Write or Wrong?
QUOTE/UNQUOTE "For one day, a student populace reared in an age of strict rales and regulations is allowed to experience the unruly, the unregulated and, much to the chagrin of our elders, the unsafe." THE DARTMOUTH EDITORIAL BOARD LAMENTING THE END OF TUBESTOCK IN A MARCH 3 EDITORIAL
THE DEBATE ABOUT DECLINING writing skills among students and recent grads has moved beyond whether or not Dartmouth students actually need help with writing. Now it's a matter of which approach is best. In one corner we have the Student Center for Research, Writing and Information Technology (RWIT), launched two years ago to replace the composition center and provide an integrated approach to helping students with the multimedia presentations increasingly required of them. In the If other corner are supporters of the departmental editing program (DEP), funded by Hanover businessman and frequent College critic Joe Asch '79, who says that RWIT's student tutors cannot achieve after four days of training what former longtime high school English teachers are accomplishing as editors based in specific departments. Since 1998 he's put his money where his mouth is: $500,000 worth—an expense he had hoped the College would absorb to keep DEP alive going forward. For its part, the College has declined to take on the additional financial burden, citing staffing and space issues as well as cost.
acknowledgment that critical thinking and writing skills are necessary across all majors. In many of the writing classes most of the reading is still literary. However, says Cormen, the program is "steadily integrating many nonliterary sources into the sections and increasing the concentration on writing persuasive arguments." And while the tutors' focus remains the same as it did in the days of the composition center, "We focus on making the paper readable to the common man," says RWIT tutor Kacy Gordon '06. Tutors concentrate on editing structure and style rather than substance, which is considered the responsibility of the student. RWIT is not only better equipping students for multimedia projects but also improving basic writing skills. "Multimedia projects help some students find their voice," says Stephanie Boone, director of student RWIT, a collaboration among the library Jones Media Center and the former composition center, is directed by computer science professor Tom Cormen, signaling RWIT's cross-disciplinary approach. First-year classes English 2,3 and 5 were changed to Writing 2,3 and 5 and are now taught by faculty from a variety of departments rather than by English professors exclusively. The emphasis of these introductory classes has changed from literature to persuasive writing—an writing support. "Success with non-traditional forms of expression can give confidence and can help poor writers to see the writing process in a new light."
Asch's objections to RWIT are the same as those he voiced about the composition center in 1998, when he started his DEP program after discussing the issue with art history professor Joy Kenseth. DEP started with one tutor, or editor, in the art history department before expanding in 2000 and 2003 with editors in the religion and mathematics departments. Each editor works exclusively with one department and its faculty; each focuses on one or two specific classes per term but is available to all students taking classes in that department. The editors also work closely with students writing honors theses. Because DEP editors work specifically with one department, they are often familiar with both the course material and the professors' preferred style of writing—and they stick around rather than taking a term off or graduating. This is a difference between them and RWIT tutors, who have a high rate of turnover and their own full course loads and have to deal with student writers and papers from all academic departments. Art history editor lona McAulay, who came to the College after teaching AP high school English for 34 years, says that the true value of DEP became clear to her recently when a RWIT tutor sought her help with an essay.
Supporters of both programs agree that in a perfect world, RWIT would continue and every department that wanted one would have a departmental editor. All that's missing is the money to make this happen. Amid pleas from students and faculty, Asch says he may continue funding DEP, but the future of the program is presently in limbo.
What seems clear is that these two programs have different methods but a similar goal: to improve student writing. Evaluating their success is a bit murkier. Both programs rely mainly on student and faculty evaluations, which are generally overwhelmingly positive for both programs. Cormen says that this is most likely because when professors—who have a choice between requesting a writing assistant for their classes or simply referring students to the RWIT tutors are unhappy with the program, they are more likely to "vote with their feet" than complain.
"So far there's no gold standard for assessing these types of writing programs. It's hard to distill why a students writing has improved," says dean of humanities Lenore Grenoble. "The faculty looked at the departmental editing program and decided it wasn't a priority at this time," she says. "They recognize that DEP has some real strengths and parts of the program might be adopted and integrated over time. But right now we re really happy with the way RWIT and the writing program are evolving."
