WHAT IS THE COMMON TEXT PROGRAM?

In 2004, the English Department at the University of Massachusetts Lowell committed itself to introducing a Common Text into every first-year writing class.  For our inaugural Fall semester, we chose the text Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich; the following Spring, we selected the play Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage.  This year, the Common Text will be The Last American Man, by Elizabeth Gilbert.  We hope that through a Common Text experience, students might begin to form the bonds that will shape their learning community across the disciplines, gain a clear understanding of college-level inquiry and analysis, and forge a cultural life at the University that is based on conversations about what they are reading and learning.  In other words, the common intellectual experience of reading and analyzing these texts is intended to enhance students’ academic experience and solidify their commitment to an education at UMass Lowell. 

Interdisciplinary by nature, our two-semester College Writing sequence represents the only courses required of every undergraduate on our campus.  We have identified these courses as uniquely situated to bring us toward the following goals: 

• To emphasize and improve skills in writing, oral communication, critical and cultural analysis, and collaboration;

• To give students an opportunity to explore a theme or issue from a variety of perspectives, be they disciplinary, cultural, or political;

• To expand students' understanding of the interdisciplinary reach of literary texts by studying a play in its socio-economic and historical contexts;

• To create a sense of shared academic and cultural experience and foster a sense of community among first-year students at UML;

• To introduce students to the power of the live professional theater and expose them first-hand to the outstanding artists and the cultural community of downtown Lowell;

• To reinforce and support excellence in teaching.

In addition to course material and events aimed at our students, a main goal of the Common Text Program is to provide meaningful and enriching professional development for our full- and part-time faculty.  To this end, we have offered a training workshop in preparation for each semester at which faculty teaching the College Writing courses have come together to discuss the texts and to develop best pedagogical practices.  This strategy ensures our ability to impact our students and to make their first year experience meaningful and memorable. 

As critical thinking and communication skills are essential to students’ work in every discipline, we see this initiative as vital to their college education.  Yet, we believe that it is just as important that they have the opportunity to experience a class that is not just a discrete encounter, a course to be taken and left behind; we are inviting them, from their very first semester on campus, to see their studies in different disciplines as essentially connected. Through the Common Text Program, we hope to help energize the first-year experience by inviting students to see their academic experience at UML as deeply and provocatively interrelated with their life on campus, their wider urban community, and contemporary culture. 

In addition to teaching the Common Texts in the College Writing classes, with funding from the Office of the Provost, the Office of Academic Affairs, and The Council on Teaching, Learning and Research as Scholarship, we have planned a number of events designed to draw students into diverse discussions and explorations of the themes addressed in Nickel and Dimed and Intimate Apparel.  Our weekly film series and our open discussion on Fighting Back at Work were two examples from the Fall semester; this Spring, students will attend a professional performance of Intimate Apparel at the Merrimack Repertory Theatre here in Lowell, and will meet with the cast and crew of the play at a series of on-campus talk-backs. Furthermore, with the support of Freshman Programs, Multicultural Affairs, and the Council on Diversity and Pluralism, UML will host a lecture by playwright Lynn Nottage. 

We hope that the Common Text Program will contribute to the quality of learning and the quality of life at UML!