Memo

To: All Faculty

From: General Education Oversight Committee

Date: April 14, 2005

Additional W Course Guidelines

            The revised writing requirement under the new General Education system, which goes into effect in May of 2005, is designed to provide enriched writing experiences for students beyond the Freshman year.  Students are required to pass one of the four-credit Freshman English writing seminars before taking two W designated courses, one of which must be at the 200 level and approved as part of the requirement in the major.  

             The key distinction between a W and non-W course is pedagogical, not whether writing is assigned or not.  Writing, of course, may be, and in fact, should be assigned in many courses, with or without the W designation.  What distinguishes a W course from any other course is that students must be provided explicit writing instruction and consistent faculty feedback to foster revision, and W courses require a minimum of fifteen, revised and edited pages of writing.  It is likely that some courses may require fifteen or more pages of writing in a semester without offering instruction and structured opportunities for revision, but a course that did so would not qualify as a W course.

           Because W courses require explicit instruction and consistent feedback for revision, it is not possible to register some students for W credit and others not for W credit in the same course.*  If the teaching practices in the course conform to the requirements for a W course, then the enrollment limits must conform to the university mandate (nineteen students per section) to enable effective writing instruction.   Note also that the requirement of two W courses specifies a minimum.  Students may take more than two W courses as they choose.

            The new W requirement does not specify any credit restriction.  Consequently, a W course may be one, two, three, or four credits depending on any number of circumstances.  Whatever the number of credits for any particular course (or equivalent), the page, revision, and instruction requirements must be met.  Some departments may consider, for example, creating one-credit writing workshop courses (with an enrollment limit of 19 per section and its own course number) that could be coordinated with another course in a way that would integrate the writing into the content of that course in a manner that would deepen and enrich learning. 

            All courses that had been previously certified as W courses must be re-certified under the new requirement.  So only certified and re-certified courses should go on the fall 2005 schedule.  A list of all certified courses to date can be found on the GEOC web-site (http://www.GEOC.uconn.edu).  In some cases departments have made arrangements with the Registrar to offer for W credit non-recertified W courses from the previous catalog for students graduating under that catalog.  To avoid confusion, these courses will not be marked as Ws in the schedule of classes, though upon completion, will be coded to meet the W requirement for specific majors graduating under the old catalog. 

            The W Center at Storrs will provide a summer orientation workshop and a series of focused workshops on specific issues related to writing instruction during the academic year.  The orientation and workshops will provide a common vocabulary and practical suggestions and support for all faculty who choose to teach W courses.  The orientation and workshops may be particularly helpful for new faculty and adjuncts hired to teach W courses for the first time.  With the cooperation of the Composition Coordinators on each regional campus, the Storrs “W” Center will also organize workshops on the new W requirement (and writing pedagogy more generally) for adjuncts on the regional campuses. 

            While graduate students will be required to participate in an extensive W course orientation over the summer and subsequent W workshops during the academic year,  faculty at all campuses, including adjunct faculty, who already teach W courses are not required to have any special review or re-certification to teach under the new W requirement, though they are encouraged to use the services offered by the W Center. However, they should base their courses on the descriptions departments have provided  and that have been approved by GEOC and the University Senate.  Approved W course descriptions with department contact information and departmental W plans will be available on the GEOC web site.

            As a first step to establish specific procedures for oversight and supplemental support for W course instruction, departments are required to collect syllabi for all W courses taught in the department each semester and send copies of those syllabi to the W center.  The syllabi then can be filed and used to facilitate tutoring.  For example, when a student comes into the W Center for help with a paper without bringing the assignment or the syllabus, the most recent copy of the syllabus will be on file for use.  Syllabi for courses taught at the regional campuses will be forwarded to the respective W centers.   

            If you have any questions about the writing requirements at the University please contact Tom Recchio, chair of the GEOC Writing subcommittee <thomas.recchio@uconn.edu> or Hedley Freake, Chair of GEOC <hedley.freake@uconn.edu>.

*GEOC understands that enrollment pressures on the regional campuses have led to the practice of “co-mingling” W with non-W students in a single section.  Under the new General Education system, that will no longer be possible.  However, we have a suggestion for how that practice of co-mingling can be reconstituted in a way that does not violate the pedagogical imperatives of the W requirement.  See paragraph 4 above.

Approved by the General Education Oversight Committee 3/21/05