Requirement #1 and Suggestions for Implementation

Students should produce at least 10 pages of writing in response to at least two assignments. Additional ungraded assignments are recommended. Writing done in essay exams as part of course work should not be counted in the 10 page total.

Designing a Writing Assignment

It is always better to give a writing assignment in writing rather than orally--especially if students will be bringing drafts of the assignment to the Writing Center for review. Specifics of an assignment should be "spelled out" and include information about most of the following characteristics:

• Audience (generally instructor and classmates)
• Purpose (generally to inform)
• Form (generally thesis-driven, expository with introduction, body, conclusion)
• Length
• Due Dates
• When rough draft should be taken to the Writing Center or reviewed by peers or instructor
• When final version is due
• Documentation (footnoting) style, MLA or APA for example
• Any area you will pay special attention to, e.g., thesis, evidence, introduction

Less Formal-Types of Writing Assignments

1. Writing-to-learn activities can be structured into your syllabus to insure that students interact with material found in readings, lectures or class discussions. Through writing, students arrive at a higher level of understanding and engagement with the material. Dr. Elaine Maimon, a noted authority on writing across the curriculum, recommends the following ways of using ungraded writing activities in class:
• Take ten minutes at the end of a lecture to have students write a summary and read a few aloud
• Take five minutes during a discussion to have students think in writing, Then use this writing to continue the discussion
• Ask for summaries of assigned reading to begin class.
• Have students write you an informal letter about their intellectual growth, problems, thoughts about the course, etc.
• Assign study questions on current material. Answers can sometimes be developed into essays.
2. Journals provide another useful means of developing writing fluency and engaging students with course material. Journals don't have to be graded, but they should be regularly collected and commented on, however briefly. Entries can be written in class or out of class--the above writing to learn activities, for example, could become part of a student journal. Entries can be assigned, left up to the students or a combination of both. Also, if so encouraged, students can develop journal entries into larger papers.

Here are some other ideas for using journals.

• Group Journals kept on reserve in the library or on a computer bulletin board offer students a chance to see what each other think about various course related issues in an informal way. As part of course, requirements, have five students make one entry a week in a group journal in response to an issue you raise or one they consider important.
• Class Debates can begin in journal assignments. Have students write a response to one side of an argument they will defend orally the next day in class.
• Double Entry Journals record a student's initial response to course material or study questions on one side of a page. On the facing page students record reactions, other questions, thoughts, etc., they have about what they just wrote.

Requirement #2 and Suggestions for Implementation

Students should revise at least one draft in response to evaluative feedback. Evaluative comments need not only come from the instructor; they can be provided by classmates during peer review sessions and by tutors in the Writing Center.

Research indicates that feedback given during the process of writing is more effective in improving student writing than that given on the final product. It is important, therefore, to structure enough time (10 days) into your syllabus for students to revise essays. Incidentally, using computers makes the revising process infinitely less painful for students, and they should be strongly encouraged to take advantage of them.

Evaluating Drafts

At the drafting stage, evaluative comments should address "global" aspects of paper writing - questions of content, organization, thesis. Instructors should indicate ways students can take a paper further, expanding ideas and substantiating arguments. Since many sentences may be rewritten in response to this feedback, only patterns of sentence and word level errors need be addressed at this point. Once a paper is turned in for a grade, response should be brief, serving mainly to explain a grade if one is given.

Structuring Time in the Syllabus for Revision

Ten days is probably the minimum turn around time students need to produce the first version of an essay, get evaluative feedback and revise it. Assignment sheets should state this explicitly, for example:

Due dates:

• Complete 1st Version by September 10
• Take 1^st Version to the Writing Center for Evaluations September 10-18
• Final Version due in Class, September 20

Requirement #3 and Suggestions for Implementation

Students should learn from your course (through handout, lecture or discussion)

• the primary and secondary sources in your discipline
• the logic of argument in your discipline
• which citation method is preferable (e.g., MLA, APA, CBE)
• relevant indexes, bibliographies, databases

Requirement #4 (Optional) and Suggestions for Implementation

Here are a few suggestions for involving your students with resources in the library in conjunction, with class work.

• Students do background research on historical events, characters, setting, etc., connected to literature they are reading for class. They present the result of their research to the class to enhance the reading.
• Students are divided into two teams to debate an issue they are studying in the seminar.
• They do library research to uncover evidence in support of their side.
• Students are sent to the library to find two opposing interpretations of a work of literature they are studying
• Students compare and contrast a popular and scholarly treatment of a subject studied in the Seminar