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ERIC Number: EJ1137851
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1522-7502
EISSN: N/A
Closing the Loop: Strengthening Disciplinary Writing in an English BA Program
Wilcox, Miranda
Composition Forum, v35 Spr 2017
This program profile narrates how the Department of English at Brigham Young University (BYU) reviewed and revised the disciplinary writing requirements in the English BA program between 2006 and 2015. The story begins in 2006 with the dual problems of recognizing the lack of development in student writing in the major and of responding to accreditation pressure to do outcomes-based assessment on all degree-granting programs. Over the last eight years our department has used assessment tools to make two significant adjustments to solve these problems. First, we aligned the English BA curriculum with program learning outcomes by developing a sequence of three writing courses in which majors explicitly learn the discourse conventions of literary criticism. Next, we designed sequences of writing activities in these courses for students to practice increasingly complex integration of disciplinary knowledge. Now we are using collaboratively designed rubrics to evaluate embedded assignments in these writing courses, a process that helps us assess the impact of these changes on students' writing development. This profile demonstrates how an English department reflected about the practice of teaching writing and applied methods from outcomes-based assessment to strengthen students' disciplinary writing skills.
Association of Teachers of Advanced Composition. e-mail: cf@compositionforum.com; Web site: http://compositionforum.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Utah
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A