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CRTW Course Guidelines for Faculty
Course Coordinator
John Bird currently serves as the Course Coordinator for CRTW
201. The other members of the CRTW committee are Jo Koster, Jack DeRochi,
and Evelyne Weeks. Talk to them about your questions concerning the
course, class visitations, and approval of non-fiction books.
Number and Types of Assignments
Topics for reading assignments and class discussion will
be interdisciplinary and should lead, directly or indirectly, to writing
assignments. Students should become familiar with the language of critical
thinking; and faculty should review and reinforce the language of argumentation
previously introduced in WRIT 101, including such concepts and terms as
assumptions, concession, refutation, deduction, induction, problem solving, and
fallacies. Students should also be able to evaluate critically an argument from
authority and to recognize loaded language.
Instructors should assign at least 6000 words of graded
writing. All essays require documented research either from the class text(s) or
from library and/or internet resources. Students should write at least four
graded essays, one of which will be a long research paper (8-10 pages), plus the
final. One of these essays could be a group project. At least one essay should
require evidence from and connections between two distinctly different
disciplines. Although most of the writing in this course will be argumentative,
other kinds of writing might be appropriate for a particular assignment (e.g.
process analysis). At least one graded essay (other than the final exam) should
be written in class.
Texts
All CRTW 201 faculty are required to use the same
handbook and documentation guide: Muriel Harris,
Prentice Hall Reference
Guide to Grammar and Usage,
7th ed. We will also all use the same text on
critical thinking—Learning to Think Things Through: A Guide to Critical
Thinking Across the Curriculum by Gerald M. Nosich. In addition, each
teacher will adopt
a
recommended complete non-fiction book.
Syllabi
When you have completed your syllabi
and posted them on your web pages, please give one
copy to
Cheryl Hingle
and one to the
Writing Center. All syllabi and calendars must be archived electronically
for accreditation purposes.
Grading
Please require your students to download a copy of the
grading rubric from the department web page. We ask that you go over this
material with the students prior to the first graded writing
assignment. As an exercise,
having students evaluate a student-written essay using the grading rubric has
been successful for some faculty. This task seems to make them more aware of
what is required in their own writing.
Documentation
Students in CRTW 201 should be able to use correctly all
forms of borrowed materials. Although in WRIT 101 students have been introduced
to the use of borrowed information, you should also cover this material in CRTW
201. All graded out-of-class writing assignments in CRTW 201
should require MLA documentation; if it is appropriate for a particular
assignment, you may choose to permit students to document particular pieces of
writing in the style appropriate to their disciplines (e.g. APA, ACS, Chicago).
Reviewing the departmental handout, "The Correct Use of Borrowed
Information" (which the student must
download from the English Department Web
Page) is the least an instructor should do to acquaint students with proper
documentation and the dangers of academic dishonesty. The appropriate chapters
in the Prentice Hall Reference Guide to Grammar and Usage should also be
discussed. Students and instructors should be familiar with the University’s
policy on plagiarism (as stated in the Winthrop University Undergraduate
Catalog and the Student Handbook) and should be aware that the
penalty for academic dishonesty, depending on the severity of the offense, may
vary from a grade reduction on the assignment to a failing grade in the course
to expulsion from the University. We encourage all faculty to set up an account
and use
TURNITIN. We believe this program will help you and your students and
certainly reduce the incidents of plagiarism.
Final Exam
A final exam is required in CRTW 201. The exam should be
an appropriate culminating writing assignment that grows out of the course
content. (An objective examination is not acceptable.) All instructors should
meet their classes in their regular classrooms during the regularly scheduled
exam period for that particular class. (You will find a copy of the
exam
schedule on the Winthrop Web Page early in each semester.)
Please give a copy of your final exam to
Bill Naufftus and to
Cheryl Hingle.
Storage of Students’ Papers
At the end of the semester, please bind your student
papers together by section and label a blank folder with your name, course name,
section number, and the semester in which the course was taught. The bound
student papers should be placed in the department’s storage room (Bancroft 202).
Please remind students that you must keep all their papers from the course. If
they want copies of those papers, they must make them before the end of the
semester.
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