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WAG Integration in ENG-112:

Writing and Research Across the Disciplines

Britney Smith

English Instructor

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Agenda

  • Introduction
  • WCC Demographics
  • ENG-112 Overview
  • Relation to ENG-112 & Career Goals
    • Discipline Discovery Assignment
  • Assignment Exploration
  • Writing About Guidelines (WAGs)
  • Moodle Shell Set-Up
  • Final Presentations
  • Data Collection & Success Rates
  • Group Discussions: WAG/WAC Implementation

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Introduction

  • BA in English from ECU; MA in English from ECU
    • Beginning PhD in English Fall 2024 at ODU
  • WCC Employee – 13 years
    • 12 years teaching
  • Curriculum Focus
    • ENG-112
    • ENG-114
    • ACA-122
  • Student Centric
    • Advising & Teaching
  • Happily married 13 years
  • Lily cat
  • Lover of:
    • Reading, especially historical fiction and non-fiction
    • Mountains – Boone specifically
    • Traveling

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WCC Demographics

  • Fall 2023 Total CU Enrollment: 1,962
    • 66% Female 34% Male
    • 32% Black, 18% Hispanic, 41% White
    • 43% under 18, 30% 18-24, 22% 25-44, 4% 45-64
  • 2 Early Colleges on Campus
    • WECA & WAAT
  • 26 Degree Programs
    • Including 7 College Transfer Programs

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What do you think of when you hear “writing in the disciplines?”

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What do you think students think of when they hear “writing in the disciplines?”

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Student Responses: Spring 2024

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ENG-112�Writing & Research in the Disciplines

  • Introduces research techniques, documentation styles, and writing strategies.
  • Analyzes information and ideas and incorporates research findings into documented writing and research projects.
  • Synthesizes information from primary and secondary sources using documentation appropriate to various disciplines.

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ENG-112�Student Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion students will be able to:

  1. Move from reading and writing based on personal experience to reading and writing for academic purposes.
  2. Employ the writing process beginning with prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing.
  3. Use a research process that includes selecting a topic, articulating research questions, and using critical thinking strategies to college and interpret information.
  4. Employ primary and secondary research techniques. Locate, analyze, and use information in libraries from electronic sources.
  5. Paraphrase and summarize source material.
  6. Generate a thesis and plan of organization for composing an effective piece of research writing.
  7. Compose papers/reports that are unified, fully developed, logically organized, clearly written, and designed to engage a readers' interest and which employ the use of research material and appropriate citation.
  8. Evaluate, revise, edit, proofread, and improve compositions/reports through an individual and collaborative drafting process.
  9. Present oral reports on research projects and other assignments using appropriate formats and styles.
  10. Employ research documentation and citation techniques, using Modern Language Association (MLA), American Psychological Association (APA), or other standardized formats within the discipline.
  11. Collaborate effectively with others in shared processes of writing, inquiry, and problem solving.

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ENG-112: Career Goals and Exploration

  • Create assignments to invite career and discipline exploration
  • Introduce excitement and academic focus on future career path
  • Focus research on intended career path or future discipline
  • Use WAG guidelines to begin writing exploration and expectations within career/discipline

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ENG-112 Research Within Discipline: Major Assignments Flow Chart

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Discipline Discovery Assignment

  • Introduces students to the idea of writing within the disciplines
  • Helps them discover important aspects of their future writing in core curriculum classes related to their discipline:
    • Purpose & Audience
    • Types of Writing
    • Types of Evidence
    • Writing Conventions
    • Documentation Style
    • Terminology

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Discipline Discovery Assignment

  • Serves as referral point for entire semester
  • Directs students to WAGs from App State for guidance and completion of assignment

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Writing About Guidelines (WAG)

  • The perfect marriage for learning about writing within different disciplines
  • Introduces students to writing within their intended career
  • Helps teach students what formatting style they’ll use within their discipline (i.e. major)

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Moodle Shell Set-Up

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Final Presentation & Reflection

  • Allows students to share information they’ve learned about their future career/discipline throughout the semester
  • Last requirement of presentation asks them whether they intend to pursue original career/discipline following semester-long research
    • If no, why not?

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Results

Fall 2022

91% Success Rate

*C or better

15/23 ‘A’ (90 or higher)

Spring 2023

92% Success Rate

*C or better

16/24 ‘A’ (90 or higher)

Fall 2023

83% Success Rate

*C or better

14/24 ‘A’ (90 or higher)

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Student Feedback Prompts

  • What has been your experience with researching your future career or discipline this semester (positive or negative)? Explain.
  • Do you believe writing about your future discipline/career has made the course more enjoyable/easier or less enjoyable/more difficult?
  • How did you feel about the Writing Across Guidelines (that we used for the Discipline Discovery assignment in Week 2)? Did you find interesting information or things you already knew? Did they help or hinder your assignments in this course (i.e. the types of writing you've encountered, etc.)?

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Student Responses: Spring 2024

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Student Responses: Spring 2024 Cont.

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Group Discussion:�How can WAGs be incorporated in your classroom to promote student engagement?

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Goals Moving Forward

  • Compare data to adjunct instructors not using current career/discipline centric model
  • Incorporate further WAI elements into ENG-112; share resources with adjunct faculty
    • The Writing Process
    • Low-Stakes Writing
    • Summary & Paraphrase
    • Implementing additional diverse and inclusive material

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Questions?

 

Britney Smith

English Instructor

Wilson Community College

(252) 246-1280

besmith@wilsoncc.edu