Writing-Intensive (WI) Courses
Resources Site
This resource is created to support faculty (who don’t typically teach writing-intensive courses) teaching Writing-Intensive (WI) courses. It is created around the pedagogical requirements set by the Senate Subcommittee on Writing-Intensive (WI) Courses for the designation of a course as WI. These requirements can be viewed on the Senate Subcommittee on Writing-Intensive (WI) Courses.
Instructional resources need to be adequate to support writing-intensive instruction and the pedagogies connected with student writing development.
Strategies and Tips:
Ensure that the lessons, activities, and assignments are linked and supported by the course learning outcomes.
Resources:
WI courses to be composed of several individual, discipline-related writing assignments. These activities and assignments to be scaffolded.
Strategies and Tips:
Scaffolding involves breaking down a concept into progressive learning units to ensure the learner is supported and ready to reach each subsequent step; reinforcing prior learning before moving on to the next.
Resources:
Writing instruction occurs throughout, and students receive ample, timely feedback on their writing. Evaluations should be based on clear, pre-established criteria.
Strategies and Tips:
Feedback is a critical component of learning for everyone – whether it is written, spoken, formal, or informal, or in gamification, level completion. Providing ongoing feedback, as based on the assessment criteria (such as through a rubric), supports student learning and helps the student to understand their current level of proficiency in the concept.
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Most writing occurs in a series of low stakes writing assignments (may occur in a combination of ungraded writing assignments and revisions)
Strategies and Tips:
Low stakes assignments – which carry only modest grade weighting – can help students with their writing and the writing process. The relatively low risk environment these assignments foster allows them to focus more on their learning than the final product.
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The course teaches and encourages recursive writing strategies such as prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing. Students are given multiple opportunities to integrate instructor and peer feedback.
Strategies and Tips:
The feedback process, or loop, is critical as a part of academic writing. This can be achieved through formative assessments and scaffolding of assignments to ensure student learning progresses through each subsequent activity and/or lesson.
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Course should include clear assessment guidance through rubrics.
Strategies and Tips:
Clear guidelines and instructions for completing assignments, including the use of a rubric to outline the assessment performance, can help students focus their learning and efforts.
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Appropriate use of citations in academic writing, according to style guides, should be reviewed to support the learning outcomes of the assignment.
Strategies and Tips:
A foundational aspect of academic writing is citing sources through embedded citations and a reference list following a prescribed style such as APA or MLA.
When not to use Citations: ePortfolios, journals, online forums, and reflections (unless the students are specifically required to respond to or use an article/other work).
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References
MacDonald, S. P. (1994). Professional and academic writing in the humanities and social sciences. Southern Illinois University Press.
Thaiss, C. & Porter, T. (2010). The state of WAC/WID in 2010: Methods and results of the U.S. survey of the international WAC/WID mapping project. College Composition and Communication, 61(3),534-670.