Writing seminars strive to become paper-free

In an effort to conserve paper, writing seminars have been becoming progressively more digitized, with students even submitting end-of-course portfolios digitally. But for many students, these efforts hardly make a dent in the amount of paper they end up using.

About three years ago, most writing seminar readings and assignments moved online to Blackboard. Then last fall in an initiative run by the Penn Writing Center, digital portfolios began replacing the hundreds of writing portfolios submitted in manila folders — some of which contained as many as 75 sheets of paper — at the end of each semester.

“Our administrative staff and faculty are exceptionally environmentally conscious,” explained Valerie Ross, director of the Critical Writing Program. “We didn’t need to use our imaginations; those stacks of folders looked like a forest’s ghost.”

Every student at Penn is required to take a writing seminar before graduating. Because of recent environmentalist efforts, each student taking a seminar is now also required to bring a laptop to class to view required readings. A laptop pending program allows students without their own laptops to borrow them strictly for use in writing seminars.

Additionally, since one ream of paper is about 6 percent of a tree, cutting back on paper portfolios alone saves about 30 trees each year.

There are a few classes — “It’s Not Easy Being Green” and “Law, Environment and Identity” — that come closer to being paper-free.

But while most writing seminars are supposed to be nearly, if not completely, paperless, most still require significant paper consumption.

For the most part, while readings are available online, textbooks still have to be bought in paper form.

Instructors also require students to print two copies of their essays each week for in-class peer reviews.

And while they are not required to print out additional readings, many students opt to do so as well as bringing their laptops to class.

For College freshman Jonalyn Ongos, printing the readings is often necessary to take notes. These readings are sometimes as long as 30 pages.

“It’s really inconvenient trying to read everything on my laptop screen, so I end up printing everything out anyway,” Ongos said.

According to Ross, however, it “makes good pedagogical sense to use computers as our main writing tool since we rely on them for writing in our everyday lives.”

Ross also feels that going “paperless” could be feasible for most classes at Penn.

This would be possible only if students own or have access to laptops, she said, and where visual projects such as drawing are not required.

“But in classes where going paperless means handing in papers electronically, [the goal is] absolutely feasible,” Ross said.

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