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John Carroll University / Academics / English / Writing Across Carroll

Mission Statement

The mission of the Writing Across Carroll initiative is to develop a culture of writing at John Carroll University.  To do so, we work with faculty to help them teach writing better by providing research-based writing instruction through resources, workshops,  consultations, and other collaborations.  We work with the First-Year Writing program and the Writing Center to promote the writing process and transfer in first-year writing courses and other courses across the university.  We promote responsible language use, including fostering critical conversations about how language is raced, classed, and gendered and, when necessary, challenge the dominance of standard edited English.  We support JCU’s Integrated Core Curriculum and its learning outcomes in written communication to assure that students will develop skills necessary to succeed in their disciplines, careers, and communities and be prepared for responsible and reflective action in a diverse and interconnected world as part of becoming men and women for others.  

Overview

Writing across the curriculum is a pedagogical movement based on the premise that students learn critical thinking best when they use writing in every course in the curriculum to actively engage in the subject matter. When students use writing as a means of inquiry and problem solving in various classes, they simultaneously learn the material and become better writers.

We connect this focus on writing as a tool of inquiry and problem solving across the university to the older, Jesuit principle of cura personalis, which emphasizes the education of “the whole person.”  Instruction in rhetoric and writing in all disciplines is a key component of this goal. 

Since the founding of the Society of Jesus by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1540, the Jesuits have been at the forefront of education in rhetoric. The Jesuits understood early that in order to persuade an audience and to spread their ideas, rhetorical skills must be taught in their schools and universities.  A defining characteristic of the ideals of Jesuit education, originally conceived in the Ratio Studiorum of 1599, is captured in the Latin phrase eloquentia perfecta, translated as “right reason expressed effectively, responsibly, and gracefully.”

Writing Across Carroll assists faculty at JCU to implement eloquentia perfecta more effectively in their courses and helps students continue to develop their own ability to write by connecting learning-to-write to learning about their discipline.