/Institutions/Messiah-College/json/2023-2024/Undergraduate-Catalog-local.json

/Institutions/Messiah-College/json/2023-2024/Undergraduate-Catalog.json

Writing Across the Curriculum

Effective writing is a distinctive of the Messiah University education. The Writing Across the Curriculum Program (WAC) at Messiah University is composed of a university-wide community of teacher-scholars committed to the principle that writing is a fundamental mode of self-discovery, intellectual understanding, and human interaction. Therefore, the program is further committed to the principle that both the teaching of writing and the use of writing to further and disseminate human insight into the world around us is the responsibility of every educator. Courses which have a writing-enriched designation incorporate writing instruction and analytical assignments which require a minimum extent of pages as well as drafts to instill the skill of writing as a process.

The specific objectives of the WAC Program in terms of curriculum are outlined in other documents, but the fundamental mission of the WAC Program includes the following:

• To ensure that all students will graduate with abilities in writing that will enable them to communicate effectively with various audiences and in multiple writing situations.
• To encourage all students to understand and employ writing as a means of learning and self-discovery, and to encourage the use of writing as a means of life-long learning.
• To equip faculty members in their efforts to be more effective teachers of writing, and to promote the use of writing as a fundamental form of pedagogy across all disciplines.
• To nurture a culture of writing on campus that values and celebrates writing and reading in all areas of campus life.

The writing program at Messiah includes four classes: (1) a First Year Seminar, (2) a Writing Workshop course, (3) Created and Called for Community, and (4) a writing-enriched course developed for the major (major-w).

College Writing Workshop. Although not a course required of the majority of our entering students, basic writing is an important element in any writing-across-the-curriculum program. College Writing Workshop is designed to help those students who, after completing First Year Seminar, demonstrate the need for further writing instruction. The hours it represents fall under the “elective” category in the General Education/Major/Elective scheme. This part of the writing program, for those of whom it is required, may be satisfied by completing IDWR 099 College Writing Workshop during the spring semester of the student's first year.

First Year Seminar. The seminar is the standard first-year writing experience in our program, and is consequently required of all students. While the content topics of each seminar vary widely, there is a substantially common approach to writing instruction and related assignments among the seminars. The requirement must be satisfied in the student’s first year by completing one of the many First Year Seminars which are offered primarily during the fall semester. Students who do not complete First Year Seminar with at least a B- must take a writing assessment. Students who do not pass the writing assessment must take a 1 credit Writing Lab in the Spring semester.

Created and Called for Community. As part of Messiah’s year-long sequence this course builds on the intellectual and writing skills developed during First Year Seminar in a common learning context. Students will complete assignments which use reflexive and transactional writing. The Writing Committee continues to give guidance to instructors teaching in Created and Called for Community. Transfer students who do not enter with an equivalent for FYS can waive the FYS requirement if they take CCC and demonstrate writing proficiency by earning an average of B- or better on the writing assignments.

Writing Enriched Course in the Major [Major-W]. The major course with writing emphasis is taken within the students’ chosen disciplines and is intended for students to take subsequent to completion of First Year Seminar and Created and Called for Community; its primary purpose, in relation to writing, is to allow students to begin to acquire familiarity with the expectations of their own professional discourse communities. There is considerable variation in the kinds of courses into which various majors incorporate the writing emphases; each department is responsible for addressing this requirement as part of the academic major.