WSU News Archive

By Beverly Makhani, University College

 

 

PULLMAN, Wash. - The Writing Program at Washington State University has been named once again as one of the top in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report’s (USNWR) "America’s Best Colleges 2013” rankings published Wednesday. And it remains the only university in the Northwest as well as the only from the PAC-12 to make the list.

 

WSU appeared in the "Academic Programs to Look For” listing in the category of "Writing in the Disciplines.”  Joining it are 20 other universities with outstanding writing programs, including Brown, Clemson, Cornell, Duke, Princeton, Purdue and Yale.  The majority of colleges are private and located in the eastern U.S. The nearest to WSU in the west are the University of California-Davis and Colorado State University in Fort Collins.

 

According to the USNWR website, "these (Writing in the Disciplines) colleges typically make the writing process a priority at all levels of instruction and across the curriculum. Students are encouraged to produce and refine various forms of writing for different audiences in different disciplines.”

 

"The rankings reflect the collective efforts of WSU to develop the writing abilities of undergraduates through an emphasis on writing that takes place throughout the entire undergraduate curriculum,” said Diane Kelly-Riley, Writing Program co-director and director of the Writing Assessment Office. "This includes first-year writing in the English department; writing-rich General Education and University Common Requirements curricula that happens across the disciplines; and the two required upper-division Writing in the Major courses students take in their major field of study.

 

"There are many faculty members across all levels of the undergraduate curriculum who teach writing within their disciplines,” she said. "This also takes place at all of the WSU branch campuses, too.”

 

In addition to their many writing-related tasks within WSU, Kelly-Riley and Lisa Johnson, co-director and director of the Writing Center, plus other staff members, participate in a number of professional organizations, publish in scholarly journals and make presentations about WSU’s writing requirements and successes at national conferences.

 

"Because WSU’s Writing Program has existed for more than a quarter century, we have solid data about decades of student writers and about the courses and programs that exist to augment their skills,” Johnson said. "It is always gratifying to share WSU information with other universities and to be respected as a model that they aspire to be like.”

 

The Writing Program, which is in the University College at WSU, consists of three parts:
• the Writing Assessment Office, which oversees the junior Writing Portfolio requirement for WSU and administers placement tests for new students
• the Writing Center, which offers in-person peer tutoring services to hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students annually and participates in the Western eTutoring consortium to offer Web-based writing tutoring
• the Writing Across the Curriculum program, which assists faculty to design effective writing assignments for their classes and criteria for evaluation

 

The 2013 edition of "America’s Best Colleges”  reports that "this is the 10th consecutive year that U.S. News is publishing a list of schools with academic programs that are believed to lead to student success;” WSU’s Writing Program has appeared in nine of those 10 consecutive years. 

 

In addition to writing in the disciplines, the seven other categories are: first-year experiences, internships/co-ops, senior capstone, undergraduate research/creative projects, learning communities, study abroad and service learning.  Those appearing on the list in each category were nominated by college presidents, chief academic officers, deans of students and deans of admissions from more than 1,500 schools.

 

For more information, visit the website at WritingProgram.wsu.edu.      

 

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