Literacy Practices Across the Curriculum

Dr. John Wittman; Department of English

Purpose

• To explore to what extent courses in the writing program had on student writing across the curriculum

• To determine how students’ literacy practices developed during their tenure as CSU Stanislaus students

• To better align literacy practice across the curriculum

Grounded Theory• Data

– Student interviews– Faculty interviews– Writing samples (ENGL 1000 to WP courses)

• Analysis– Coding with MaxQDA: open, axial, and selective – Rubric Analysis: CWPA and Frameworks– Source Analysis; Critical Thinking

• Fall 2011; Various graduate students (CEGE)

Source Analysis

Data Coding

Green – Plagiarism

Purple – Patchwriting

Blue – Quoting

Red – Student’s own words (explication, when needed)

Every individual respects the values and traditions of

India. Since Indians respected their culture, they were

also treated with respect… In the essay, Indian boyhood

by Charles Eastman, Charles talks about where he grew

up and what the society and his family expected of him.

He was given a role that he had to live up to in order to

make his family and society happy. Charles Eastman said

that in India “the boys were trained in the skills of the

hunter and warrior while girls learned to cook. To make

clothing, and to build shelter (111). In America, boys and

girls do not have a set role that the society expects of the

person.

Regardless of where the UV rays are coming from, they are

still dangerous. Tanning beds have higher overall levels of UV

rays than the sun on a typical day, so the exposure times are

shorter than the average session spent in the sun to achieve

the same amount of tan. Kevin Cooper, professor and chair of

the department of dermatology at Case Western Reserve

University was quoted as saying “I am not satisfied with the

message that burning is bad, but tanning is good. There’s no

way you can get a tan without damaging the skin, that’s what

the tan is” (Tanning Beds and Cancer). Kevin’s claim makes it

clear for anyone to see that tanning beds are in fact not

something to be used. The fifteen minutes a person spent in a

tanning bed is equivalent to almost if not more than three

hours in the sun. This is what mainly increases the risk of

having multiple types of harmful effects.

Speaking on terms of the whole world, facebook is actually extremely

popular. If you didn’t know already, seventy percent of active facebook users

don’t live in the United States. This is an incredibly large percentage and I was

actually surprised that most of the users weren’t United States citizens. In this

perspective, facebook is a great resource for, let’s say, businesses trying to get

some publicity, individuals trying to become famous, or even for the Arab

protestors. “Many have called, via Facebook, for the need to organize a

peaceful protest in the capital Nouakchot against deteriorating economic and

social conditions” (Friday protests rage across Arab World). It’s also a way for

anyone in the army to keep in touch with their families.

Lessons Learned

Students are not critically reading sources:

• that students are patchwriting (changing sources only slightly and passing the writing off as their own)

• selecting poor sources (“Tanning” article from buysteriods.net)

• plagiarizing several sources in a single paper (which is often less than three pages itself)

• completely mischaracterizing sources and quote mining

End Result

• Trading one functional idea of writing (MLA format, 5 paragraph essay) for another (organization, transitions, etc.)

• Ceiling to academic literacy—growth slows as functional/conventional strategies are obtained

• No deep engagement with sources

• GE courses do not overlap in content or curriculum

Intervention Protocol

• Development of a critical reading curriculum

• Discipline specific pathways—nursing students in ENGL 1001

• Negotiating (humanities) disciplinary needs with content from other fields