Welcome!

The College of Arts and Sciences Writing Program connects visitors to "all things writing" in the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Washington. We support the "culture of writing" across the curriculum on the UW main campus. . .

Spring Quarter of 2009, we brought Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, authors of They Say, I Say: the Moves that Matter in Academic Writing (2006) to the UW main campus. Graff and Birkenstein met with graduate students and faculty during their day at the UW.

Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein

They Say/I Say: Demystifying Academe in the First-Year Classroom and Beyond
(a Conversation with Graduate Students in English)
Thursday, May 21, 2009; 11 AM to Noon, 100 Gerberding Hall

Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, authors of They Say/I Say (2005), will address demystification broadly in terms of academic discourse for undergrads and more narrowly in terms of the institutional and disciplinary professional discourse for graduate students. Following a brief talk on their text and the models it offers for considering the institutional spheres of English studies, Graff and Birkenstein will discuss topics of interest to attendees.

Gerald Graff

So Who Needs Outcomes Assessment Anyway?
Thursday, May 21, 2009; 3:30 PM to 5:00 PM, Communications 226

Gerald Graff, immediate past president of the Modern Language Association, has published widely in English studies—in theory, in institutional history, in pedagogical matters, and most recently on issues of assessment and disciplinary conflict. His book Professing Literature: An Institutional History (1987) was one of the earliest accounts of the field, and his phrase "teaching the conflicts" [featured in Beyond the Culture Wars; How Teaching the Conflicts Can Revitalize American Education (1992)] has become common shorthand for one way to engage students in the study of literary culture. Continuing his iconoclastic approach to traditional methods, Graff's recent textbook, co-written with Cathy Birkenstein, They Say, I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing (2006), has sparked vigorous debate over the role of templates in the teaching of writing.

Throughout this work Graff thinks and re-thinks the theme of demystification: that theme is perhaps sharpest in Clueless in Academe (2003), his critique of the institutions of traditional pedagogy in the humanities. Graff's most recent work--given special prominence through his role as President of the MLA (2008-09)—has created conflicts over the role of outcomes definition and assessment in departments of English. His phrase "Assessment changes everything" has, again, launched a thousand counter-arguments, and his talk here at the UW will take that argument yet a step further.

Co-sponsored by the Department of English, the Simpson Center for the Humanities, and college of Arts and Sciences Writing Program.

Campus Writing Conversation Day

Thank you to everyone who joined us at the Quarterly Forum, November 13, 2008, to hear Professor John Bean (Seattle University) give his talk:

"Designing Backwards: How Departmental Faculty Can Boost Students' Growth as Disciplinary Writers and Thinkers."

Professor Bean has agreed to let us make the handouts from this talk available to the UW community.

Writing in the Majors Handouts

For other electronic materials by John Bean please scroll down.

Autum 2008, we are pleased to welcome:

Professor John C. Bean
Seattle University

4x4 Faculty Initiative Assembly: A Conversation with John Bean
Thursday, November 13, 2008, 1:00 p.m.
Location: HUB 209A

Professor Bean will meet with members of the Faculty 4x4 Initatiive to discuss how they have approached writing in their classes and undergraduate curricula. Please stay tuned for further details. Open to all members of the 4x4 Faculty Initiative (of current and past years) and other interested members of the UW campus community.

Designing Backwards: How Departmental Faculty Can
Boost Students' Growth as Disciplinary Writers and Thinkers
Thursday, November 13, 2008, 3:30 p.m.
Walker-Ames Room, Kane Hall

Professor Bean will explore ways faculty in the majors at other universities have helped students’ transition from first-year composition into disciplinarily specific ways of writing and thinking. Writing in a major requires thinking like a disciplinary professional in that field — whether that be as a historian, a psychologist, an economist, or a nurse. Drawing on examples from finance, chemistry, and English at his own institution, Bean will describe how faculty in these departments used “backward design” to create courses that teach the questioning, thinking, writing, and research strategies needed for disciplinary expertise. He will go on to show how this process of rethinking instructional strategies deepens students’ engagement with disciplinary concepts while accelerating their growth as professional writers-in-training.

John C. Bean is professor of English at Seattle University, where he is Consulting Professor of Writing and Assessment. His book Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom (Jossey-Bass, 1996) has been an academic best seller, and has been translated into Dutch and Chinese. Bean is co-author of four widely-used textbooks on writing and argumentation, and has also published widely on disciplinary writing issues as well as on literary subjects. Bean consults on writing and learning both in the US and abroad; he has recently returned from BRAC University in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where he and his wife conducted a series of critical thinking workshops. His current research focuses on institutional assessment strategies that promote productive faculty conversations about teaching and learning.

For more info please visit the Center for Instructional Design.