A Response to Back to the Future?

Engage in a conversation with faculty on the topic of student writing, and it is not uncommon to hear complaints about the level of skill they are seeing in student work. I could not agree more strongly with Grant’s assertion that developing students’ skills in writing cannot be limited to a single course, remedial or otherwise, which students are required to take as part of their college coursework. If we want students to learn to write well and develop as writers, experiences in writing need to be integrated throughout the curriculum. How can institutions of higher education go about working to create better writing? I would suggest two things—first, department-wide and campus-wide conversations about writing and second, faculty development resources to provide strategies for incorporating writing into coursework and providing students with feedback on their writing