Writing Roundtable Discussions Center for Faculty Learning, March 16-17, 2005 Discussions at these two sessions focused on a number of issues, including • Disparity in expectations among faculty teaching First Year courses • Expectations for Writing Intensive courses • The seeming lack of transference from early courses to upper-level ones • Need for faculty workshop centering on grading practices, concerns • Need to uncover assumptions regarding the place of writing in relation to other things at this institution • Documentation issues In addition, I distributed a booklet, Commitment to Writing: A Sourcebook for Faculty Across the Disciplines by Charlene M. Eblen (UNI, 1990) to those who participated in the discussions.  If others are interested in getting this booklet, please let me know.  I have more copies! Disparity in expectations among faculty teaching First Year courses Faculty in first year courses, while they are teaching to common goals and outcomes, don’t walk in lock-step with each other, nor should they be expected to.  However, there is a need to share levels of expectation with each other so that those expectations can be made public.  When students take their drafts to Pathways for assistance, the staff needs to help them to succeed, but if expectations are particularly picky, those need to be conveyed to the staff so that they don’t steer the students wrong. Perhaps a workshop in which a range of papers is shared and holistically evaluated would be helpful in “calibrating” the grading so that the faculty feel they are on the same page with each other.  – a reader-reliability workshop. Group grading sessions might also be helpful for evaluating comparable assignments. Adjuncts also need to be included in these workshops. Carleton College administers an essay exam to sophomores who must pass it in order to take 3rd year courses.  This serves as a gatekeeping mechanism to make sure the students are able to function at a particular level of writing proficiency. Other colleges do similar things, at various levels – some in the middle of a student’s career; others as conditions for graduation. Expectations for Writing Intensive courses Help would be appreciated in learning how to write productive assignments and methods of evaluating them.  Perhaps this could be worked in tandem with the workshop mentioned above. With the essay section being added to the SATs and ACTs, and the looming reality of the Praxis exam for our rising graduates, attention to composition issues is important at all levels of instruction. The seeming lack of transference from early courses to upper-level ones Juniors and seniors still say that they haven’t had to document sources ever or that they haven’t had experience with research projects.  Since we as faculty know that to be false much of the time, to what might we attribute the apparent lack of transference of these skills?  Maybe the students go through the motions to begin with, but don’t really assimilate the material until after they’ve done research and documentation several times. For this reason, 2nd, 3rd, and even 4th year classes need to incorporate some deliberate teaching of research and documentation techniques.  Students may have seen the animal before, but learning isn’t guaranteed. How many require a rough draft that the teacher goes through with the student before the student turns in a final draft? Sample papers of good responses to assignments can be helpful.  The pragmatics of collecting and saving them are sometimes challenging, but they can be worth the extra effort in the long run. Need for faculty workshop centering on grading practices, concerns Several people have raised this idea recently, both veterans and newbies.  It has prompted me to begin working on the idea of a faculty workshop that might bring in someone who is well-versed in this field, who could assist us to learn to craft productive assignments, and who could teach us some more efficient grading procedures, and who could help us to craft syllabi that make use of writing activities in productive manners.  This would be a very practical workshop in that I would want people to be able to leave with something in hand that can be incorporated into their syllabi or assignments right away.  I would want the faculty to be empowered by the experience.  Granted, this is only in the concept stage, but I sense that the faculty would be receptive to the idea. Need to uncover assumptions regarding the place of writing in relation to other things at this institution Among the things we as faculty need to discuss are the assumptions we hold about the place of writing – both within and across the various disciplines.  This discussion would inform our responses to common expectations, the role of adjuncts, the idea of waiving EN 112 or other such requirements, the role of revision and intervention in the writing process, among other notions. Some basic terminology has different meanings, depending on one’s perspective/discipline.  For example, what do we mean by argumentation? Documentation issues The Library website now has a link to various documentation styles on the bottom of the home page. How much emphasis is given to mechanics and GUMPS issues in EN 112? (This varies from instructor to instructor.) The Writing Center would appreciate assignment sheets with specific expectations spelled out for each piece assigned.  Perhaps reminding the faculty at large of this should be done more deliberately, or a link to email them a copy of one’s assignment should be made available.