Writing Intensive-Courses (WIC) as the next step of Weaving Writing Back into the Curriculum in an Online Graduate Nursing Education Program

Effective written communication is an essential component to success in a graduate nursing education program.  Students at this University used to begin their academic program of study with a written communications course, followed by subsequent courses with academic and scholarly written assignments.  Gradually, over the past decade, faculty removed the majority of these scholarly assignments and replaced them with non-scholarly writing assignments, or assignments that did not require writing at all.

With the prospect of a major curriculum revision (from MSN to DNP) on the horizon, faculty examined the feasibility and necessity of re-introducing writing as a component of the graduate education program (Writing Across the Curriculum).  It was first established that faculty perceptions of student writing ability were in line with the actual ability of the students (Voss & Knestrick, 2011).  The next step was to develop a standard rubric to assess academic and scholarly writing —using exemplars from the faculty (Voss & Knestrick, 2012). The third step was to determine which courses in the new curriculum should be designated as writing-intensive.  This first required a definition of what constitutes a writing-intensive course.  This presentation will discuss why writing-intensive courses are useful for student learning, and define the five hallmarks of a writing-intensive course.  Examples of writing assignments will be provided.