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
HIGHER ED TEACHING STRATEGIES FROM MAGNA PUBLICATIONS
writing assignments
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
Establishing a Writing Community in the College Classroom
When I hear the words “writing community,” my mind conjures up an elementary school classroom. I picture the warm, fuzzy second grade teacher wearing a warm, fuzzy sweater, handing out stickers and cookies as the students prepare for an authors’ tea. At this special event, parents will make the appropriate cooing sounds as their small children enthusiastically share their writing within the classroom.
Cassandra O'Sullivan Sachar, EdD
March 28, 2016
Using a Discourse-Community-Knowledge Framework to Design Writing Assignments
The educational benefits of writing are undeniable. Challenging students to write about our disciplines for diverse purposes and audiences deepens learning and promotes critical thinking. And so we put a great deal of effort into creating writing assignments that do not merely ask students to report back to us the content we have “delivered,” but instead require them to explore course content and address a target audience that has specific needs.
Angus Woodward
August 3, 2015
Humor as a Strategy in Writing Across the Curriculum
We all understand that writing is important and our students should do it well. Even so, many professors feel uncertain when teaching it, especially when their subject area is something far removed from “Composition 101.” Even instructors who work on writing skills find it challenging to maintain momentum when their own academic content inevitably requires attention. Moreover, students, many of whom are easily stressed, worry that their grades will suffer when an “outsider” teaches writing. Some colleges have found it hard to sustain Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) programs just because of this. But it isn’t a lost cause. Writing need not be so frightening and teaching it can be fun…for both students and instructors. And the writing lessons themselves don’t have to detract from any other academic content. Really!
James R. Keating EdD
January 27, 2014