Writing intensive courses (WIC) are designed and taught by faculty members who have participated in writing workshops and are assisted by graduate students familiar with composition theory. WI courses include multiple graded and non-graded writing assignments, focused freewrites, peer review, and opportunities for substantive revision. Students learn the discourse-specific conventions of a particular field of study.

Guidelines

Background: Writing Intensive Courses (WIC) grew with the development of the Writing Across the Curriculum movement of the early seventies. WIC's goals are to help students become critical thinkers and develop their communication skills through active engagement with the material and with the genres of each discipline through writing in all classes across the university. A WIC is a regularly offered course taught at the 300 or 400 level by trained faculty whose course proposals have been approved by the WIC Advisory Committee.

Definition: A writing intensive course relies on two approaches: writing to learn and writing to communicate. Writing to learn is grounded in process pedagogy--journal writing, expressive writing, and focused freewriting. Writing to communicate is based on the social construction of knowledge--use of peer groups and analysis of the discourse of disciplines.

Expectations: The Coordinator will conduct workshops and follow-up sessions for WIC faculty that address both writing to learn and writing to communicate goals, how to design effective writing assignments, and how to respond and evaluate student writing. Faculty from Rhetoric and Composition and the Writing Center Coordinator will assist with the workshops on occasion and will be available to respond to specific questions or problems. The budget will provide for TA's from the English Department and writing assistants who have taken Eng 413/513, Teaching and Tutoring Writing. Faculty may select their own WIC assistant. Faculty teaching WI courses will be expected to attend workshops when offered, luncheons held once a term, and to participate in evaluation studies.

Contact: Greg Jacob, WIC Coordinator
jacobg@pdx.edu | 503-725-3572