Righting CAS writing story

I would like to thank The Daily Free Press for its detailed and largely accurate coverage of the new College of Arts and Sciences Writing Program and the changes in the writing requirement. Your reporter, Jon Couture, did a good job making sense of an important and complex story.

Because complete accuracy is essential in any article that describes changes in college degree requirements, please allow me to make a few small corrections. Your article states that “for science students, the only literature they’ll encounter will be in a meaningful course.” This is rather muddled. Science-bound students, like all other students in CAS, will have the opportunity to satisfy both semesters of their writing requirement by enrolling in writing seminars whose topics interest them. All seminars will be “literature-based” because they will emphasize readings of enduring intellectual and aesthetic value. The topics for writing seminars will span the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. Divisional Studies requirements (HU, SS, NS, MCS) remain in effect for all CAS students outside the Core Curriculum.

Core Curriculum students satisfy the first semester of the writing requirement (WR 100) by completing the first-year humanities sequence; Core Curriculum students who complete either the humanities or the social sciences sequence in the second year will satisfy the WR 150 requirement.

Writing seminars will focus on important themes, topics and questions in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. The seminars will be “literature-based”; that is, focused on readings of enduring intellectual and aesthetic value. WR 100 will stress the comprehension and critical analysis of primary works; WR 150 continues the study of important primary works but adds a concentration upon library and Internet research.

With regard to the new CAS Writing Center, I’d like to emphasize that undergraduate writing tutors will make up a small portion of our tutorial staff. Undergraduate writing fellows, selected through a competition we will hold each spring, will receive a full month of supervised training before tutoring students. The rest of the tutorial staff will be made up of preceptors and lecturers in the writing program. Your article indicates that tutorials will not be mandatory. Some students will be required to enroll in a mandatory tutorial course (WR 095) if their scores on the writing assessment (BUWA) indicate the need for intensive, one-on-one assistance. Requiring mandatory tutorials of the weakest writers is another sign of the commitment the college has made to raising the level of writing in its entire student body.

Thank you again for alerting Boston University students to these important changes in the college. Readers who have specific questions about the new writing program are welcome to contact me directly.

Michael Prince

Director

CAS Writing Program