The goal of writing assessment in the Department of Mathematics at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is to assure that students can communicate about mathematics or statistics in a manner appropriate to their future careers. A five-member writing committee, composed of mathematics faculty, assess students at three different times during…

Focusing on the practical applications of content area writing, and programs using writing assignments in all areas of the college curriculum, this serial issue has three sections. The theme article, "Writing across the Curriculum," discusses the writing across the curriculum movement, and examines ways two colleges have incorporated…

Presents results from a survey of colleges and universities on writing across the curriculum (WAC) programs around the country--how they develop, the components that comprise them, and the premises that underlie them. Concludes that the WAC movement is a success. (HTH)

A singular means of blending the history, language arts, and journalism classes is by teaching oral history. By assigning students oral history projects, the teacher helps students place themselves within a living history in the United States. For example, Eliot Wigginton, a public high school English teacher in Rabun Gap, Georgia, whose classes…

Point Loma Nazarene College in San Diego, California, provides special academic support for its provisionally admitted students through its Program Quick Start, a collaborative, cross-disciplinary project involving the fields of literature and biology. The fully accredited college provides higher education in the liberal arts and preparation for…

Point Loma Nazarene College in San Diego, California, provides special academic support for a small group of its provisionally admitted students through its Program Quick Start, a collaborative, cross-disciplinary project involving the fields of literature and biology. Students meet for up to 5 or 6 hours daily for 5 weeks during the summer as…

The dynamics of planning together, team teaching, troubleshooting problems, reflecting on and assessing a program's impact on students, and navigating the paths of institutional proposals and approvals together has become a process of professional growth for 2 professors who developed a summer program for provisionally admitted students. Point…

Described is an interesting attempt by one university to require of students demonstrated competencies in writing as freshmen, quantitative reasoning as sophomores and juniors, and oral communication as juniors or seniors. Quantitative measures of the effectiveness of the program are not provided. (Author/RM)

A compulsory trainee program for new staff members at the Vienna Business University was established in the academic year 1998/99. In the course of this program new staff members are prepared in the following three areas of their work: research work in their department, especially dissertation writing; teaching classes; and administrative skills.…

A cross-disciplinary project at the University of South Alabama has been successful in improving the technical competence of undergraduate writers in all academic fields. For the geography department, this project has involved developing courses which teach writing as part of the thinking process and problem-solving method. While instructors have…

The writing across the curriculum program at Michigan Technological University was designed to change teacher and student attitudes about course-assigned writing as well as to change writing practices by means of a series of faculty workshops. After four years, a team of seven faculty members from rhetoric and composition, literature, psychology,…

One of the constants of professional life for social workers is the need to write. For this reason, the social work instructor needs to emphasize the development of students' writing skills. Such skills cannot be left to composition courses alone, nor can it be assumed that students will emerge from degree programs with sufficient writing ability.…

Intended for composition teachers and researchers, as well as those involved with educational issues apart from the writing community (legislators, administrators, researchers in other fields, parents), this book contains essays that take a critical step beyond the standard arguments of the profession, pushing hard for example, at some of the…

The first goal of a writing-across-the-curriculum program is to convince content area teachers that the movement can aid them in fulfilling their goals. Rather than trying to inspire individual faculty members, the writing-across-the-curriculum program at the Community College of Philadelphia restructures the classroom teaching situation. The…

Takes a retrospective look at a decade's change in the role of English at a midwestern university, and the English department's attempt to create a working community of scholars through a focus on writing improvement. (AEA)