UW-Madison's Writing Center director led a faculty workshop Thursday on improving the quality and breadth of writing education across the university system.
Brad Hughes, who is also the director of the College of Letters & Science program Writing Across the Curriculum, said writing remains an essential component of instruction, emphasizing it should be a unifying force across disciplines throughout students' time in school.
Writing is absolutely crucial to undergraduate education, and it cannot be confined to one course or two courses in the first year,"" he said. ""Nobody learns everything there is to learn about writing once and for all."" '""'""
Faculty members - ranging in specialty from biological sciences to the visual arts - shared experiences with writing initiatives from their respective campuses, outlining obstacles and asking their colleagues for suggestions. '""'""
Marc Seals, assistant professor of English at UW-Baraboo, said he has seen inconsistent evaluation of student writing ability between different UW System campuses. Don Guay, assistant professor of paper science and engineering at UW-Stevens Point, said large class sizes can deter professors from assigning writing-intensive projects.
Faculty members raised concerns about the effects of limited funding and indifferent administrators on writing programs.
Hughes said a supportive administration is key to having enthusiastic professors and positive results.
""We need faculty and administrators who get it,"" he said. ""We need people who understand we're not talking about whether semi-colons are right or whether a word is spelled correctly, but whether students understand the subject matter that they're writing about.""'""
Hughes read segments of ""Only Connect,"" an essay defining liberal education by UW-Madison history professor William Cronon, highlighting Cronon's argument that truly educated students can write clearly, persuasively and movingly. Hughes also distributed the syllabus for women's studies professor Caitilyn Allen's Biology and Gender class, calling attention to various assignments as proof writing can be successfully incorporated in courses for every major.
""I think it's really important to remember that there's some powerful research that shows there's a strong connection between writing activities and student engagement,"" he said. ""There's work to be done across our institutions in student engagement.""'""
Hughes' program was part of a two-day conference focused on preparing students for challenges of the 21st century workforce. Faculty from 15 UW campuses discussed the system's participation in the national Liberal Education and America's Promise Campaign, as well as effective strategies for implementing progressive curricula.
