Graves, R. & Hyland, T. (Eds.). (2017). Writing assignments across university disciplines. Bloomington, IN: Trafford.

Abstract

For the last three years, I have been part of a team of multi-disciplinary faculty that holds a weeklong workshop each semester for approximately twenty teachers. These teachers, migrating to our cozy space in the library from all corners of campus, have applied—they get paid a modest sum, which is not nothing—to attend our workshop in the hopes of improving their ability to integrate writing assignments into their courses. The workshops are part of a larger initiative, Improving Disciplinary Writing, which was borne out of a needs assessment from our regional assessment body. It is designed to bring together faculty, through workshops and grants, to think collectively about how writing gets taught and ought to be taught differently across and within disciplines. And what we see time and time again is that although each group of twenty teachers is new each semester, and although the ranks consistently vary from adjunct (sessional) to full professor, and although some work in musty chemistry buildings and some in obscure art buildings and some in sleek see-through engineering buildings, the disembodied echoes of frustrations and complaints and discovery and hope and solace from groups past get re-vocalized by groups present. As facilitators, we are not flustered by this fact; rather, we find our own solace in the connection and camaraderie through shared experience happening across disciplines and spaces on campus.