The GMU Earth Day Organizing Committee is delighted to announce that Dan Johanknecht, a senior in the BIS program, has won the Earth Day Writing Contest. Dan's essay, "Climate Change: My World, My Response—What Does That Mean To Me?" chronicles his own growing awareness of environmental issues.
Dan's essay echoes a central argument made by the GMU Earth Day keynote speaker, Oberlin College professor David Orr, who argued passionately for increased public discussion and better media coverage of issues related to conservation and environmental protection. The Writing Contest judges were impressed with the honesty and energy of Dan's essay, and are doubly pleased that the essay, now published on the English Department's Nonfiction Universe site
(http://nonfiction.gmu.edu/), can become part of the efforts to connect with others for which Dan so persuasively argued.
As the contest winner, Dan receives a check for $100 and an autographed copy of Orr's book The Nature of Design: Ecology, Culture, and Human Intention.
April, 2005 WAC and the Center for Teaching Excellence
co-sponsor LabWrite workshop: LabWrite (http://www.ncsu.edu/labwrite) is an NSF-sponsored website developed by Dr. Michael Carter, a professor at North Carolina State who teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in science writing, and Dr. Miriam Ferzli, a biology professor. This free online resource is designed for a wide range of sciences and has been used at all levels of undergraduate education. Several control-group studies, according to professors Carter and Ferzli, have shown that students who use LabWrite are significantly more effective at learning science than those who use typical lab report instruction.
Among those in attendance was Dr. Chris Jones, chair of Environmental
Science and Policy, who subsequently invited some of his faculty to
participate with Dr. Laurie Fathe, a physics professor and director of
the Center for Teaching Excellence, in follow-up activities to implement
LabWrite tools into some of the intro lab courses.
September, 2004 GMU Writing in Disciplines Program Nationally Ranked: For the third year in a row, US News and World Report's College Issue has named George Mason University's Writing in the Disciplines program (WID/WAC) among the top in the country. April,
2004 Economics
Outstanding Writing Awards: The Writing Across the Curriculum Committee
would like to recognize and congratulate the following students on receiving
writing awards on their economics papers: History
Outstanding Writing Award: The Writing Across the Curriculum Committee
would like to recognize Nicole Erikson for winning the Winslow Hatch
Award for her history paper entitled "The Role of Committees of
Correspondence in the American Revolution," which was selected
as the best of the History 499 (senior seminar) papers. February,
2004 Student
Writing Awards: The Writing Across the Curriculum Committee would
like to recognize outstanding undergraduate writers and writing in the
majors. We know that many departments give an award(s) based on student
written work. For example, departments may currently give awards based
on poster presentations, a capstone portfolio, thesis, paper, or even
written performance in a series of courses. The committee would like
to add our recognition and financial support to students whose work
is already being recognized by the department. We also want to make
the university community aware of your efforts in making excellence
in writing a priority. Click
here for more information. Spring
2004 GMU
Faculty to Attend National WAC Conference: David
Beach, Chris Thaiss, Terry Zawacki, Stanley Zoltek, and TA Megan Kelly
will attend WAC
2004: The Seventh National Writing Across the Curriculum Conference,
to be held May 20-22 in St. Louis, Missouri. September, 2003 GMU
Writing in Disciplines Program Nationally Ranked:
For the second year in a row, US News and World Report's College
Issue has named George Mason University's Writing in the Disciplines
program (WID/WAC) among the top thirteen in the country. Only five on
the list are public institutions. September, 2002 George
Mason's Writing Across the Curriculum program was named the fourth best
"writing in the disciplines" program in the U.S. in the U.S. News and
World Report "Best Colleges" issue. Other universities in the top five
include Harvard, Cornell, Yale, and Princeton. According to the magazine,
"Colleges with these programs typically make the writing process a priority
at all levels of instruction and across the curriculum. Students are
encouraged to produce and refine various forms of writing for different
audiences in different disciplines." Spring 2002 Terry
Zawacki and Chris Thaiss were awarded a research grant by
the Writing Program Administrators national organization to support
work on their book project, Alternative Discourses in the Disciplines:
Reports from the Fields. Their initial research on this topic is
presented in "Questioning Alternative Discourses: Reports from Across
the Disciplines," an article which appeared in ALT DIS: Alternative
Discourses and the Academy, edited by Christopher Schroeder, Helen
Fox, and Patricia Bizzel (Boynton/Cook Heinemann, 2002). We proudly
report that seven GMU faculty presented papers at the Sixth National
Writing Across the Curriculum Conference in Houston: Allison O'Brien,
SOM; David Beach, SOM/English; Sue Durham, Nursing; Ruth
Green, Institutional Assessment; Chris Thaiss, a plenary
speaker, Ruth Fischer, Terry Zawacki, English. The Writing
Across the Curriculum Program and the Center for Teaching Excellence
sponsored a series of workshops, led by Terry Zawacki, on teaching
with writing. Lunch was provided and, as a bonus, those who attended
all three workshops received a copy of Engaging Ideas, a book
packed with good ideas for working with writing/writers. Look
for these three workshops to be repeated each semester: "Designing
Good Writing Assignments" "Managing
the Paper Load & Responding Effectively to Writing" "What
To Do When Students 'Can't Write'"
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