For an introduction to the concept of "WI" courses or "Writing Across the Curriculum" in general, explore these web-sites at the University of Hawaii-Manoa and Colorado State University. Much of the following proposal has been adopted from Professor Thomas Hilgers' descriptions of the University of Hawaii-Manoa "Writing-Intensive" program.

The proposal requires each Greenville College student to complete an upper-division "Writing Intensive" course within their major field of study. This course need not be an additional course in the major, but rather it should ideally be a redesigned course that significantly employs writing as a means of learning and evaluation.

Rationale: Why should GC require WI courses across the disciplines?
For most of the twentieth century, writing was the special province of English departments, and if students had trouble writing, they would often say, "I'm not very good at English." But as we all know and as the research shows, in the "real world" good writing is a concern of nearly everyone, from social workers who write case reports to chemical engineers who must explain their work to project superiors.  The research also indicates that police, engineers, mathematicians, and philosophers have different standards for determining what is good writing. Those scholars who have studied writing carefully have determined that:

• All meaningful language use--speaking, reading, writing--takes place within a language community and is understood and learned only within the particular language community.


• The forms of "good" language use vary from one language community to another. Standards of "good" writing vary from culture to culture and, in a university, from discipline to discipline.


• Students improve as writers through practice, particularly when provided with instruction and guidance while they are working on pieces of writing within the context of a specific discipline.


• Writing promotes learning; what we learn through writing we are more likely to retain and more likely to understand.

So WI courses should be required both to provide students with opportunities to improve their writing and to help students learn subjects better through writing about them.

Defining a WI Course:
In order for a course to be designated a WI course by the General Education Council, the course must possess the following characteristics:

1. The course uses writing to promote the learning of course materials. Instructors assign formal and informal writing, both in class and out, to increase students' understanding of course material as well as to improve writing skills.


2. The course should distribute writing throughout the semester rather than concentrate the writing assignments at the end. If writing is being used as a mode of instruction, then it is clearly not appropriate to have written assignments concentrated at the end of the semester. The best WI courses tend to contain a series of short papers distributed through the semester rather than one or two major projects.


3. The course provides interaction between teacher and students while students do assigned writing; in effect, the instructor acts as an expert and the student as an apprentice in a community of writers. Types of interaction will vary. For example, a professor who requires the completion of one long essay may review sections of the essay, write comments on drafts, and be available for conferences. The professor who requires several short papers may demonstrate techniques for drafting and revising in the classroom, give guidance during the composition of the papers, and consult with students after they complete their papers.


4. Writing contributes significantly to each student's course grade.


5. The course requires students to do a substantial amount of writing--a minimum of 5000 words, or about 20 pages. This may include informal writing. Depending on the course content, students may write analytic essays, critical reviews, journals, lab reports, research reports, or reaction papers, etc.


6. To allow for meaningful professor-student interaction on each student's writing, the class is restricted to 20 students. (Any larger enrollments must be justified by other factors related to the instructor's and the department's overall teaching responsibilities.)