The first students to participate in GW's school-wide writing curriculum will graduate this semester, prompting a comprehensive evaluation of the program's performance.
Three hundred papers were evaluated last summer to gauge the progress of the four-year-old UW program, which is nearing full implementation this year. GW launched UW in 2003 with the goal of ensuring that all students have a base level of writing knowledge. The program is divided into two parts, the University Writing class taken freshman year and two Writing in the Discipline classes that are usually taken during a student's sophomore and junior years.
While the UW classes have been fully implemented for two years with all freshmen taking a comprehensive writing class called UW20, administrators are still phasing in the WID requirements.
The class of 2007 was the first class introduced to the program with one-third of students taking the UW20 class. Since this class was the inaugural class for the program, Biel said it will be evaluated extensively.
"We'll be trying to collect papers from seniors this year, both who were a part of the writing program from the onset, and those who are not ... and eventually do an assessment comparing those who were in the program and those who were not," said Cheryl Beil, executive director of Academic Planning and Assessment. Beil is responsible for evaluating the UW program.
The program has reached its capacity in the number of courses being taught with 177 offered this year, 10 more than last year. UW's each have a focus topic that all materials are related to such as musicals, comic books, conspiracy theories, food, feminism or anime. This is the second year that all incoming freshmen are required to take a UW20 class, and WID classes are expected to be fully implemented next year said Melinda Knight, executive director of the University Writing Program.
"It is well known that as people write it helps them compose their thoughts. It requires them to think logically in order to be able to be explanatory," said Donald Lehman, executive vice president for Academic Affairs.
Three hundred papers were evaluated last summer to gauge the progress of the four-year-old UW program, which is nearing full implementation this year. GW launched UW in 2003 with the goal of ensuring that all students have a base level of writing knowledge. The program is divided into two parts, the University Writing class taken freshman year and two Writing in the Discipline classes that are usually taken during a student's sophomore and junior years.
While the UW classes have been fully implemented for two years with all freshmen taking a comprehensive writing class called UW20, administrators are still phasing in the WID requirements.
The class of 2007 was the first class introduced to the program with one-third of students taking the UW20 class. Since this class was the inaugural class for the program, Biel said it will be evaluated extensively.
"We'll be trying to collect papers from seniors this year, both who were a part of the writing program from the onset, and those who are not ... and eventually do an assessment comparing those who were in the program and those who were not," said Cheryl Beil, executive director of Academic Planning and Assessment. Beil is responsible for evaluating the UW program.
The program has reached its capacity in the number of courses being taught with 177 offered this year, 10 more than last year. UW's each have a focus topic that all materials are related to such as musicals, comic books, conspiracy theories, food, feminism or anime. This is the second year that all incoming freshmen are required to take a UW20 class, and WID classes are expected to be fully implemented next year said Melinda Knight, executive director of the University Writing Program.
"It is well known that as people write it helps them compose their thoughts. It requires them to think logically in order to be able to be explanatory," said Donald Lehman, executive vice president for Academic Affairs.
