The process of developing students' writing abilities will be restructured in coming years as part of the Quality Enhancement Plan, an initiative required by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
A committee is being assembled under the leadership of Peter Felten, assistant provost and director of the center for the advancement of teaching and learning, to develop a plan addressing specific improvements within the area of writing. The proposal will be submitted to SACS in November of next year, which will then provide suggestions to ensure the plan is focused and doable. While the proposal has not yet been discussed, Provost Steven House said it could potentially restructure the writing course for first-year students.
"Writing is such a crucial part of being an informed citizen and making informed decisions that every institution needs to get better at it," he said, noting that he hopes Elon will eventually be recognized nationally for its writing instruction. "To put it simply, we're good but we want to be much better writers."
The QEP focus was narrowed down from suggestions submitted beginning last semester. From there, specific proposals were written by professors for the top six ideas and feedback was gathered from students, faculty and staff.
According to House, the top three QEP proposals, which were submitted to Senior Staff Oct. 18, included writing, information literacy and intellectual engagement. After discussions with faculty from the English Department, School of Business and School of Communications and the Academic Council, House said the staff decided writing was a far-reaching area in which Elon hopes to improve.
Paula Patch, lecturer in English, was involved in writing the proposal for writing and said focusing on writing at Elon doesn't mean fixing a broken process, but rather strengthening existing facilities, programs, resources, instruction and development for faculty and staff.
"The overall goal is for students to have an integrated writing experience, in which they can see and make connections between the writing they do across each level of coursework, within their co- and extracurricular activities, and throughout all four years of their Elon experience," she said.