Courses designated as Writing in the Disciplines (WID) have proliferated in recent years. As you know, writing promotes the development of critical thinking, communication, and other higher-order cognitive skills. The logic underlying WID courses is the notion that, no matter what a student's major, writing is fundamental to how they achieve their work and life goals. The growing prevalence of WID courses attests to this collective realization on college campuses.

However, WID courses pose a unique grading challenge, in that feedback and scoring must address the student's mastery of both the content in the discipline and their writing ability. Most faculty, besides those trained to teach writing, feel ill-equipped to provide feedback on and score the writing-specific aspects of student work. Conversely, professors trained in evaluating writing are ill-equipped to provide feedback on and score the discipline-specific aspects of student work. This dual grading burden is made more acute by the fact that WID courses have, rightly, become a graduation requirement in most disciplines.

Our Virtual-TA service addresses this dual-grading challenge, with dedicated graders who have graduate degrees in the discipline and are trained to evaluate writing.