Teaching, Assigning, and Grading Writing: Ugh!

It is relatively common to hear complaints from faculty (and employers) about the writing skills (or lack thereof) of our students and recent graduates. In 2010, Valparaiso University began implementing a university-wide writing initiative to improve the teaching of writing across and within the disciplines. While the Valpo meteorology program has long had a large number of required writing assignments there had been only minimal intentionality in assignment design and formal teaching of writing within the meteorological context. As a result, during the spring 2016 semester a one-credit seminar, titled “Scientific Writing in Meteorology”, was offered in conjunction with the major junior-level atmospheric dynamics course literature review assignment. Additionally, the faculty members teaching the scientific writing and dynamics courses took a university writing seminar conducted by the University Director of Writing to aid in further development of teaching writing within our discipline. The success and challenges of teaching writing from this experience will be discussed, as well as how we envision updating the teaching and assigning of writing throughout our curriculum.