Improving Transfer Student Writing Success with Upper Division Rhetoric-Based Writing Courses

FAIN: AC-295659-24

CUNY Research Foundation, John Jay College (New York, NY 10019-1007)
Tim McCormack (Project Director: May 2023 to present)
Kim Nachtigal Liao (Co Project Director: June 2023 to present)

A two-year humanities initiative to expand curricular offerings in rhetoric-based writing for transfer students.

The Vertical Writing Program at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (a CUNY senior college, HSI, and MSI) proposes a two-year humanities initiative to expand curricular offerings in rhetoric-based writing for transfer students, a population identified in our assessment data as performing poorly in research-based academic writing. This humanities-driven project would expand upon an existing pilot of four upper-division “Writing in the Disciplines” (WID) courses: Writing in Humanities, Writing in Social Sciences, Technical Writing in Computer Science and Math, and Writing in Criminal Justice. Development of an upper-division writing program based in rhetoric would include curriculum design, faculty development, a case study of transfer students’ ability to write in increasingly complex contexts, and outcomes assessment. This coherent curriculum will improve transfer student academic and career success to address COVID-19 learning loss and its exacerbated effect on minority students.