HASS CI
(Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences - Communication Intensive)
The Writing Across the Curriculum Office supports HASS CI classes primarily by providing writing advisors. Enrollment in HASS CI classes is normally limited to 18 students per section. The enrollment may be as high as 25 students per section, however, if a writing advisor is assigned.
WHY MIT HAS WRITING ADVISORS:
The structure of MIT's communications requirement spreads the responsibility for writing and communications instruction across the curriculum. In this approach, MIT recognizes, and signals to students, that the ability to write and communicate well is central to every discipline, and that gaining this ability is a long-term process that does not end with completion of one writing course.
MIT's approach to communication instruction incorporates what researchers have recently learned about student writing development from a number of longitudinal studies of college writers. For students, writing is not transparent, or easily transferable as a skill from one course to another, because academic writing at the level MIT students are expected to work involves learning analytical methods, genre conventions, and modes of reasoning and argumentation that vary by discipline, from literary close readings to lab reports, scientific journal articles, and position papers. Because teaching students to write well requires both disciplinary knowledge and expertise in writing, MIT's system of communications instruction links writing advisors with disciplinary classes.
WHAT WRITING ADVISORS DO:
Writing advisors work with HASS CI classes in a variety of ways. Because each course is unique, writing advisors' roles vary, but typically they:
* read and comment on drafts, and conference with individual students
* meet individually with students or in small groups to advise students on writing for specific assignments
* lead a writing or oral communication workshop for students
* develop subject-specific pedagogical materals to help students learn to write disciplinary genres
* advise on assignment design
* advise on writing and communications pedagogy
Writing advisors work with multiple classes a semester, and faculty can expect a writing advisor to spend about 100 hours working with each class. The instructor and the advisor together choose a model of writing instruction that will best work for their class. Instructors interested in working with a writing advisor for their CI class should review the guidelines and contact Suzanne Lane (stlane@mit.edu), Associate Director of Writing Across the Curriculum.
If an instructor is interested in creating or designing a HASS CI class, or would like to obtain the designation for an existing class, s/he should contact Bette Davis (bkdavis@mit.edu) in the HASS Office for criteria and guidelines. The final application, however, would be submitted to the HASS Overview Committee for approval. |
