Writing Intensive (WI)

Writing is a core skill of any education and, like a language, must be practiced frequently to be retained. In writing intensive courses, writing is comprehensively and substantially embedded so that a student enrolled in the course has multiple occasions to build and refine written skills. Writing intensive courses do more than require large quantities of writing; they provide students with processes for improving their writing through all stages of the course. Individual departments and programs offer opportunities for students to increase their writing skills, but additionally, the faculty have developed a set of outcomes to distinguish courses in every discipline that meet writing intensive objectives.

For a course to be considered for WI, provide a current or recent syllabus to the chair of the Writing Program Advisory Committee, demonstrating emphasis on writing intensive content and skills and explaining clearly and concisely how the course meets each required criterion listed below.

In writing intensive courses, student will do all of the following:

Write at least 15 pages double-spaced (at least 4,000 words) in all, typically divided between shorter and longer graded assignments in class sizes typically capped at 15 for fall or winter, or 12 in spring;
Begin writing early in the term and write regularly throughout the term, benefitting from writing techniques and strategies incorporated into class time, and/or extensive written feedback, and/or instructor, group or one-on-one conferences;
Have multiple opportunities to improve their writing in response to extensive and timely instructor feedback, through revision of work in a sequence of drafting, rethinking, and rewriting that leads to a final polished product;
Receive a substantial portion of their course grade from written work.

If approved for the WI designation, syllabi for future offerings should meet the above norms while also listing and meeting the following learning outcomes determined by the Writing Intensive Cohort for discipline-specific writing intensive courses:

Students will identify and demonstrate discipline-specific writing conventions.
Students will develop advanced skills through the process of planning, drafting, revising and editing.
Students will develop research or cumulative projects using critical thinking and problem-solving skills approriate to the field.

Approved Writing Intensive courses:

ACCT 332 - Intermediate Financial Reporting I
ENGL 203 - Topics in Creative Writing: Fiction
ENGL 229 - Protest Poetry
ENGL 240 - Arthurian Legend
ENGL 335 - 18th-Century Novels
ENGL 413 - Senior Research and Writing