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Please read and reflect on the following executive summary for this proposal,
or even better, the full proposal given here: WritingProposal.pdf
Then please read and contribute to the commentary for this proposal.

Executive Summary: Transforming the Teaching and Learning of Writing
Authors: Paula Patch and Paula Rosinski

This QEP proposal will strengthen and deepen the teaching and learning of writing, creating a sustainable culture of writing both across and within disciplines. Elon is at a critical juncture: the current teaching, learning, and practice of writing at Elon can be considered good, but with the increased resources, support structures, and focused goals proposed within this QEP, we can provide all students an excellent, highly integrated writing experience across the curriculum and within their majors, recognized by students, alums, and future graduate/professional schools and employers as writing-enriched and productive of exceptional writers.

In response to recent research that shows students at even the most highly-engaging schools can drift through their academic careers without experiencing their institution’s best practices in writing, this QEP is designed to ensure that all Elon students have a highly-integrated writing experience across and within majors, and in their extracurricular activities as well (Academically Adrift 70-71). To address and stem this potential to drift, we propose, essentially, that every undergraduate degree awarded by Elon be “writing-enriched.” Consequently, this proposed QEP would benefit every single student (and when done effectively, every faculty member) at Elon University—from first-year students to seniors, and even graduate school students should the university choose to extend its QEP beyond the undergraduate population.

Goals

  1. For students to have a highly integrated writing experience across the curriculum, within their majors, and throughout their extracurricular activities
  2. For faculty within departments to receive the support needed to develop writing-enriched majors, integrating writing vertically throughout their majors and leading to the development of exceptional discipline-based writers and writing
  3. For faculty across the university to receive the support needed to develop a writing-enriched experience that extends horizontally across the curriculum and leads to the development of writers who can write well across a range of contexts
  4. For faculty and students to understand writing as both a context-sensitive practice of communication and a means for deep learning, resulting in the awareness that they must implement actively best practices in writing instruction to create what works best within and across their own specific contexts of practice and learning
  5. To foster the scholarship of teaching and learning specific to writing, locally and nationally.

Strategies

  1. Develop a student writing experience that fully integrates the writing students do within majors, minors, and/or programs, across the disciplines, and in extracurricular activities.
  2. Commit significant resources to support departments/majors/minors/programs for developing cultures of writing and a university-wide culture of writing excellence.
  3. Create a Center for the Advancement of Writing that works closely with CATL and the future Center for Engaged Learning. Hire a Center for the Advancement of Writing director and a Writing Across the Curriculum director.
  4. Recreate the Writing Center as a 21st century learning and writing space.
  5. Continue to support and promote faculty scholarship in the teaching and learning of writing across and within disciplines.

The full proposal is given here: WritingProposal.pdf.

Please read the comments on this proposal and post your own thoughts/responses (or e-mail QEP@elon.edu)



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All Comments

  • Anonymous
    2011-09-15T13:51:00

    I fully support this proposal and believe excellent writing is the hallmark of an outstanding liberal arts education.

  • Anonymous
    2011-09-02T14:15:00

    Wonderful ideas. But wow! This seems so very expensive. Do I see this correctly that there are two administrator positions here? I would love to do pieces of this so I do think this is a great idea. Just wonder if we need to have that much administrative structure to pull it off.

  • Anonymous
    2011-08-30T13:06:00

    This is a well-researched proposal and fits well with our proposed General Studies revisions. It would help us faculty and our students develop important skills. It's not my number one choice, but I'd certainly be a supporter if it were selected.