Franklin College of Arts and Sciences
The Writing Intensive Program at UGA"Writing has never been more important, and this program gives students an advantage in all they do."
-Dean Wyatt Anderson
The Writing Intensive Program has become one of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences most important and most innovative programs. Begun in 1997 with the support of the Dean of the College and the Vice President for Academic Affairs as part of the college's efforts 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 freshman writing experience and continue into the disciplines. The 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.
Writing Intensive courses
Since 1997, the program has offered more than 185 "writing intensive" courses in a range of disciplines in the sciences and the humanities. The 1997-98 program featured 18 courses; the 1998-1999 program grew to 31 courses; the 1999-2000 program and the 2000-01 program each expanded to 35 courses. In academic years 2001-02, 2002-03, and 2003-04, the program has provided 42 courses, ranging from Microbiology, Geology, and Political Science to Music, Classics, and Art.
A committed cadre of writing intensive faculty believe that writing intensive courses give their students more: deeper learning and better writing skills, and WIP students tend to agree with them, their course evaluation surveys providing a useful measure of strong positive support for the program.
Defining features of Writing Intensive courses
In general, WIP courses require students to do more writing and to get more guidance and feedback on their writing than would be possible in a non-writing intensive course. The program believes, however, that it is not simply that requiring more writing improves writing but that thoughtful attention to the writing process improves writing and the metacognitive abilities from which writing, problem solving, and critical thinking are inseparable. In short, the writing intensive program is "intensive" not because it requires an overwhelming amount of writing but because it offers an intense engagement with the writing process. To help provide this, a teaching assistant, funded by the Dean's Office and the Vice-President for Academic Affairs and specifically trained in writing in the disciplines skills, is assigned to each writing intensive course to assist writing intensive faculty in guiding, responding to, and evaluating student writing.
Writing Intensive Program mission:
As part of its mission to enhance the undergraduate learning experience at the University of Georgia, the Franklin College Writing Intensive Program seeks to elevate and to enhance the importance of writing in the disciplines. The program encourages a new recognition of the role and power of writing in the learning process and a deeper recognition of the importance of writing to thinking and communicating in all of the disciplines.
One of the benchmarks of successful writing intensive programs is clear communication of goals and the reasons that underlie them. These cornerstones of writing in the disciplines philosophy and research inform our communication to faculty, students, and administrators and serve as pedagogical goals for the WIP at UGA, which consists of faculty working together to improve students' thinking and writing skills:
1) Writing promotes, deepens, and improves learning, including the "subject matter" of any course and metacognitive abilities of critical thinking and problem solving.These principles inform writing intensive course planning, syllabi, and course materials, writing assignments, feedback strategies, and overall program pedagogy, including training of WIP teaching assistants. We believe that the above goals also state the main benefits of attention to writing in the disciplines. Evaluation surveys indicate that as many as 87% of WIP (Spring 2003) students perceive that writing intensive courses deliver on these claims.2) Writing teaches discipline-specific ways of thinking and communicating, including the writing skills that are important to performance in disciplines, professions, and careers.
3) Teaching writing in the disciplines, from microbiology to music, means teaching the writing process and its processes.
Writing Intensive criteria
WIP courses are selected by the Writing Intensive Committee from proposals submitted by faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences each spring. Program goals are elaborated in a set of criteria for writing intensive courses. Though writing intensive courses vary from discipline to discipline, they meet the following criteria in inventive ways. In general, WIP courses:
1) Engage students in innovative writing assignments that promote course learning.Comments or questions about the program and information available on the WIP web site may be addressed to:2) Stage and sequence assignments (rather than, for example, requiring one long term paper due at the end of a course) to encourage writing as a potent process of creating and communicating knowledge.
3) Make the most of opportunities for guidance, feedback, and revision, providing more opportunities for feedback and interaction than a non-writing intensive version of a course.
4) Teach the writing conventions that are inseparable from modes of inquiry in a discipline.
Dr. Michelle Ballif, Director
mballif@uga.eduWIP Home WIP Faculty Guide Home WIP TA Guide Home Franklin College Department of English