Helping Students Find their Writing Voice
I woke up when I heard the opening chords of Chopin’s Ballade in F Major. I’d been dozing off, phone in my hand, trying to
Crystal O. Wong, EdD
December 6, 2021
HIGHER ED TEACHING STRATEGIES FROM MAGNA PUBLICATIONS
writing assignments
Writing Assignments: A Self-Evaluation for Students
This article first appeared in The Teaching Professor on October 5, 2017. © Magna Publications. All rights reserved. I teach online at an open enrollment institution, which
Deidre Price, PhD
October 22, 2021
Keys to Designing Effective Writing and Research Assignments
Professors often believe students should arrive on campus knowing how to write research papers. Unfortunately, many do not. Download this free report for proven assignment strategies that are easy to implement.
Faculty Focus
September 20, 2021
The Word “Flow” Has to Go
George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s 1980 book Metaphors We Live By famously catalogued the way metaphors influence the way we think, speak, and act. Some
Daniel Couch
November 2, 2020
The Research Paper that Thwarts Plagiarism
I teach research-based Composition II courses every semester. My students learn information literacy, look up academic, peer-reviewed journals, create and correctly structure works cited pages,
Carmen Noel Eichman-Dorr
September 7, 2020
One List to Rule Us All: The Benefits of Unified Writing Guidelines
Many years after graduating with our undergraduate degrees, we can still remember the stress of being a student. One lesson that stands out from those
Diana Jacobs, PhD, and Trisha Prunty
July 8, 2020
Good Questions for Better Essay Prompts (and Papers)
Most professors would admit that they’ve found themselves frustrated when grading papers. Yes, sometimes those frustrations might stem from students ignoring your clear, strategic, and
Jessica McCaughey
April 8, 2020
Leveraging Social and Political Issues to Promote Student Engagement, Improve Writing Skills
“Your students are failing because you are failing them.” These words can cut to the core of any professional educator who strives for excellence in teaching and learning. However, hidden within that criticism is a more useful message: “To help them succeed, you must inspire their imaginations and capture their attention through meaningful and creative engagement within the classroom.”
As English composition instructors, we are tasked with teaching students how to effectively express themselves through writing as well as understand why that’s such an important skill. Oftentimes this is executed by teaching out of a required textbook that addresses the various functions of writing. However, to make the writing assignments more interesting, teachers should consider allowing students to choose topics or, at the very least, assigning ones that hold current relevance.
Jamie L. Butler, MA, and Curtis L. Todd, PhD
June 8, 2018
A Method for Deep Reading
Many students struggle with college-level reading and writing assignments. Part of it is simply not knowing how to get the essentials from a text. I have been experimenting with a simple method I call GSSW: Gather, Sort, Shrink, and Wrap.
The goal of using this method is that students learn to write an essay, based on the readings, that is exemplary of organized, clear, accurate, and critical thinking.
Barry Casey, PhD
September 15, 2017
A Blog Assignment with Results
Blogging can be a tool that aids learning. “Blogs provide students with an opportunity to ‘learn by doing’ to make meaning through interaction with the online environment.” (p. 398) They provide learning experiences described as “discursive,” meaning students learn by discussing, which makes blogs a vehicle for knowledge construction. They exemplify active learning and can promote higher-order thinking. Potential outcomes like these give teachers strong incentives to explore their use.
Maryellen Weimer, PhD
April 1, 2016