From basic sciences to Al-Jazeera
Writing round table: faculty from across Education City and beyond
met at WCMC-Q to discuss 'writing in the disciplines', April 20.
The introduction of First-Year Writing Seminars into WCMC-Q’s pre-medical curriculum, which is otherwise dominated by “heavy duty science,” has had a big impact on faculty and, more particularly, on pre-medical students, said Associate Dean for Pre-medical Education, Dr. David Robertshaw, as he opened a recent meeting at WCMC-Q.
His audience comprised some 20 participants from institutions in Education City. They gathered late April for a writing round table, the third in a series that was initiated last spring by Professor Mary Ann Rishel, coordinator of the writing seminars at WCMC-Q. The faculty from Education City were joined by colleagues from CNA-Q and by a faculty member of Georgetown School of Foreign Service in Qatar who also teaches at Qatar University.
Writing classes are an integral part of students’ experience in Education City institutions, whether their programs of study are primarily in sciences basic to medicine, engineering disciplines or graphic design (among others).
April’s event provided an important opportunity for faculty to exchange experiences and ideas on best practice. With the focus on writing in the disciplines, it followed previous round table discussions on writing in the global classroom, held at WCMC-Q in spring 2005, and on writing centers, held at Texas A&M University at Qatar last fall.
Director of First-Year Writing Seminars at Cornell University, and course director for the seminars at WCMC-Q, Dr. Katherine Gottschalk, gave an overview of Cornell’s pioneering work in teaching writing in the disciplines. She discussed some of the challenges of preparing faculty in diverse specialties to teach writing, and went on to describe the Cornell approach of giving students sequenced assignments that build up a portfolio of writing over time.
Mary Gilliland, visiting faculty in the Pre-medical Program this semester, pursued the theme of subject-specific writing in her presentation on the work of writing tutors at Cornell. As director of the Writing Walk-in Service, Gilliland has many years’ experience in this approach to writing, and in the most effective ways for faculty from across the disciplines to work with students.
The round table, led by Professor Mary Ann Rishel, provided an
opportunity to exchange experiences and offer new solutions to
current challenges.
There was considerable interest in a presentation by Darlene Everhart, writing tutor at Carnegie Mellon-Qatar, who last year custom-built a syllabus for freshmen to replace the more conventional content of the “Interpretation and Argument” course offered at the Pittsburgh campus, with its material by Marx, Kafka and others.
Titled: A war of words: The US and Arab news media, Everhart’s syllabus included analysis of media ownership and the practice of journalism. Her class also researched the Arabic media and went on a field trip to Al-Jazeera satellite channel offices in Doha. The course caught the students’ imagination, she reported, eliciting “very mature engagement,” and positive evaluation of the experience.
Participants at the round table went on to discuss ways of encouraging and guiding students as they approach a variety of writing tasks from coursework to personal statements; and to brainstorm ways to help them build up their skills gradually, develop confidence in their own judgment and produce original work based on critical reading of sources.
Mary Ann Rishel stated that the round table offered an invaluable discussion for future directions in writing across the disciplines and that colleagues in other schools are already planning additional round tables for the coming year.
