Writing Resources for Faculty

Using Writing in your Courses | Providing Feedback for Student Writing | Documenting Sources | Working With Students Who Have Difficulty Writing | Professors as Writers

Using Writing in your Courses | top

Having students write is an appropriate method of learning for any course. Writing helps students structure ideas. Even if such structuring inherently limits the complexity of a subject, writing provides a scaffold from which the complexity can be more fully perceived and understood. Writing also allows the student to commit the subject to memory in a way additional and different from simply listening and thinking.

There are three basic ways to use writing in a course: writing to think, writing to communicate, and writing toward self-discovery.

Writing to think occurs when the writer uses writing to think through an idea. There is no audience other than the writer. Examples:

During the first week of class, students are surveyed for their opinions regarding a course-related subject. The instructor then asks them to explain one of their responses in 500 words.
Students are asked to write out the procedure for solving a complex problem (e.g. math, chemistry, bio), including justification for the order of the steps.
Students are asked to explain briefly what they currently think of as the critical factors in a complicated situation (economic, social, psychological, etc.).
Students are asked to speak from personal experience regarding a course-related subject.
Students are asked to justify the organizational logic of their research paper or essay.
Students are asked to respond informally to an essay/article on a course-related subject.

For all of these examples, students are not required to use any standard format (e.g. essay, document style, paragraph style). They just write. Grammar is not part of the grade, unless the sentences are unreadable.

Writing to communicate occurs when students write toward an audience (of one or many). This includes writing toward professionals within the discipline, writing toward a general audience, writing toward specific individuals, or writing toward specific groups. Whatever the writing assignment, it is always beneficial to talk with the students about audience and purpose. Examples:

A research paper written toward other professionals within the discipline.
An essay for casual readers. The essay explores a problem within the discipline, or it explores a piece of recent published research.
A personal essay exploring some course-relevant subject. For example, the writer explores why a particular story or film helped them envision themselves as a professional.
An instruction set for a complicated and potentially dangerous procedure.
A long essay on the future of a technology, a discipline, or a practice.
A course-relevant case study in ethics (e.g. a farming practice, an experimental method, a political behavior, etc.).
A course-relevant discussion board conversation, possibly followed up by a rhetorical analysis of the conversation.
A course-relevant piece of fiction in some way featuring a professional within the field.
A script for a commercial.
A formal response to a published essay/report.

Writing toward self-discovery is, unsurprisingly, writing that allows the student to better understand who they are, and why. Students typically think of these writings as conversations between them and the professor. If other students will be reading these, it must be made explicit within the instructions. Examples:

Students explain the development of a belief.
Students tell a course-related story of personal experience.
Students reflect on how a difficult project impacted their confidence.
Students explore career-related fears (audienceless or in a written discussion with other students).
Students are asked to consider an ethical dilemma and explain why they responded as they did.

Providing Feedback for Student Writing | top

Check back soon (6/15/22)

Documenting Sources | top

Working with Students Who Have Difficulty Writing | top

Professors as Writers | top