College considers the Freshman Writing Seminar

Each fall, nearly every freshman takes a Freshman Writing Seminar (FWS) with 16 classmates. Featuring such attention-grabbing titles as Deception: Some Truths About Lies, With Dante in Hell and Fashion and Modernity, these courses are unlike any other. Designed specifically for freshmen, the FWS is part of the First Year Program, which introduces students to the values of a liberal arts education.

The earliest form of the FWS appeared in the curriculum in the 1960s. In 1968, the Committee on New Dimensions, formed to re-envision the curriculum with co-education on the horizon, introduced the freshman seminar, the precursor to the FWS.

In 1981, the Freshman Course—the basic model for today's FWS—was introduced.

Freshman courses were intended to serve as an introduction to a discipline that could lead to advanced work in the field while developing students' writing and oral skills. An oversight committee was formed to ensure that the program functioned effectively, but it was disbanded when the Office of Teaching Development took over administration of the program. In addition, the Learning, Teaching and Resource Center (LTRC), the Director of Teaching Development and the Library staff took on major roles in the FWS.

Though the FWS program had been in place for over two decades, the Assessment Committee reported in 2005, "At present there are no faculty-approved guidelines for implementing or overseeing the Freshman Courses."

This led to the creation of the FWS Steering Committee, which currently comprises Dean of Freshmen Joanne Long, representatives from the LTRC, Writing Center and Library, and faculty members.

Earlier this year, the committee asked departments, programs and faculty members to submit paragraphs describing what "good writing" meant to them. Associate Director of LTRC Natalie Friedman and Director of the Writing Center Leona Rumbarger compiled the submissions.

Rumbarger said, "There are different disciplinary emphases, but we saw our colleagues' rich responses coalescing around some shared ideas."
According to Friedman, the committee has come up with "some very good, straightforward guidelines for instructors." Because the committee has yet to bring the draft guidelines to FWS instructors for approval, Friedman could not explicitly reveal what they are. But she said, "We came to agree upon some very important criteria for learning goals that will positively affect the way these courses are taught."

According to Professor of Mathematics and steering committee member Charles Steinhorn, the guidelines specify "things that cut across every discipline," like length and frequency of assignments. He said, "The idea is to draft something that gives you a flexible enough framework, yet gives you precise enough guidelines."

Friedman said, "We are getting closer than ever to establishing a set of goals that we see as common to the enterprise of teaching writing at Vassar, and I think students will be pleased that some of these goals involve the teaching of some very good, solid, basic writing and research skills alongside the most important skill of articulating a persuasive argument in a paper."

The lack of official and general consensus on the seminars' goals has led students and faculty to formulate their own ideas about the purpose of the FWS. Are the seminars foremost an "introduction to the collegiate experience," as stated by the College Catalogue? Or should they familiarize students with a particular discipline, perhaps influencing a major track? Or should students expect a writing-intensive seminar that seeks to improve how they communicate ideas?

The FWS are taught across a range of disciplines; for the Fall 2009 semester, 18 departments have offered at least one FWS. The English Department teaches about half of the FWS each fall and departments from History to Biology teach the rest.

Most students enjoy the departmental diversity of these courses, because they can choose a FWS based on their academic interests. But it is perhaps another reason why expectations of the FWS are inconsistent across campus. Some departments treat a FWS as an introductory course, which can overwhelm students and professors.

Friedman said, "I think those ‘double-dipped' courses try to do too much and therefore don't quite meet the goals of a writing course, which is to give students a chance to create a reflective writing practice, to explore peer review and to build revision into their writing experience."
At the same time, the committee recognizes that each department has specific standards, and it doesn't seek to override them. Professor of History and committee member Rebecca Edwards said, "I don't think there's a way to introduce people to one kind of writing, but there are certainly standards that are the same across the curriculum."

But with no established set of goals for the FWS, students have shaped their own expectations about the courses.

Annie Hill '12 expressed concerns about the FWS at the VSA Council's Academic Forum earlier this month. In a separate interview, Hill said she perceived the FWS as "an exercise to help students hone and develop their analytical abilities and the way in which they express them and communicate them," something her own FWS did not do.

Students who have expressed disappointment in their FWS do not necessarily consider them poorly taught. Instead, most concerns revolved around the fact that the FWS resembled other 100-level courses in the departments and did not focus on writing.

In a April 8 letter to the editor, Hill wrote, "While all [seminars] are highly informative in their general subject area, many stray so far from the process of writing that it is hardly addressed, if at all. Again, professors are assuming that all of their students are familiar with the logistics of writing; and while this should be a safe assumption—while students should be taught this process in grade school—it is not the case."

Last semester, Eliza Blanchard '12 took an American Culture FWS. While she enjoyed the readings and class discussions, she said that "very little class time was spent discussing the mechanics of writing" and that the class wrote relatively few papers and did not receive "particularly thorough feedback."

"Although I feel that my writing has improved throughout my freshman year at Vassar, it has been improved by other classes than my writing seminar," said Blanchard.

Nonetheless, many freshmen evaluate their FWS in a very positive light. Last semester, Victoria Russo '12 took English 101: Imagining Australia. "What helped me most was getting work peer-reviewed," said Russo. "We not only learned how to efficiently edit others' work, we also took the time to go over our essays multiple times and self-edit."

Regardless of the department offering the FWS, students seem to appreciate an effective combination of writing-intensive activities with a particular discipline. Hanna Groch-Begley '12 is currently taking English/Jewish Studies 184: New Voices, Old Stories, New Immigrant Jewish Writers. She feels that Friedman, her professor, has effectively combined a Jewish literature syllabus and fundamental writing techniques. "Throughout the semester we have worked on several different styles of writing, all of which could conceivably be required of college students in a variety of different departments and majors," said Groch-Begley.

Successful FWS teach writing that is, in Steinhorn's word, "transportable."

The FWS Steering Committee's yet-to-be published guidelines may resolve some of the major inconsistencies of the program, and students, faculty and administration would have a clearer understanding of what to expect from the course.

Rumbarger said, "I think that our new guidelines may give us a little more coherence to the program, while still embracing the wide variety of teaching approaches that enrich our students as writers."

Edwards addressed the importance of focusing on writing within the FWS. "I think writing skills are something that people take with them out of Vassar," she said. "Our goal is not to just teach academic writing but to teach the kind of writing people need for a legal brief, a business report, a grant proposal or political speech. It's incredibly satisfying to help people develop those skills."