Students dread the first-year writing class, often considering it a hurdle to jump before they can get on to the real work of the university. Linking the writing course with a content course in a student’s major or general education requirements is a way of positioning writing as central to learning, particularly if writing is not just performed in the composition class but is also woven into the fabric of the content class. The presenter will describe efforts to create a linked course (first year writing and art history, a requirement for all first year students) at an art and design university, illustrating that writing is key to every learning environment, inside or outside of the academy. As Mauk (2003) has suggested, we need to imagine writing as something that happens outside the confines of the composition or other academic course by “recasting the classroom as the place where(ever) the student is carrying out the practices of writing” (p. 385). This interactive presentation uses this course as an example of ways that writing faculty can reach out and collaborate with counterparts in other disciplines to create linked courses (Luebke, 2002) The presenter will give a brief overview of the course and will engage participants at the roundtable in an activity to help them envision connections among writing and content areas in order to establish similar pairings on their own campuses.
References:
Cargill, K., & Karlikoff, B. (2007). Linked Courses at the Twenty-First Century Metropolitan University. Teaching English in the Two Year College, 35(2), 181-190.
Luebke, S. (2002, May 7). Using Linked Courses in the General Education Curriculum. Retrieved January 5, 2015, from http://aw.colostate.edu/articles/luebke_2002.htm
Mauk, J. (2003). Location, Location, Location: The ‘Real’ (E)states of Being, Writing and Thinking in Composition. College English, 65(4), 368-388.
