Assessment Reports and Resources

Writing@Mason

Beginning in 2019, WAC has been collaborating with cross-campus partners, particularly Mason’s Composition program, to better understand the broader culture of writing at Mason. This project has primarily sought to understand the experiences of Mason’s students with writing. We are currently analyzing interviews conducted with seniors about their writing experiences and the pathways that they have followed toward graduation.

• “Writing in Mason Core: How Much Writing Do Faculty Assign in General Education Courses at Mason”

The ReV Project: A Review of Mason’s WAC Program

Since 2015, WAC has been conducting an intensive review of teaching and learning to write with a specific focus on Mason’s writing-intensive courses. The reports below draw on some of the data that we have collected so far and capture some of the experiences and contexts in which faculty and students engage.

• “Will Write … But for Whom: An Analysis of WI Faculty’s Consideration of Audience in Assignment Design and Pedagogy”
• “What Are They Writing? A Study of the Genres Assigned in Writing-Intensive Courses”
• “What Are They Reading? A Study of the Kinds of Reading Assigned in Writing-Intensive Courses” 
• “The Prevalence of Low Stakes Writing in Writing Intensive Courses”
• “Technology Access and Use in Writing Intensive Courses”
• “Faculty Perceptions on the Major Constraints in Teaching a Writing-Intensive Course“
• “A Review of Faculty-Librarian Collaborations in Writing Intensive Courses”

Assessment of Student Writing in the Major

From fall 2017 through fall 2020, George Mason University conducted a broad assessment of its general education program, the Mason Core. As part of this effort, WAC collaborated with the university’s assessment team to assess student writing in the major. The reports below detail the process and results of this assessment.

• A Report on Written Communication in the Major
• A Brief Report on Written Communication in the Major

To learn more about the 2017-2020 assessment cycle and read other reports, please visit Mason’s general education program site.

Council of Writing Program Administrators Assessment Narrative

George Mason University’s Writing Across the Curriculum Program has developed an assessment model that is available on the Council of Writing Program Administrators’ Assessment Gallery Resources page.  As written by former Mason WAC Director Terry Myers Zawacki,

“This assessment model is part of the WPA Assessment Gallery and Resources and is intended to demonstrate how the principles articulated in the NCTE-WPA White Paper on Writing Assessment in Colleges and Universities are reflected in different assessments. Together, the White Paper and assessment models illustrate that good assessment reflect research-based principles rooted in the discipline, is locally determined, and is used to improve teaching and learning.”

• Assessment Narrative (link to Mason Narrative)
• Faculty Survey
• Program Rubrics