Writing Program still struggling to improve

Wharton freshman Jill Migicovsky does not like her Writing About course -- it has yet to meet her expectations, and she says she finds the instructor a bit lackluster.

"I signed up for it because it seemed very interesting in the write-up, but the professor doesn't bring anything interesting to the subject," she said. "I don't think my writing is improving significantly. Obviously, writing more is going to help you, but it's not like a groundbreaking class."

Though not necessarily indicative of sentiments across the board, Migicovsky's complaint about the quality of teaching touches on one of several areas the Writing Program has been trying to improve upon since College of Arts and Sciences Dean Richard Beeman requested an external review of the program in the fall of 2000.

"I think the overall review said that we actually do a very good job of training our students in writing, but there's a whole lot we could do," said Rebecca Bushnell, the program's acting faculty director. "That review made recommendations for the kinds of things we are now putting into practice."

In fact, Bushnell's tentative title of acting director shows one of the recommendations still unrealized-- to find a permanent director.

Last fall, the program resolved to conduct a national search for a new program director. Yet over one year later, no permanent director exists, a fact Bushnell says she attributes to unfortunate circumstances.

"We have appointed some people to do this, and they have had another administrative commitment, and so we have to find someone else," she said. "It's been a little bit of just bad luck, but we're working on finding another solution for this."

Some of the task force's other recommendations included increased involvement from faculty, a single framework for the program with 12 to 14 students per class and a mandatory instructional course for writing teachers.

Thus far, these recommendations have met mixed fates. Integrating the program -- which previously was divided up between the Writing Across the University program and the English Department -- into one general program found success.

"This year we have taken these two entities and merged them into one," Beeman said. "It is now a single writing program, and in the budget cycle last spring and summer, we integrated them budgetarily."

Class size, however, still exceeds last year's desirable quota of 12 to 14 burgeoning writers per session.

But despite falling short of their initial goal, Beeman says he sees improvement.

"We lowered the class size from 18 last year to a maximum of 16 this year," he said.

And the goal of mandatory instructional courses for all writing professors has been partially realized -- at least for graduate students who serve as instructors.

"Already this year we did substantially more training at the end of this summer, especially for our graduate student writing instructors," Beeman said. "We are moving toward a more cohesive training where not only everyone has had the same training... faculty members need to be free to shape a course as they see fit, but I do hope that we will be fully confident that everyone teaching writing courses has some already agreed upon goals."

Bushnell said she too feels that a standard training program, in addition to a heightened sense of community within the writing program, will greatly benefit everyone involved.

"You're going to have good courses and bad courses at Penn, but a writing program with a more common training experience and with a greater sense of community of instructors, we will avoid... inconsistencies," Bushnell said. "Right now we don't have just one training program."

If the graduate students are trained and knowledgeable, Wharton freshman Joseph Kiesel says he does not see a huge problem with them teaching the courses, including his own course Writing About South Asia and the Wider World.

"I think it's fine, because [my teacher is] obviously very interested and has a specialization in this particular topic and knows what she's talking about," Kiesel said. "As far as writing goes, I don't know if she's necessarily as qualified as she should be to be judging other people's writing, but I don't doubt her."

Looking ahead, Bushnell says she expects great things.

"Part of what we've talked about was creating a culture of writing that starts freshman year but goes up to senior year," Bushnell said. "That is the greatest ambition of the writing program -- to create this culture of writing at Penn."

Already, Kiesel says he has taken away some valuable knowledge from his class.

"I guess it's helped me to better interpret what I'm reading even if it's something difficult," he said.

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