Improving
Students Writing
Writing Effectively
Why it is important to write well? Basic Points to remember. Some recommendations
for the effective writing.
Helping Students Write Better in All Courses
You
don't have to be a writing specialist - or even an accomplished writer
- to improve your students' writing skills, and you don't have to sacrifice
hours of class time or grading time. The ideas that follow are designed
to make writing more integral to your courses and less onerous to you
and your students.
Tips
for Teachers of Writing-Intensive Courses
As
faculty members, we are often asked for suggestions on how to make writing-intensive
classes work. We offer here tips that reflect concerns frequently mentioned
in our interviews with graduating seniors.
Handling the Paper Load
The
kind of patient work that goes into devising appropriate assignments
and responding to them intelligently does take more time than other
kinds of teaching. But it need not pose impossible burdens. And some
work that faculty undertake with the best intentions is actually counter-productive
to the goals of improving student writing and thinking.
Designing the Writing-Intensive Course Syllabus & Course Materials
Because
the types of writing, interaction, and instructor expectations vary,
students appreciate knowing what makes each course "writing-intensive"
and what is expected of them. You can help by including the following
items in your syllabus.
Teaching a Summer Session Writing-Intensive Course
Applying
the Hallmarks of Writing-Intensive Courses in a 16-week semester can
be taxing; applying the Hallmarks during a six-week (or shorter) term
can overwhelm both the instructor and the students. We surveyed experienced
WI instructors; respondents saw benefits to a six-week WI course, as
long as precautions were taken. Our tips below come from their suggestions.
Where
Students Want Help
By
the time they are ready to graduate, many students have learned new
research strategies through trial and error in several different courses.
They learned that the research process is recursive---looking forward
to analysis, back to the research questions, then returning to the data/readings.
But students tell us that this learning could have occurred more smoothly,
and earlier, if they'd gotten experienced researchers' help with three
challenges posed by the research task:
Teaching
Your Field's Forms of Writing
Without
help in identifying key characteristics, most students will merely make
their drafts “look like” the form by imitating section headings, the
number of pages, etc. They won’t understand the underlying analytic
processes that the various parts of the form reflect. You can promote
effective writing in a particular form with these steps:
Teaching with Journals
Journals
provide a place for informal, exploratory writing. Instructors can use
them to encourage students to develop and search for ideas about topics
about which they may as yet know little.
Steps to Publishing Student Writing on the Web
The
benefits of student publication on the Web include: Increasing motivation
and pride among students. Making the work available to a worldwide audience.
…
Responding
to Student Writing
Students
look for instructor comments. In fact, in our assessment work at the
Manoa Writing Program, we find that no other topic generates more student
comment than what professors say about their writing. Here are a couple
of typical comments from students:
Ten Pointers on Responding to Student Writing (PDF file)
Ten
Pointers on Responding to Student Writing
Overcoming
Writing Errors
We
focus on strategies for helping students gain control over their written
language. Your extra attention as you design assignments and offer comments
to guide students' revisions of their drafts can both help students
and save you time. The suggestions we offer come primarily from instructors
who have taught several writing-intensive courses.
Peer Review
& Feedback Forms
At
the same time, peer responses have helped many of us to better understand
the “nuts and bolts” of professional writing in our field. It should
be no surprise, then, that students also find peer review valuable,
for many of the same reasons. Good peer review, however, does not happen
automatically. You can help your students become good peer reviewers
by drawing on your own experiences, teaching them what to look for,
and creating peer review opportunities in your classrooms. One particularly
effective way to guide them is by developing and using feedback forms.
Peer and Feedback Groups
Most
experienced instructors use some form of peer review or feedback groups
in their UH Manoa writing-intensive courses. They have found that encouraging
students to respond to each other’s drafts has numerous benefits. These
benefits include:
Peer Review
Thinking
of using peer review in your writing-intensive course? Looking for some
information and guidelines to get you started?
How to Help Students Turn in Error-free Writing
But
when students are taught how to proofread and when they take the time
to do so, they correct many of their own errors. (One study has shown
that students can catch 60% of their own errors!) Here are some ways
to help students turn in error-free writing.
Examples of Instructor Responding
Examples
of Instructor Responding
Preventing Plagiarism
The best antidote to student plagiarism is effective assignment design.
Plagiarism seldom occurs in classrooms where instructors... Here are
some additional strategies instructors can use to discourage plagiarism:
Writing Activities to Get Students Thinking and Learning
Writing-intensive
instructors at UH Manoa use a multitude of writing activities to increase
student learning. Some of these activities depend upon such well-known
assignments as essays, book reviews, and research and lab reports, but
many more fall into a category of writing often labeled either "informal
writing" or "writing-to-learn." These latter writing
activities defy any strict definition but they tend to share similar
characteristics. They....
Helping
Students Make Connections: A Self-Assessment Approach
You
can help your students make and see connections by promoting self-assessment:
Students reflect on what they do, decide what works and what doesn't,
and describe what works in terms that may apply to subsequent tasks.
This basic sequence helps students articulate and internalize writing
strategies they can use again and again.
Getting
Students to Think
In
this issue of Writing Matters, we feature assignments that experienced
writing-intensive (WI) instructors gave Professor Lee. Each of the four
recommended assignments (below) integrates critical thinking with writing.
Each can be adapted to meet the needs of students in a variety of disciplines.
On-line
Interaction
Students
tell us that they become better writers when they can interact with
others about their compositions. Interaction typically takes place in
class discussions, small groups, student-teacher conferences, and through
written comments to the student. The internet, coupled with computer
software for teachers, provides new ways to interact with students-and
increases student-to-student discussion. And the best part is that the
interaction is accomplished through writing. On-line assignments give
instructors additional ways to...
Strategies to Support Student Writing
The following presents numerous ways to integrate writing across the
disciplines, paying particular attention to journal writing--
Using Writing to Promote Learning
What are the key aspects of using writing to enhance the quality
of student learning? Various writers have identified the importance
of the following three key points:
A Short Guide to College Writing (Some crucial differences between high
school and college writing)
We
should note here that a college is a big place and that you'll be asked
to use writing to fulfill different tasks. You'll find occasions where
you'll succeed by summarizing a reading accurately and showing that
you understand it. There may be times when you're invited to use writing
to react to a reading, speculate about it.
A Short Guide to College Writing (Preparing to write and drafting the
paper)
Preparing
process for writing and drafting paper
A Short Guide to College Writing (A strategy for analyzing and revising
a first draft)
Here
are some steps for re-reading and revising your essays in a reasonably
objective way. These steps may seem formulaic and mechanical, but you
need a way to diagnose your own prose so that you have some sense of
how others will read it.
A Short Guide to College Writing (Revising the introduction and conclusion,
and polishing the draft)
If
you are satisfied that you have made a claim, supported and qualified
it; that the parts of your paper hang together, you are probably ready
to write your last draft introduction and conclusion. These are important,
because the first thing your reader reads creates a "frame"
through which your reader readers, understands, and interprets everything
that follows.
A Short Guide to College Writing (But what if you get stuck? A good
solution and a terrible solution)
At
some point, you may find yourself staring at the screen or paper, utterly
blocked. You can think of nothing to say that does not sound stupid.
You are overwhelmed by the task of assembling evidence for your point,
or you are so overwhelmed by little pieces of evidence that you can't
imagine a way to make them cohere into a single point. This happens
to everyone: the key is to find a productive way out of the situation.
Malaspina University-College's Writing-Across-the-Curriculum Project
Malaspina
isn't necessarily training for a specific job niche, but rather providing
a general education which prepares the students for a variety of possibilities.
In any case, students must have some of the following skills: the ability
to solve problems, the ability to examine ideas carefully and support
them with evidence, ...
Self-Assessment of Student Papers
Self-assessments
are designed to help determine what your students already know about
their papers, and therefore facilitate your commenting. ...You can say,
"You're very clear about your thesis in your self-assessment. Where
have you put it in the paper?"
Self-Assessment of Writing
Self-assessment
sheet to be given to students
Brown-Bag Introductions
...reading to each other, the impressions they had. The partner agrees
or disagrees and they share with one another who they really are. Then
each person writes about "the new" partner.
Writing in the University
we
recognize that writing especially is a primary tool in learning itself,
not just a means of expressing learning that has taken place. Writing
is a powerful mode of thinking; writing involves making choices and
then ordering those choices effectively.
Writing for Learning--Not Just for Demonstrating Learning
It
is helpful to distinguish between two very different goals for writing.
The normal and conventional goal is writing to demonstrate learning:
for this goal the writing should be good--it should be clear and, well
. . . right. It is high stakes writing. There is another important kind
of writing that is less commonly used and valued, and so I want to stress
it here: writing for learning. This is low stakes writing. ....
Responding to Student Writers - Some Guidelines In Improving Student
Writing
The
basic relationship is not between the teacher and the errors in the
paper, but between the teacher and the learner. The following guidelines
will help teachers to respond to student writing appropriately, giving
only the level of help which is needed.
In-Class Writing Activities
In-class
writing assignments can take a number of different forms, but they tend
to share similar characteristics. They Promote active learning, Require
limited time to complete, Encourage discussion, …
Using Writing to Promote Learning
Professors
have long used essay questions and term papers as a device to test what
students have learned in a course. But writing also has the potential
to increase the quantity and quality of student learning.
Using Group Journals to Improve Writing and Comprehension
Individual
journals have been used successfully in academic courses for the
past few years. The group journal, however, capitalizes on the influence
of collaboration and engenders more careful attention to writing
performance, better attitudes toward writing, and greater comprehension
of course content. This article first describes how collaboration affects
the writing process and then reports the results of using individual
and group journals concurrently in an upper-division writing course
for prospective teachers.
