The Writing Intensive Program began in 1997, at the prompting of a Franklin College faculty senate initiative. Funded by Dean’s Office, originally, with matching funds later provided by the Office of the Provost and Academic Vice President, the Writing Intensive Program (WIP) has become one of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences most important and most innovative programs. Aimed to improve the nature and quality of the undergraduate academic experience at the University of Georgia, the Writing Intensive Program encourages increased attention to writing as a way of learning and enhancing writing competence in the disciplines. A university education, after all, must teach students to think clearly and critically. Because the capacity to do so is inextricably linked with the ability to write effectively, writing opportunities and instruction in the academy must build on the First-year Composition experience and continue throughout a student’s academic career in all disciplines. The Writing Intensive Program recognizes that writing is more important than ever, not only to students’ academic endeavors but to the post-university work for which they are preparing.
The Writing Intensive Program presumes that writing is inseparable from what Judith Langer terms the “ways of knowing” of a particular discipline, and therefore, “[w]riting (and the thinking that accompanies it) [is] a primary and necessary vehicle for practicing the ways of organizing and presenting ideas that are most appropriate to a particular subject area” (71). Further, the Writing Intensive Program assumes that writing (and the thinking that accompanies it) is the process by which disciplinary knowledge is constituted, the process by which one “comes to know” knowledge, and the process by which that knowledge is vetted. In short, writing is the academic dialogue that the University of Georgia faculty, as educators, aim to introduce to students. Hence, to teach writing is to teach the “ways of knowing” unique to any discipline: the methodology of inquiry, the conventions of evidence, the mode of presentation. Such a pedagogical goal, then, assumes that the most effective way to improve student writing is to do so within the context of disciplinary demands under the tutelage of committed faculty across the campus, who are willing and able to articulate those conventions.
Recognizing that such a pedagogical goal requires new responsibilities for and time demands on participating faculty, the program trains discipline-specific graduate students to serve as teaching assistants to support Writing Intensive Program courses. That is, each Writing Intensive Program course, competively selected, is provided with a specially trained TA to support participating faculty—not as a “grader” but as a “writing coach.”
Currently only a College of Arts and Sciences program, but recommended for university-wide expansion by the Report of the Task Force on General Education and Student Learning at UGA, the Writing Intensive Program serves from 1000-1500 students in approximately 45 diverse courses across the college, ranging from art history, biology, classics, geology, mathematics, music, religion, sociology, and women’s studies. Most of these courses are regular-enrollment sections, but one or two courses each semester are large-enrollment classes.
A compelling majority of students enrolled in these courses consistently report that the pedagogical aim of the program has been realized. Student evaluations collected since the program’s inception report that their experience with the Writing Intensive Program introduced them to and gave them experience with writing within their discipline; additionally, as a result of the program’s emphasis on revision, students report that their writing processes improve along with their writing. Not surprisingly, they also report that their Writing Intensive Program courses force them to keep up with the readings and to be better prepared for class discussions—in short, to be more engaged in the learning process. As well, they report that their critical and disciplinary thinking has improved. Faculty survey responses show that their Writing Intensive Program courses increase student engagement and improve student writing; additionally, faculty report that their participation in the Writing Intensive Program has strengthened their own teaching practices. (See “Our Successes” for evaluation details.)
The Writing Intensive Program—with its devoted faculty and teaching assistants—has delivered on its initial challenge to “do something about student writing.” And it has done much, much more: it has created an atmosphere of commitment to student writing in all disciplines. As has Jonathan Monroe, committed WIP faculty have aimed to create a “sense of shared responsibility for the teaching of writing, and above all for the enhancement of learning through writing, across all disciplines and at all levels of the curriculum” (“Introduction” 11).
A section of this document was originally composed by Parker Middleton.
Composed and revised by Michelle Ballif 07.06