Writing in the Disciplines: What We Know about Teaching and Learning

Professor Stephen A. BernhardtKirkpatrick Chair in WritingDepartment of English, UD

Guiding Questions What is at issue in writing instruction? What do we know about how students

respond to writing instruction? How have universities addressed issues

of undergraduate writing? What should we do if we hope to

improve the writing of our graduates?

What should writing be? Frequent and guided Varied in purpose, audience, and

situation Short and long, planned and

spontaneous, formal and informal, personal and objective, graded and ungraded, exploratory and determinate

To learn as well as to do; to perform as well as to demonstrate learning

Writing and Learning Writing is a way of learning.

Writing is thinking made visible.

(We don’t know what we think until we see what we say.)

A Lesson from WAC(Writing across the Curriculum)

We want students to become good writers, but we also want students to be good learners.

Faculty don’t necessarily need to be writing teachers—they can use writing to promote learning.

Is writing the best way to learn?

Not for broad recall of content--note taking and study questions do better.

Writing encourages selection, analysis, and transformation.

Writing tends to encourage students to pick out a subset of relevant connected bits and ignore the rest.

Geisler, Cheryl. Academic Literacy and the Nature of Expertise

WAC or WID?

Writing across the curriculum stresses writing to learn, emphasizing learning logs, reflection and synthesis, and frequent, informal writing.

Writing in the disciplines works to help students become professional—to become members of a discipline.

Both make a lot of sense…

Why writing in the disciplines?

Writing constructs professional identity--writing is a way of being (and becoming) a civil engineer or an accountant.

Writing well means working within expectations and constraints of highly socialized genres.

Outsiders to a discipline are unable to say what is at issue—what the questions and concerns are that motivate the discipline.

What are we after? Literate, critical, thoughtful readers and writers

Resourceful students, comfortable in various communication situations

People who can plan, manage, solve problems, and deliver results

Team players, collaborators, helpers

People who make good use of communication technologies

Even more . . . we want

To see students engage with disciplinary knowledge

To set students upon trajectories toward their chosen professions.

To help students gain identity as members of a discipline or profession.

We succeed remarkably well with some students.

Why don’t we succeed well with many more students?

With all students?

Prevailing myths

Crisis mentality: we are in a downward spiral of illiteracy

Transience: writing is a problem to be fixed by a remedial course or tutoring

Transparency: writing merely records what is already thought—writing is transparent transcription

Transference: Writing is a generalizable skill that ports easily to new settings.

Universities marginalize writing Staffing: teaching relies on large staffs

of part timers, adjuncts, TAs. Structure: writing programs have

trouble finding a home. Economics: large lecture classes

preclude working closely with students as they write.

Change: even well-conceived initiatives crumble over time.

Universities resist writing in the disciplines Academic specialization is the strong

force. Reward systems run counter to

demands of working with writing. Faculty may not know how writing is

practiced outside the academy. Faculty unprepared to teach writing. Faculty tend to reproduce themselves.

There’s something about research universities . . . Average faculty salary negatively

correlates with student satisfaction and learning

At schools with strong research orientations, students display decreased satisfaction with faculty and the overall quality of instruction, decreased leadership skills, and decreased self-reported growth in public speaking skills and other measures of student development.

Astin, UCLA Higher Education Research Institute

Deep difficulties

Difficult to get students to engage with writing tasks and “service” courses.

Difficult to structure tasks in writing classrooms that have situational complexity.

Difficult to transfer—what is taught in writing courses does not seem to transfer to other classes or work situations.

Subversive or obtuse?

Sociology students did not enter the frame of original fieldwork: observation, gathering data—”just another paper”

Business students tended not to apply the specific evaluative criteria presented and discussed in class.

Walvoord & McCarthy, Thinking and Writing in College

Nelson, “This Was an Easy Assignment: Examining How Students Interpret Academic Writing Tasks”

Professionals-in-TrainingStudents consistently had difficulty, across

all disciplines: gathering sufficient specific information constructing the audience and the self stating a position using appropriate discipline-based

methods managing complexity and organizing

the paper

Walvoord & McCarthy: Thinking and Writing in College

Writing ≠ Writing

“Even within one discipline, chemical engineering, different courses may represent distinct forums where different issues are addressed, different lines of reasoning used, different writer and audience roles assumed, and different social purposes served by writing.”

Herrington, Anne J. Writing in Academic Settings: A Study of the

Contexts for Writing in Two College Chemical Engineering Courses.

It is hard to perform in a classroom Writing is evidence of work—a measure

of performance—an end product.

Writing is a socializing activity—a way of a form of discipline and control.

In classrooms, the evaluative function is always present.

Such forces work against clear, open, “normal” communication.

Communication in context

Difficult to provide real contexts for communication in classrooms

Even case studies go only so far Need real audiences and purposes—

real situations that call for writing

What do students say? Writing is the one skill students most want to

improve—mentioned >3X as often as any other skill.

Students are most engaged with courses that assign writing.

Writing increases the time students spend on the course, the extent to which they feel intellectually challenged, and their level of interest.

Writing instruction is best during junior and senior years—organized around a substantive discipline.

Light, Richard J. Making the Most of College

NSSE: Student Engagement

Sp01; 880 UD students (44% response) 300 institutions Top: Beloit, Elon, Sweet Briar, and

Centre colleges UD quite comparable to peers UD students enthusiastic about their

experiences; respond favorably to academic emphasis at UD

Academic Challenge at UD

UD NSSE Findings(2) Seniors tend to read, write, present, and

participate more in class than freshmen. Students relax and socialize a bit more

than they prepare for class (11-15 hours/wk).

UD NSSE Findings(3)

Each year, UD students write a few papers of 5-20 pages and several short papers (very few >20 pages).

Students say they often work on papers and projects that call for integration, application, and evaluation of information.

UD students use email to communicate with profs with high frequency.

Harvard Class of 2001 13 papers first year; 17 sophomore; plus

numerous response papers Writing gave first year its depth—writing

helped transition from high school Freshmen: lots to say, no form, no

discipline 87% of freshmen: "detailed feedback" is

the most important element of writing instruction.

Sommers, The Harvard Writing Project

Harvard Class of 2001 More writing in humanities and social

sciences after sophomore year Evident growth in argumentative skills Juniors began identifying themselves

more as scholars, as originators of ideas.

Need sustained approach in disciplines—need disciplinary tool belt

Sommers, The Harvard Writing Project

Reading as a professional From seeing texts as sources of information to

be learned or memorized toward reading within rhetorical frames, where authors have purposes or motives, are taking action, and acting within a sphere of activity.

Students come to recognize intertextuality and the social dimensions of text.

Subject’s work in a lab situation alongside graduate students contributed to her awareness and ability to interpret journal articles.

Haas, Christina. Learning to Read Biology

Writing within “Communities of Practice”

Formation of a disciplinary or professional identity

A tool kit: shared practices, ways of working, artifice, constructs, methods

Collaborative projects, research and problem solving

Establishing Communities of Practice

Intellectual apprenticeships Legitimate peripheral participation School to work trajectories

Lave and Wenger, Situated Learning

Taking advantage of our university

Commitment to undergraduate education Problem-based learning Life, Pathways, Capstone courses Mentored and collaborative research Internships, community service, and field work Rich communication technologies The University as a work environment

Good practices in place

Well conceived First Year Comp: E110 Established Writing Center Innovative Writing Fellows Strong student demand for advanced

courses Writing intensive courses in place Supportive faculty and administration

Where is UD now?

Over-reliant on marginalized labor

Dependent on “fix by requirement”

Behind the growth curve of writing programs in rhetoric and professional communication

Under-resourced in the disciplines: few faculty with research interests in communication

Without resources committed to Writing in the Disciplines or Writing across the Curriculum

As a campus, we should . . .

Clearly identify the target outcomes we desire

Provide instructional support to faculty Set disciplinary standards and develop

tailored, discipline-centered approaches Professionalize the teaching of writing Assess programs and learning outcomes Create formal institutional support