International conference to discuss written assignments across curriculum

The 2010 International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference, which focuses on academic writing and using writing in classrooms of all fields, will take place Thursday through Saturday at the Indiana Memorial Union.

IU and the University of Texas at Austin are co-sponsoring the conference, with the Campus Writing Program and Writing Tutorial Services organizing the event.

While registration for the conference ended in April, curricular decisions on the Bloomington campus have strengthened writing instruction, and the conference will aid in further progression of the University’s writing programs.

“Most people who graduate from college will have to write,” said Jo Ann Vogt, associate director of IU’s Creative Writing Program and director of Writing Tutorial Services. “If they learn to write in their disciplines, they’ll be much better practitioners.”

Vogt said she also feels writing is a valuable way to test students’ knowledge and understanding of a subject.

“Assessing people’s knowledge in a discipline is much more thorough than picking a multiple-choice answer,” Vogt said. “You may be able to recognize the answer but not explain why it’s correct.”

Campus Writing Program Director Laura Plummer said writing is important in every subject, even in fields like engineering and business.

“By being able to put things in our own words, we learn them better,” Plummer said.

In addition to presentations about how to use writing in teaching, there will be sessions about topics such as designing courses, evaluating students’ writing and administering writing-focused classes.

“Once you’ve figured out that you’re going to use writing in a class, then you have to figure out what you’re going to do with students’ writing,” Vogt said.

The two keynote speakers for the conference, Art Young, professor of English Emeritus at Clemson University, and Terry Myers Zawacki, associate professor in the Department of English at George Mason University, are national advocates for the Writing Across the Curriculum programs.

Young was a key figure in starting Writing Across the Curriculum programs around the country and has received several awards for his teaching and research. Zawacki serves on several academic writing boards and focuses her research on improving writing programs throughout the United States.

While Young is a key founding figure of college writing centers and is a long-time professor, Zawacki is newer to the scene.

“We have people who are where we’ve been and where we’re going,” Plummer said of the “two generations” of the keynote speakers.

Senior Shabrelle Pollock is presenting at the conference, along with Vogt and graduate student Laura Clapper. Their presentation, “From Tutor to Tutor: Acculturating Tutor Trainees,” explains how IU’s Writing Tutorial Services trains students to tutor other students in academic writing.

“A lot of college writing centers aren’t run by students,” Pollock said. “We wanted to show how our program serves the University — not just students, but faculty and staff, too.”