faculty

Constructing a Seminar
Writing in the Seminars


Recommended Guidelines

Richard J. Light (Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds [Harvard, 2001] , p. 55) emphasizes the value of repeated writing experiences, noting that "[t]he relationship between the amount of writing for a course and students' level of engagement - whether that engagement is measured by time spent on the course, or the intellectual challenge it presents, or students' level of interest in it - is stronger than the relationship between the students' engagement and any other course characteristic. It is stronger than the relation between students' engagement and their impressions of their professor. It is far stronger than the relationship between level of engagement and why a student takes a course .." What follows is not a prescriptive definition of writing in the Seminars - recognizing that faculty and, indeed, disciplines approach writing in various ways - but some general approaches that capture the spirit of the CEPP legislation that created the First-Year Experience. The Scribner Seminars provide a transitional course for first-semester students, both to college and to academic writing. In these seminars students will experience their first of many opportunities to communicate their ideas in writing. Accordingly, we recommend that

  • students have repeated writing experiences of one-, two-, and/or three-five page writing assignments throughout the Seminars with a suggested total of 10-20 pages; these assignments may be in addition to longer writing (particularly final) projects;
  • students receive feedback from the faculty on these assignments - in writing and/or in small group or one-on-one tutorials; faculty may choose to employ peer critiques of student writing as well;
  • students have the opportunity to revise some of their writing. The faculty can choose to play an active role in the revision process, or, conversely, the faculty could require the students to take their written work to the Writing Center, revise and then submit to the faculty the first and final drafts of their work;
  • since all students will receive a copy of The Skidmore Guide to Writing, the faculty list the Guide on the syllabus and provide the students with information about the Writing Center;
  • peer mentors with strong writing skills and/or Writing Center tutors can also guide students to effective writing.
These suggested approaches to student writing are based upon the Goals and Communication Skills laid out in the CEPP legislation of October 1, 2004.


The Seminars: Goals

The unifying component of the first-year seminars is a set of goals featured within each course. These goals seek to elucidate the types of questions and levels of investigation students will embark upon in the seminars. Each FYS will include the following goals in the course syllabus: This course will introduce students to disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives on [the course topic]. Besides being a course about [the course topic], this is a course about knowing, particularly about ways to identify problems, formulate productive questions, and go about answering those questions. Students in this course will demonstrate the ability to

  • distinguish among, and formulate, the types of questions asked by different disciplines
  • read critically, and gather and interpret evidence
  • distinguish among the evidence and methodologies appropriate to different disciplines
  • consider and address complexities and ambiguities
  • develop the habit of mind of making connections among ideas
  • recognize choices, examine assumptions and take a skeptical stance
  • formulate conclusions based upon evidence
  • communicate those ideas to others both orally and in writing
  • relate the results to each student's educational goals

Communication Skills

The seminars will help students understand the conventions of academic writing and oral presentations. Students will respond to assignments that generate discovery through writing, reading critically and analytically, and communicating orally. Drafting and revising will help students strengthen their writing skills. During the FYS, students will demonstrate the ability to

  • analyze ideas and formulate questions
  • focus an essay or presentation with a thesis or main idea
  • organize ideas logically and with appropriate transitions
  • support assertions with evidence
  • revise their own work with attention to clarity and correctness.

Students will be introduced to conventions of documentation and understand the purposes of using sources and the need to uphold standards of academic integrity. Scribner Library will be an important partner in this endeavor, providing resources and education on information literacy and research skills. The First-Year Experience thus begins to establish an atmosphere of intellectual engagement that will continue beyond the student's first year and throughout his or her career at Skidmore. These recommended guidelines for faculty expectations of, and student work in, expository writing in the Scribner Seminars, derive from the Academic Vision Statement of 2003/4; the Curriculum Committee's "Guidelines for a Scribner Seminar"; and the two explicit statements about student writing in the Seminars in the CEPP legislation of October 1, 2004 - "The Seminars: Goals" and "Communication Skills."