WAC News
Chemistry Continues Successful TA Workshop
In fall 2025, the department of Chemistry hosted its ninth annual TA Workshop. At the event, TAs explore departmental writing abilities and criteria and practice commenting on student writing samples from the courses they’re teaching. These activities help TAs develop their ability to provide feedback that promotes student growth across iterative lab report assignments in each course and across the Chemistry curriculum. New and returning TAs and faculty are invited to attend.
This workshop model was initially developed and led by Dr. Will Pomerantz, Professor of Chemistry and former Chemistry WEC liaison. In recent years, Associate Professor and current Chemistry WEC liaison Dr. Kyle Bantz has spearheaded the workshop.
If you are interested in developing a customized TA/GI workshop in your program, reach out to your WEC consultant (existing WEC units) or apply to be a WEC unit (new eligible units).
Image description: Example student drawings of chemical structures presented to TAs in the workshop and used in Chemistry classes to help students practice refining visualizations.
Faculty Complete Weeklong Teaching with Writing Seminar
This August, 14 faculty from 11 units completed an intensive five-day workshop on writing pedagogy. Participants engaged in a backward design process of identifying learning outcomes, developing or refining a signature assignment, developing targeted sequencing and scaffolding, and refining commenting and grading practices.
Participants valued opportunities to connect with other faculty, “hear about experiences from a range of disciplines,” “look at examples of student writing,” engage in “systematic backward design,” and “learn about resources available on campus.” As a result of the seminar, they’ve made a range of changes including updating AI policies, expanding allowed assignment genres, incorporating more writing to learn (informal writing) in their classes, and “teaching writing through a process” by increasing assignment scaffolding. One participant noted, “My approach to integrating writing more fully into my teaching is shifting for the better.”
To learn about future years’ seminars, make sure you’re subscribed to our WAC Updates. You can also explore other Teaching with Writing events.
Image description: From top left moving clockwise—Iyekiyapiwiƞ Darlene St. Clair (OLPD) and Gulzhana Kuzembayeva (CEHD) (front), and Liia Butler (Computer Science and Engineering) and Adriana Uscanga (Forest Resources) (back), discuss a sample student text; Jennifer George (Family Social Science) and Hannah Ramer (Geography) (front), and May SunMin Hwang (Architecture) and Margaret Kelly (Family Social Science) (back), workshop in-class writing activities; Yasmine Telwana (Writing Studies) shows her assignment prompt to WAC Assistant Director Jessa Wood; post-it notes generated in a discussion of opportunities for scaffolding; participants discuss a reflection question with WAC Director Matt Luskey.
Math and WAC Host 2025 MAA OPEN Math Workshop
In July, School of Mathematics faculty members Mike Weimerskirch and Shelley Dougherty and WAC team member Dan Emery hosted a 2025 MAA OPEN Math Workshop titled "Fostering and Assessing Mathematical Communication Skills in Introductory-Level Courses." The four-day workshop invited 28 mathematics faculty from institutions across the country to discuss the role of writing in mathematical learning, and how incorporating brief writing and communication activities could promote greater conceptual understanding and learner confidence. In addition to the four-day workshop, the cohort of attendees are continuing to work together as they prepare to launch and assess their writing and communication assignments in the coming academic year.
Phil Barry Presents at IWAC 2025
Phil Barry, Teaching Professor in Computer Science and departmental liaison for the Writing-Enriched Curriculum, gave a talk this summer at the International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference in Fort Collins, Colorado. Phil’s presentation shared findings on a new assignment Phil designed for his Ethics and Computing class. For that assignment, students were required to use generative AI to produce a paper on ethics and computing, analyze that paper, and then write a paper reflecting on this process. The results showed a large variance in both students’ ability to use generative AI adroitly and in their ability to analyze writing produced by generative AI. Phil was joined on the panel by members of the WAC Program, Daniel Emery and Matt Luskey, along with a graduate student at UC Irvine. Phil’s assignment will be featured in a new assignment spotlight series to be launched on the WAC website in Fall 2025.
Economics Celebrates Undergraduate Writers
On March 21, the Department of Economics hosted the panel “Research and Writing by Future Economists.” The panel showcased undergraduate student writing from the department’s writing intensive courses. The panel featured winners of last year’s undergraduate student paper competition:
- First Place: Tyler Bradley, Medicaid and Mental Health: State-Level Expansion
- First Place: Zhilin Liao, Compensation Mechanism of Climate Impact on Higher Education Level: The Moderating Role of Household Electricity Consumption
- Second Place: Richard Xu, The Truth and Myth Behind Asian Americans as a Model Minority
- Third Place: Forrest Jackson, Effects of the 2004 Paid Family Leave Program on Recent Mothers in California
The presenters shared their methods and findings and offered fellow students advice for navigating the research and writing process in economics courses. The event highlighted the department’s ongoing WEC implementation work, including the student paper competition and support for writing provided by WI course faculty and writing instructors. The student papers presented at the panel exemplify the department’s desired writing abilities—accurate and purposeful writing, organization and analysis of ideas, use of sources, and technical clarity and accuracy—that were identified by department faculty through the Writing-Enriched Curriculum process.
The panel was organized by WEC liaison and Director of Undergraduate Studies Ayça Özdoğan Atabay and Senior Academic Advisor Tiffany Murphy. Undergraduate peer advisor Gabe Amore chaired the panel.
Interested in hosting a panel or paper competition? WEC can help! Reach out to your department’s WAC consultant or email [email protected] to learn more.
Jessa Wood hired as Assistant Director of Writing Across the Curriculum
We are pleased to announce the appointment of Jessa Wood, Ph.D., as Assistant Director of the University of Minnesota’s Writing Across the Curriculum Program. Jessa earned her Ph.D. (2024) and M.A. (2020) in Rhetoric & Scientific and Technical Communication from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. She is currently appointed as Associate Faculty and Undergraduate Curriculum and Assessment Specialist in Writing Studies.
Jessa will provide instructional support services to both the Teaching with Writing program (offering all faculty members and instructors programming that supports the integration of effective writing instruction into courses across all disciplinary areas) and the Writing-Enriched Curriculum program (offering departments and programs a flexible, faculty-driven model for structuring relevant writing instruction into curricular systems).
We would like to thank members of the search committee for their work on this search. Members include: Dan Emery (Writing Across the Curriculum), Matt Luskey (Writing Across the Curriculum), Joe Moses (Writing Studies), Caprice Niccoli (Department of Psychology), Mary Rogers (Department of Horticulture Science), Leslie Schiff (Microbiology and Office of Undergraduate Education), and Heidi Solomonson (Writing Across the Curriculum).
Jessa’s appointment will begin on January 13, 2025. Please join us in congratulating and welcoming her to her new role!
GenAI Explorations: Conversation with Dan Emery
Adam Brisk, Academic Technologist with ITSS ATCD UMD, and Lauren Marsh, Academic Technologist with ATSS, interviewed Dan Emery, Assistant Director of Writing Across the Curriculum. Emery collaborates with faculty to enhance learning goals through writing, and this work informs his active and insightful participation in discussions about GenAI at the UMN.
The University of Minnesota’s Writing Across the Curriculum Program Wins Two International Awards
The University of Minnesota’s Writing Across the Curriculum Program has received international recognition by winning two prestigious awards. The first is the 2023 Exemplary Enduring Program Award, which was announced at the Sixteenth International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference at Clemson University. Bestowed jointly by the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum and the WAC Clearinghouse, the Enduring Program Award is presented to one WAC Program that has operated for at least 11 years and is recognized for extraordinary achievements in establishing, maintaining, and sustaining effective WAC programming. The selection committee noted that the University’s 35-year-old Writing Across the Curriculum Program is doing more than supporting writing across the curriculum; it is making shifts to the culture of writing on campus and beyond—having impact at a broad scale.” The WAC team shares the honor of this award with the many faculty members and instructors who serve as Faculty Liaisons in its WEC Program, for with the Office of Undergraduate Education, for its steadfast support of effective writing and writing instruction.
The second award is the 2021 Council of Writing Program Administrators Best Book Award for Writing Enriched Curricula: Models of Faculty-Driven and Departmental Transformation, edited by Pamela Flash and Chris Anson. Along with editorial and chapter contributions from Flash, the book also includes a chapter from Assistant Directors Matthew Luskey and Daniel Emery. The book also received an honorable mention for the 2023 Best Edited Collection on Writing Across the Curriculum.