| U N I V E R S I T Y O F P I T T S B U R G H |
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| Volume VIII, Number 3. |
April
2003 |
| U N I V E R S I T Y O F P I T T S B U R G H |
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| Volume VIII, Number 3. |
April
2003 |
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UP-Johnstown promotes communication skills Faculty at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnston have been working to integrate writing and speaking into their courses in a structured way under guidelines approved by a General Education Committee several years ago. Committee members Jonathan Ritz, English, and Susan Wieczorek, Communication, coordinate efforts to help faculty to integrate these skills into their courses. The writing component of the program requires all students to complete two semesters of English Composition during their first year, then one additional Primary Writing or two additional writing-enhanced courses later on in their program. “Our goal is to make writing something students do throughout their undergraduate careers and throughout the University—not something that is entirely ‘frontloaded’ into their first year English Composition courses,” explains Ritz. “So far, we have nine approved primary writing courses and about 65 approved writing-enhanced courses, representing every division on campus. Faculty across the curriculum are integrating writing into their courses in innovative, interesting, and discipline-specific ways,” according to Ritz. To illustrate the ways writing can be integrated with course content, Ritz shares two examples: In a writing-enhanced section of Life Science, Karen Lee assigns a series of case studies in which students research a medical problem, propose a solution in the form of a cogent argument, and then offer supporting evidence. Lee uses “real-world” examples to connect the course’s general content to specific issues. For example, students are asked to provide advice on treatment options to a patient who has just been diagnosed with malignant melanoma. Lee evaluates student writing for content, clarity and correctness, providing students the opportunity to improve all three areas over the course of a semester. Beverly Withiam has recently proposed writing-enhanced status for her civil engineering technology course, Water Supply and Waste Water. Students in this course complete several types of writing projects, including field trip reports in which they go on-site to water treatment facilities to conduct primary research, such as observations and interviews. Each student writes an initial report draft, reviews this draft with peers and with Withiam, and then makes revisions while writing a final draft of the report. The more recent speaking initiative has a stated objective: “To require students to have a variety of speaking experiences throughout their college careers in an effort to give them practical, discipline-appropriate training.” Types of oral communication activities can include various formats of individual presentations and interactive speech experiences, such as small group work and class discussion. Wieczorek notes that each speaking-enhanced course may have particular assignments unique to the discipline, such as oral interpretation of literature, poster sessions, research proposals, and mathematical analyses. “Of utmost importance is that all students have the opportunity to participate equally and that all receive both content and delivery feedback,” she said. The General Education Committee is considering proposals for a number of new speaking-enhanced courses. | ||||||||||||||||
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