THE BEHAVIORS AND ATTITUDES OF THE NON-ENGLISH FACULTY AT YORK COLLEGE TOWARD THE TEACHING OF WRITING (NEBRASKA)

This study examined the behaviors and attitudes of the non-English faculty at York College toward the teaching of writing in their classrooms. Two survey instruments were administered to two different populations: the non-English faculty and York College students. The data collected was compiled for each population by academic groups: Bible--freshman level, Bible--sophomore level, humanities, natural sciences and social sciences in order to compare and determine any differences among the groups on any one section of the questionnaire. I discovered significant differences in perception in the areas of the use of content mastery as primary writing task, and written response behaviors of faculty in evaluation. Several areas showed strong agreement: faculty rarely make any use of prewriting activities, of in-class writing assignments, of revising/editing strategies, or of publication/display of student writing. Other findings indicate that faculty serve as the sole audience and the sole evaluator of student writing. Faculty take a very passive role in writing instruction, rarely making themselves available for help in the composing process. Faculty comments on papers were limited to the marking of grammatical and mechanical errors in student writing. No editing comments were used by faculty, and no faculty allowed a student to revise a paper after being evaluated by the faculty member. In most classes, writing was used as another way to evaluate content mastery, not as a way to encourage learning. Faculty did indicate a strong interest in a cross-curriculum writing program at York College and a desire for further training in writing instruction