New projects in top-ranked Writing Program

 

 

 

Faculty development sessions available Faculty looking for ways to better incorporate writing into assignments and tests can get professional assistance 4-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday in Smith CUE 403.   One-to-one or small group sessions will be led by Lisa Johnson, co-director of the Writing Program, or a trained member of her staff. For more information, contact her at lisaj@wsu.edu.

PULLMAN, Wash. – The Writing Program at Washington State University is consistently among the top in national rankings, and statistics give a pretty good indication of why that’s so.

 

Each year, the three units log more than 13,000 student contacts. Up to 200 faculty readers evaluate 35,000 papers and essays submitted in more than 7,000 junior writing portfolios. The undergraduate walk-in center is staffed more than 35 hours per week of the academic year with members of a four-dozen-strong cadre of experienced and trained peer tutors.

 

The program evaluates the writing-skill level of every incoming freshman, offers numerous courses for college writers and future teachers, and was an inaugural partner in a consortium of colleges in the Northwest providing 24/7 online tutoring in writing and other subjects.

 

Part of the University College, the 25-year-old program is comprised of the Writing Center (with operations for undergraduate and graduate/professional students), the Writing Assessment Office and the Writing in the Disciplines Program.

 

 

The Writing Program provides guidance to WSU faculty members wishing to develop more, and more meaningful, writing assignments.

 

“We are as much a faculty-support enterprise as a student-service unit,” said co-director Lisa Johnson. “Our hope is that those seeking to design effective writing assignments and compatible assessment criteria will invite us to help them.”

 

Diane Kelly-Riley leads a group of faculty raters as they evaluate students’ timed writing pieces.

The program is charged with facilitating development and review of more than 400 Writing in the Major courses. A strong indicator that professors are participating is seen in the 29 percent increase in the number of courses represented in student writing samples submitted for the junior portfolios since 2005, said Diane Kelly-Riley, co-director.

 

 

The program’s Writing Center is working on two new projects for faculty. A 50-page publication with information and ideas about effectively incorporating writing into courses is being prepared by Johnson, Jody Conrad, instructional materials assistant, and Adam Sprague, graduate student in English.

 

A customized version will debut at the WSU Teaching Academy’s workshop for graduate students on Jan. 14.

 

The center also launched a faculty development pilot program this semester 4-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday. Johnson or a trained member of her staff will be available to work one-on-one or in small groups with teachers who want to build writing into their courses. The center is in Smith CUE 403.

 

 

Appearing on a short list of the best “Academic Programs to Look For” in U.S. News & World Report’s annual “America’s Best Colleges” edition since it first was published around a decade ago, WSU’s Writing Program shares the spotlight with those at such institutions as Harvard, Duke and Princeton. It is the sole PAC-12 representative on the 2012 ranking.

 

But Writing Program staff members are not ones to rest on their laurels. They continuously look to streamline, innovate and improve.

 

For example, in fall 2010 Anne Ernest, coordinator of the small-group writing tutorial in the Writing Center, was asked to help faculty at the University of Idaho (UI) develop a similar program. Launched in fall 2011, the UI course serves 222 students and is similar to WSU’s English 102 courses, which are coordinated by the Writing Program.

 

A peer tutor and student work together in the WSU Writing Center.

Ernest also helped train 23 UI peer tutors and an administrator, and she continues to be a resource to them.

 

 

Writing Program staff contribute in many other ways to advance the field. Kelly-Riley, co-editor of the Journal of Writing Assessment, has worked for much of the past year to facilitate the move to a no-cost, online format. She was aided by graduate student and editorial assistant Rachel Barouch Gilbert.

 
The recently published Vol. 4 Issue 1, the first fully online edition, is available here.

 

It includes an article by Kelly-Riley that includes findings at WSU of a difference in student writing performance by race and of influences on faculty who assess student writing. Read the article, “Validity Inquiry of Race and Shared Evaluation Practices in a Large-Scale, University-Wide Writing Portfolio Assessment,” here.

   

Kelly-Riley also recently accepted an invitation from the Conference on College Composition and Communication, a national professional organization, to serve on a task force about principles and standards for the postsecondary teaching of writing. The group will work for a year to develop a statement that not only speaks to contemporary practices but is able to predict within reason changes and trends that will impact the teaching of writing.

 

 

In 2011, a number of research projects were completed and published by the Writing Program’s faculty, staff and graduate assistants. The focus often was on assessment results of the program. Much of the research helps colleges design, develop and improve their initiatives.

 

One project – the most recent biennial analysis of writing portfolio results – revealed that more than 90 percent of juniors “demonstrate competent skills or better to write in their field.”

 

In July, several research results were presented at the national 2011 Writing Program Administrators conference, where some panels and discussion sessions were led by WSU representatives.

 
“We are one of the few programs nationally that have demonstrated true longevity,” said Kelly-Riley. “At many schools, a program will be established by a faculty member or administrator and fade away when that individual leaves the institution. This has not been the case at WSU.

 
“We believe our program is developing and dynamic in such a way that allows us to serve WSU students, faculty and staff well as we also maintain our position as a leader on a national scale and serve as a model and resource to our peers,” she said.

 

For more information about the Writing Program, visit http://writingprogram.wsu.edu.