DRAFT of "Writing at The College of New Jersey"

(as imagined by Felicia Steele--with most good ideas lifted from colleagues shamelessly)

The College says that it "provides a seamless, engaging educational environment characterized by academic freedom, creative expressions, critical thinking, intellectual inquiry, and service learning." If that's true, the English department should not hold a monopoly on offering writing instruction or on providing students with opportunities to write. We may offer ourselves as resources to our colleagues in other departments, and we should be expected to do so. But, if The College aims to fulfill this goal, writing instruction and settings for writing should exist throughout the curriculum.

Therefore, I imagine the following curricular commitment to writing:

• Students will be obliged to attend and excel in at least four writing intensive courses in the progress of their academic careers at TCNJ.
• These courses will be taught throughout the curriculum, in every department, and will be designated "w" courses: ENGL 101w, BIOL 303w, and so on.
• These courses will have a maximum fifteen students enrolled, recognizing that faculty responses to writing will only be effective in small courses.
• One of these courses should be taken in the first year.
• Two should be take in the first two years.
• One should be taken in the second half of the student's career, in the student's major area. 
• The first year course need not be a "Rhetoric" course as currently taught in the RHET 101 and 102 sequence.
• The first year course could be a "First Year Seminar" that includes writing instruction (and, thereby, receives the "w" designation after the syllabus is reviewed by a "Writing" committee, made up of interested faculty), an "Argumentation" course, a "Professional Writing" course, "College Writing", or a "writing in the discipline" course.
• "Argumentation," "Professional Writing," or "College Writing" courses (taught through the English department) will be taught by well-paid instructors who will play a permanent or, at least, long-term role in the English department, even if they are not tenure-track faculty.
• Any faculty member teaching a first year instruction course should be committed to the WPA Outcomes statement and should make WPA goals appropriate to the course part of the course design.
• The Write Place would be expanded to include drop-in services for students in any department, working on any piece of writing, irrespective of their discipline.
• The English department would actively encourage ENGLT majors to work in the Write Place and move the "Teaching Writing" course to the Junior year of the curriculum to support their employment.
• The Write Place would receive funding from a $15 student fee (per semester), designated as a "writing instruction supplies and facilities fee."

So, that's my perfect world. And, as you can see, it won't happen without the Write Place and faculty across the college being on board.