Writing in the Disciplines by Program

Why or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession? 

Accounting professionals need to have the ability to communicate with many constituencies and in many forms as well as communicate to a variety of stakeholders in order to facilitate decision making and provide information.  Accountants explain and interpret accounting standards, provide analysis of financial reports and summarize accounting information. In short, writing is an essential skill in the accounting field.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

ACCT 311, ACCT 312 and ACCT 461 are designated as Writing in the Discipline courses for the Accounting Program. These courses provide students with the opportunity to explain and interpret accounting standards, apply standards to financial reporting issues, construct persuasive arguments, analyze case studies and receive feedback to improve their writing skills.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

In the Accounting Program, our WID courses include writing financial statements and related analyses, tax returns and tax advice, audit reports, client proposals and recommendations. These are necessary to communicate important information to stakeholders. 

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Students will find a range of teaching practices. For example, students in WID courses are frequently given case studies and asked to write reports that analyze the accounting policies and financial statements of a given company and to make recommendations, supported by analysis, on various aspects of the case. Typically, the instructor does one sample case at the beginning of the semester to provide a model for students to follow in these assignments. 

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Once they’ve completed their WID courses, accounting majors should be able to effectively communicate in written form, including explaining industry standards and reports, constructing persuasive arguments and analyzing case studies.

W​hy or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

Writing is central to the field of Africana studies. Through writing, students learn to interpret and employ complex ideas and theories; apply and produce critical, analytical and creative thinking; communicate knowledge that they generate through research; integrate multidisciplinary knowledge; and develop an Africana-centered approach to knowledge production.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

Africana studies has designated AFRI 461: Senior Seminar in Africana Studies to satisfy the WID requirement.

AFRI 461 is the capstone course in Africana studies and is required of all majors and minors. Africana studies is a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary field of study and it is in the senior seminar that students integrate their learning across disciplines. Writing in this course requires students to demonstrate their mastery of theory, research and interpretation.

While AFRI 461 has been chosen to satisfy the WID requirement all courses in Africana Studies prioritize writing by assigning, teaching and evaluating writing through a variety of writing genres. 

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

AFRI 461 requires students to write across a range of genres. Students are asked to write short response papers that are critical interpretations of texts assigned in the course. This writing requires a close reading of texts and is reflective, analytic and evaluative.

Longer papers focus on writing that necessitates interaction between and integration of several, often multidisciplinary, texts. These papers ask students to practice critical writing skills by formulating a thesis, developing an argument for the thesis, using evidence to support the argument and critically analyzing interpretations and conclusions.

Finally, students undertake a substantive research project that requires them to do research-oriented writing, including a detailed research proposal (research questions, data and methods, literature review), annotated bibliography and research paper. This is a scaffolded assignment with opportunities for revision and incorporation of feedback from peer-review and the instructor.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

In AFRI 461, students are provided with detailed guidelines for each writing assignment. They frequently get comprehensive feedback from the instructor through comments on papers and individual conferences. Peer reviews also provide another layer of feedback. Writing is defined as an iterative process and students are encouraged to revise drafts of writing assignments.

Additionally, the instructor works with the Writing Center to do in-class tutorials on different aspects of the writing process for the research project. These range from choosing a topic and writing an argument to using citation styles consistently and accurately. 

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Students should have an appreciation of the power of writing as a critical component of knowledge production and knowledge communication. They should have developed an understanding of how writing can influence thinking and action.

Writing demands that we work at it constantly and purposively and develop self-knowledge. Having completed AFRI 461, students should have an increased awareness of the kind of writer they are and of their writing process.

Why or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

Anthropology seeks to understand what it is to be human from a holistic perspective: through distant and recent time, globally across space and comparatively between human and nonhuman primate groups. Writing is a fundamental and necessary part of the practice of anthropology, from the collection of data during fieldwork to the communication and dissemination of results and conclusions to scholars and to the public in reports, articles and books. Capturing the nuances and complexities of behaviors in a variety of contexts, past and present, requires being able to write in a variety of styles and for a variety of purposes.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

While students are introduced to writing in the discipline in the four introductory courses, the WID designated courses in the Anthropology Department are ANTH 233: Methods in Anthropology and ANTH 460: Senior Seminar. These are the two courses that bring together and build on skills and knowledge from other courses in the major and in which students learn how to ask and answer anthropological questions. In ANTH 233 students learn to use appropriate anthropological methods and to create a variety of written materials while in ANTH 460 they build on these skills to undertake a semester-long research project that culminates in a paper that conforms to anthropological writing conventions.

What forms or genres of writing will you learn and practice in your WID courses? Why these genres?

Students learn the conventions of anthropological writing as well as some of the different forms that anthropological writing can take while engaged in collecting and analyzing data for a series of formal writing projects. Students learn how to record observations; write analyses of data in report and narrative forms; write academic papers that conform to anthropological writing conventions.

What kinds of teaching practices will you encounter in your WID courses?

Practices that students will encounter include mandatory and voluntary drafting and revision; scaffolded assignments; peer and instructor feedback in writing and individual conferences; formal and informal writing; critical reading/deconstructing academic papers.

What should I be able to do when I have satisfied your WID requirement?

Use appropriate styles of writing to collect anthropological data based on a variety of field techniques and present your conclusions and the implications of that data, and you will have learned the power of using evidence-based writing to intervene in the world around you.

In what ways is writing important to your profession?

Students will learn to write clearly and analytically about works of art, whether they are made by the students themselves or by other artists.

If you are pursuing the studio art major (BA or BFA), you must be able to write clear and interesting artist statements, job applications, and grant and commission proposals.

If you are pursuing the art education major, you must be able to write lesson plans and other kinds of documents specific to the education field.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

Six courses satisfy the WID requirement for undergraduate Art Department programs:

• ART 331: Green and Roman Art
• ART 332: Studies in Renaissance Art
• ART 333: Studies in Baroque Art
• ART 334: Studies in American Art & Architecture
• ART 336: Studies in Nineteenth-Century European Art
• ART 337: Studies in Modern and Contemporary Art

If you are an art studio major, you will experience area-specific writing in upper-level studio classes. If you are an art education major, you will write in numerous upper-level courses, as well.

What forms or genres of writing will you learn and practice in your WID courses? Why these genres?

In advanced and upper level courses, art students write research papers and responses to art historical scholarship, learning to integrate the ideas of other writers into their work and to deepen their understanding of artworks and art movements. Writing can be reflective, personal, informal, or academic.

What kinds of teaching practices will you encounter in your WID courses?

You will encounter many different kinds of teaching practices, including scaffolded writing projects, peer review, in-class writing, writing-to-learn exercises and discussions of and lectures on writing and writing assignments.

When you have satisfied your WID requirement, you should be able to:

Write interpretive descriptions and comparisons of artworks, thesis papers based on artworks, research papers, artist statements, cover letters, and project proposals.

Needs content

In what ways is writing important to your profession?

Students will learn to write clearly and analytically about works of art, whether they are made by the students themselves or by other artists.

If you are pursuing the studio art major (BA or BFA), you must be able to write clear and interesting artist statements, job applications, and grant and commission proposals.

If you are pursuing the art education major, you must be able to write lesson plans and other kinds of documents specific to the education field.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

Six courses satisfy the WID requirement for undergraduate Art Department programs:

• ART 331: Green and Roman Art
• ART 332: Studies in Renaissance Art
• ART 333: Studies in Baroque Art
• ART 334: Studies in American Art & Architecture
• ART 336: Studies in Nineteenth-Century European Art
• ART 337: Studies in Modern and Contemporary Art

If you are an art studio major, you will experience area-specific writing in upper-level studio classes. If you are an art education major, you will write in numerous upper-level courses, as well.

What forms or genres of writing will you learn and practice in your WID courses? Why these genres?

In advanced and upper level courses, art students write research papers and responses to art historical scholarship, learning to integrate the ideas of other writers into their work and to deepen their understanding of artworks and art movements. Writing can be reflective, personal, informal, or academic.

What kinds of teaching practices will you encounter in your WID courses?

You will encounter many different kinds of teaching practices, including scaffolded writing projects, peer review, in-class writing, writing-to-learn exercises and discussions of and lectures on writing and writing assignments.

When you have satisfied your WID requirement, you should be able to:

Write interpretive descriptions and comparisons of artworks, thesis papers based on artworks, research papers, artist statements, cover letters, and project proposals.

Needs content

Why or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

Writing is an essential activity to the disciplines of psychology and chemical dependency and addiction studies. Scholars in these disciplines need to demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between psychological theory, research design and the appropriate interpretation of data. Writing is also an essential means of communicating psychological information to other scholars and the public. 

Which courses are designated as satisfying the (Writing in the Discipline) WID requirement by your department? Why these courses?

There are two courses students in the psychology and chemical dependency/addiction studies programs must take to satisfy the WID requirement:

• PSYC 221: Research Methods I
• PSYC 473-477 Research Methods III

Research Methods I and III were selected as they bookend a student’s research trajectory within the major. In Research Methods I, students learn the foundation of research design and the basics of APA formatting style. In Research Methods III, students build on the skills learned in Research Methods I and II and apply their research methods and analysis skills to larger projects. Research Methods III provides a capstone experience and is where students demonstrate skills learned across the major.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

Students will engage in research writing consistent with psychological research, which involves research questions and hypotheses, data and methods, analyzing quantitative and/or qualitative data, and making scientific conclusions based on theory and data. These genres are consistent with psychological science and will prepare students to participate in the discipline as both producers and consumers of research.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Students will engage in multiple writing assignments across each course, receiving instructor feedback and opportunities to apply the feedback along the way. Assignments in Research Methods I may include summarizing and critiquing journal articles, describing results of literature searches or learning how to write hypotheses. In Research Methods III, students are required to plan a study, analyze data and write a report using APA style. Instructors may utilize many teaching techniques including lecture, discussions, small-group work, peer-review of writing and scaffolded assignments.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Students should know that writing is an iterative process – we get better at writing the more we do it; feedback and revision matter, and our writing improves as our reading increases. They should also know that participating in the discipline as producers, readers and teachers of psychology involves a familiarity with psychological writing, the ability to communicate psychology in written form and a familiarity with psychological research design.​​

In what ways is writing important to your profession?

Effective writing in biology is important to facilitate clear communication within and beyond the scientific community, and to enable forward progress of the discipline. Writing is important for all steps of the scientific process, such as experimental design, generating hypotheses, recording observations, describing results and drawing conclusions. Written communication in biology takes many forms, for example: field notes, correspondence, scientific posters, peer-reviewed articles, popular press articles, technical manuals, educational materials and grant applications.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

The Biology Department has chosen Plant and Animal Form and Function (BIOL 213) and Biology Senior Seminar (BIOL 460) as the designated WID courses in the B.S. in biology program.

BIOL 213 is a required course that leads students over the bridge from 100-level introductory courses to upper-level courses that focus on specific areas of content. The laboratory component of this class has been designed to include a significant writing element so that all students moving forward in the program have acquired the knowledge and skills necessary to write research reports in the upper-level courses.

BIO 460 is the biology capstone course and is the venue for students to integrate their knowledge of biology and apply it to the interpretation of a current research article. Students demonstrate their success in this endeavor through both oral and written communication. 

What forms or genres of writing will you learn and practice in your WID courses? Why these genres?

You will learn to write a research report in BIOL 213. The structure of this type of scientific document teaches you to break down the elements of discovery into its four essential parts: the research rationale, the methodology, the results and the analysis. Writing in this genre gives you the opportunity to sharpen skills that are essential in all scientific writing, namely to write cogently, precisely and succinctly.

In BIOL 460, you will focus your writing on a review paper. You will learn how to understand the scientific reasoning, methodology, observations and conclusions of a technical research article and reinterpret it for a general audience. This genre also requires you to do extensive reading of the relevant background scientific literature and to integrate the ideas into a cohesive and updated narrative.

What kinds of teaching practices will you encounter in your WID courses?

BIOL 213 includes explicit instruction on writing the scientific research report. In addition to drafting and finalizing the research report, weekly assignments will include readings from a writing textbook, work on editing and work on citations. Further, BIOL 213 uses both instructor and a peer review of report components.

BIOL 460 emphasizes writing using primary literature as the source material. You will share information and expand your knowledge in group discussions with your peers. You will develop a final review paper through a series of preliminary drafts and instructor feedback, with clear expectations for improvement with each draft.

When you have satisfied your department’s WID requirement, you should be able to:

Produce scientific writing that is recognizable as such to scientists.

• Communicate scientific concepts in writing to audiences beyond scientists.
• Write cogently, precisely, and succinctly while properly citing ideas that belong to others.​​​

Needs content

In what ways is writing important to your profession?

Writing is critical in both chemistry and physics, both in the research process itself and to communicate scientific findings to a wider audience. Writing is important throughout the research process to keep an accurate record of the motivation, design, results and conclusions of an experiment. After the experiment is complete, it is critical that the findings be communicated to the wider community. This could mean communicating to other scientists who will build on these findings, to government or private employers who will use them to guide policy or to design technology or to the general public to help them make informed decisions on scientific issues.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

• CHEM 205/206: Organic Chemistry
• CHEM 404: Analytical Chemistry or CHEM 416: Environmental Analytical Chemistry
• CHEM 407: Physical Chemistry Lab

These courses progressively build the skills you will need to keep accurate lab notebooks and write formal lab reports.

What forms or genres of writing will you learn and practice in your WID courses? Why these genres?​

You will focus primarily on two genres of writing. These genres are related to the two purposes of writing in physics and chemistry: to record the research process and to communicate scientific findings to a wider audience.

For the first purpose, you will focus on keeping a lab notebook. A lab notebook is not just a compilation of data, but a narrative of the entirety of the experiment. It is not only a document kept for personal use but can also have legal, financial and ethical implications. The keeping of an accurate and properly formatted lab notebook is a critical skill for a scientist.

For the second purpose, you will focus on the formal lab report. This format is similar in many ways to that of professional journal articles in physics and chemistry. These types of articles are the main way scientists communicate their findings to the broader scientific community.

What kinds of teaching practices will you encounter in your WID courses?

You will get explicit instruction and feedback on how to keep a lab notebook and write formal lab reports. This includes the correct format for these genres as well as how to use scientific literature as a resource, how to correctly present results and draw conclusions and how to correctly cite scientific literature. For the formal lab reports, you will produce multiple drafts of the reports and receive feedback both from your instructors and in peer review.

When you have satisfied your department’s WID requirement, you should be able to:

Keep an accurate and correctly formatted lab notebook and write a correctly formatted formal lab report. This includes knowing the purpose of each section of the report (abstract, introduction, experimental methods, etc.); using data to support scientific conclusions; and communicating to other scientists in the discipline as well as to a broader audience.

Why or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

The ability to communicate clearly is central to each concentration in the Communication Department. Writing is at the heart of good journalism, broadcasting, documentary film-making, public relations, advertising, and public, professional, and academic discourse. Whether you create speeches, films, content for the web, advertisements, brochures, or academic articles, it is important to communicate information clearly and persuasively.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department?

The courses with a "W" next to their course number satisfy the WID requirement for the different concentrations within the Communication Department.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

Students will practice and experiment with many different genres of academic, journalistic, and professional writing in the Communication Department. The genres students produce will depend on their chosen concentration.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Students will encounter active and experiential teaching practices in the Communication Department’s WID courses. Most writing assignments include written feedback from instructors, some involve several drafts with individual face-to-face feedback, and others involve peer evaluation and feedback. Learning to write well is a life-long process. Instructors in the Communication Department take pride in nurturing students’ creativity and skills as part of that process.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Students who have completed the WID requirement should feel confident in their ability to communicate effectively through writing in their field. They will have experiential, portfolio-building writing exercises to demonstrate their proficiency. Specific skills will vary by concentration.​​​​​

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Cumulatively over the course of this plan, students receive lots of instruction and feedback from their teachers on the forms and contents of their writing. They exercise their skills frequently in shorter writing assignments and have multiple opportunities for longer papers. They also engage in peer collaboration and peer review under the teachers’ supervision.

When they’ve completed your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?​

When students have satisfied the requirements for writing in the discipline, they should understand the typical goals and forms of writing, and they should have practiced using common conventions of field-specific publications.

W​hy or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

Writing is foundational in community and public health promotion. It is used to communicate from professionals to individuals and groups at both the local and population levels, as well as between professionals. It also allows professionals to meet the responsibilities and competencies stipulated by accrediting and licensing entities such as the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

The Community and Public Health Promotion (CPHP) Program has designated the following courses as satisfying the WID requirement:

• HPE 202: Community/Public Health and Health Promotion
• HPE 303: Research in Community and Public Health
• HPE 426: Internship in Community and Public Health

HPE 202 is typically taken in year one. It is required both for the major and for admission into the Feinstein School of Education and Human Development (FSHED). This course has been designated as a WID course because its writing requirements are designed to serve as a foundation for assignments in subsequent courses in the major. Students must practice and show competence in writing skills that will be applied in their community and public health professions and to be accepted into the FSHED. HPE 202 provides writing opportunities to build these skills.

HPE 303 is a required course for the major, typically taken in year three. It has been designated as a WID course because in it students write a comprehensive research and argumentation paper that directly builds upon the skills from HPE 202 and prepares them to meet writing expectations in their practicum and internship courses (HPE 419, 426 and 429), as well as in their field.

Because HPE 426 is the culminating course of the program and requires students to show comprehensive evidence of their consolidated writing skills, we have selected this course to be the final WID class for CPHP majors. Taken during the final semester, in HPE 426 students write a capstone report that incorporates multiple formats used in the discipline, including formats not practiced in other WID courses. Students must be in the field in order to complete this assignment. 

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

In CPHP WID courses, students acquire skills and practice in academic writing, professional writing and reflective writing. Professionals in community and public health promotion write grant and other funding requests, papers for academic journals, policy papers, needs assessments and program evaluation reports, translational writing (interpreting scientific information for the public and for specific demographic groups) and advocacy statements. These genres allow professionals to obtain program funding, disseminate critical health information, implement effective health promotion programs, share research findings and build theory, provide instruction on program implementation and engage in shared advocacy and other actions.

Academic Genres: epidemiological descriptions, literature reviews, research proposals, scientific reports, presentations, posters

Professional Genres: community needs assessments, program designs and descriptions, evaluation reports. promotional materials, employee policies and guidelines, grant proposals, policy proposal and support statements, posters, presentations

Reflective Genres: journals, response papers, philosophy statements, informal writing

Integrating genres within courses and across the program allows students to gain and demonstrate proficiency in content knowledge, professional application of skills, flexibility in audience targeting, and personal growth. 

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Writing is a reflexive and iterative process. The CPHP program recognizes this and employs best practice teaching models by scaffolding and looping writing assignments. As noted above, there is a focus on skill development across the curriculum: Skills are initially taught in HPE 202, and then reviewed and built upon, first in HPE 303 and then in HPE 426. To do this, we use the following sequence:

• onitiating the writing process in class and/or collaboratively
• starting with low-stakes, informal writing and progressing into more technical high-stakes writing
• working with students on drafts and revisions, using techniques such as “fishbowls,” peer reviews and qualitative comments
• utilizing varied forms of feedback: peer editing, scoring guides, qualitative comments and/or one-on-one consultations

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Upon completion of our WID courses, students will have developed the habits of self-reflection and learning through writing. In addition, they will be able to:

• report on assessments of community and health needs
• propose and implement health-related policies and procedures
• evaluate and describe health promotion efforts and their impacts
• advocate for the health of communities and populations, especially in situations of inequity
• demonstrate proficiency in applying theory and content knowledge
• communicate health information to multiple, varied audiences
• submit grant proposals and other funding requests
• convey health information to the public
• compose clear and fair workplace policies and procedures
• communicate professional ethics
• disseminate findings of empirical research and policy outcomes
• further develop practical skills essential for the profession
• use writing both as a form of reflection and as a tool of inquiry

W​hy or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

IT professionals need to have the ability to communicate with many constituencies and in many forms as well as communicate to a variety of stakeholders in order to facilitate decision making and provide information. IT professionals describe technology, create executive summaries and prepare project reports. In short, writing is an essential skill in IT fields.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

CIS 455 and CIS 462 are designated as Writing in the Discipline courses for the computer information systems major. These courses provide students the opportunity to analyze and describe technology, create executive summaries, develop modeling tools and prepare professional project reports. 

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

CIS majors learn the conventions of program and systems documentation and how to communicate facts, ideas and recommendations in systems analysis and design projects. These are necessary to communicate important information to stakeholders. 

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Computer information systems WID courses use team projects that allow students to work together and receive feedback on their writing during multiple phases throughout the semester. In addition, CIS 462 students use team meetings with the instructor to review the content of project reports, providing regular feedback to and from the instructor.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Once they’ve completed their WID courses, CIS majors should be able to describe technology, create executive summaries, develop modeling tools and prepare professional project reports.

W​hy or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

In the computer science discipline, it is important that students acquire the writing and communication skills necessary to:

• describe what they have accomplished and how to effectively comment/report on it
• give specific directions to build a software product
• translate technical topics into layman’s terms

Which courses are designated as satisfying the WID requirement by your department? Why these courses?

The Mathematics and Computer Science Department has identified two required courses in computer science in which there is an emphasis on various forms of writing within our discipline: CSCI 212 and CSCI 401.

CSCI 212: Data Structures is the final course in the introductory sequence and may be viewed as the first upper-level course in the major. For the first time, students go beyond writing a program that works to reflecting on what makes one working solution better than another. They also learn to implement and use data structures, key building blocks that programmers have found useful in many different programs, written in many languages, over the years. 

CSCI 401: Software Engineering functions as a programming capstone for the computer science major. Students spend considerable time planning their program: writing requirements documents, describing their designs both in text and in detailed formal diagrams, and spelling out detailed plans for implementing and testing. The documents, plus the programs themselves, are representative of all the major forms of writing in the discipline.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

In computer science, students must learn and practice technical writing in many forms. Computer scientists write technical proposals or recommendations, research papers, grant proposals, oral presentations, requirements documents, brochures, technical reports and web pages.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

The following is a list of teaching practices found in many computer science classes:

• Peer editing – Students learn a lot from each other. Students share their writing with each other and offer improvements.
• Brain storming and small group discussions. Students are given a template and work on requirements of each section of a document.
• Required revisions such as writing software. Writing is an iterative process. Students first work together on drafts. The instructor then gives constructive comments and the students need to revise and upload again. This process happens several times during the semester.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Students will be able to write executive summary reports that effectively describe why one implementation is better than another for solving a problem. They will also be able to write requirements documents that adequately explain how a software product will be designed, tested and used. This includes but is not limited to:

• software specifications and requirements
• software high level architecture, design method and use cases
• solution methodology and algorithms
• source code documentation, and version tracking
• testing methods including white box and black box testing
• user manuals (including system installation and configuration)​​​​

Needs content

Why or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/ profession?

Students pursuing a dance performance major need to write effectively and clearly about themselves as dancers, teachers, choreographers and administrators. Researching about dancers, choreographers or content for creative projects is a staple for students in the dance discipline. Although a visual art form, the ability to communicate one’s art, process, research, methodology and pedagogy is equally important for dancers.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the (Writing in the Discipline) WID requirement by your department? Why these courses?

We have identified the following two courses as writing in the discipline for dance:

• DANC 215: Contemporary Dance and Culture
• DANC 309: Dance History

These courses have been selected because they occur in the beginning and middle of the student’s degree program, which assists with monitoring growth in their writing development. Further, these courses are well-suited for WID because, from a curriculum standpoint, they provide the room and space for intensive writing instruction and practice. 

Although DANC 215 and 325 have been designated as our WID courses, various other dance courses also contain writing components and instruction.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

Students taking our WID courses will practice various written genres, including critiques, arguments, analytical and exploratory pieces, and research papers.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Students taking dance WID courses will encounter experiential teaching practices that include scaffolded assignments, multiple drafts, peer review, instructor feedback, in-class writing and writing-to-learn exercises. Instructors give lectures on writing, feedback and assignments.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Students who have completed the WID courses in dance should be confident that they have the foundation, tools and practice to successfully write in the dance field. Students will be capable of successfully writing job applications, cover letters, resumes/CVs, artist statements, teaching philosophy statements, grant applications and commission proposals and scholarly research.

Why or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

In any career involving science and mathematics – including business, research, teaching, and other pursuits – written communication regarding process and results is important. People in careers in quantitative fields need to be able to explain results - including explanations for non-technical audiences, and they need to be able to detail the steps of developing a mathematical model and analyzing data.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the WID requirement by your department? Why these courses?

Within the Data Science major, the course DATA 460: Seminar in Data Science is designated as satisfying the WID requirement. As part of this course, students will choose a scientific problem, and the instructor will act as a facilitator to help guide the student through each of their solution processes, with the student documenting the work throughout.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

The writing will fall into the category of technical writing, for the documentation and formal presentation for the analysis done on the student’s problem, and should also have a component of explanatory mathematical writing (see Russek (1998), Flesher (2003)), as the student prepares a less-technical presentation of the work for the class and, potentially, a wider audience.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

The details of styles and intermediate assignments will vary from instructor to instructor. There may be a variety of relatively short, low-stakes assignments. Regarding the main project, it is expected that there will be feedback at a variety of times during the time span of the project: when a topic is selected, as resources and methods are chosen, as an outline is created, as a first and revised drafts are created. There is an expectation of an ongoing feedback loop for each student.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

A student who has completed the Data Science major should be able to:

• Write clear process-oriented work that details the reasoning and steps in solving a problem in mathematical modeling and data analysis. This includes the ability to justify each step in a solution.
• Write clear explanatory work to describe the mathematical and statistical concepts at hand. This includes the ability to describe mathematical concepts to an audience new to the topic at hand.
• Write clear explanatory work to describe the conclusions and implications that result from a data science investigation. This includes the ability to describe the results to an audience who is not necessarily expert in the topic at hand.

Why or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

Writing is central to the field of education as it is through writing that we make sense of the world; learners use writing to think, to discover, to understand. Writing is also a means of communication and teacher candidates must show competence in writing to communicate with families and community, contribute to academic reports on students, write plans for substitute teachers and participate in professional writing on district, state and national levels.

Most importantly, writing is an art and a craft: We write to convey, to express, to inform, to entertain, to remember, to explain, to surprise, to examine, to teach, to convince, to persuade, to analyze … and prospective teachers must show competence in these (and other) areas of writing as, ultimately, they will serve as models of writers and writing for students in classrooms.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

ELED 469 Seminar in Student Teaching (Elementary)
ECED 469 Seminar in Student Teaching (Early Childhood)

Both ELED 469 and ECED 469 are capstone courses. They encapsulate the varied writing experiences students will have engaged in throughout program coursework, culminating in the Teacher Candidate Work Sample (TCWS).

The TCWS is an academic piece of writing which tells the story of how students engage in learning a particular aspect of content, while also using writing to:

• contextualize an educational setting
• plan for lessons
• analyze data in a variety of ways
• explain a process of study
• evaluate findings
• reflect on decisions made and future directions

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

Students in the Elementary and Early Childhood programs should expect to engage in three broad kinds of writing:

• academic (research papers, presentations, case studies)
• professional (communication with students, families and community partners; philosophies of education and statements of belief)
• reflective (looking back on teaching/learning for the purpose of informing instruction)

As they write in these three domains, students will have opportunities to practice other kinds of writing, including:

• informational
• persuasive
• analytic
• reflective
• opinion

All of the writing in which students engage will help them learn to:

• chart growth in student learning over time
• document changes in students’ attitude toward a content, discipline, type of writing
• offer suggestions about how to go forward

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Students in the Elementary and Early Childhood programs will experience, first-hand, writing practices they will be asking their students to engage in: choosing topics, one-to-one writing conferences with the professor; meeting in response groups in class to share writing and receive feedback; examining what makes a piece of writing effective – or not effective – and discussing why; reading model pieces in a variety of genres and discussing characteristics of effective writing; participating in the process of developing a rubric on which their own writing will be assessed – engaging in self-assessment, then reflecting on the process of rubric design and assessment and what that means for work with future students.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

They should know that writing has power: to inform, to instruct, to influence; that the genre and form depend on the purpose and audience; and that writing is a process which is recursive, not linear and it requires long, uninterrupted blocks of time.​​​​

W​hy or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

Economics is a highly quantitative field based on theory. Students graduating from our programs have to be able to think both quantitatively and qualitatively. They should then be able to communicate information to a variety of stakeholders (colleagues, management teams, interested public, etc.) in a way that effectively aids sense making and supports sound decision making. Writing is essential to this process. Without effective writing, students will not be able to distill theory and data into a crucial decision-making tool for the varied audiences for whom they will be writing.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

Our department has designated the following courses as Writing in the Discipline courses for the economics program:

ENGL 230: Workplace Writing
ECON 449: Introduction to Econometrics
ECON 462: Seminar in Economic Research

These courses build on the totality of the economics curriculum and allow students to engage in significant research and writing projects. 

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

In WID courses, students practice such forms of writing as memos, business reports, research reports and term papers. These forms of writing align students’ skills with program goals and prepare them for the kinds of writing they are likely to encounter and produce after graduation.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Students receive ongoing feedback on their writing in all departmental WID courses. This direct engagement with faculty allows students to improve as writers. Cases drawn from various subfields of finance encourage students to think about the discipline in more depth. Blogs written on the most current financial market events nudge students with what’s going on in the markets and tie these to ongoing course discussions.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

After completing their WID courses, economics majors should be able to produce reports, memos, presentations and similar business communication documents that combine theory and empirical data to make clear and sound arguments that will facilitate decision making by a range of stakeholders.

W​hy or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

Writing is central to the field of education as it is through writing that we make sense of the world; learners use writing to think, to discover, to understand. Writing is also a means of communication and teacher candidates must show competence in writing to communicate with families and community, contribute to academic reports on students, write plans for substitute teachers and participate in professional writing on district, state and national levels.

Most importantly, writing is an art and a craft: We write to convey, to express, to inform, to entertain, to remember, to explain, to surprise, to examine, to teach, to convince, to persuade, to analyze … and prospective teachers must show competence in these (and other) areas of writing as, ultimately, they will serve as models of writers and writing for students in classrooms.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

• ELED 469 Seminar in Student Teaching (Elementary)
• ECED 469 Seminar in Student Teaching (Early Childhood)

Both ELED 469 and ECED 469 are capstone courses. They encapsulate the varied writing experiences students will have engaged in throughout program coursework, culminating in the Teacher Candidate Work Sample (TCWS).

The TCWS is an academic piece of writing which tells the story of how students engage in learning a particular aspect of content, while also using writing to:

• contextualize an educational setting
• plan for lessons
• analyze data in a variety of ways
• explain a process of study
• evaluate findings
• reflect on decisions made and future directions

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

Students in the Elementary and Early Childhood programs should expect to engage in three broad kinds of writing:

• academic (research papers, presentations, case studies)
• professional (communication with students, families and community partners; philosophies of education and statements of belief)
• reflective (looking back on teaching/learning for the purpose of informing instruction)

As they write in these three domains, students will have opportunities to practice other kinds of writing, including:

• informational
• persuasive
• analytic
• reflective
• opinion

All of the writing in which students engage will help them learn to

• chart growth in student learning over time
• document changes in students’ attitude toward a content, discipline, type of writing
• offer suggestions about how to go forward

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Students in the Elementary and Early Childhood programs will experience, first-hand, writing practices they will be asking their students to engage in: choosing topics, one-to-one writing conferences with the professor; meeting in response groups in class to share writing and receive feedback; examining what makes a piece of writing effective – or not effective – and discussing why; reading model pieces in a variety of genres and discussing characteristics of effective writing; participating in the process of developing a rubric on which their own writing will be assessed – engaging in self-assessment, then reflecting on the process of rubric design and assessment and what that means for work with future students.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

They should know that writing has power: to inform, to instruct, to influence; that the genre and form depend on the purpose and audience; and that writing is a process which is recursive, not linear and it requires long, uninterrupted blocks of time.​​​​

W​hy or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

Writing is central to the field of education as it is through writing that we make sense of the world; learners use writing to think, to discover, to understand. Writing is also a means of communication and teacher candidates must show competence in writing to communicate with families and community, contribute to academic reports on students, write plans for substitute teachers and participate in professional writing on district, state and national levels.

Most importantly, writing is an art and a craft: We write to convey, to express, to inform, to entertain, to remember, to explain, to surprise, to examine, to teach, to convince, to persuade, to analyze … and prospective teachers must show competence in these (and other) areas of writing as, ultimately, they will serve as models of writers and writing for students in classrooms.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

• ELED 469 Best Practices: Instruction, Assessment, Classroom Management
• ECED 469 Best Practices: Early Childhood Settings

Both ELED 469 and ECED 469 are capstone courses. They encapsulate the varied writing experiences students will have engaged in throughout program coursework, culminating in the Teacher Candidate Work Sample (TCWS).

The TCWS is an academic piece of writing which tells the story of how students engage in learning a particular aspect of content, while also using writing to:

• contextualize an educational setting
• plan for lessons
• analyze data in a variety of ways
• explain a process of study
• evaluate findings
• reflect on decisions made and future directions

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

Students in the Elementary and Early Childhood programs should expect to engage in three broad kinds of writing:

• academic (research papers, presentations, case studies)
• professional (communication with students, families and community partners; philosophies of education and statements of belief)
• reflective (looking back on teaching/learning for the purpose of informing instruction)

As they write in these three domains, students will have opportunities to practice other kinds of writing, including:

• informational
• persuasive
• analytic
• reflective
• opinion

All of the writing in which students engage will help them learn to:

• chart growth in student learning over time
• document changes in students’ attitude toward a content, discipline, type of writing
• offer suggestions about how to go forward

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Students in the Elementary and Early Childhood programs will experience, first-hand, writing practices they will be asking their students to engage in: choosing topics, one-to-one writing conferences with the professor; meeting in response groups in class to share writing and receive feedback; examining what makes a piece of writing effective – or not effective – and discussing why; reading model pieces in a variety of genres and discussing characteristics of effective writing; participating in the process of developing a rubric on which their own writing will be assessed – engaging in self-assessment, then reflecting on the process of rubric design and assessment and what that means for work with future students.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

They should know that writing has power: to inform, to instruct, to influence; that the genre and form depend on the purpose and audience; and that writing is a process which is recursive, not linear and it requires long, uninterrupted blocks of time.​​​​

Why or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession? 

Writing is central to all aspects of the discipline of English. It is a means of thinking about texts and how writers create them, of reflecting on learning, of discovering and demonstrating new knowledge, of applying critical and creative ways of thinking to disciplinary issues and problems, of understanding oneself and the world, of developing intellectual agency and of working for social change. 

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses? 

The concentration in creative writing has the following WID courses: 

• ENGL 220: Introduction to Creative Writing 

• ENGL 371: Intermediate Creative Writing, Fiction 

• ENGL 372: Intermediate Creative Writing, Poetry 

• ENGL 373: Intermediate Creative Writing, Nonfiction Prose 

• ENGL 461: Advanced Workshop in Creative Writing 

These courses were chosen because they represent key moments in each program where you will learn and demonstrate writing knowledge and skills. We would add, however, that virtually all courses in English, and especially those in creative writing and professional writing, are writing-intensive, where writing is assigned, taught and evaluated.

The concentration in professional writing has the following WID courses: 

• ENGL 222: Introduction to Professional Writing 

• ENGL 378: Advanced Workshop in Professional Writing 

• ENGL 379: Rhetoric for Professional Writing 

• ENGL 477: Internship in Professional Writing 

These courses were chosen because they represent key moments in each program where you will learn and demonstrate writing knowledge and skills. We would add, however, that virtually all courses in English, and especially those in creative writing and professional writing, are writing-intensive, where writing is assigned, taught and evaluated. 

What forms or genres of writing will you learn and practice in your WID courses? Why these genres? 

The range of genres or forms of writing in which you will engage and practice is too extensive to list in its entirety and depends, to a significant extent, on your chosen concentration within the major. Having said this, we offer a few examples of the writing students do in different concentrations below. 

Within the literature concentration, students produce literary/cultural analysis papers that require skills of close reading and knowledge of and dexterity with applying critical and analytical approaches to texts. 

Within the creative writing concentration students practice the writing skills that inform key literary genres such as fiction, poetry and nonfiction.  

Within the professional writing concentration, students produce reports, proposals, analysis papers, research papers and various digital and multimodal texts. 

Students in each concentration must take courses in the other concentrations, so they will range outside the genres described above to experiment with and practice a variety of academic, creative and professional genres of writing. 

What kinds of teaching practices will you encounter in your WID courses? 

The English Department has long prided itself on engaging in “best practices” when it comes to the teaching of writing. We will engage you in scaffolded writing assignments that initially include low-stakes or informal writing to help you make sense of challenging readings and materials; in this way you write to learn as you learn to write. You will also practice key moves in lower stakes writing assignments that inform higher stakes writing projects for midterm papers and final projects. Small group workshops and tutorials are a regular part of our practice and provide crucial feedback for effective writing. In virtually all of your courses we provide models and exemplars of the work we ask you to produce. We often hold one-on-one conferences to guide you in individual challenges and difficulties. In sum, we engage in the full-range of practices that research in the teaching and learning of writing has shown helps students learn to write well. 

When you have satisfied your department’s WID requirement, you should be able to: 

• Demonstrate intellectual competency, critical thinking, close reading, the ability to break large assignments into manageable pieces and the skills to revise and edit your own work.
• Use writing to problem solve, to collaborate and persuade, to reason and come to a conclusion based on reliable information and to reflect on yourself, your learning and the world around you.
• Produce writing that is guided by purpose and engages and moves an intended audience. You will, finally, know that learning to write well is a lifelong journey and that to succeed as a writer you must be adaptable and flexible, suiting your words to the situation. You will know that writing can help change the world. 

W​hy or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

Environmental studies is an interdisciplinary program integrating the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. This interdisciplinary approach means that there is no specific set of expectations or guidelines f​or writing because graduates of the program will go on to so many different kinds of careers in so many different professional fields. Clear writing, however, is essential for all environmental studies majors, who may use writing while taking notes in field settings, recording and reporting data, presenting technical reports and/or preparing content for both general and specialized audiences.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

Exposure to and practice with different writing styles occurs in all environmental studies courses. Styles of writing for science occur in biology, physical sciences and chemistry courses; humanities writing styles occur in history and English courses; business writing styles occur in economics courses; and social and behavioral sciences writing styles occur in anthropology, communication, INGOs, geography, philosophy, political science and sociology courses. In short, students are exposed to a range of different styles of writing via their interdisciplinary coursework. Additionally, the Environmental Studies Program has specifically identified these courses as ones that satisfy our WID requirement: 

• ENST 200: Introduction to Environmental Studies and COMM 201 Writing for the News (Formerly COMM 302) or
• ENGL 231: Writing for Digital Media & Multimedia Settings or
• ENGL 232: Writing for the Public Sphere

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

Due to the interdisciplinary nature of this program, students will learn and practice many different genres of writing in the courses they take for the program, which may include some of the following: letters, editorials, rhetorical analyses, white papers, position papers, proposals, progress reports, blogs, media production projects and presentations, basic reporting, public relations formats and techniques for achieving high-quality news and public relations. The genres students learn about and practice will depend on their chosen areas of focus within the program.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

In ENST 200, writing instruction occurs throughout the course in both formal and informal writing assignments. Instruction is given on how to appropriately format a scholarly paper and how to choose and use academic sources. Students may be asked to submit multiple drafts of some papers, responding to feedback from peers and/or the instructor.

In COMM 201, we cover the fundamentals of composition using the AP style guide. Topics include news values, basic reporting, public relations formats and techniques for achieving high-quality news and public relations writing. Students build on their news and media writing skills and become more proficient at public relations writing for digital and traditional outlets.

In ENGL 231 and 232, students experience a range of different teaching practices, including peer review, small group tutorial, individual conferences/consultations, low-stakes writing and instruction in the full range of composing activities (i.e. planning, drafting, revising, editing, etc.). 

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Students will be able to draw on content from a broad array of sources, integrate and synthesize the content and present it in a manner that is understandable to both general and specialized audiences. They may present content in both written and graphic form, they may use formal or informal styles and final content may be presented in paper or digital formats.​​​​

W​hy or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

The ability to write clearly and persuasively is an essential skill in the film studies discipline and indeed in the professional world of film. Students from our program have gone on to become filmmakers, corporate professionals, critics, teachers and academics. Writing is central to these professions: writing scripts, proposing and pitching film projects, applying for funding to make films, reporting on films, reviewing films, producing scholarship on films, and promoting films. In our discipline, as well as in professional work related to film, communicating clearly and persuasively through writing is central.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

The Film Studies Program has two informal concentrations: 1) critical studies and 2) production. Both share the program’s two required writing in the discipline courses: FILM 219: Foundations in Film Analysis and FILM 454: Contemporary Film and Theory. These two courses engage in much of the range of writing and critical thinking that are not only found within the film studies discipline but also are expected of our graduates in their future professions, whether those professions are in the film industry, in film criticism/reviewing,  in film scholarship, in film festival programming, or in archival work.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

Students will engage in a variety of different types of academic writing from response papers to critical research papers and will have the opportunity to practice writing skills crucial to their success in a range of different film-related professions.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Students in film studies WID courses have multiple opportunities to practice various critical writing skills, from summary and synthesis to critical analysis and argumentation.

The Foundations in Film Analysis course (FILM 219), depends on scaffolded writing assignments, beginning with short, low-stakes writing, often reflective, of no more than a paragraph that introduce students to writing as a way of making sense of what they read. Students build these responses into summaries and then into short critical essays that do not require outside research. Students then turn those short essays into extended critical research essays through a program of research. Writing workshops and small-group tutorials take place throughout the process, stressing peer review and revision. Instructor feedback and modeling through shared exemplary writing are also a part of the process. Revision is encouraged, even after “final” essays are submitted.

The Contemporary Film and Theory course (FILM 454) is structured around a series of varied writing assignments across the semester, through which students learn to apply critical and theoretical perspectives to film analysis. To sum up, our WID courses engage students in a full-range of best practices that encourage students to see writing as a vital part of learning.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Students should be able to demonstrate critical reading and thinking skills such as summarization, synthesis and critical judgment; demonstrate writing skills such as persuasion, argumentation and supporting claims; demonstrate the ability to design and initiate a research program; demonstrate the application of critical and theoretical perspectives to their own writing; and demonstrate a familiarity in revising and editing their own work as part of the process of writing.​​​​

W​hy or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

Finance is a highly quantitative field based on theory. Students graduating from our programs have to be able to think both quantitatively and qualitatively. They should then be able to communicate information to a variety of stakeholders (colleagues, management teams, interested public, etc.) in a way that effectively aids sense making and supports sound decision making. Writing is essential to this process. Without effective writing, students will not be able to distill theory and data into a crucial decision-making tool for the varied audiences for whom they will be writing.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

Our department has designated the following courses as Writing in the Discipline courses for the finance program:

• ENGL 230: Workplace Writing
• FIN 423: Financial Markets and Institutions
• FIN 461: Seminar in Finance
• FIN 463: Seminar in Portfolio Management

In these courses, students engage with course material in a way that improves their critical-thinking skills based on financial data and business cases. They utilize different forms of writing and receive feedback to improve their communication skills.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

In WID courses, students practice such forms of writing as memos, business reports, research reports and term papers. These forms of writing align students’ skills with program goals and prepare them for the kinds of writing they are likely to encounter and produce after graduation.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Students receive ongoing feedback on their writing in all departmental WID courses. This direct engagement with faculty allows students to improve as writers. Cases drawn from various subfields of finance encourage students to think about the discipline in more depth. Blogs written on the most current financial market events nudge students with what’s going on in the markets and tie these to ongoing course discussions.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

After completing their WID courses, finance majors should be able to produce reports, memos, presentations and similar business communication documents that combine theory and empirical data to make clear and sound arguments that will facilitate decision making by a range of stakeholders.

W​hy or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

The Gender and Women's Studies Program teaches students to discover and communicate new knowledge about women and gender, to re-examine and reinterpret existing knowledge about women and gender and to integrate this understanding and perspective into the other disciplines. In the process, this discipline seeks to empower students to come into their own voice as writers and thinkers and encourages them to use that voice in writing to create social change in the world. As a result of our work with students on writing, their voices will be intellectually rigorous as well as personally authentic.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

• GEND 100: Gender in Society
• GEND 201: Feminist Inquiry
• GEND 352: Feminist Theory
• GEND 461: Seminar in Race, Gender and Class

These courses are required for all majors and minors, and represent different levels of development for student writers – introductory, intermediate and advanced.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

At the introductory level, students learn the fundamental skills of critical writing as they analyze a wide range of cultural texts through the lens of gender. They also practice self-reflective writing through response papers, journal entries and other informal writing. Students are taught to think of the writer as observer, analyzer and critic and to learn to write from these stances.

At the intermediate level, students produce more formal analytic written work than what was produced at the introductory level. They are introduced to the concept of “standpoint” writing, which is feminist writing that makes its own investment and stance transparent and explicit. They learn about the different purposes of writing in our field, including persuasion, analysis and information. They also learn to synthesize ideas from different texts and artifacts in their writing; and they continue to use self-reflective writing when appropriate. They also learn to discern reliability of sources in their research.

At the advanced level, students are introduced to the writing conventions of the multiple disciplines that participate in gender and women’s studies, including those of the social sciences and the humanities. In this way they learn informational literacy and critical appraisal. Students learn what constitutes evidence in the social sciences and in the humanities and how to employ the conventions of both areas in their own interdisciplinary writing.

Students learn how to construct and complete a major research project, from prospectus to final paper, and how to research sources for their project. Our goal is that students learn to enter the academic dialogue of gender and women’s studies in their research and writing. They assess theoretical perspectives that are elaborated on by professional writers in the discipline and begin to offer their own contributions. Self-reflective writing at this level is expected to be used strategically in the context of elaborating ideas.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Discussion and student-centered learning being fundamental pedagogical methods in our field, our courses are designed to help students come into their own voice as writers and critical thinkers. The numerous low-stakes, self-reflective or interpretive writing exercises we offer help students grow in confidence and proficiency as critical writers.

Large-scale and high stakes writing assignments are scaffolded such that student success is grounded in learning how to break large projects into manageable smaller chunks. Our WID courses provide writing instruction in the classroom, which includes both in-class guidance from the instructor as well as opportunities for peer editing. Students also work collaboratively, learning how to construct writing assignments with a partner or group.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Students who complete our program will be able to write for a variety of audiences and objectives, whether their purpose is to inform, persuade or analyze. They will be able to work collaboratively with others on writing projects, to write authentically and to explore their own investment in their writing. Because they have been exposed to texts and conventions of multiple disciplines, students will also be able to adapt to new writing situations with flexibility and agility.​​​​

W​hy or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

Global studies students learn to use diverse disciplines, frames of reference and alternative perspectives to think critically in order to comprehend and analyze global developments from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. In its academic and applied settings, writing is a significant skill students acquire in order to demonstrate their understanding of the complexity of global issues and the diversity of historical traditions and cultures. Writing also helps students connect all these components to an applied setting in their capstone classes.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

There are two global studies courses that meet the WID requirement:

GLOB 200: Global Studies: Methods

GLOB 461: Seminar in Global Studies

GLOB 200 introduces students to the tools of historical inquiry, the nature and evaluation of sources and evidence and the conceptual framework of historical interpretation as it applies to the global community. This methods class teaches research, writing and editing skills necessary for a student of global studies.

GLOB 461 builds on GLOB 200. This class emphasizes global issues, the identification and definition of global problems, the research and writing of a substantial paper and global studies criticism. This course allows students to self-design a research project and write a research paper.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

In GLOB 200, students learn a wide range of theories and perspectives from the humanities, social sciences and sciences to interpret the historical processes which produced today’s global world. Typically, the class requirements include multiple short writing assignments on historical analyses and source evaluations and an extensive term paper which examines cultural, political, social, economic, geographic and ecological manifestations and interconnections. The class works on providing students with the opportunity for faculty feedback on their articulation and application of interdisciplinary research methods.

In GLOB 461, the final term paper is more extensive and detailed, focusing on the analyses and interpretations of historical processes that are closely related to current global issues. Students should be able to decide on a topic, formulate research questions, seek out relevant literature (including historical sources) and analyze data in order to propose their own interpretations and theses that explain the historical and cultural relevance of current global issues. Writing is pivotal for students in being able to make the academic connection between scholarly literature and the practical context. 

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Global studies WID courses are conducted as workshops and seminars. There will be virtually no lecturing by professors. Rather, students will be assigned readings or short written materials for discussions and will give presentations during class meetings. Students will participate in peer review sessions before they complete the final drafts of term papers and will receive feedback from their professors on their writing.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Writing is the most significant skill for success in the fields of work that graduates of the Global Studies Program enter – fields like public service, government, academia, nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations. Global studies students should able to use writing to analyze and interpret the differences and ambiguities in the political, social, economic and historical configurations of our global community.

Why or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

Writing in health and physical education is vital in communicating with students, colleagues, families and the community. Writing is an essential skill in building health and physical literacy in PK-12 students. Health and physical educators use writing to describe their school community context and to create rationales for units they need to teach. Health and physical educators use writing to describe unit and lesson plans, to create assessment and evaluation tools and to craft reports of student learning outcomes. Writing is used to communicate between teachers and their professional organizations when presenting research and pedagogical strategies. Writing is used between teachers and administrators for many types of professional communication tasks.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

The Health and Physical Education Program has designated the following as its WID courses:

• HPE 200: Promoting Health and Well-Being in Schools
• HPE 301 Methods in Teaching Physical Activity
• HPE 414 Practicum in Secondary Physical Education
• HPE 418: Practicum in Secondary Health Education
• HPE 423 Seminar in Health and Physical Education
• HPE 425 Student Teaching in Health and Physical Education

HPE 200 is taken in the first year and is a required course for admission into the Feinstein School of Education and Human Development (FSEHD). It is a WID course because students must practice and show competence in writing skills that are a foundation for their work in future courses and their teaching profession (National Health Education Standards [NHES]), and in order to be accepted into the FSEHD. HPE 200 provides these writing opportunities.

HPE 301 is taken in the student’s second year and is a required course to move on into the Feinstein School of Education and Human Development (FSEHD). It is a WID course because teacher candidates must practice and demonstrate proficiency in writing skills that are a foundation for their work in future courses and their teaching profession (Society of Health and Physical Educators [SHAPE]) and is a prerequisite for all practicum courses.

HPE 414 is a WID course because teacher candidates are required to research and report on a variety of elements related to the district they were assigned as well as write a comprehensive unit plan. This is the Teacher Candidate Work Sample (TCWS) and it is a requirement for the Feinstein School of Education and Human Development Preparing to Student Teaching Portfolio for entrance into student teaching. The TCWS is a teaching unit plan and is composed of multiple parts that must be implemented in a school, and since HPE 414 is a practicum, teacher candidates must use this course for this applied writing assignment.

HPE 418 is a WID course because in this course teacher candidates are required to write a comprehensive unit plan applied in the school setting. This is the Teacher Candidate Work Sample (TCWS) and it is a requirement for the Feinstein School of Education and Human Development Preparing for Student Teaching Portfolio for entrance into student teaching. The TCWS is a teaching unit plan and is composed of multiple parts that must be implemented in a school, and since HPE 418 is a practicum, teacher candidates must use this course for this applied writing assignment.

HPE 423 is a WID course because student teachers must demonstrate competence in writing in several genres associated with teaching in order to be successful in student teaching and their future profession. The course requires teacher candidates to implement their writing skills with K-12 students, families and administrators, therefore this student teaching course is appropriate for WID.

HPE 425 is a WID course because student teachers must be in the field in order to write a comprehensive unit plan once again, showing growth in their writing from when they first wrote it in parts in HPE 413 and 417 to the first full writing in HPE 414 and 418, to HPE 425 when they demonstrate mastery of all parts of the TCWS.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

In our WID courses teacher candidates will learn, practice and implement various types of writing. Genres include persuasive writing (rationales in HPE 200 and 425) procedural writing (lesson and unit plans in HPE 301, 414, 418 and 423), reflective writing (observation and teaching reflections in HPE 301, HPE 414, 418 and 423), analytical writing (the TCWS and video analysis in HPE 414, 423 and 425) and professional writing in all the WID courses (letters to families, administrators, creating a resume, cover letter, presentations, etc. HPE 423 and HPE 425). These genres align best with skills the teacher candidates will need in the health and physical education teaching field and provide depth and breadth to best prepare them for tasks in the profession.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

The Health and Physical Education Program recognizes that writing is an on-going process that is practiced using both low- and high-stakes writing assignments. We prepare teacher candidates using best-practice models in the following ways:

• in-class demonstrations and practice, with examples of both the sources and the process of where and how to find and use information in written work
• in-class demonstrations, with examples of completed work samples
• provision of in-class and homework practice of writing tasks
• provision and explanation of exemplars
• writing with multiple iterations (revise their work)
• peer and instructor feedback
• multiple forms of feedback including rubrics, qualitative comments and discussions
• revision opportunities
• reflection of own writing
• encouragement and, when necessary, added support from RIC’s Writing Center
• explicit prompts aligned with the evaluation tool

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Upon completion of WID courses, teacher candidates will use writing to:

• demonstrate accurate knowledge of health and physical literacy
• communicate effectively to families and to the professional community
• write in a way that clearly communicates lesson and unit plans
• develop habits of analysis and reflection to drive instruction
• demonstrate an understanding of developmentally appropriate content utilizing proper progressions
• demonstrate communication of student growth
• reflect on the strengths and areas of ongoing growth
• develop professional skills essential for teaching, learning and advocating for health and physical literacy
• seek opportunities to share writing with professionals in the field of health and physical education

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Why or in what ways is writing important to the field of health care and the profession of health care management?

Writing is essential to the profession of health-care management. Managers and administrators at all levels in health-care organizations are engaged in writing on a daily basis. This may involve: writing strategic or operational plans, writing narratives to support a budget, writing grant proposals, drafting quality improvement plans, writing a report for a governing board or regulatory body, analyzing the impact of legislation or a policy, writing reports that summarize patient or employee satisfaction surveys, developing proposals for new programs or services, writing evaluations of programs/services and for many other purposes.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

Writing assignments are integrated into all health care administration courses with diverse genres of writing being incorporated. The courses that are specifically designated as WID courses are: HCA 201, HCA 401, HCA 303, HCA 461 and ENGL 230.

HCA 201 is the first core health care administration course that students take in the program, therefore, it is important that writing is emphasized early on in the curriculum so that skills can be improved throughout the program. Writing in this course includes a research paper that requires students to learn the skill of comparing and contrasting.

HCA 401 covers ethics and law in health care. In this course, students analyze ethical and legal organizations in health-care organizations.

HCA 303 covers health-care policy. In this course, students learn how to write analyses of health-care policies.

HCA 461 is the capstone course in the program, where students integrate learning from other courses and synthesize concepts by exploring and debating contemporary issues in oral presentation and written papers.

Lastly, all HCA students take ENGL 230: Writing in Professional Settings, where they develop rhetorical knowledge of workplace writing and gain further practice with the various stages of the writing process.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

Students will engage in writing that is consistent and aligned with the skills and competencies required of health-care managers and public health professionals. Forms of writing include case studies to develop critical thinking and analytical skills and the ability to summarize a case or organizational problem and develop a proposal for solving a problem or situation. Policy analyses are essential as health care administrators need to assess the impact of legislation and regulation on their organization. Students will write research papers as research is fundamental to health care administration. It is part of developing new programs/services, the evaluation of programs/services and assuring that health care managers stay abreast of current trends in the industry. Finally, students will write papers that analyze the different perspectives of a topic or pros and cons of a proposed solution, strategy or policy that addresses an issue in health care. In sum, students in health care administration WID courses will learn and practice many different kinds and forms of writing.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Various teaching practices are used to support student writing in the health care administration program. Students often draft papers for instructor review and feedback or for peer review with the opportunity for revision. Assignments are frequently sequenced so that students can focus on one section/component at a time and review constructive feedback that can be incorporated into later drafts. Instructors routinely use class time to teach elements of writing such as APA/MLA formatting, paper organization, components of a literature search and other topics.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Students completing the health care administration program should be able to write a thoroughly researched, well thought out and organized research paper. Students should be skilled at writing a policy brief or policy analysis. Students should also be able to write shorter papers that might require comparing and contrasting of ideas/concepts/models; analyzing an organizational problem and recommending solutions; or summarizing a white paper, policy brief or other published piece. In addition, students should be skilled at writing papers that support or oppose a point of view or position, integrating learning from a course.

Why or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

Writing is fundamental to the study of history. Without writing, there is no history. In order to learn from the past, historians are dependent upon writing and fully engaged with it at all times. The analysis of written documents and the clear communication of what is found in them are essential to the discipline. We make full use of other sources (the oral tradition, the remains of material culture), but writing is the only medium through which those who can no longer speak can still impart to us their thoughts, feelings and the facts of their time as they were aware of them.

Writing is not only fundamental to historical research, it is also the means by which we communicate with professional colleagues, students and members of the public. Effective and clear writing is basic to historical studies.

Simon Schama, the noted art historian, said that historians deal with “the past in all its splendid messiness.” It is up to historians to study that messy past and present in written form a more ordered and understandable view of historical events and peoples.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

The History Department has designated HIST 281, 282 and 389 as its WID courses.

HIST 281 introduces students to the history of history as a profession, the sub-fields of history such as social, political, economic etc. while at the same time having them write various assignments typical of a history course: synopses, precis and book reviews to name a few.

HIST 282 introduces students to a historical topic and then each student chooses a theme within that topic on which to conduct research and write a paper. The first two courses provide the building blocks for the kind of writing the History Department expects at the 200 and 300 level.

HIST 389 allows students to build on the skills they’ve learned in earlier courses in order to self-design a research project.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

History students will learn to write narratives, analyses, and interpretations of historical sources – the essential building blocks of the discipline.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

History department WID courses are conducted as workshop/seminars. There will be virtually no lecturing by professors. Rather, students will be assigned readings and/or short written materials that will serve as discussion points during class meetings. (In preparation for such meetings, students are asked to bring in worksheets relevant to the day’s assignment – low stakes writing). Students will also do group work, for example the interpretation/dissection of a historical source (e.g. The Petition of Right from 1628).

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Students who have completed the History Department’s WID courses should be able to analyze and interpret historical materials, whether they are historians’ writings, articles, monographs, textbooks or primary sources (material from the historical period under study). They should be able to formulate research questions and then research and write a history essay that has a strong thesis statement and that provides evidence that supports the paper’s thesis.

Why or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

In the Justice Studies Program students learn to critically engage with ideas of equity, fairness and equality as it relates to the broader domains of both social and criminal justice. In its academic and applied settings, writing is a significant skill students acquire to demonstrate their understanding of sociological and criminological fundamental concepts and ideas, theoretical and research literacy. Writing also helps them connect all these components to an applied setting in their capstone courses. 

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

There are two justice studies courses that meet the WID requirement: 

• Sociology 362W: Theories of Crime Seminar
• JSTD 466W: Senior Seminar in Justice Studies

SOC 362W and JSTD 466W provide a cumulative academic experience for students while they prepare to embrace a career in the field or pursue a graduate degree. In SOC 362W, students are introduced to different tenets of criminological theories, the knowledge of which is demonstrated through several long and short writing assignments. In JSTD 466W students take this learning from their theory class as well as required research classes (including SOC 302, which is the WID requirement for the Sociology Program) to work on a senior project (research paper, grant application, etc.). 

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

In SOC 362W, students learn a wide range of theoretical concepts and their application to contemporary social justice issues. Typically, the class requirements include an extensive term paper which is built on relatively shorter writing assignments. The class works on providing students with the opportunity for faculty feedback on their articulation and application of theories through these shorter assignments throughout the semester. 

In JSTD 466W, the final term paper is more extensive and detailed and integrates theory, a literature review, a research method, data, data analysis, discussion and conclusion. Similar to most social science research projects, students should be able to formulate a research question, seek out relevant literature, work on relevant research design and revisit the literature and theory after data analysis. Alternative assignments include research grants, which require a more in-depth literature review and a justification of the grant in an applied context. Irrespective of the type of assignment, writing is pivotal for students in being able to make the academic connection between scholastic literature and the practical context.  

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

In both SOC 362W and JSTD 466W, short writing assignments assess their understanding of theories, definitions of research problems, brief reviews of literature and proposed research designs. Case studies and discussion board prompts also support this learning process. The longer term papers required at the end of the semester in each course build on these different types of learning and are supported by consistent and systematic instructor feedback.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Writing is a both a fundamental and advanced skill set that will enable students to thrive in life opportunities beyond their undergraduate degree. Students will build their articulative capacity to make the connections between daily experiences which pertain to the social world and the underlying social science knowledge surrounding the same. This can manifest itself in a variety of ways in students’ career paths – communication with peers, working on projects that ensure vertical mobility in careers, advocating for a diverse workplace and career planning, amongst others. For students pursuing an advanced degree, these undergraduate writing experiences clearly set forth the academic path where writing as a skill set works to their advantage to seek out more profound scholastic endeavors and succeed in these attempts.​

In what ways is writing important to your profession?

The BA in liberal studies is an interdisciplinary program in which students work with an advisor to select their major courses from among those offered by departments across the college. No matter which disciplines in math, science, arts, humanities or social sciences are focused upon, the student will need to acquire appropriate modes and strategies of writing for those fields. In the final project produced in LIBS 461, the student brings together knowledge, research strategies and appropriate forms of communication from a variety of disciplines.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

LIBS 461 is the WID course for Liberal Studies. In this capstone course, the student draws on and extends the knowledge gained in previous courses to prepare an interdisciplinary project, which will typically be a paper of approximately 25 pages length.

In addition to LIBS 461, Liberal Studies majors may take one or more WID courses as part of the courses they must take from across the five disciplinary areas.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?​

LIBS 461 is taught as an independent study. The student works closely with an instructor selected for their expertise in areas related to the student’s interests. Depending on the project, one or two additional faculty members may be brought in as readers for the project. Because of the interdisciplinary focus, projects will vary from student to student, as will the forms and genres of writing employed. For instance, one student may write a traditional social science research paper, another may write an economic analysis of an industry, and another may engage in a creative writing project. Whatever the project, the student will be required to draw on multiple disciplines in their writing.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Because LIBS 461 is taught as an independent study, the specific teaching practices will vary from project to project. In most cases, however, students will work closely with their designated instructor, who will guide them through the various stages of the writing and research process (i.e. topic selection, drafting, revision, editing, publication, etc.).

When they’ve completed your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?​

Students will be able to draw on insights from different fields and integrate them into a deeper understanding of an issue, question, or phenomenon.​​

W​hy or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

Management and marketing professionals need to have the ability to communicate with many constituencies and in many forms as well as communicate to a variety of stakeholders in order to facilitate decision making and provide information. The main functions of managers in both fields are to scan the environment, gather information from it and use that information to help their organizations adapt. Doing so includes interpreting and explaining data, developing standards based on it, analyzing various types of reports and writing strategic business and marketing plans. In short, excellent written communication is an essential skill in both the management and marketing worlds.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the (Writing in the Discipline) WID requirement by your department? Why these courses?

MGT 201, 341, 461 and MKT 201 are designated as Writing in the Discipline courses for the management program. These courses are common to all management majors. They provide students the opportunities to explain and interpret management situations; apply management theories to current organizational issues; learn how to research, collect and interpret qualitative information; and construct persuasive arguments based on that information. Students concentrating in human resource management will also learn writing particular to their field in MGT 430.

MKT 201, 462, MGT 201, and 341 are designated as Writing in the Discipline courses for the Marketing Program. These courses provide students the opportunity to analyze and describe general markets and specific customer behaviors, think creatively, develop new product ideas and write strategic marketing plans.

In both disciplines, students will receive feedback to improve their writing skills.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

In management WID courses, genres of writing include short topic analyses, extensive research papers, journal entries, case studies, reflective and comparative essays and complete business plans. In Marketing WID courses, genres of writing include short analytic essays, customer profiles, lecture-type presentations, speeches, market analysis papers, creative projects and strategic marketing plans. These are the written communication tools management and marketing professionals use on a daily basis. They are essential skills to develop for a career in either field.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Students will find a range of teaching practices in management and marketing courses. For example, students are given a variety of writing assignments that require learning writing required in their fields. They are instructed on proper formats for writing in business academics and taught the importance of proper referencing and citation to avoid plagiarism. Case studies and business plans allow students to analyze real-life organizational issues and to make recommendations by applying theory. They also learn the importance of writing persuasively by making a point and backing it up with data and evidence. Presentations and speeches give students opportunities to practice talking to an audience. Detailed feedback from the instructors on all assignments allows students to review, and sometimes revise, the content of their projects so they learn how to improve future work.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Once they’ve completed their WID courses, management and marketing majors should be proficient in various forms of written communication in their respective fields. This includes: analyzing organizational environments and markets, writing persuasively, thinking critically and creatively, and developing strategic plans.

W​hy or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

Management and marketing professionals need to have the ability to communicate with many constituencies and in many forms as well as communicate to a variety of stakeholders in order to facilitate decision making and provide information. The main functions of managers in both fields are to scan the environment, gather information from it and use that information to help their organizations adapt. Doing so includes interpreting and explaining data, developing standards based on it, analyzing various types of reports and writing strategic business and marketing plans. In short, excellent written communication is an essential skill in both the management and marketing worlds.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the (Writing in the Discipline) WID requirement by your department? Why these courses?

MGT 201, 341, 461 and MKT 201 are designated as Writing in the Discipline courses for the management program. These courses are common to all management majors. They provide students the opportunities to explain and interpret management situations; apply management theories to current organizational issues; learn how to research, collect and interpret qualitative information; and construct persuasive arguments based on that information. Students concentrating in human resource management will also learn writing particular to their field in MGT 430.

MKT 201, 462, MGT 201, and 341 are designated as Writing in the Discipline courses for the Marketing Program. These courses provide students the opportunity to analyze and describe general markets and specific customer behaviors, think creatively, develop new product ideas and write strategic marketing plans.

In both disciplines, students will receive feedback to improve their writing skills.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

In management WID courses, genres of writing include short topic analyses, extensive research papers, journal entries, case studies, reflective and comparative essays and complete business plans. In Marketing WID courses, genres of writing include short analytic essays, customer profiles, lecture-type presentations, speeches, market analysis papers, creative projects and strategic marketing plans. These are the written communication tools management and marketing professionals use on a daily basis. They are essential skills to develop for a career in either field.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Students will find a range of teaching practices in management and marketing courses. For example, students are given a variety of writing assignments that require learning writing required in their fields. They are instructed on proper formats for writing in business academics and taught the importance of proper referencing and citation to avoid plagiarism. Case studies and business plans allow students to analyze real-life organizational issues and to make recommendations by applying theory. They also learn the importance of writing persuasively by making a point and backing it up with data and evidence. Presentations and speeches give students opportunities to practice talking to an audience. Detailed feedback from the instructors on all assignments allows students to review, and sometimes revise, the content of their projects so they learn how to improve future work.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Once they’ve completed their WID courses, management and marketing majors should be proficient in various forms of written communication in their respective fields. This includes: analyzing organizational environments and markets, writing persuasively, thinking critically and creatively, and developing strategic plans.​​​​

W​hy or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

In any career involving mathematics – including business, research, teaching and other pursuits – written communication regarding process and results is important. People in careers in mathematics need to be able to explain results (including explanations for nontechnical audiences), need to be able to detail the steps of a solution process and need to be able to write precise mathematical proofs. 

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

The Department of Mathematical Sciences offers two undergraduate degrees in mathematics: the B.A. in liberal arts mathematics and the B.A. in secondary education, with a concentration in mathematics. The department has identified two required courses in each of these majors to be designated as satisfying the WID requirement.

Liberal Arts Mathematics

• MATH 300: Bridge to Advanced Mathematics
• MATH 461: Seminar in Mathematics

Secondary Education, with a Concentration in Mathematics

• MATH 300: Bridge to Advanced Mathematics
• MATH 458: History of Mathematics​

MATH 300 is dedicated to the teaching of how to write formal mathematical proofs. It also contains process-oriented and explanatory writing, although to a lesser degree. MATH 458 involves a large amount of process-oriented and explanatory writing, and, like all other upper-level mathematics courses, involves formal proofs. MATH 461 involves a large amount of process-oriented and explanatory writing, and, like all other upper-level mathematics courses, involves formal proofs.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

Writing in the discipline of mathematics is likely to fall into one of three categories. The first is explanatory, in which the writer communicates the essentials of a mathematical concept. The second is process-oriented, in which the writer details the reasoning throughout an analysis of a particular problem (this category can be thought of as an expanded version of the familiar instruction to “show your work”). The final category is formal mathematical proofs, detailed logical arguments that could be said to be the mathematician’s version of persuasive essays. (Source: (Russek, 1998; Flesher, 2003.) 

All three of the categories can inform a reader, and all three can serve to demonstrate the writer’s understanding of the topic at hand. Moreover, all can also serve as “writing-to-learn” activities as the writer must analyze and perfect their own understanding in order to create and revise a product.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

In MATH 300, a scaffolded approach to teaching proofs is used. The proofs begin at a simple level, with templates and guidelines available. All instructors strive to give detailed criteria for how to construct a proof: what must be said, what pattern to follow, what wording to use and to avoid and so on. Repetition and revision are universally employed. All instructors use frequent assignments and provide feedback, and some instructors choose to use group work, peer discussion and low-stakes class presentations. As the semester progresses, the proofs that are being studied and written get more complex, and different techniques and topics are introduced.

In MATH 458, styles and assignments vary from instructor to instructor. However, all use daily assignments with an attempt to provide rapid feedback, and low-stakes student presentations and discussions are a staple. When projects are assigned, they are clearly defined and structured using a series of deadlines and discussions with the instructor. A survey of reading and some brief summaries is typically used to start the process, followed by a choice of topic, a collection of sources, an outline, a rough draft and so on, with feedback from the instructor at every step.

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Why or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

Writing is an essential component of second language acquisition and proficiency advancement and is central to each concentration in the Modern Languages Department. Writing in the concentration language is at the core of the development of intercultural communication skills and cross-cultural understanding in the disciplinary areas of literary, cultural and linguistic studies.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

Our courses are tiered, with each level building on the previous one for proficiency advancement in the target language. The courses below satisfy the WID requirement for each concentration within the Modern Languages Department:

FREN/PORT/SPAN 201 and 202: Conversation and Composition/Composition and Conversation. Students acquire cultural, literary and linguistic knowledge and skills in intercultural communication in a variety of genres, while demonstrating proficiency advancement in the target language.

FREN/PORT/SPAN 420: Applied Grammar. This course is conducted as a writing workshop in which students examine and polish writing style in the target language through creative writing, translation and reflection in a variety of textual genres and registers.

FREN/PORT/SPAN 460. This is the capstone experience where students demonstrate advanced language proficiency and communication skills learned throughout the major in intercultural communication, cross-cultural knowledge and critical and creative literary and cultural analysis. Students demonstrate research competence, organizational and editing skills, and critical thinking skills.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

Students produce a variety of genres of academic, creative and professional writing in the concentration language consistent with the literary, cultural and linguistic focus of the major such as storytelling, journaling, film review, literary and cultural analysis, narrative/expository/analytical essay, annotated bibliography, translation and professional writing. Through these genres, students will advance in language proficiency and critical thinking while practicing skills and building portfolios for graduate studies, internships and careers.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Students will engage in diverse writing assignments in WID courses and throughout the curriculum, ranging from low-stakes, informal exercises to high-stakes, formal exercises, including journaling, annotating, summarizing and analyzing academic and creative writing, translation, editing and peer-review.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Students will demonstrate intermediate proficiency (in 200-level courses) to advanced proficiency (in 400-level courses) in the target language and will be able to write in a variety of genres and registers. They will have a good understanding (in 200-level courses) to an in-depth knowledge (in 400-level courses) of the literatures and cultures in their concentration and will be able to demonstrate cross-cultural competency and critical-thinking skills.

Why or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/ profession?

The ability to write well is important for all students seeking a career in music. Performers, music educators, musicologists and composers are required to write resumes, cover letters, grant applications and program notes. Music educators must also be adept at creating lesson plans, student assessments and learning outcomes. Musicologists and theoreticians will use their writing skills to produce scholarly research papers, magazine articles, and books. Music administrators are required to create websites, write copy for promotional materials, create grant applications and write to benefactors in order to solicit donations. Music critics will need sufficient writing skills to compose performance reviews and written interviews with prominent figures in the field of music.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the (Writing in the Discipline) WID requirement by your department? Why these courses?

The music area within the Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance has designated the courses listed below as satisfying the WID requirement.

• MUS 205: Music History and Literature I (all music degree programs)
• MUS 206: Music History and Literature II (all music degree programs)
• MUS 391: Junior Recital-Music Performance Majors

• MUS 492: Senior Recital-Music Education Majors
• MUS 493: Senior Recital-Music Performance Majors
• PFA 461: Senior Seminar (Music BA only)

These specific courses have been designated as WID classes due to the fact that they teach and require various types of writing skills which are critical for music majors.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

A number of writing genres are introduced and developed in the music area WID courses.

In MUS 205: Music History and Literature I students are required to write about interpretive approaches toward music of the past by listening to multiple recordings of the same piece of music and writing a comparative analysis in the form of an essay. This course also requires a stylistic analysis and two research papers on topics related to music history. In addition to course materials, students must consult at least three outside sources of scholarly merit.

In MUS 206: Music History and Literature II students continue to refine the materials and methods of written discourse in the field of music, in part, by focusing on the integration of primary sources into the writing process.

Another important requirement is learning forms of writing associated with the concert experience such as concerts reviews and program notes. MUS 391: Junior Recital, MUS 492: Senior Recital-Music Education Majors, and MUS 493: Senior Recital- Music Performance Majors all require students to write press releases, promotional materials, a recital program and program notes.

In PFA 461: Senior Seminar students develop individual projects by either 1) completing a research paper on a topic in music history, literature or ethnomusicology, 2) completing an in-depth analytical essay on a topic in music theory or music criticism, or 3) presenting a lecture-recital with a supplementary written component such as a research-oriented term paper.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

There are a few modes of writing instruction in the music area WID courses. In MUS 205 and 206 students submit a topic, an outline, and a rough draft to the instructor for feedback. MUS 391, 492 and 493 typically involve regular one-on-one meetings between student and instructor to discuss the works-in-progress. PFA 461 involves both of these modes of instructions as well as presenting works-in-progress to classmates for feedback and discussion.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Students who have completed the WID requirement should be able to do the following:

• effectively market themselves to a prospective employer or funding source
• critically review musical performances and recordings in an effective and coherent manner
• analyze musical works from a theoretical, aesthetic, and historical perspective
• write coherent and effective research papers on all topics related to music history, music theory, musical performance practice, and musical biographies

In what ways is writing important to your profession?

Writing is essential to communicating as a nurse. Professional nurses write as care givers, advocates, teachers and researchers. Nurses write to provide high-quality, safe care to patients and communities; to propose improvements to health-care delivery; and to promote changes in health-care policy.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

NURS 234W: Scholarly Inquiry and Informatics is the foundational WID course for the nursing major. In this course, students are introduced to the conventions of writing in nursing, APA formatting and the role of evidence-based nursing practice. All nursing courses that follow NURS 234W continue to develop students’ writing skills over time.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

The forms of writing taught in the nursing program are clinical writing (or workplace writing), academic writing and reflective writing. Through various types of clinical writing, including care plans, charting and discharge summaries, nurses describe and document patient care. Clinical writing may also include promotional materials and policies developed to serve groups and communities. Professional nurses use academic writing to disseminate new knowledge in the discipline and promote evidence-based practice. Reflective writing, such as journaling and informal responses, serve as a way to learn (“writing to learn”) and as a means to self-understanding and professional growth.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Some of the teaching practices students will encounter will be journaling, low-stakes and high-stakes writing assignments, peer reviews, scaffolded assignments and opportunities for revisions and incorporating feedback into later drafts.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Upon completion of the BSN program, graduates will be able to: 

• effectively communicate in writing in the various professional nursing roles
• accurately and precisely document professional practice in clinical settings
• prepare thoughtful and effective research papers in the discipline of nursing
• prepare oral and written presentations individually and collaboratively to achieve a specific purpose
• engage in reflective writing for personal professional development​​​​​​

In what ways is writing important to your profession?

Writing is essential to communicating as a nurse. Professional nurses write as care givers, advocates, teachers, and researchers. Nurses write to provide high quality safe care to patients and communities, to propose improvements to health care delivery and to promote changes in health care policy.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

NURS 208W: Scholarly Inquiry and Practice in Nursing is the foundational WID course for the RN to BSN Program. In this course, students are introduced to the conventions of writing in nursing, APA formatting, and the role of evidence-based nursing practice. All nursing courses that follow NURS 208W continue to develop students’ writing skills over time.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

The forms of writing taught in the nursing program are clinical writing (or workplace writing), academic writing and reflective writing. Through various types of clinical writing, including care plans, charting and discharge summaries, nurses describe and document patient care. Clinical writing may also include promotional materials and policies developed to serve groups and communities. Professional nurses use academic writing to disseminate new knowledge in the discipline and promote evidence-based practice. Reflective writing, such as journaling and informal responses, serve as a way to learn (“writing to learn”) and as a means to self-understanding and professional growth.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Some of the teaching practices students will encounter will be journaling, low-stakes and high-stakes writing assignments, peer reviews, scaffolded assignments and opportunities for revisions and incorporating feedback into later drafts.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Upon completion of the Bachelor of Science in nursing, graduates will be able to: 

• effectively communicate in writing in the various professional nursing roles
• accurately and precisely document professional practice in clinical settings
• prepare thoughtful and effective research papers in the discipline of nursing
• prepare oral and written presentations individually and collaboratively to achieve a specific purpose
• engage in reflective writing for personal professional development​​​​​​

In what ways is writing important to your profession?

Philosophy involves interpretation, analysis and argumentation about reality, knowledge, ethics and other basic aspects of human experience and thought. These are very subtle subjects and working on them productively requires a careful attention to complex details that often can only be done in writing. So writing is important throughout philosophy: not just for professional presentations and publications but also for the studies and exchanges that are conducted by anyone who wants to understand philosophical subjects well.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

Philosophy’s Writing in the Discipline plan designates the following courses, which are taken by all philosophy majors:

• PHIL 205: Introduction to Logic (or PHIL 305: Intermediate Logic)
• PHIL 351: Plato, Aristotle and Greek Philosophy
• PHIL 356: Descartes, Hume, Kant and Modern Philosophy
• PHIL 460: Seminar in Philosophy

The logic course introduces and exercises formal techniques of argument evaluation that promote the skills of identifying, supporting and critiquing philosophical positions in our other courses. The other three WID courses are writing intensive, and they progressively exercise writing skills of explaining and evaluating some of the most influential philosophical positions and debates.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?​

In PHIL 205 or PHIL 305, students learn to write with special conventions of symbolic logic, and practice formal analysis and evaluation of arguments. These promote the skills of written identification and critique of philosophical positions in our other courses.

In PHIL 351 and PHIL 356, students practice formal writing with clear analysis and evaluation of philosophical positions. They receive instruction and feedback about using good grammar and good reasoning to defend or criticize philosophical positions, and they are introduced to the responsible use of relevant scholarly resources.

In PHIL 460, students receive guidance and feedback on a substantial term paper that engages with recent scholarship and follows disciplinary conventions of philosophical publications.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Cumulatively over the course of this plan, students receive lots of instruction and feedback from their teachers on the forms and contents of their philosophical writing. They exercise their skills frequently in shorter writing assignments and have multiple opportunities for longer papers. They also engage in peer collaboration and peer review under the teachers’ supervision.

When they’ve completed your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?​

When students have satisfied philosophy’s requirements for writing in the discipline, they should understand the typical goals and forms of philosophical writing, and they should have practiced using common conventions of philosophical publications. More generally, they should have sustained practice in using clear academic prose to analyze and evaluate arguments about reality, knowledge, ethics and other basic aspects of human experience and thought.​​

In what ways is writing important to your profession?

Writing is critical in both chemistry and physics, both in the research process itself and to communicate scientific findings to a wider audience. Writing is important throughout the research process to keep an accurate record of the motivation, design, results and conclusions of an experiment. After the experiment is complete, it is critical that the findings be communicated to the wider community. This could mean communicating to other scientists who will build on these findings, to government or private employers who will use them to guide policy or to design technology or to the general public to help them make informed decisions on scientific issues.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

• PHYS 313: Junior Lab
• PHYS 413: Senior lab

In these courses, you will engage in a series of experiments and are expected to keep an accurate lab notebook. In Junior Lab, you will be introduced to the various sections of the formal lab report and learn what information should be included in each section. In Senior Lab, you will learn to put all the pieces together to produce a complete formal lab report.

What forms or genres of writing will you learn and practice in your WID courses? Why these genres?​

You will focus primarily on two genres of writing. These genres are related to the two purposes of writing in physics and chemistry: to record the research process and to communicate scientific findings to a wider audience.

For the first purpose, you will focus on keeping a lab notebook. A lab notebook is not just a compilation of data, but a narrative of the entirety of the experiment. It is not only a document kept for personal use but can also have legal, financial and ethical implications. The keeping of an accurate and properly formatted lab notebook is a critical skill for a scientist.

For the second purpose, you will focus on the formal lab report. This format is similar in many ways to that of professional journal articles in physics and chemistry. These types of articles are the main way scientists communicate their findings to the broader scientific community. 

What kinds of teaching practices will you encounter in your WID courses?

You will get explicit instruction and feedback on how to keep a lab notebook and write formal lab reports. This includes the correct format for these genres as well as how to use scientific literature as a resource, how to correctly present results and draw conclusions and how to correctly cite scientific literature. For the formal lab reports, you will produce multiple drafts of the reports and receive feedback both from your instructors and in peer review.

When you have satisfied your department’s WID requirement, you should be able to:

Keep an accurate and correctly formatted lab notebook and write a correctly formatted formal lab report. This includes knowing the purpose of each section of the report (abstract, introduction, experimental methods, etc.); using data to support scientific conclusions; and communicating to other scientists in the discipline as well as to a broader audience.

In what ways is writing important to your profession?

Writing is a central element in the political science discipline. Effective communication is one of the most important skills for the political science student to acquire. Upon graduation, political science students may choose to attend law school or graduate school, where sound writing is expected. Those who choose to enter the world of work often seek out public service or managerial-level positions; such positions often demand quality writing.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

POL 308: Current Political Controversy satisfies the WID requirement. This course was created specifically to introduce political science majors to the various types of writing they might engage within their other political science courses, as well as in the post-graduate world of graduate school, law school and/or work. We see writing as a developmental process. Students learn to critically read, think and write in a coherent manner over time when given space to practice and to receive feedback. The department also recognizes the linkage between effective reading and effective writing; therefore, students read a variety of materials for the course and are required to use those readings to develop their writing assignments. Students are required to find and use the following secondary and primary sources: articles in academic and political opinion journals, academic and popular press literature, newspaper editorials, Supreme Court opinions, opinion surveys, and government executive and legislative documents.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?​

Students will learn about and practice a variety of genres that are essential for a political science student to know. These genres may include, but are not limited to, op-ed articles, blog posts, book reviews, annotated bibliographies, literature reviews, research designs, research papers, data analysis reports and policy memoranda. Some of these genres (ex., op-ed articles, blog posts and policy memoranda) are meant to help students practice their analytical skills. Others, (ex., book review, annotated bibliographies and literature reviews) are designed to help the student practice particular skills like reviewing and summarizing information. Research designs, research papers, data analysis reports and policy memos allow students to practice “real world” political science applications.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Faculty teaching POL 308 run the course as a seminar. They expect student-led discussion and active engagement. Students are required to present their written work in class, provide feedback to one another and work in groups. They are given the opportunity to turn in second drafts of most of their writing assignments and should expect to receive faculty feedback on each draft. This feedback generally focuses on understanding of the topic (academic context), the paper’s organization, use of evidence, clear and correct grammar, proper citation and spelling, use of punctuation and other writing “mechanics.”

When they’ve completed your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?​

The expected outcome is that students will understand the different purposes of writing in the discipline and employ the conventions of writing in their major fields. Students will produce writing that is well organized, supported by evidence, demonstrates correct usage of grammar and terminology and is appropriate within an academic context. Additionally, students will understand when and how to employ different manuscript formats, how to properly cite sources as well as how to use the American Political Science Association’s (APSA) reference style.​​​​

Why or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

Writing is an essential activity to the disciplines of psychology and chemical dependency and addiction studies. Scholars in these disciplines need to demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between psychological theory, research design and the appropriate interpretation of data. Writing is also an essential means of communicating psychological information to other scholars and the public. 

Which courses are designated as satisfying the (Writing in the Discipline) WID requirement by your department? Why these courses?

There are two courses students in the psychology and chemical dependency/addiction studies programs must take to satisfy the WID requirement:

• PSYC 221: Research Methods I
• PSYC 473-477: Research Methods III

Research Methods I and III were selected as they bookend a student’s research trajectory within the major. In Research Methods I, students learn the foundation of research design and the basics of APA formatting style. In Research Methods III, students build on the skills learned in Research Methods I and II and apply their research methods and analysis skills to larger projects. Research Methods III provides a capstone experience and is where students demonstrate skills learned across the major.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

Students will engage in research writing consistent with psychological research, which involves research questions and hypotheses, data and methods, analyzing quantitative and/or qualitative data, and making scientific conclusions based on theory and data. These genres are consistent with psychological science and will prepare students to participate in the discipline as both producers and consumers of research.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Students will engage in multiple writing assignments across each course, receiving instructor feedback and opportunities to apply the feedback along the way. Assignments in Research Methods I may include summarizing and critiquing journal articles, describing results of literature searches or learning how to write hypotheses. In Research Methods III, students are required to plan a study, analyze data and write a report using APA style. Instructors may utilize many teaching techniques including lecture, discussions, small-group work, peer-review of writing and scaffolded assignments.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Students should know that writing is an iterative process – we get better at writing the more we do it; feedback and revision matter, and our writing improves as our reading increases. They should also know that participating in the discipline as producers, readers and teachers of psychology involves a familiarity with psychological writing, the ability to communicate psychology in written form and a familiarity with psychological research design.​​

In what ways is writing important to your profession?

Effective written communication is an important skill for the public administration major to acquire. Upon graduation a public administration major may choose graduate school or law school where sound writing is expected. Public administration is a pre-professional program so students often seek governmental and other public sector agency entry-level professional employment where good quality writing is expected and often visible to various audiences such as elected officials, news reporters and the broader public.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

POL 301: Foundations of Public Administration is the required WID course for all public administration majors. This course prepares students to fulfill the research-based writing requirements of the public administration major.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?​

The principle form of writing taught in POL 301 is the policy memorandum. POL 301 is taught as a lecture/seminar format with a number of required group collaborative projects and individual assignments, including a 10-page research paper that requires students to demonstrate they can find and effectively use academic literature, professional journals and government reports to answer a researchable question. The research paper also requires students to construct an annotated bibliography that illustrates that they can identify each type of literature. A library guide is available at Adams library for Academic journals, and in class the faculty member provides a list of professional organizations, particularly the American Society of Public Administration (ASPA), where students can access professional journals across the range of public administration subfields. Government reports are available from the rich array of professional associations such as the National Association of State Budget Offices (NASBO) that also has archives of Government Reports on a wide range of topics. Students also are required to create a one page 100-to-200-word executive summary of the 10-page paper. The executive summary is a key document in the public administration discipline because it is the one most likely to be read by policy makers. In sum, in POL 301 students learn to identify and produce the three types of professional writing typical of much writing in the field of public administration (ex., policy memorandum, research paper, executive summary).

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

POL 301 socializes students in the public administration major to expect to write more than one draft of papers and to receive faculty feedback following each draft. That feedback focuses on an understanding of the topic (academic context), the paper’s organization, use of evidence, and clear and correct grammar, spelling and similar writing basics. There also are a number of assignments in the class that require group collaborative writing. Students learn to share research and writing responsibilities as they create a PowerPoint presentation, to be accompanied by a brief but collaboratively written memorandum.

When they’ve completed your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?​

The expected outcome of the public administration major’s WID requirement is that students will gain greater understanding of and practice with the policy memorandum, a key genre of writing in public sector work, as well as the research paper and executive summary. Students will understand when and how to employ academic research, professional studies and cases, and governmental reports to construct the policy memorandum and will learn how to properly cite sources using the American Political Science Association (APSA) reference style.​​​​

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Why or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

Writing is an essential skill for social workers. Professional competency depends on one’s ability to effectively communicate to and/or about clients and their needs, communities and their needs, policy priorities that are currently not being met and/or need to be met in different ways, and the ability to promote and advocate for justice.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

The English Department has three concentrations, each of which has designated its own WID courses:

SWRK 302: Social Work Research Methods 1 In this course students learn how to conduct and write a literature review, an essential skill for producing and/or understanding research.

SWRK 326: Generalist Social Work Practice In this course students learn how to conduct social assessments and produce the accompanying write-up. Additionally, students learn how to take professional notes for client files and work on other forms of professional writing such as referrals and client summaries.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

The range of genres or forms of writing in which students engage and practice in the English major is too extensive to list in its entirety and depends, to a significant extent, on students’ chosen concentrations within the major. Having said this, we offer a few examples of the writing students do in different concentrations below.

Students practice and hone their writing skills through reflective writing, journal writing, note taking, and academic writing. These genres represent the wide range of writing styles that students will be asked to conduct in professional work settings, as well as giving students the opportunity to critically reflect on their thoughts and emotions related to their work and the field.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Students will participate in courses with teaching practices that include low stakes and high stakes writing assignments, peer feedback, scaffolded assignments, and opportunities for revision incorporating peer and/or instructor feedback for subsequent drafts.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Upon completion of the Social Work program, Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) graduates should be able to do the following:

• accurately document professional practice in various practice settings
• produce thorough and critical research documents
• create and disseminate written and oral presentations to clients, co-workers, and policy makers
• engage in critically self-reflective writing for the purpose of professional development

W​hy or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

Writing is an essential activity in the discipline of sociology in terms of demonstrating an understanding of the relationship between sociological theory, research design and sociological interpretation. It is also a means to communicate sociological arguments, whether to other sociologists or to the general public.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

There are two sociology courses that satisfy the WID requirement:

• Sociology 302W: Social Research Methods I
• Sociology 460W: Senior Seminar in Sociology

These two courses were selected as they bookend a student’s research trajectory within the major. Sociology 302W, one of two required research methods courses for the major, introduces students to aspects of research design, analyzing data and making sociological conclusions. Sociology 460W is where students apply analytical and writing skills to various projects designed to reflect their maturation as sociology majors over the course of their time at RIC.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

Students will engage in research writing consistent with the sociological research method particular to our academic discipline, which involves research questions, data and methods, analyzing patterns of relationships in data and making sociological conclusions. These genres are consistent with traditional sociological research and will prepare students to participate in the discipline as both producers and readers of research.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Some of the teaching practices students will encounter will be journaling, low stakes and high stakes writing assignments, fishbowl feedback, peer reviews, scaffolded assignments and opportunities for revisions and incorporating feedback into later drafts.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Students should know that writing is an iterative process – we get better at writing the more we do it; feedback and revision matters, and our writing improves as our reading increases. They should also know that participating in the discipline as producers, readers and teachers of sociology, involves a familiarity with sociological writing, the ability to communicate sociologically in written form and a familiarity with sociological research design.

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Why or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/ profession?

Writing is important to all students intent on a career in theatre. Actors, singers, dancers, playwrights, directors and designers must use their skills to create cover letters, resumes, grant applications, websites and portfolios, to write press releases and to write scenes, songs and plays. Theatre dramaturgs and historians must be able to write program notes, magazine articles, scholarly articles and books. Development directors and theatre administrators must be able to write letters to patrons soliciting donations, to create websites and to generate promotional materials. Theatre critics must be able to author production reviews.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the (Writing in the Discipline) WID requirement by your department? Why these courses?

The theatre program has designated the following courses to be emblematic of Writing in the Discipline:

For the theatre design/tech, general and performance concentrations, the following courses will satisfy the WID requirement:

• THTR 440: History of Theatre: Origins to 1800
• THTR 441: History of Theatre: 1800 to Present
• THTR 460: Senior Seminar

For the musical theatre concentration, the following course will satisfy the WID requirement:

• THTR 460: Senior Seminar

These courses have been chosen as WID courses because they require and teach different types of writing essential to theatre majors.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

A number of writing genres are introduced and developed in the music area WID courses.

Students in the theatre program will be introduced to and learn and practice numerous genres of writing in our WID courses. For example, in THTR 229: Playwriting, students will write numerous scene-types (e.g. action scenes, conflict scenes, event scenes, etc.). Students in theatre history courses will be asked to write detailed play analysis and play reviews along with oral presentations on the same topic. Finally, students taking THTR 460: Senior Seminar will create and perform a Senior Showcase in both Rhode Island and in New York City. This work will require them to write/create journals, a press release, a website, promotional materials and many other kinds of documents.

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

Students in the theatre program will encounter many different kinds of writing instruction. In THTR 229, for example, students will participate in one-on-one meetings with their instructor to discuss work-in-progress. In other courses they will be asked to submit drafts of papers to their instructor and classmates for feedback. Finally, students will produce and share various low-stakes assignments such as weekly journals and high stakes projects such as research reports.

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Students who have completed the WID requirement should be able to do the following:

• market themselves to a prospective employer or funding source via a resume, portfolio, personal website and other promotional materials
• market their production or their theatre to the public via press releases, websites and other promotional materials
• generate their own work (e.g., monologues, scenes, 10-minute plays, full length plays)
• critically review productions
• analyze plays
• create effective oral presentations of monologues, scenes, plays, songs and design concepts​

Why or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

Writing plays an integral role in both the wellness industry and exercise science. It is used to communicate between professionals and their clientele, patients, athletes and colleagues. Writing allows professionals in these fields to record athlete and patient progress, construct personal and professional philosophies and advocate for policy change. Professionals use the scientific manuscript to disseminate research findings in an empirical and objective way.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

The wellness and exercise science program has designated HPE 309: Exercise Prescription and HPE 427: Wellness and Exercise Science Internship as our WID courses.

HPE 309 is typically taken during the Fall Semester of year three. In this course, there is a written report where students practice assessing and programming on an individual basis. This comprehensive report demonstrates critical thinking, evidence-based practice and an introduction to APA formatting. The nature of this report allows for explicit writing instruction with multiple drafts and peer editing.

HPE 427 is taken during the final semester of the wellness and exercise science program. In this course, a capstone research project is required. This project contains a major writing component, with multiple revisions, peer editing and class time dedicated to writing. For these reasons, this course was chosen to be the final WID course in the major.

What forms or genres of writing will students learn and practice in your department’s WID courses? Why these genres?

The range of written genres in which students engage and practice in the WID courses include academic writing, professional writing and reflective writing. Professionals in these fields write research manuscripts, policy papers, individual/program plans and evaluations and advocacy statements. These artifacts allow professionals to disseminate ideas and research findings and to communicate guidelines, recommendations and industry standards.

• Academic – literature reviews, research proposals, scientific reports, presentations
• Professional – individual evaluations, community needs assessments, plans and programs, promotional materials, posters
• Reflective – journals, philosophy statements, informal responses

Engaging with these genres allows students to demonstrate proficiency in content knowledge, professional application, and personal growth. 

What kinds of teaching practices will students encounter in your department’s WID courses?

The wellness and exercise science program recognizes writing is an iterative process. We strive to meet best practice models by scaffolding writing assignments in the following ways:

• initiating the writing process in class and/or collaboratively
• starting with low-stakes, informal writing and progressing into more technical high-stakes writing
• working with students on drafts and revisions
• utilizing varied forms of feedback: peer-editing, rubrics, qualitative comments and/or one-on-one consultations

When they’ve satisfied your department’s WID requirement, what should students know and be able to do with writing?

Upon completion of our WID courses, students will be able to use writing to:

• develop the habit of learning through writing
• demonstrate proficiency in the application of content knowledge
• make informed decisions about evaluation and program planning
• develop practical skills essential for the profession

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Why or in what ways is writing important to your discipline/field/profession?

For youth workers, writing provides a way to convey thinking and beliefs in visible ways. In personal forms of writing like journals and notes, writing is a way to “think aloud on paper.” Having ideas, descriptions, observations and stories written down enables a writer to get distance from an idea, to leave and come back to an idea, to revise an idea or story. In more public and professional forms of writing like letters, blogs, activity plans and essays, writing is a way to communicate ideas, concepts and stories to others.

Which courses are designated as satisfying the Writing in the Discipline (WID) requirement by your department? Why these courses?

The following courses: YDEV 300: Introduction to Youth Development and YDEV 352: Seminar in Youth Development were selected because they represent the beginning and the more mature application of writing practices.

In YDEV 300, students construct and learn the foundations of reflective writing practice and activity planning. In YDEV 352, students apply their learning to an authentic, larger writing task. They also continue the practice of developing activity plans.

YDEV students also take a Social Work course that has been designated as WID by the School Of Social Work: SWRK 326: Generalist Social Work Practice.

In this course, students learn how to conduct social assessments and produce the accompanying write-up. Additionally, students learn how to take professional notes for client files and work on other forms of professional writing such as referrals and client summaries.

What forms or genres of writing will you learn and practice in your WID courses? Why these genres?

Reflective writing, including storytelling and narrative inquiry, is an essential practice of youth work because it resists the disembodied discourse of “outcomes-based” education. The process of storytelling is a humanizing, reflective practice that provides opportunities to understand and enhance youth work and administrative practice. Storytelling supports personal identity work, one of the anchors of the YDEV program. Storytelling and counter-storytelling are also forms of academic research in youth development. Forms might include journals, blogs, letters, analytical essays, notes and captions. Activity plans provide a structured way to organize purposeful interactive sessions with young people.

What kinds of teaching practices will you encounter in your WID courses?

Youth development courses are designed with a spiral curriculum approach (see Jerome Bruner). A spiral curriculum has three key elements: Students encounter the same content across several courses; the study of the content becomes deeper and more nuanced over time; and students continually make connections between their knowledge and course content. A spiral curriculum provides students opportunities to develop complex thinking and expertise over time. The curriculum promotes inclusivity because it invites students to contribute their own knowledge and perspectives as they together learn topics and practices. Reflective writing, which includes storytelling, and activity planning are spiraling practices in the youth development program.

Practices that students will encounter in YDEV courses include low stakes writing assignments, peer and instructor feedback, revisions, writing rubrics and scaffolded assignments and templates. Students will also read scholarly models of reflective writing about youth work practice (e.g. Bianca Baldridge, Shawn Ginwright, Mark Krueger and Bettina Love).

When you have satisfied your WID requirement, you should know and be able to:

Through reflective writing, students come to know themselves. By the end of the program, students are able to situate their own beliefs about youth work in the context of both established theories and practice in the field. They have also developed skills in writing activity plans that have intentional purpose and values and that can be easily shared with colleagues. They know who they are as youth workers, and they can articulate their values and theories of change.