Location: WAC Home > Events & News >   Author: Bonnie Smith Description: Particularly in his course “Global Change: Atmospheric Issues and Problems,” it's evident that John Kutzbach really understands how to get students motivated about writing in his discipline.   John Kutzbach: International Award Winner, Well-Loved Comm-B Professor   Lately, the most dazzling thing one hears about John Kutzbach, Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and Environmental Studies and Director of UW’s Center for Climatic Research, is that the European Geophysical Society just awarded him with the prestigious Milankovitch Medal for his contributions to understanding the causes of climate change. But after talking with Kutzbach about his course “Global Change: Atmospheric Issues and Problems,” in which students may elect to do more writing assignments and make the course satisfy their Comm-B requirement, it’s evident that ’s also made considerable contributions to understanding how to get students motivated about writing in his discipline. Long before UW’s Comm-B requirement existed, Kutzbach recognized his students were coming to his course with less-than-sophisticated research skills, so he incorporated a research unit and long paper into his courses. All students in the “Global Change” course devise and write up extended research projects, and the Comm-B students write short papers critiquing media treatments of environmental issues in addition to a proposal for the research project and several drafts of the final paper. Students get to choose their audience for the research paper; some write to their professor or classmates, and some opt to write for a K-12 audience. And Kutzbach has found that with the Comm-B students who are required to critique the research project as the semester goes along, it takes awhile for peer review to catch on, but when it does, students are so excited that it’s hard to end review sessions. “When they get to know each other, become a community, and feel comfortable with each other, peer review works. As the semester goes on, I have to grab stuff away from some students because they want to talk so much.” Aside from the pesky task of dealing with over-exuberant peer reviewers, Kutzbach finds that helping students narrow their initial research idea into a do-able project is his biggest chore as a writing teacher. But it’s a chore he does cheerfully and well; Kutzbach and his students leave a long email trail of questions and ideas about their project, and he encourages them to do something hands-on like designing and conducting a survey of students in dorms and apartments and how their electricity usage differs. Students often get carried away with their projects and spend what Kutzbach deems “too much” time on them. “I’ve had to say, ‘oh, you’ve done enough. You must have some other classes.’” Kutzbach maintains it’s hard for him to put his finger on the problems and challenges of teaching writing. “I see the value [in integrating writing into a course] so much that it’s a privilege to work with people and have them be better writers and communicators. The hardest thing is finding a student who doesn’t see value in putting blood, sweat and tears into improving communication skills, but that doesn’t happen very often.” “It doesn’t bother me,” Kutzbach goes on, “if they don’t know about how to use sources or how to write topic sentences. I can teach them how to do those things. I find that if you go through things with a student carefully, they’ll understand.” As for advice for faculty thinking of designating their course as Comm-B?Kutzbach recommends faculty “start small. Arrange a section and put a limit on it, then decide how many students you can deal with. If we could have a large section of the faculty willing to work with a small number of students, we’d see a big difference.” Kutzbach’s “Global Change” course is small. This semester, 8 out of 25 students elected to make the course Comm-B.