The Office of the Provost would like to call attention to the university-wide Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) initiative. The program completed its pilot year in 2011-2012 and continues with strong support from the Provost's office. Through the WAC program, assistance is available to all departments and faculty interested in improving student writing and incorporating more writing into their courses.

The WAC program currently provides the following services and opportunities:



• One-on-one consultation with trained WAC consultants who can help faculty design or improve writing assignments, rubrics, or writing-to-learn activities;
• Department consultation with WAC consultants or program administrators for advice on improving student writing outcomes within a major or series of courses;
• Workshops and discussion groups on topics related to improving student writing and on using writing to improve student learning;
• Online resources related to student writing (more information will be forthcoming);
• WAC curriculum redesign grants. The call for proposals is attached.

FIU's current WAC initiative originated in response to the recent NSSE survey of graduating seniors at FIU, which indicated that FIU students were not writing often in their upper-division courses. The writing assignments students reported did not often involve revision or multiple drafts, practices known to improve student writing skills and success. To respond to these findings, the vice provost and English department chairperson began in the summer of 2011 cochairing an interdisciplinary Task Force on Writing at FIU.

 

During the 2011-12 academic year, task force members and pilot faculty members worked with nationally-recognized WAC consultant, Dr. Mike Palmquist, Associate Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning and professor of English at Colorado State University. Dr. Palmquist led two full-day workshops that were very well attended by pilot faculty.

 

The Office of the Provost would like to publicly thank the below task force and pilot faculty members for getting our WAC program off to a strong start. Moving forward, the Provost has asked that Dr. Kimberly Harrison, Assoc. Professor of English and Director of the Writing& Rhetoric Program serve as WAC Director. Professor Michael Creeden, Senior Lecturer will serve as WAC Associate Director. Please contact them with any questions about this exciting initiative. And, please watch for new announcements of WAC resources and opportunities in the near future.

 

 

Writing Across the Curriculum Task Force Members

• Consuella Askew
• Thomas Breslin
• Gisela Casines
• Adam Drisin
• Paula Gillespie
• Kimberly Harrison
• Michelle James
• Adriana McEachern
• Norman Munroe
• Cliff Perry
• Nicol Rae
• Allan Richards
• Leslie Richardson
• Douglas L. Robertson
• Jessica C. Rodriguez
• John Stuart
• James M. Sutton
• Randall Upchurch
• Herman Watson