Policies for the Implementation of the Gordon Rule Revisions Approved by the
    Florida Board of Education and the Florida Board of Governors on November 17, 2005.
    On November 17, 2005, the Florida Board of Governors approved a change to "The Gordon
    Rule," which eliminates word count in the communication component of the policy and instead
    requires the following:
    Six semester hours of English course:vork and six semester hours of additional
    coursework in which the student is required to demonstrate college-level English skills
    through multiple assignments.
    For the purposes of establishing UCF's Gordon Rule writing requirement, a committee of faculty
    has convened to define for UCF the following terms: 1) "college-level writing"; 2) "multiple";
    and 3) "assignments" in order to meet the new Gordon Rule policy.
    The committee recommends that the following be adopted as UCF's definition of "college-level
    writing":
    1. The writing will have a clearly defined central idea or thesis
    2. It will provide adequate support for that idea
    3. It will be organized clearly and logically
    4. It will show awareness of the conventions of standard written English
    5. It will be formatted or presented in an appropriate way
    The definition of "multiple" will be a minimum of four (4) assignments.
    The interpretation of "assignments" that evidence college-level writing (see above) may include,
    but are not limited to, the following:
    Writing that would normally NOT fulfill this requirement would include the following:
    .
    Essays
    .
    Process papers
    .
    Reports
    .
    Project plans
    .
    Lab reports
    .
    Business plans
    .
    Written examinations
    .
    Research papers
    .
    Portfolios
    .
    Interviews
    .
    Reviews
    .
    Journals
    .
    Case studies
    .
    Feasibility studies
    .
    Manuals
    .
    Evaluated drafts
    .
    Discussion question responses
    .
    Resumes
    .
    E-mails
    .
    Freewriting
    .
    Brainstorming
    .
    One-minute (very short) papers
    .
    Creative writing
    .
    Annotations
    .
    PowerPoint presentations
    The intent of the UCF Gordon Rule policy for writing is to encourage writing across the
    disciplines at the lower and upper division level, regardless of the delivery method or the number
    of sections.
    To this end, the Common Program Oversight Committee will certify as Gordon Rule any course
    that can prove that four assignments of college-level writing (as defined at the beginning ofthis
    note) will be part of the course. (In a course with multiple sections, all sections must meet the
    new Gordon Rule criteria for the course to be an authorized Gordon Rule writing course.)
    Departments seeking to have courses certified by the Common Program Oversight Committee as
    UCF Gordon Rule courses should submit the following:
    .
    Department Name
    .
    Course Number
    .
    Description of at Least Four Writing Assignments
    .
    Course Syllabus (for courses with multiple-sections that do not use a common
    syllabus, please submit the writing assignment standards for all sections)
    Please send your requests to include or exclude Gordon Rule writing courses from the UCF
    authorized list to Rick Schell (
    sche1J@maiLucf.edu),
    Office of Undergraduate Studies, MH 327.
    If you have questions, please give me a call at 3x4197.
    Thank you
    Common Program Oversight Committee Members:
    C. Bast, Criminal Justice and Legal Studies
    M. Hampton, Chemistry
    J. Kaplan, Educational Studies
    T. Kaufmann, Hospitality Management
    V. King, Diversity Initiatives
    M. Marinara, English
    A. Morrison-Shetlar, Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning
    M. Muller, Molecular Biology and Microbiology
    E. Mustaine, Sociology
    R. Pennington, Economics
    J. Schell, Academic Affairs
    C. Stebbins, Foreign Languages
    H. Sweet, Biology
    H. Weger, Communication

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