Writing across the curriculum: Where does Horticultural Science fit in?

In Fall 1999, the University of Minnesota implemented a writing-intensive (WI) requirement for undergraduates. As part of the requirement, students must take one upper-division WI course in their major. As of Spring 2002, the environmental horticulture major through the Department of Horticultural Science had only one WI course in its entire curriculum. Teaching faculty were interviewed and syllabi were reviewed to gather information on what types of writing are currently being assigned and to discuss where more WI courses should be placed in the environmental horticulture curriculum in the future. These surveys and interviews revealed that the majority of classes require formal writing and that the majority of the faculty review or are willing to review a draft of an assignment, two key components of the WI requirement. Informal writing assignments are less common, indicating a deficient area of the curriculum. With slight modifications, many classes in the enviroumental horticulture curriculum can meet the requirements to become designated as WI. Faculty agreed that WI courses should be placed in upper-level, smaller classes that place less emphasis on production techniques or plant identification.