Transcript WRITING AT DUKE A New Approach

Designing—and Sustaining—
an Independent Writing Program
Joseph Harris, Director
Center for Teaching, Learning, and Writing
Duke University
[email protected]
The Problem
 Faculty at Duke were convinced of need for
writing to become a stronger part of the
undergraduate curriculum, but . . .
 Most were not interested in teaching writing
themselves, and . . .
 Many were concerned about loss of support for
graduate TAs working in Writing Program
Lessons
 A curriculum structures both student learning
and faculty labor
 Curricular reform must respond both to the
needs of students and interests of faculty
 “Who will teach this?” is as important a
question to ask as “What needs to be taught?”
Response: Curriculum
 Writing 20: Academic Writing
Undergrads select a first-year writing course with
disciplinary theme related to their interests.
 Writing in the Disciplines (WID)
Undergrads take two advanced courses focusing on
uses of writing as a practice of inquiry in disciplines.
 The Writing Studio
Undergrads offered one-on-one help with writing for
both first-year and WID courses.
Response: Labor
 Writing 20: Academic Writing
Taught by postdoctoral Mellon Writing Fellows, recruited from
across the disciplines through a national search. Funded by
tuition and foundation support.
 Writing in the Disciplines
Taught by faculty assisted by graduate TAs.Funding for TA lines
linked to number of faculty teaching WID courses.
 The Writing Studio
Free one-on-one tutoring in writing for students in any undergrad
course at Duke. Staffed by graduate TAs.
Writing 20: Academic Writing
 First-year course required of all students, with no
prerequisites and no exemptions.
 Introduces students to practices of close reading and
critical writing.
 Limited to 12 students per section.
 Sections listed by title, description and instructor on
university web site, and thus selected by undergrads
according to interests.
Writing 20: Course Goals
 Read closely and critically
 Respond to and make use of the work of
others
 Draft, revise, and edit texts
 Make texts public
Writing 20: Natural Sciences
Communicating Science to the Public
The popularity of science magazines such as Science News, Scientific American, and
Discovery has increased dramatically in recent years. Similarly, there has been a
prolific increase in the quantity and popularity of book-length translations of science by
such authors as Jane Goodall, Isaac Asimov, Stephen Jay Gould, and Carl Sagan.
This increase in demand for scientific information begs the question: How is science
communicated to the public? Specifically, how do writers present abstract or complex
scientific subjects to a general audience? . . . . In this class, we will examine what
happens to scientific information when it is prepared for and presented to a general
audience. Can writers avoid the pitfalls of oversimplification and obfuscation? What
changes occur in the language used and the assumptions made? . . . . Not only will
students examine how published authors communicate science to the public, but they
will also use their own writing to engage and inform audiences about an aspect of
science that interests them. All students will publish at least one essay produced on
the course web page located at http://www.science-writing.org.
Writing 20: Natural Sciences
From Walking With Dinosaurs to The X-Files: Science in the Popular Media
What do you know about dinosaurs? Asteroids? Viruses? Volcanoes? While scientists
hope that people get this knowledge from textbooks, many of our perceptions of the
natural world come from entertainment media sources . . . . To understand the role
that science communication outside of scientific journals and textbooks plays in the
formation of knowledge students in this course will read, view, and write about various
entertainment texts. . . . . During the semester, students will explore the theme of
science and entertainment media across different media formats, historical periods,
and cultural contexts. Students will closely analyze entertainment texts in order to
develop clearly reasoned argumentative essays about how the texts communicate
science. Students will also work on a small “movie treatment” to explore the ways in
which filmmakers and scientists must contend with the limitations and possibilities of
communicating science through entertainment media.
Writing 20: Social Sciences
The Spoken and the Written Word: What Is a "Language"?
The Oakland School Board's decision in December of 1996 to label African American
Vernacular English (AAVE) as a separate language instead of a dialect of English
disturbed many politicians and public figures. The Reverend Jesse Jackson called
the move "an unacceptable surrender, borderlining on disgrace." The Clinton
administration labeled AAVE a "non-standard form of English" rather than a "foreign
language," as it might otherwise have been termed. These political positions tacitly
rest on certain views about the nature of language. We will attempt to determine
what those views are, and investigate them using the tools provided by theoretical
linguistics. . . . How do we determine (politically, linguistically, ethically) which
language is standard, and which is not? How are the structures of written and spoken
language related? How are they importantly divergent? . . . Our first project will be an
analysis of the different ways in which AAVE was defined during the Oakland School
Board's debates. In the second project, we will use the techniques of sociolinguistics
to analyze the distribution of information in the transcripts from the Oakland School
Board hearing to determine how politicians and researchers make arguments.
Finally, you will be asked to do a research project on the current state of English and
the growing concern that it is declining as a language.
Writing 20: Social Sciences
Claiming Citizenship: Belonging and Exclusion in America
How does one claim citizenship? How have group classifications such as race,
gender, class, sexuality, political beliefs, language, and religion affected a response
to this question for varying groups at key moments in US history? . . . The methods
of the course are collaborative and historical. As a group, you will first be asked to
engage in the project of researching and identifying the key terms scholars, lawyers,
state agents, activists, and others use to understand and define the category of
citizenship. You will then be asked to use these terms and definitions in your own
reading of several different kinds of citizenship documents, including history
textbooks and monographs. In a second project, you will be asked to write an essay
in which you develop your own definition of who belongs as a modern American
citizen. For the final project, we will turn to the question of how those excluded from
full citizenship have used writing to make demands for inclusion, or to forge
alternative kinds of citizenship and membership. Students will work together to find
and analyze sources, and to create a public venue for their findings.
Writing 20: Social Sciences
America Without High School
High School is an almost universal experience for Americans alive today; it is one of
the predominant social institutions of the 2oth century . . . However, the current
conception of high school is increasingly under criticism on several counts: that it is
inherently biased and reinforces inequalities of race and class; that its scale allows
too many students to remain anonymous and uncared for, that its uniformity prohibits
students from learning their true interests . . .
In this course you will read the work of many critics (and some supporters) of the
modern American high school, in order to move from complaints to grounded
concerns. You will create documents for use by other students in the course as you
work to develop an co-author focused policy proposals that promote alternative
methods of educating America’s teenagers. The proposals will be sent to Kenneth
Jones, Program officer for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s “High Schools for
the New Millennium” initiative.
Writing 20: Humanities
Special Collections
What do we treasure, and why? What do we hang on museum walls? Stash in
Rubbermaid tubs in basements? What has been tucked in lockets or buried with
pharaohs? As we explore an array of individual objects—from a Gutenberg Bible and
a 1999 Delaware state quarter to Baltimore album quilts and a "guaranteed authentic"
Velvet the Panther Beanie Baby with a tag protector—we will develop a complex and
nuanced definition of value. During the second half of the course, we will turn to the
practice of collecting itself. How are special collections defined, preserved, organized,
and displayed? Here we will pursue our inquiry through primary research, as each
student locates and writes about a specific collector and collection.
Writing 20: Humanities
Writing About the Web
Though the invention of the telegraph, telephone, radio, television, and computer set
the stage for its arrival, the Internet has revolutionized the world of communications
as nothing before it. . . . . This course will take as its focus Web Studies, a still
emerging field of scholarship, in order to examine and write analytical and
argumentative essays about these implications. Writing assignments will be drawn
from three broad areas: web life, arts and culture; web business; and global
communities, politics and protest. The course also includes a hands-on component:
students write, edit and publish the next issue of the online journal, Living in the
Digital World: A Journal of Technology, Media Culture, located at
http://www.duke.edu/~mepetit/DigitalWorld2002.
Writing 20: Humanities
The Rhetoric of Justice: Academic Writing and Political Dissent
Academics and intellectuals outside the university have often felt compelled to
venture beyond the relatively self-contained environment of the world of letters into
the broader and more concrete world of human affairs and the claims of justice. . . .
In this course, we will examine various examples of writing that is both "academic"
and "activist" in nature, including Plato's Apology, Engels' and Marx's Communist
Manifesto, selections from The Collected Papers of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth
Cady Stanton, Steve Biko's Black Consciousness in South Africa, and Aung San Suu
Kyi's "Freedom from Fear.” We will focus on the ways in which these authors put the
values and conventions of scholarly discourse to work in service of their social and
political agendas. Over the course of the semester, we will undertake various,
interrelated reading and writing exercises culminating in the production of an
academic text that offers a developed and sophisticated critique of one or another
definite political structure or social practice.
Writing in the Disciplines
 After passing Writing 20, students take two WID
courses in which they learn to write as apprentice
members of the various disciplines.
 Over 200 new or redesigned courses emphasizing
writing in the sciences, social sciences, and
humanities.
 Most WID courses are seminars taught by full-time
faculty assisted by graduate TAs.
 Students keep an electronic portfolio documenting
their development as writers at Duke.
WID Course Guidelines
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Write frequently throughout the semester
Reflect on and improve their work as writers
Discuss the work they are doing as writers in class
Consider the roles and uses of writing in the discipline
they are studying
Writing 20 and WID
 Writing 20 draws on materials of disciplines to
teach practices of close reading and critical
writing
 WID courses make use of writing as a means
of inquiry to investigate issues in disciplines
The Writing Studio
 A space for undergraduates to talk one-on-one with
trained tutors about the writing they are doing for their
courses at Duke
 Students can consult online writing resources
 Tutors trained to respond to needs of under-prepared
and ESL writers
 Central and satellite locations on both Duke campuses
Obstacles to Reform
Faculty concerns:
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Previous versions of first-year writing course at Duke
had been failures
Support for TAs would be discontinued
Teaching writing was too labor-intensive
Responses
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Recruit and train a professional cadre of postdoctoral
fellows to teach first-year writing
Shift funding lines for graduate TAs in first-year writing
to lines in support of WID courses
Offer faculty teaching WID courses the assistance of
TAs and tutors in the Writing Studio
Sustaining Change
 Recruit writing fellows in an open,rigorous,
and wide-ranging search
 Offer writing fellows ownership over courses
and program
 Offer ongoing support to fellows new to
teaching writing
 Insist on meaningful assessment of work of
individual teachers and writing program
Recruiting Mellon Writing Fellows
 Open search; no inside or guaranteed lines
 Three- to five-year contracts, with competitive
salary and benefits
 Excellent teaching conditions (60 students per
year)
 Strong support for development of fellows as
scholars and teachers
 Multidisciplinary faculty for university-wide
course
Writing Fellows as Colleagues
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Fellows design own versions of Writing 20 in
accordance with program goals
Fellows are renewed on basis of Teaching Portfolio
that they construct to represent intellectual work as
teachers
Fellows participate as full voting members at faculty
meetings and on program committees
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By-laws
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Curriculum
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Policies and Procedures
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Search (5/7 members are Fellows)
The Writing Program as
Multidisciplinary Site
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Fellows have held PhDs in: African American Studies,
Anthropology, Architecture, Biology, Communications,
Cultural Studies, Economics, Education, Engineering,
Epidemiology, Forestry, Genetics, History, Human
Environments, Linguistics, Literature, Philosophy,
Political Science, Psychology, Queer Studies,
Religion, Rhetoric, Science Communications,
Sociology, Theology, and Women’s Studies.
Common focus on academic writing as practice
centering on close and responsive work with texts.
Supporting New Teachers
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Summer Seminar in Teaching Writing
Three-week August seminar for all first-year fellows; focus on
writing course materials and responding towards revision
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Mellon Symposia
Series of events organized and led by Mellon Fellows addressing
issues in teaching and scholarship
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Mentors and Class Visits
First-year fellows are paired with more experienced fellows and
required both to observe classes of senior faculty or fellows and
to have own classes observed by senior colleagues
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Hallway conversations
Teaching Portfolios
 Fellows are offered initial three-year contract, renewable
for additional two years on basis of Second-Year Review
of Teaching Portfolios
 Portfolios must include:
 Narrative overview of work and growth as teacher
 Course materials (syllabi, assignments, handouts,
etc.)
 Student writings with teacher comments
 Peer observations of teaching
 Student evaluations of teaching
Program Assessment
 Ongoing review of student course evaluations. Writing
20 consistently ranked as superior in:
 Overall quality of instruction
 Hours of work outside of class per week
 Intellectual stimulation
 Text-based, program-wide, comparison of early-and-late
student essays showed overall gains in their abilities to
criticize as well as restate work of other writers
 Review of writing portfolios of minority students and
athletes in process