Consider Instituting a Writing Award for your Students: Here's How

For the past two years, the WAC program has joined with departments to recognize outstanding undergraduate writers in the majors. The WAC committee sends a letter of congratulations to the award winners and posts their names on the website.

In addition, the program provides matching funding for writing awards under $100 and full support, up to $150, for writing awards in departments where no funding has been allocated.

The WAC committee’s intention in funding these awards—besides spotlighting our outstanding student writers—is to make the university community aware of departmental efforts in making excellence in writing a priority.

If your department does not currently have in place any award based on undergraduate student writing and you would like to institute one, please email Terry Zawacki (tzawacki@gmu.edu). She’ll be happy to tell you what other departments are doing and to suggest ways you might construct an award to recognize outstanding student writers in your department or program.

You can also contact one of the WAC committe members for your academic unit: Stanley Zoltec, CAS; Sue Durham, CNHS; Tom Owens, CVPA; and Tamara Maddox, ITE; Beth Schneider, SOM; and Ellen Rodgers, HRT.

Writing to Learn and Think Critically: Findings from National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)

Seniors and freshmen taking the NSSE survey revealed some persuasive statistically significant correlations on questions related to writing and learning.

Students who said they “prepared two or more drafts of a paper of assignment before turning it in” were more likely to say that Mason contributed “very much” to their ability to write clearly and effectively and to think critically and analytically.

Those who often wrote papers requiring them to integrate ideas or information from various sources were also more likely to say that they often put together ideas or concepts from different courses when completing assignments or during class discussions.

Freshmen who reported writing papers as short as five pages were still more likely to say that Mason has contributed “very much” to their ability to write “clearly and effectively” and to think “critically and analytically.”

Reported by Ying Zhou, Office of Institutional Assessment