Northern Arizona University

These are the guidelines from the Liberal Studies Committee for faculty and departments wishing to submit courses that will meet the Junior Level Writing Requirement. Submitted syllabi should articulate how these guidelines will be met. In addition, all courses submitted to the Committee must be accompanied by the *Updated* Liberal Studies Syllabus Proposal Form.

1. Writing skills will be explicitly addressed and worked on in this class. This means that the syllabus should include, but does not need to be limited to, a statement of how writing is incorporated into this course in relation to student progress and work within the/a discipline.
2. Students should produce 20 pages of revised, multiple draft prose.
3. These courses must be at the 300 level.
4. Classes that meet the junior level writing expectation should be capped at 25.
5. Syllabi for these courses should follow the approved University Curriculum Committee format.

The Liberal Studies Committee will be looking at syllabi for evidence of these writing guidelines only.

We are aware that not all faculty teaching at NAU will initially be comfortable teaching the Junior Level Requirement, but we believe that faculty across campus and in many disciplines can do a great deal to help students develop their own writing skills. Faculty, drawing on their own experience as writers, can help students understand conventions in their own field, help them think about how to revise more effectively, and how to address key issues that are raised by their particular discipline.

Designation for Junior Level Writing Courses

All courses that meet the junior level writing requirement will have a "W" designation. This designation will appear in the catalogue, the course schedule, and on student transcripts. Departments can approach this designation in several ways:

• Departments may create courses that are parallel to existing courses, but carry a "W" designation on course schedules and student transcripts. For example, if the English Department currently offers a course ENG XXX they would submit a new course to UCC and the Liberal Studies Committee as ENG XXXW. This course would contain the same content as ENG XXX but would also include the elements to have it serve as a junior level writing requirement.
• Alternatively, departments may create new courses that have the XXXW designation and use an altogether new number. In this instance, there would be no content overlap between the XXXW course and other courses in the same department.

The Liberal Studies and Assessment Office will work with UCC to ensure that UCC is not an obstacle in creating the parallel courses.

Additional Information Regarding Junior Level Writing Courses

In developing courses that meet the junior level writing requirement, major departments have two options:

1. they may offer one or more courses within the department and require that their majors take one of these courses to meet the junior level writing requirement; or
2. they may offer one or more courses within the department as well as designate courses offered by other departments that will also meet the junior level writing requirement for the major.

If a major department chooses the second option, they should check with those other departments to ensure that there are adequate resources to meet the demand.

As the Liberal Studies Committee approves courses for the Junior Level Writing Requirement, we will notify all departments of those approvals. Here is the current list of

approved Junior Level Writing courses.