The UWC is currently accepting nominations for the second annual University Writing Center Teaching Award. The $3,000 prize will be given to a W course instructor who approaches the teaching of writing with both a spirit of innovation and a commitment to excellence.

W course instructors (those with an approved W course that has been taught in at least one semester) may be nominated by colleagues, departments, or colleges. Instructors may also nominate themselves. Applications should include:

• a letter of nomination explaining the instructor’s contribution to the development of W courses in the college or department;
• a syllabus demonstrating the integration of writing into the course;
• a statement by the nominee about the motivation for the course, as well as a discussion of the course’s successes and shortcomings; and
• samples of student writing including instructor feedback.

A faculty committee will select the winner. Nominations are due to the Center for Teaching Excellence on or before Aug. 18. Click to http://writingcenter.tamu.edu/faculty/teachingaward for more information about the award, the application process, and a profile of the first winner.

Situation Critical: Good thinking can come from better writing

Writing is often regarded as a highly useful tool for developing students’ critical thinking skills—and rightly so—but assigning more writing isn’t in and of itself enough to improve student’s critical acumen. To foster critical thinking, instructors need to keep cognitive goals in mind at every step of the teaching process.

The term “critical thinking” has been variously defined by researchers, but in general refers to careful, judicious thinking that questions the relevance of facts, the validity of sources, and the logic of conclusions. Critical thinkers can identify patterns, apply information, draw conclusions, and make recommendations—in short, the abilities expected of college graduates.

Faculty members (left to right) Joan Mileski, William McMullen and Joselito Estrada are teaching 400-level W courses in maritime administration and maritime transportation at Texas A&M's campus in Galveston. They are encouraged by their industry's positive response to the writing skills their students are taking into jobs.

Word travels fast on the Texas A&M campus in Galveston. Just ask Joan Mileski, an associate professor in the Department of Maritime Administration. Students who took Mileski’s W course last year found that recruiters were impressed by Galveston students’ writing skills. And it didn’t take long for those students’ peers to find out that W courses were paying off for grads in the job market.

“Industry has become aware that we are doing this,” Mileski said of the W courses. “The students groan and moan when taking the course, but they come back and say that it was really valuable.”

Writing skills are a top priority for maritime firms looking to hire, Mileski and her colleagues recently learned after the department conducted a survey of industry executives. “The response was, ‘We don’t care about jargon — just let them write well,’” Mileski said. That expectation applies both to students’ ability to write alone and their ability to collaborate and write in teams, she said.

So Mileski, whose research is on international management, takes those industry needs into consideration in teaching her W course on the economics of transportation, MARA 424. Much of her students’ learning is based on case studies — real-world practicum about economic issues facing maritime transportation.

“Open up the world to your students.” That’s one key piece of advice offered by Colorado State University Professor Mike Palmquist during his recent workshop at Texas A&M entitled “Click on This: E-Resources to Enhance Writing Instruction.”

For Palmquist, a professor of English who has been teaching with computers since the mid 1980s, one of technology’s great benefits to students is that it allows them to contribute to real-life discussions that would never have been accessible to them without the Internet. Palmquist says having students join listservs or discussion forums allows them to expand their awareness of the dialogues at the heart of their academic discipline.