A Brief History of Writing Instruction at MCPHS

1867

The first students matriculate at MCP, and each must produce a thesis as a requirement for graduation.

1872 - 1873

The college catalogue describes the thesis requirement as "an original dissertation, or thesis, upon some subject of pharmacy, materia medica, chemistry, or one of the branches of science closely connected therewith, which shall be written with neatness and accuracy."

1875 - 1876

Written examinations are common teaching technique. These timed exams are "conducted in writing by the professor in each department." An example question from the course in Materia Medica and Botany is, "Write all you have time to about Cinchona."

1878 - 1879

After several years of warnings, the college catalogue of 1878-79 announces that passing a "preliminary examination" would be required of entering students and that "subjects for examination for the present year are Reading, Writing, Spelling, and Arithmetic." Testing students' reading and writing skills is done in the following manner: "The examination in reading was conducted by allowing the candidate to read from any convenient book; and a scrutiny of his manner of performing his work in spelling and arithmetic constituted his examination in writing." The spelling list for 1878 consists of the following words: "Proceed, College, Deliquescent, Concede, Knowledge, Capacious, Supersede, Distil [sic], Crystallize, Viscid."

1885 - 1886

The college trustees award an annual "faculty prize," described in the college catalogue as "twenty-five dollars for the best thesis, fifteen dollars for the second and ten dollars for the third."

1892 - 1893

The college catalogue describes the thesis requirement as a method to inculcate students into the scholarship of pharmacy: "Such theses as are deemed worthy it is intended to have published in some one of the pharmaceutical journals."

1895 - 1896

Starting with this school year, the thesis includes an oral component for an audience of college peers and faculty.

1900 - 1901

The catalogue describes the written component of the General and Pharmaceutical Chemistry lab: "The laboratory is intended to teach the students to express in writing the results of observation."

1911

Perhaps as an indication that thesis requirement was not always well received, a writer makes a case for the "relevance" of this then forty-year old requirement in the Quarterly Bulletin: "Many students have felt that their time was so limited that it was almost impossible to do the work necessary for a satisfactory thesis and in some cases it has proven a temporary hardship. But the results of this work have been far-reaching in that the results shown have been published again and again in the pharmaceutical press always being credited to the student and to the college and if the work shows deep thought and persistence, and facts hitherto unknown are brought to light, then the reputation of the college as a teacher is advanced in the eyes of the readers and transferred sooner or later to their friends."

1913

The thesis requirement is dropped for undergraduate degrees and only appears for the post-graduate degree of Pharmaceutical Chemist.

1915

The written-examination requirement stops appearing in the catalogue.

1932

Curriculum expands to a four-year program, and required first-year English is introduced. The catalogue lists Willis Bradley as the instructor for 142 first-year students.

1933

The catalogue description of required English notes that "The first-year course in English chiefly encourages the student to look for merit in the writings of the standard authors and appreciate it when he finds it. Weekly one-hour lectures present an outline of the development of English literature, from Chaucer down to the present, giving most attention to writers and literary trends but not ignoring the political and social background. Reading assignments in anthologies and a few long works keep pace with the lectures.

"During another weekly hour brief lectures discussion diction and sentence and paragraph construction and brief exercises in writing require the student to put into practice the principles he has assimilated."

1934

An assistant is listed for Mr. Bradley, and required instruction is added in second-year English. This course "carefully reviews grammar - the science of writing - and investigates many principles of rhetoric - the art of effective writing. Likewise, on the theory that clear writing cannot exist without clear thinking, it devotes a generous amount of time to exposition, including the processes of analysis, classification, and definition."

1944

Second-year English becomes focused for students in a predominantly scientific curriculum and becomes "a study of the part played by language in the shaping of our thoughts; of verbal as compared to mathematical logic; of the fallacies resulting from erroneous use of language; and of the laws and methods of science that lead from observation to valid inference, classification, and definition and to persuasive speech and writing."

1946

Required English in the second year is dropped, and first-year English is put in the hands of Joseph Skinner, an instructor with a Ph.D. in Armenian Language from Harvard.

1946 - 1966

Skinner is the primary instructor of first-year English.

1960

The undergraduate curriculum expands to five years.

1979

The Curriculum Committee issues the following recommendation: "The Committee voted to investigate the question of a competency exam in written communication. Faculty are requested to incorporate into their courses as many written and oral requirements as possible. Faculty teaching in the freshman year may wish to investigate combined paper assignments with freshman English."

1991

The Writing Proficiency Exam is instituted as a requirement of graduation.

1996

The Writing Center is opened to support the writing endeavors of students, faculty and staff.