Snapshots from Social Work 398, 384/584, 522 – Writing-Enriched Courses
By: Dr. Susan Sarnoff

All of my courses are writing-enriched, although not all of these courses will fulfill General Education Requirements for Writing-Enriched courses, only because some of them incorporate another General Education priority, and are not permitted to address more than one. Following are scenarios about how I approach writing enrichment in each course:

SW 398: Social Work Practice III (4 credits)
This course is a required course in the undergraduate program; it constitutes the final practice course in the program, and also integrates the last portion of a three-course research project.

Student assignments for the course include:

1.)          An “In Box” style grant proposal project, in which students submit a section of the proposal over six sessions, receiving feedback and submitting revised materials with subsequent submissions throughout the course, resubmitting a final proposal at the end of the quarter.

2.)          A similarly styled completion of a research project, in which students submit a summary of their data collection and analysis, then a draft data report, receive feedback, and resubmit a final report at the end of the quarter.

3.)          Students also prepare a poster of their research findings for an end-of quarter research poster session, at which students are expected to discuss their research with colleagues, faculty and field instructors.

For both the grant proposal and research assignments I have maximum page lengths, because I know that funders and reviewers have limited time to review proposals and reports and appreciate documents that are brief and to the point. I also require that students depict data in tables and charts and depict other complex content (layout of physical space, organizational charts) in the clearest ways possible. I do not count revisions as additional pages of work, because doing so penalizes students who get it right the first time around. Students are unlikely to complete these projects in fewer than 15 pages, counting the poster as a single page; however, most students submit substantially more pages to me in order to synthesize them to the 15 or so strong pages turned in at the end of the quarter.

SW 384/584: Social Welfare Law (4/5 credits)
This course is an elective course double-listed for delivery to both undergraduate and graduate students.

I am just in the process of redesigning Social Welfare Law to incorporate a Service Learning component. That component will require that students develop a Resource Guide around a specific set of client needs related to the course. The students will turn in numerous drafts, and a final version at the end.

Prior to the redesign, the course required weekly discussion question responses and a lengthy final paper. I distribute discussion questions the week prior to their due date, all relate to the course readings the students are assigned during the subsequent week. Undergraduate students are required to respond to one, and graduate students to two, discussion questions. Response must integrate course readings and may integrate outside reading and other information. They must be at least 500 words in length. A second lengthy paper (8 pages undergraduate, 12 pages graduate) is assigned at the beginning of the course and due at the end. That paper enables students to choose one group discussion in the course that is of particular interest to them, then review how the law has evolved with regard to that group, the means by which the law changed when it did, significant cases that affected the group and aspects that are currently in contention. Graduate students are also required to summarize the significant Ohio and federal law relevant to the group. Students are invited to submit draft papers as often as they wish, they are required to submit a topic, an outline and a bibliography at points during the course, which demonstrates to me that they are working on their paper and enable me to steer them if they are off topic or are unable to locate sufficient, appropriate resources.

SW 522: Social Welfare Policy and Services I (4 credits)
This course is a required course in the graduate program; it constitutes the first social policy courses in the program.

This course requires three short essays (of roughly five pages each) and one large term paper. Students are required only to submit the entire essays, although they are encouraged to complete them early and submit drafts fore review. They also submit a topic, bibliography and outline of their final paper on defined due dates throughout the quarter, receiving feedback and guidance as needed, then at the end of the quarter submit a final paper, of roughly 20 pages, again with the ability to submit drafts for comments earlier.