The Writing Program at Wesleyan

The Writing Program at Illinois Wesleyan University supports and administers the Gateway Colloquium, a first year seminar emphasizing writing and critical thinking, and the Writing Intensive program, which requires students to take two such courses before graduation, one before the end of their sophomore year and one in their major. Instructors for the Gateway Colloquium are drawn from disciplines across campus. Writing Intensive courses fall both within the General Education curriculum and in majors curricula. In addition, the Writing Program is responsible for assessing the quality of student writing across campus and supporting faculty development for the teaching of writing in all courses.

Our mission is to catalyze a culture of writing on campus that encourages the use of writing to construct knowledge in all disciplines. Our emphasis on writing across the curriculum - both in the Gateway Colloquium and in Writing Intensive courses - is designed to inculcate writing as a teaching tool and to provide students with frequent practice in writing and the sense that writing is an integral part of learning. The Gateway Colloquium and Writing Intensive classes also require revision as an integral part of the course work, with peer and instructor feedback essential to the conscious development of writing abilities. The varieties of writing we pursue on campus are diverse- including traditional analytic essays to expressive writing to mathematical proofs and science presentations. The ability to use writing to shape and deliver ideas for a variety of audiences and within a variety of disciplines is at the core of our philosophy.

 

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