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Established in 1998, the Campus Writing and Speaking Program supports the improvement of students' communication abilities through campus-wide faculty development, tutorial services, and curricular consultation with individual departments and colleges.

As it finishes its fifth year of expanded activity and leadership, the CWSP is pleased to report sustained involvement of faculty and the maintenance of its mission to support major initiatives concerning the implementation of writing and speaking GERs. This continued viability and success comes in the wake of a major budget reduction that has resulted in the elimination of the position of Administrative Assistant.

In spite of budget retrenchments, the Program is pleased to announce that it has earned NC State University a position in the U.S. News and World Report 's issue of America's Best Colleges 2005 as one of the best sixteen institutions in the United States for its program in writing in the disciplines. Others of the 16 that made the list include Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Duke, the University of Chicago , Cornell, the University of Pittsburgh , Carleton, Clemson, Sarah Lawrence, and Indiana University .

View the Comprehensive List on the US News and World Report Web site

The following annual report is divided into sections reporting on campus-wide faculty development, department-specific curricular enhancements, and other activities.

Campus-Wide Faculty Development

The CWSP continues to attract faculty to its various activities and programs, including campus-wide workshops, the semester-long Faculty Seminar, a monthly brown-bag presentation series, guest presentations and workshops, and the Program's annual Showcase of Effective Practices. Total event capacity approached 100% across all Program activities; the Faculty Seminar, which can accommodate up to fifteen faculty per semester, enrolled 11 faculty in the fall semester and 10 faculty in the spring semester. This slight dip in the numbers of participants may be attributed to the loss of our administrative assistant, who was able to provide more intensive recruitment to our events and programs.

Assessment data evaluating the nature and effectiveness of these faculty-development activities also shows a continued high degree of satisfaction. Evaluation surveys from all campus-wide activities except the Showcase (where it is impossible to administer an evaluation) show satisfaction of approximately 4.5 or above on all indices, of a maximum of 5.0.

As an index of campus-wide coverage, the Program also collects and analyzes data that show faculty participation in activities by college, mainly in order to gauge the extent to which all colleges are participating in our activities. It is important to note, however, that this figure does not reveal participation as a percentage of college size. Smaller colleges may have more participation as a percentage of their total faculty, but our data do not account for this. Our data show that faculty in all nine undergraduate colleges participated in Program activities.

Department- and College-Specific Activities

Outcomes Development and Assessment. As part of its long-range plan, the CWSP continues to support the University's efforts to advance the writing and speaking GERs. The primary focus of the CWSP's activities is the requirement for writing in the disciplines. In 2003/04, the emphasis of the CWSP shifted from working with individual departments and colleges to working with the Committee for Undergraduate Program Review to guide Undergraduate Academic Program Review. Essentially all academic programs in the University have created program outcomes that include the assessment of their majors' writing and/or speaking performances. The CWSP was involved in establishing a process for evaluating the program assessment process, including the revision of CUPR's review guidelines, which now contain a directive encouraging faculty engaged in the formal program review to evaluate the effectiveness of their programs in enabling their students to write and speak effectively in their disciplines.

In addition, the CWSP has continued to work with the CUE and UGA in the outcomes-based assessment of the general education program. The CWSP has played a leadership role in offering a set of workshops to help faculty create student learning outcomes for their GER courses that enable students to meet the GER category objectives and to help faculty assess those outcomes. These outcomes typically include the assessment of students' writing and/or speaking. The CWSP also participated in workshops for selected college curriculum committees to introduce them to GER assessment and train them to evaluate the new Course Action Forms.

Faculty Grants. Because of continued budget retrenchments, the CWSP was again unable to implement its shift in faculty grants from individual awards (of up to $4000) to team awards (of up to $5000) for major curricular improvements. We are hopeful that we may be able to continue the grants program with restored funding or funding from new sources.

Other Activities

Student Services. The CWSP successfully partnered again with UGA and its Writing and Speaking Tutorial Services. In 2003, the position of coordinator of WSTS was suspended and a graduate student was hired to maintain the service. In June of 2004, the full-tire position was restored with the hire of Marcia Toms. Anson participated in the search. The CWSP will no longer play a role in the annual evaluation of the Director of WSTS, but the two units will continue to coordinate efforts and work collaboratively on new initiatives.

Participation in Grants Programs. Anson (Co-PI) participated in the continuation of a collaborative NSF grant with Engineering and Education in the amount of $160,000.

Carter (PI) completed the first year of a two-year NSF grant of $489,159 for the LabWrite project, online instructional materials to help students learn science by writing better lab reports. The grant funds the enhancement of the LabWrite prototype and its national dissemination.

Web-Based Resources. The Program continues to enhance its Web-based resources as we are able; however, with the loss of the position of Administrative Assistant, significant progress has stalled in favor of routine Web management.

Scholarship. Principle team members Anson, Carter, and Dannels published among them a number of books and articles during this academic year. In addition, they gave over a dozen papers or presentations at national and international conferences. For further information on the contributions of team members, see the Appendix.

New Initiatives

Assisted Inquiry. In 2003-2004, the Program initiated a new service, Assisted Inquiry, provided on an as-available basis. Faculty who are interested in pursuing a classroom-based research question relating to writing and/or speaking can ask the CWSP for help designing the study, collecting and analyzing the data, obtaining IRB approvals, writing up the results, and locating an appropriate journal or other outlet for publication. Complete details of the program are available at http://www2.chass.ncsu.edu/cwsp/assisted.htm. In 2003-2004, the CWSP conducted one Assisted Inquiry in a Psychology course ; the results are appearing as a chapter in an edited collection: Anson, Chris M., Deanna P. Dannels, and Karen St. Clair. "Teaching and Learning a Multimodel Genre in a Pyschology Course." Genre Across the Curriculum . Ed. Charles Moran and Anne Herrington. Logan : Utah State University Press (forthcoming). Further Assisted Inquiries have been solicited for 2004-2005.

Point/Counterpoint. In 2003-2004, the Program offered its first “point/counterpoint” session. Designed to stimulate reflection and conversation about important issues associated with writing and speaking across the disciplines, this brown-bag presentation/discussion occurs at approximately midterm during each semester. Two faculty members with different views on a topic of interest are invited to present brief statements followed by rebuttals. The second half of the meeting is devoted to discussion with participants. The first Point/Counterpoint took place in spring of 2004 and featured Professors Robert Schrag and Steve Wiley, who presented opposing views about the effects of computer technologies on students' writing abilities and learning processes.

Graduate Student Assistance. In collaboration with the College of Textiles , the CWSP will provide workshop assistance to the ITT Fellows Program during 2004-2005 by recruiting workshop leaders, reviewing workshop agendas, and evaluating the success of the workshops and entire program.

Newsletter. The Program will be launching a bi-annual electronic newsletter to provide information and news opportunities to members of the campus community. Plans are also underway to create a monograph series in which faculty at NC State can report on significant curricular or course-level initiatives relating to the incorporating of writing and/or speaking into courses and programs.

Summary

The CWSP continues to realize its mission of supporting the integration of writing and speaking across the disciplines at NC State. In spite of major reductions in the Program's budget, which removed administrative support and increased the workload of the faculty leaders, the Program has continued to gain national visibility and prestige, earning a position as one of the sixteen finest such programs in the United States. Our goals in 2004-2005 include increasing programming and attracting first-time faculty to events; partnering more fully with related programs on campus; and continuing to pursue external support for our operations. We look forward to the academic year with enthusiasm for continuing the important work of supporting writing and speaking at NC State.

Chris M. Anson

Professor and Director

Appendix A

CWSP Leaders' Engagement in Scholarly Activities

Relating to Writing and Speaking Across the Curriculum

Articles and Chapters

Anson, Chris M. "Citation as Speech Act: Exploring the Pragmatics of Reference." Research Writing Revisited: A Sourcebook for Teachers . Ed. Pavel Zemliansky and Wendy Bishop. Portsmouth , NH : Heinemann, 2004. 203-213.

Anson, Chris M. "Taking Off." Finding Our Way--A Writing Teacher's Sourcebook . Ed. Wendy Bishop and Deborah Coxwell Teague. New York : Houghton Mifflin, 44-48.

Anson, Chris M., Leonhard E. Bernold, Cathy Crossland, Joni Spurlin, Molly McDemott, and Stacy Weiss. "Empowerment to Learn in Engineering: Preparation for an Urgently-Needed Paradigm Shift." Global Journal of Engineering Education , 7.2 (2003): 145-155.

Anson, Chris M., and Deanna Dannels. "Writing and Speaking in Conditional Rhetorical Space." Classroom Space(s) and Writing Instruction . Ed. Ed Nagelhout and Carol Rutz. Cresskill , NJ : Hampton Press, 2004. 55-70.

Anson, Chris M. and Dannels, Deanna P. (2004). The heart of the matter: Writing, speaking, and inquiry-guided learning. In V. Lee (Ed.), Teaching and learning through inquiry: A Guidebook for institutions and instructors. Sterling , VA : Stylus Publishing.

Anson, Chris M., Michael Carter, Deanna P. Dannels, and Jon Rust. “Mutual Support: CAC Programs and Institutional Improvement in Undergraduate Education.” Language and Learning Across the Disciplines 6 (August 2003): 25-37.

Beach, Richard, and Chris M. Anson. "Stance and Intertextuality in Written Discourse." Intertextuality and Literacy in Classrooms: Directions in Educational Research . Ed. Nora Shuart-Faris and David Bloome. Westport , CT : Greenwood , 2004. 247-273.

Carter, Michael, Chris M. Anson, and Carolyn Miller. "Assessing Technical Writing in Institutional Contexts: Using Outcomes-Based Assessment for Programmatic Thinking." Technical Communication Quarterly 12(1): 2003: 101-114.

Carter, Michael , Miriam Ferzli, and Eric Wiebe. “Teaching Genre to English First-Language Adults: A Study of the Lab Report.” Research in the Teaching of English 38 (May 2004): 395-419.

Dannels, Deanna P., Chris M. Anson, Lisa Bullard, and Steven Peretti. "Challenges in Learning Communication Skills in Chemical Engineering." Communication Education 52.1 (2003): 50-56.

Conference Proceedings

Dannels, D.P., Berardinelli, P., Anson, C., Bullard, L., Kleid, N., Kmeic, D., & Peretti, S. (2003). Instruction and assessment of multidisciplinary teaming skills in senior design. Proceedings of the American Association of Engineering Education National Meeting .

Kmiec, D., Anson, C., Berardinelli, P., Bullard, L., Dannels, D., Peretti, S., Spivey, J. (2003). Integrating teaming, writing, and speaking in CHE unit operations lab. Proceedings of the American Association of Engineering Education National Meeting

Conference Presentations

Anson, Chris M. "Computers as Readers: The Prospects of Data Mining for the Analysis of Written Text," Computers and Writing 2004 Conference, Honolulu, HI , June 11, 2004.

Anson, Chris M. "The Theory, Practice, and Pedagogy of Multi-modal Rhetoric," Rhetoric Society of America , Austin , TX , May 31, 2004.

Anson, Chris M. "Writing to Learn Vs. Learning to Write: An International Perspective," 7th National WAC Conference, St. Louis , MO , May 22, 2004. [featured speaker]

Anson, Chris M. "Talk as Text, Text as Talk: The Role of Hybrid Assignments in Teaching and Learning Across the Curriculum," Conference on Developing Language and Communication in Higher Education: Trends in Teaching and Research, Chalmers Lindholmen University , Göteborg , Sweden , June 17, 2003.

Anson, Chris M. "Integrating Teaming, Writing, and Speaking in CHE Unit Operations Lab," 2003 American Society for Engineering Education, Nashville , TN , June 23, 2003. [coauthor only, with Dave Kmiec, Paula Bernardinelli, Lisa Bullard, Deanna Dannels, Naomi Kleid, and Steven Peretti]

Anson, Chris M. "From Writing to Communication: WAC on the Move," Conference on College Composition and Communication, San Antonio , TX , March 27, 2004.

Anson, Chris M. "Looking in the Multi-View Mirror: The Role of Reflective Practice in Communication Across the Curriculum Programs and Practices," National Communication Association, Miami , FL , Nov. 22, 2003.

Anson, Chris M. "Understanding How Freshmen Engineering Students Think They Learn," 2003 American Society for Engineering Education, Nashville , TN, June 23, 2003. [coauthor only, with Jonie E. Spurlin, Leonhard E. Bernold, and Cathy L. Crossland]

Carter, Michael. “LabWrite: Helping Students Learn Physics by Writing Better Laboratory Reports.” American Association of Physics Teachers. Sacramento, CA , August 4, 2004.

Carter, Michael. “LabWrite: Helping Science Students Write Better Laboratory Reports.” Conference on College Composition and Communication. San Antonio , TX , March 26, 2004.

Dannels, D.P. (2003, November). Communication across the curriculum: Design, implementation, assessment and research models. Short course presented at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association, Miami , Florida .

Dannels, D.P. (2003, November). Exploring a theory of inquiry for communication in the disciplines. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association, Miami , Florida .

Dannels, D.P. (2003, November). The future of research and scholarship in communication across the curriculum. Panel presented at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association, Miami , Florida .

Workshops

Anson, Chris M. "Making Evaluation Work and Working Less on Evaluation: Developing and Using Rubrics for the Assessment of Writing," Hampton University , Hampton , VA , March 20, 2004.

Anson, Chris M. "Writing Across the Curriculum: Approaches and Strategies," Cardinal Stritch University , Milwaukee , WI , Nov. 7, 2003.

Anson, Chris M. "Creating a Culture of Writing at Miami : What Faculty Can Do," Miami University of Ohio , Oxford , OH , Oct. 31, 2003.

Anson, Chris M. "By Design: Assigning, Coaching, and Evaluating Writing in All Disciplines," LeMoyne College , Syracuse , NY , Sept. 19, 2003.

Anson, Chris M. "Consulting with Faculty," Cain Project Program Leaders Workshop, Rice University , Houston , TX , Sept. 5, 2003.

Anson, Chris M. "Integration, Design, and Evaluation." Christopher Newport University , Newport News , VA , Aug. 20, 2003.

Anson, Chris M., and Dannels, Deanna P. "Teaching Teaming, Writing, and Speaking," American Society for Engineering Education, Nashville , TN , June 22, 2003.

Carter, Michael. “Using LabWrite: An Online Guide to Helping Students Write Lab Reports” (with James E. Mickle). Botanical Society of America . Snow Bird, UT, August 1, 2004.

Carter, Michael. “LabWrite: Extensive Web-Based Instruction for Helping College Students Write Lab Reports and Learn Science.” 26 th Annual Conference of the Association for Biology Laboratory Education, Bowling Green State University , June, 9, 2004.

Profession Consultations

Carter, Michael. Miami University of Ohio, May 3, 2004 (undergraduate, graduate, and general education assessment)

Posters

Carter, Michael. “LabWrite: Online Instructional Materials that Enhance Students Learning of Science” (with Miriam Ferzli and Eric Wiebe). American Association of Physics Teachers. Sacramento , CA , August 4, 2004.

Carter, Michael. “LabWrite: Improving Students' Science Learning Through Writing Better Lab Reports” (with Eric Wiebe and Miriam Ferzli). Invited poster, Invention and Impact Conference, sponsored by NSF (Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington DC , April 15-18, 2004.

Other

Dannels, Guest Editor: Oral communication genres in disciplinary discourse communities: Communication across the curriculum and in the disciplines. Special Issue of Communication Education. To be published January 2005. Manuscript submission and review process 2003-2004.

Contact
Please feel welcome to contact us by writing to Chris Anson, Director (chris_anson@ncsu.edu).