North Carolina State University
Chris M. Anson, Director
chris_anson@ncsu.edu
Deanna P. Dannels, Assistant Director
deanna_dannels@ncsu.edu
The Campus Writing
and Speaking Program at North Carolina State University was established
to provide support for faculty development, college- and departmental-specific
curricular enhancements in writing and speaking, and student tutorial
services. An independent unit housed in the College of Humanities and
Social Sciences, the Program is funded by the Office of the Provost and
provides support to nine undergraduate colleges on campus, affecting approximately
25,000 undergraduate students.
Among the three main focuses of its mission (department-specific consultation,
student support, and campus-wide faculty development), the Program’s
semester-long Faculty Seminar is part of a broad effort to enhance the
way that faculty use writing and speaking in their courses. Other activities
in this third category include monthly brown-bag meetings focusing on
special topics relating to writing and speaking; campus-wide workshops,
some of which are led by external consultants; a grants program; individual
help from trained graduate students, called “graduate consultants”;
and special events.
The Faculty Seminar enrolls a maximum of fifteen faculty participants
each semester (fall and spring). To be eligible for the seminar, faculty
must focus on a routinely taught undergraduate course. Applications ask
that faculty provide some background on the course and explain what they
hope to accomplish with it in the area of writing and speaking. If more
than fifteen applications are received, they are ranked on the basis of
impact (number of students affected, frequency with which the course is
offered, centrality to the curriculum) and the merits of the proposed
enhancements. Permanent faculty are given priority over others, such as
visiting faculty, but no one is denied the chance to apply on the basis
of teaching status.
The seminar meets every other week for the duration of the semester. Meeting
days and times are changed each semester to accommodate different teaching
schedules. The two-hour meetings are highly interactive, each focusing
on a scheduled topic. Sessions usually include brief PowerPoint presentations
explaining underlying principles, approaches, or theories. Faculty then
work, usually collaboratively, to apply these principles to their own
curricula and to the course(s) they are focusing on in the Seminar. The
sessions include small-group discussion, writing episodes, brief oral
presentations, and other activities designed to model similar uses of
writing and speaking in undergraduate classrooms. Snacks are provided.
At the end of each session, small groups of faculty meet with a graduate
consultant who has been assigned to work with them. Between seminar meetings,
the graduate consultants work individually with their assigned faculty,
supporting the development of materials, finding good examples from similar
courses or curricula at other institutions, and generally helping the
faculty to make progress in their course revisions.
Topics for the Seminar meetings include the following:
- Establishing course learning goals or outcomes that writing and speaking
can help to realize
- Using informal writing and speaking to enhance learning
- Developing, designing, and supporting formal writing and speaking assignments
- Using peer-group work and peer interaction to support writing and speaking
- Responding to and evaluating writing and speaking assignments
- Using writing and speaking in the service of more critical reading
Seminar participants report on and display the results of their course
enhancements in two ways. First, they participate in the Program’s
annual showcase of effective practices, “Spotlights Across the Curriculum.”
In this late-spring event, seminar participants from both the fall and
spring seminars create poster sessions highlighting their course revisions.
The Program provides materials and fancy poster displays prepped with
headings, faculty name, and course title. With the help of the graduate
consultants, each faculty member creates a unique poster and produces
handouts and other materials of interest to those who attend the session.
The session, which is held in a large lounge with refreshments, draws
members of the entire campus community, who can come and go as they please.
Members of supporting units such as the Faculty Center for Teaching and
Learning, Undergraduate Affairs, and Tutorial Services in Writing and
Speaking, also participate with their own poster displays.
Seminar participants are also asked to prepare an Internet-ready report
of their course improvements. Typically, these are structured to include
a general overview and background, followed by a syllabus-like course
overview that contains links to artifacts (such as assignments, revision
guides, instructions, evaluation rubrics or scoring guides, etc.) or to
further explanations. These reports are placed on the Campus Writing and
Speaking Program’s Web site: http://www2.chass.ncsu.edu/CWSP.
Participants in the seminar receive a modest ($500) stipend at the end
of the semester in recognition of their efforts. Formal letters of appreciation
are sent to each participant’s department chair and/or college dean.
Past seminars have enrolled faculty from a wide range of courses and departments.
This has allowed participants to meet and work with other colleagues across
campus, and to be exposed to ideas, materials, and teaching strategies
from diverse disciplines.
Evaluations of the seminar have been uniformly positive.