Denver
What Do You Do with Writing
Once You Get It?
Respond: To give informal reactions to text.
Assess: To see how a student’s, or a class’s,
body of work lines up with program or
institutional objectives.
Evaluate: To compare work with some sort
of marker, benchmark, or standard.
Grade: To condense all data into one symbol.
Bradley Peters, Northern Illinois U., Council of Writing Program Admin.
False Premises About
Evaluation
1.
2.
3.
4.
Instructors should write a lot in the margins
and between the lines.
Instructors ought to know and use many
specific grammatical rules and terms if they
want to comment effectively.
The most effective responses to student
writing are instructor-written comments on
the final copy. Joyce MacAllister, “Responding to Student Writing”
Every piece of writing needs to be graded.
Tips for Assessing Writing
1. Tie the writing task to specific pedagogical
goals.
2. Give written assignments that include your
criteria for grading to make your
expectations clear.
3. Weight your grading criteria to reflect your
course priorities.
4. Require more than one draft of an
assignment.
Tips for Assessing Writing
5. Make good student papers available to
illustrate features of strong work.
6. Set ground rules for yourself, and clearly
convey to students what they can and
cannot expect in terms of your response.
7. Develop a response rubric—a list of elements
of the paper that you can check off.
8. Use evaluation options: choice depends on
type, complexity, and purpose of
assignment.
Doug Hesse, “Response to Student Writing”
Some Evaluation Options
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Credit/No credit
Read and possibly share with class
Accept/Revise/Reject
Holistic Scoring
Analytic Scoring
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Dichotomous Scales
Rating Features Scales
Generalized Checklists
Weighted Analytic Scales
Response/Grading Rubrics
Holistic Scoring
One score that considers all criteria at the same
time.
1.
Read quickly; score immediately.
2.
Don’t reread.
3.
Read the entire paper.
4.
Read for what has been done well, not
poorly.
5.
Take everything into account: content,
organization, grammar, style, etc.
6.
Rank papers against others in the group.
Holistic Scoring Scale
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6
Extremely
Proficient
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5
Proficient
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4
Moderately
Proficient
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3
Slightly
Deficient
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2
Deficient
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1
Seriously
Deficient
The paper receiving a score of 6 generally has abundant,
good details. The paper shows style and thought, and often
there is a strong sense of the writer. This paper has few
errors, as the writer seems in command of sentence
structure and mechanics.
The 5 paper is also detailed and developed with some
sense of the writer showing through. The writer seems to
understand sentence construction although problems with
grammar and spelling can begin to arise.
The 4 paper usually has a thesis developed in some
significant way with support, although the paper may begin
to lose focus, and it is not as detailed as a 5 and 6.
Usually there is a sense of sentence construction even
though it is not too sophisticated. Sometimes paragraph
problems begin to appear.
The 3 paper provides a clear picture of the subject or a
sense of the writer, but it is developed with generalities.
Grammatical, spelling, and sentence errors begin to
dominate the papers.
A 2 paper either has very limited and weak
development and some grammatical/mechanical errors, or
it attempts some development and is full of errors.
A 1 paper extremely short with virtually no
development at all. (In a few instances, a 1 may be given
for an off-topic paper in which the student did not
understand the topic at all.)
Holistic Scoring Uses
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For
For
For
For
papers in large or small classes
“micro themes”
“one-minute essays”
journal entries
Dichotomous Scales
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Feature “Yes” or “No” responses.
Useful in program evaluation of a
common set of writing characteristics.
Example:
1.
2.
3.
Is there a thesis statement? Yes __ No __
Is there thoughtful analysis? Yes__ No __
Are sources used correctly? Yes__ No __
MLA Format: Brief Assessment
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General Format:
1. Yes  No  Essay's first page has correct format for margins, headers, double-spacing, student's
name, the teacher's name, the course, and the date in the upper left-hand corner as required by MLA,
2. Yes  No  Long quotations (four lines or more) are indented in block format (i.e., the left margin is
adjusted by a full two tabs, but no special indentation appears on the right-hand side of the page) and the
period appears in the correct location with the parenthetical citation.
3. Yes  No  Student judiciously uses ellipses correctly to indicate missing material and uses spacing
before and after each period, or the student uses brackets [like so] around additional inserted material for
clarity or grammatical consistency.
4. Yes  No  Student introduces and integrates quotations smoothly into the content of the essay--the
student explains quotations and gives context for the reader rather than inserting inert quotations.
5. Yes  No  Students cites paraphrasing in such a way that it is clear where their own ideas begin and
end and where source material begins and ends.
Works Cited:
6. Yes  No  Each line of the Works Cited page is double-spaced.
7. Yes  No  The Works Cited page uses hanging indentation in which the first line of each entry is
flush with the left-margin and subsequent lines within each entry are indented one tab.
8. Yes  No  Student includes the Works Cited information for each entry in the appropriate order
leaving out unnecessary abbreviations like "Vol." and "No." and "p."
9. Yes  No  Student alphabetizes entries by author's last name or by title if no author or editor is
given.
10. Yes  No  Student remembers to use abbreviated format for lengthy URLs for databases like JSTOR,
InfoTrac.
Analytic Scoring Guides
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Quality of Ideas (______ points)
Range and depth of argument; logic of argument;; quality of research or original
thought; appropriate sense of complexity of the topic; appropriate awareness of
opposing views.
Organization and Development (______ points)
Effective title; clarity of thesis statement; logical and clear arrangement of ideas;
effective use of transitions; unity and coherence or paragraphs, good development
of ideas through supporting details and evidence.
Clarity and Style (______ points)
Ease of readability; appropriate voice, tone and style for assignment; clarity of
sentence structure; gracefulness of sentence structure; appropriate variety and
maturity of sentence structure.
Sentence Structure and Mechanics (______ points)
Grammatically correct sentences; absence of comma splices, run-one, fragments;
absence of usage and grammatical errors; accurate spelling; careful proofreading;
attractive and appropriate manuscript form.
(Bean, Engaging Ideas 258-259)
Analytic Scoring Guides
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Quality of Ideas (50 points)
Range and depth of argument; logic of argument;; quality of research or original
thought; appropriate sense of complexity of the topic; appropriate awareness of
opposing views.
Organization and Development (30 points)
Effective title; clarity of thesis statement; logical and clear arrangement of ideas;
effective use of transitions; unity and coherence or paragraphs, good development
of ideas through supporting details and evidence.
Clarity and Style (10 points)
Ease of readability; appropriate voice, tone and style for assignment; clarity of
sentence structure; gracefulness of sentence structure; appropriate variety and
maturity of sentence structure.
Sentence Structure and Mechanics (10 points)
Grammatically correct sentences; absence of comma splices, run-one, fragments;
absence of usage and grammatical errors; accurate spelling; careful proofreading;
attractive and appropriate manuscript form.
(Bean, Engaging Ideas 258-259)
Diederich Scale for Raters of Writing
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Scale:
1 = Poor
2 = Weak
3 = Average
4 = Good
5 = Excellent
Categories of Writing Qualities:
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Quality and development of ideas
(textual evidence & analysis)
Organization, relevance, movement
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1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
_______ x5 = ______
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Style, flavor, individuality
Wording and phrasing
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
subtotal
_______ x3 = ______
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Grammar, sentence structure
Punctuation
Spelling
Manuscript form, legibility, MLA
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
3
3
3
3
4
4
4
4
5
5
5
5
subtotal
_______ x1 = ______
subtotal
Total Grade =
_________
Diederich Scale for Raters of Writing
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Scale:
1 = Poor
2 = Weak
3 = Average
4 = Good
5 = Excellent
Categories of Writing Qualities:
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Quality and development of ideas
(textual evidence & analysis)
Organization, relevance, movement
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
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6
x5
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Style, flavor, individuality
Wording and phrasing
1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5
= 30
subtotal
____6__ x3 = _18____
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Grammar, sentence structure
Punctuation
Spelling
Manuscript form, legibility, MLA
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
3
3
3
3
4
4
4
4
5
5
5
5
subtotal
___12____ x1 = _12_____
subtotal
Total Grade = __60_______
Diederich Conversion Chart
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Converted Scale:
Grade Book:
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Poor = 1 = F
Below 30
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Weak = 2 = D
30-49
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Average = 3 = C
50-69
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Good = 4 = B
70-89
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Excellent = 5 = A
90-100
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A = 98
A- = 94
B+ = 93
B = 90
B- = 85
C+ = 83
C = 80
C- = 75
D+ = 74
D = 72
D- = 70
F
= 64
Diederich Conversion Chart
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Converted Scale:
Grade Book:
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Poor = 1 = F
Below 30
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Weak = 2 = D
30-49
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Average = 3 = C
50-69
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Good = 4 = B
70-89
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Excellent = 5 = A
90-100
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A = 98
A- = 94
B+ = 93
B = 90
B- = 85
C+ = 83
C = 80
C- = 75
D+ = 74
D = 72
D- = 70
F
= 64
Rubrics: Why Use?
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Save time; keeps from repeatedly saying the
same things
Make grading more efficient
Make grading more consistent
Help students know what to expect/how to
respond to assignment
Can more easily assess group learning
Recognized as a valid measure by some
accrediting bodies
Creating Grading Rubrics for
Writing/Research Assignments
Step One: Identifying the criteria.
What are the assignment’s learning outcomes or
objectives?
Step Two: Weighting criteria.
What should count the most?
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Ten ranked items is usually upper limit.
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Use specific and descriptive criteria.
Step Three: Describing levels of success.
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Numerical scales
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Descriptors
Step Four: Creating and distributing the grid.
(Pamela Flash, Assoc. Dir., CISW, Univ. of Minnesota)
Sample Writing Rubric
Weak
Insights and ideas
that are germane to
assignment
Address of target
audience
Choices and use of
evidence
Logic of organization
and use of prescribed
formats
Integration of source
materials
Grammar and
mechanics
Comments
Final Grade
Satisfactory
Strong
Sample Writing Rubric
1 = not present, 2 = needs extensive revision,
3 = satisfactory, 4 = strong, 5 = outstanding
1
Insights and ideas
Address of target audience
Organization and use of prescribed formats
Integration of source materials
Grammar and mechanics
Comments/Final Grade
2
3
4
5
English Department Rubric for Essays
Assessment
Thesis/enthymeme is clearly stated, makes a point
that is thought provoking, and reflects critical
thinking.
Content reflects college-level thinking.
Paragraphs are well-organized; topic sentences and
transitions are used effectively to introduce and link
body paragraphs
Paragraphs are well-developed; examples, quotations,
images, or other specific details are used effectively
as support.
Sentence structure is economical and varied.
Language is precise, appropriate.
Essay avoids errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling,
and proofreading.
The writer demonstrates an individual voice.
1
2
3
4
5
WAC Principles
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Students learn more when they are engaged with the
subject.
Writing is a unique tool for engaging students in
learning.
Not every piece of writing needs to be graded or lead
to a final product for learning to occur.
You are the best person to teach students how to use
writing in your disciplinary field.
Students will regard writing as important for all
disciplines, and not just English, when they see other
professors valuing it as a means for learning and its
necessity for job performance.
Works Cited
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Bean, John. Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrting
Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the
Classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996.
Burke, Kenneth. The Philosophy of Literary Form. 3rd ed., U of
California P, 1973. 110-111.
Emig, Janet. “Writing as a Mode of Learning.” College
Composition and Communication 28 (May 1977): 122-28.
Hesse, Doug. “Response to Student Writing: Thirteen Ways of
Looking at It.”
- - -. “Writing beyond Classes: Useful Strategies for Busy
Professors.” Univ. of Denver. April 2007. dhesse@du.edu
“Learning Pyramid.” National Training Laboratories. Bethel,
Maine. The Abilene Christian University Adams Center for
Teaching Excellence. 2000. 30 Oct. 2007.
http://www.acu.edu/cte/activelearing/whyuseal2.htm
Works Cited
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MacAllister, Joyce. “Responding to Student Writing.” New
Directions for Teaching and Learning: Teaching Writing in
All Disciplines, no. 12. San Francisco: Josey-Bass, 1982.
McLeod-Porter, Delma. “Guidelines for Assessing Writing in
Writing Enriched Courses: How to Mark Student Papers
and Retain Your Sanity.” PowerPoint Presentation,
McNeese State U., 2007.
The National Commission on Writing. The Neglected “R”: The
Need for a Writing Revolution. College Board, 2003.
- - -. Writing: A Ticket to Work…or a Ticket Out, A Survey of
Business Leaders. College Board, 2004.
- - -. Writing: A Powerful Message from State Government.
College Board, 2005.
Works Cited
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Peters, Bradley. Council of Writing Program Administrators
Listserv. 24 Oct. 2007.
http://www.nabble.com/Assessment-t4685452.html
“Rubrics.” St. John’s Univ. 26 Oct. 2007.
http://www.stjohns.edu/academics/provost/assessment/co
reassessment/rubrics.print
Young, Art. Teaching Writing Across the Curriculum. 3rd ed.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999.