What’s it like to teach a W? The University Writing Center recently sent an informal survey to some W course instructors to get their impressions about teaching a writing-intensive class. Some, perhaps buried under the stacks of yet-to-be-graded student papers, never answered. But a few found time to share their insights. What follows is a sample of their responses — they haven't been sanitized and we've left a few typos as proof that faculty, like their students, are not immune from mistakes.
W Course Instructor Survey from the University Writing Center:
James Aune, Communication
W courses you have taught/are teaching:
COMM 480, Religious Communication
Has more writing for the students meant more work for you? If so, how have you handled the increased demands on your time?
"It really hasn't meant more work for me, because I have always taught courses (other than the one large lecture course I teach) that are writing-intensive."
What types of writing have you assigned to students?
"I typically Give essay exams rather than short answer/multiple choice ones. I assign a major term project that is broken down into three parts: a legal research assignment, showing that students can use the library effectively; this assignment then gives them a start to write a 10 page paper; I read the paper in two drafts, the first ungraded and then the final paper is graded. In the past, and I plan to do this again for our 460 class (which I teach as Freedom of Speech) to ask for one paragraph reactions to the daily reading."
How are you integrating writing and the course subject matter?
"In this case it's easy, because we closely read Supreme Court opinions on the religion clauses, noting specific rhetorical strategies in laying out the facts of the case, interpreting the constitutional text, and responding to opposing arguments."
How are you responding to your students' writing? Do you use a rubric, hold conferences, or facilitate peer review? Do you use CPR/Vista or turnitin.com?
"I do pass out a one-page description of the assignment, include a list of "typical pitfalls" in student writing (e.g. not revealing the argument until the end, antecedent or movement problems). I hold conferences both my email and in person; I also put students in groups to do an oral presentation on the paper topic, which facilitates understanding the legal arguments (although the final paper is individual only). I do not use CPR/Vista or the other one (should I? LOL, I'm generally distrustful of academic technology)."
Have your students used University Writing Center (UWC) resources such as face-to-face consultations, the on-line writing lab (OWL), handouts on the UWC Web site? If so, what were their impressions?
"I tend to get good writers in my 400-level classes, but the few times they've had problems I've sent them to the UWC, and their responses are always positive."
Have you used any of the UWC resources for faculty such as our classroom workshops, podcasts, material on the pedagogy sections of our Web site, our faculty workshops, or the Undergraduate Writing Assistant (UWA) program? If so, what were your impressions?
"I have not used any of the faculty resources."
What advice would you give to someone teaching a W course for the first time?
"Be sure to develop self-discipline with grading papers: get them back as early as possible, but try to spread out the grading so you don't wear yourself out."
Have you noticed changes in your students' writing over the course of the semester? If so, what kind of changes?
"It's too early to tell this semester, but I've always noticed improvement in my other writing classes."
How has the writing in the course impacted student learning?
"Emphasizing research seems to be something they especially appreciate; they also seem to like being forced to argue a position."
Has anything about teaching a W course surprised you?
"No."
What's the best thing about teaching a W course?
"Feeling like you're dealing with students as individuals (something that, alas, doesn't happen often in such a large university with such large classes)."
What's the worst thing about teaching a W course?
"Nothing bad; just the need to get used to writing lots of paper comments in a timely fashion."
Sarah Bednarz, Geography
W courses you have taught/are teaching?
"Spatial Thinking, Perception, and Behavior (GEOG 404-900)"
Has more writing for the students meant more work for you? If so, how have you handled the increased demands on your time?
"Of course it means more work for me, but it is work I genuinely enjoy. I like reading the ways students express their ideas—it is a window into their lives and thought processes. Sometimes what I see is pretty appalling. There is no sense of logic or how to lay out an argument, or understanding of what it means to evaluate or synthesize. Understanding this has helped me to become better in my teaching of the thinking/research/writing process. I don’t know how I handle the increased demands on my time other than to think of it as contributing to my personal pedagogical development—the scholarship of teaching—and to realize it is all part of my job as a professor."
What types of writing have you assigned to students?
"I assign two short essays in which the students collect a small amount of data based on their personal reflections of space/time and write about it using a framework of questions. These preliminary pieces allow me to analyze what kinds of writing instruction the class needs and to emphasize some key demands I have. I use a content rubric and a writing rubric to grade these. Next students start producing the components of their research paper: the proposal, the introduction, lit review and methodology; the results and conclusions. Each piece has a slightly different tone, purpose, and pitch. In addition, students write synopses of the readings following a rubric. I evaluate them and students use the notes on their essay assessment, a two-page essay on a essay test question of their own creation."
How are you integrating writing and the course subject matter?
"The students write about their growing understanding of the content, their own spatial perceptions and behaviors, and the research project they conduct on those topics. Students are writing about their thinking."
How are you responding to your students' writing? Do you use a rubric, hold conferences, or facilitate peer review? Do you use CPR/Vista or turnitin.com?
"I scribble on their papers, do too much suggested re-writing, use checklist rubrics—all of it on paper. Students do peer review, again using rubrics, but I need to work on helping them develop their skills in reviewing other students’ work. Some students are good at this; some are very uncomfortable (or uncaring?). I have had to build into the grade the quality of the peer comments. We also have face-to-face meetings to discuss their research projects but that is less related to their writing. I do use turnitin.com. Love it."
Have your students used University Writing Center (UWC) resources such as face-to-face consultations, the on-line writing lab (OWL), handouts on the UWC Web site? If so, what were their impressions?
"Despite urging, I do not believe my students used your services."
Have you used any of the UWC resources for faculty such as our classroom workshops, podcasts, material on the pedagogy sections of our Web site, our faculty workshops, or the Undergraduate Writing Assistant (UWA) program? If so, what were your impressions?
"No, I have not. Yet."
What advice would you give to someone teaching a W course for the first time?
"Have very clear goals, plans for writing, and tools to assess the writing. Be prepared to spend a fair amount of time reading and thinking about what your students are doing and why. Start small and manageable. Be prepared for a range of student writing, from just awful to pretty amazingly coherent. Be sure to integrate the writing instruction into the class. I usually spend about 15 minutes per week throughout the semester reviewing writing skills, talking about writing, doing a quick critique of a piece of writing to “recalibrate” the class. This is in addition to one class period devoted totally to writing at the beginning of the semester. Have a coherent narrative about the links among thinking, learning, and writing to give the course a unique sense of identity and purpose."
Have you noticed changes in your students' writing over the course of the semester? If so, what kind of changes?
"They get better. Not in all cases, but in enough to make it worthwhile. They are better organized, more conscious of writing in complete sentences, and more adept at transitions from idea to idea. They usually learn (re-learn?) about paragraphs, a concept many have forgotten and do not use in the beginning of the semester."
How has the writing in the course impacted student learning?
"I would like to believe the writing enhances student fluency in the subject matter. They are better able to think, write, and thus, to talk about the content."
Has anything about teaching a W course surprised you?
"My writing course is also a research course. What is surprising to me is that writing and research is a new activity for almost all of the students. They have not been asked to develop a research project, collect data, analyze it, and write about it. They do not know how to describe graphs and charts they create. That has surprised me."
What's the best thing about teaching a W course?
"Small class. It is an opportunity to see students develop their academic skills."
What's the worst thing about teaching a W course?
"Sometimes it is close to impossible to improve a students’ ability to think and write. This is scary and discouraging. Real deficits in student performance are masked in typical TAMU classes where all students are expected to do is bubble the right answer. It is shocking to see how far students have gotten with very minimal skills. Some of our students do not even have basic, let alone proficient, literacy skills."
Sam Cohn, Sociology
W courses you have taught/are teaching:
"W Courses I have taught:
Sociology 205 Introduction to Sociology
Sociology 206 Global Social Trends
Sociology 322 Industrial Sociology and on the same format but pending approval
Sociology 335 Sociology of Organizations"
Has more writing for the students meant more work for you? If so, how have you handled the increased demands on your time?
"Do W Courses Mean More Work For Me? Does Spending Three Days a Week Reading Student Papers Mean More Work For Me? Not really. If I wasn't doing that, I would be facing a crushing load of doing research and being productive.
How Have I Handled the Extra Demands On My Time? I try to remember what it was like to spend time with my wife."
What types of writing have you assigned to students?
"I will ignore the catcalls from the back of the room saying that I teach sociology, so it must be "Fiction".
My papers are generally thought problems involving the integration of theoretical and empirical material. In most cases, the students get 10 2-page thought problems to write about. In very large courses, they get 3 8-page thought problems."
How are you integrating writing and subject matter?
"If the writing was not related to the course material, how could it possibly be used as a course evaluation?
Reading written assignments is how you check what the students understand and what intellectual tasks they are capable of performing."
How do you respond to student writing?
"How Do I Respond to Student Writing? I go through seven stages:
a) shock and disbelief
b) denial
c) bargaining
d) guilt
e) anger
f) depression
g) acceptance and hope.
Acceptance and hope usually comes long after the semester is over, so I am generally in an earlier stage when the grades need to be given.
We Meant How Do You Give Feedback, Twit!
Oh.
They email me the papers and I email back a detailed written response with the grade.
I do not use electronic pseudo-grading - and I generally take note of both style and substance."
Have Your Students Used UWC Resources?
"Yes, with very mixed results, depending on the personal capacities of the person with whom they are working."
Have You Used Faculty UWC Resources?
"Not really. I know what I want and I know how I like to get things done."
Have you noticed changes in your students’ writing over the course of the semester? If so, what kind of changes?
"Generally yes. Bad writing goes away very quickly - with the exception of those errors induced by haste. It is frankly not that hard to teach sociological writing - and the most common errors are generally gone by the end of the first month of the course. There is maybe a bottom 1 or 2 percent who are not invested in the course and never really clean up their act. However, almost everyone is turning in papers with professional quality writing by the 1/3 mark of the semester."
What advice would you give someone teaching a W course for the first time?
"You need to see many rounds of bad student papers before you realize in your own heart what you want to correct and how you would go about correcting it. Student classes are very different, and each class has its own pet foibles that for some reason are clustered. This means you will teach three to ten W courses before you really get a sense of the range of student failings that you want to take on.
Once you find the problems to correct, you will need some time and reflection to think about how to fix these.
Do Not Try to Microedit Every Student Paper Identifying Every Construction or Syntactical Error.
This will devour your time and teach the student practically nothing. The definitive guidance on "affect" vs "effect" will teach your student nothing about how to handle the other 96,000 errors he or she could be making in English usage.
You are not a proofreader and you are not a copy editor.
Instead, take a statistical point of view.
Note the types of errors that show up frequently - that represent an "archetype" of student failing.
Develop in your own mind a formula for correcting the archetype.
Use both lecture and your feedback sessions to identify when the students fall into the various "archetype" traps - and give them the standard fix for how to avoid all of the problems associated with that archetype."
How Has the Writing In the Course Impacted Student Learning?
"Some one tell the survey writer that "impacted" is graceless as a verb, even if it is grammatically legal."
What Impact Has the Course Writing Had On Student Learning, Mr. Fancy Pants?
"Thank you for your stylistic correction."
"The primary learning in a course takes place during the evaluation - when you have the student's full and undivided attention. Give a midterm and a final - and students have two learning sessions. Give ten papers and the students have ten learning sessions."
"If they remember one main point from each extended study session - this means they learn vastly more doing ten papers than they would with a midterm and a final."
Has anything about teaching A W course surprised you?
"Students hated receiving writing instruction before the introduction of the official writing intense rubric. They always felt that writing oriented courses were unfairly hard - given the easier sections that would be available in non-writing related versions of the same course."
"Having a W has legitimated hard core, serious, writing based instruction. Once the concept of teaching through writing became widely accepted, student pissing and moaning generally disappeared. Students entered the class with a more positive attitude, tried the writing intensive format and liked it."
"I now have a body of "writing enthusiasts" who prefer to be evaluated in this fashion and intentionally take multiple courses that grade by papers rather than by exams."
What is the best thing about teaching a W course?
"The knowledge that you are testing people on real intellectual skills and their ability to deal with ideas - rather than rote gurgitation on a spitback exam. The opportunity to have extended written dialogue with students on sociological themes rather than check whether they have read pages 80-220."
What is the worst thing about teaching a W course?
"Tell my wife I love her. I will be home after I finish this stack."
Ted Friend, Animal Science
W courses you have taught/are teaching?
"ANSC 310"
Has more writing for the students meant more work for you? If so, how have you handled the increased demands on your time?
"I had a writing requirement of sorts prior to w classes coming along, so the work has increased some, but not as much as if there was no previous writing. My graduate students help a lot, but I also go over everything they grade. I handle the increased demands on my time by doing it on weekends and nights."
What types of writing have you assigned to students?
"Several smaller assignments that lead up to a larger assignment, and then the largest, a term project."
How are you integrating writing and the course subject matter?
"I try to use writing to get the students to think more about the course material, rather than just memorize. Some students have a very hard time having to think and know concepts."
How are you responding to your students' writing? Do you use a rubric, hold conferences, or facilitate peer review? Do you use CPR/Vista or Turnitin.com?
"As assignments get bigger I give the students more detailed instructions, objectives, etc., which serve as a rubric. Students choose their own topics which can result in a lot of variation in the final document, so I have not yet figured out a way to apply a detailed rubric."
Have your students used university writing center (UWC) resources such as face-to-face consultations, the on-line writing lab (owl), handouts on the UWC Web site? If so, what were their impressions?
"I know that some have used the UWC with great success. I do not know who has gotten help, but the few who have told me about using the UWC thought it was very useful. I need to figure out a way to force more students to use the writing center."
Have you used any of the UWC resources for faculty such as our Classroom Workshops, podcasts, material on the pedagogy sections of our Web site, Our Faculty workshops, or the undergraduate writing assistant (UWA) Program? If so, what were your impressions?
"Faculty workshop was very useful and reassuring. I learned that my methods and what I was asking my students to do was reasonable. I also got ideas on how to improve my methods. I think it would be useful to require w course instructors to participate in some sort of continuing education workshop every few years."
What advice would you give to someone teaching a w course for the first time?
"Attend at least one workshop, or something similar."
Have you noticed changes in your students' writing over the course of the semester? If so, what kind of changes?
"That is hard to say because the assignments chance over the semester - hopefully they at least learn to pay attention, follow directions and try harder."
How has the writing in the course impacted student learning?
"I have had alumni come back and tell me that my course was the only one in which they had to write something and get up in front of a group and present something. Those former students insist that I not drop the writing assignments or term project presentation."
Has anything about teaching a w course surprised you?
"Some of our students are very very poor writers. Students resent the extra work, hence student evaluations have dropped a little. The lack of meaningful support from the administration for instructors making the extra effort is discouraging. Just a 1/4 time graduate assistantship to help with the grading for each w course would be reasonable. Instead, I use contracts and grants to subsidize my w course."
What's the best thing about teaching a w course?
"I can often use it to get out of having to go shopping with my wife in the evenings/weekends. Also get some great feedback from former students."
What's the worst thing about teaching a w course?
"Only about 1 in 5 will make a real effort in improving their rewrites. Similarly, about 1 in 5 will take a greatly reduced grade, rather than do a rewrite. Hence, this semester I am not assigning a low grade to poorly written assignments, but just telling them they have a zero until they rewrite it."
Sue Geller, Mathematics
W courses you have taught/are teaching:
"Math 220: Introduction to Discrete Mathematics, which is actually a course in which we attempt to teach our students how to devise and write proofs."
Has more writing for the students meant more work for you? If so, how have you handled the increased demands on your time?
"Yes, it takes more time because I have to grade the rough drafts. The first time I taught the course, I had peer grading and then graded both the peer grading and the second rough draft. This was just more than I could handle, so the second time I taught the course I cut back to one rough draft of the term paper per student. This is still more work but I just give up a weekend to get it done."
What types of writing have you assigned to students?
"They write homework, i.e., proofs, and do a term paper on some mathematical topic."
How are you integrating writing and the course subject matter?
"Writing and the subject matter are interlinked because writing proofs is writing. In many ways this course was a writing intensive course before W courses existed. We've added papers to the list to be sure it is writing intensive."
How are you responding to your students' writing? Do you use a rubric, hold conferences, or facilitate peer review? Do you use CPR/Vista or turnitin.com?
"I use a rubric to grade but, since 70% of the points or more are content, there is a lot of leeway in the rubric. As noted above, I tried peer review but it was just more work than I could handle."
Have your students used University Writing Center (UWC) resources such as face-to-face consultations, the on-line writing lab (OWL), handouts on the UWC Web site? If so, what were their impressions?
"My students used the UWC for face-to-face consultations and reported back that they were very happy with what they learned there and the help they received. They were surprised that non-math people could help with a math paper."
Have you used any of the UWC resources for faculty such as our classroom workshops, podcasts, material on the pedagogy sections of our Web site, our faculty workshops, or the Undergraduate Writing Assistant (UWA) program? If so, what were your impressions?
"No."
What advice would you give to someone teaching a W course for the first time?
"Plan ahead of time how you are going to integrate writing and be sure that you haven't overloaded yourself with work. Grading essays is very time consuming."
Have you noticed changes in your students' writing over the course of the semester? If so, what kind of changes?
"My students write much better at the end of the course than at the beginning. It even carries over into their problem working in that they write complete, proper sentences at the end instead of fragments. So grading their problems and proofs is easier at the end. Also they read more critically, so get more out of the textbook. I think they are amazed at the power of language, both written and oral, and become more precise in its usage."
How has the writing in the course impacted student learning?
"Since they read more critically, they learn more from the textbook. Since they are aware of the need for precision in their language, they produce better work."
Has anything about teaching a W course surprised you?
"I was surprised at how much fun the students have with the term paper. Who'd have thought that a term paper in math would be fun?"
What's the best thing about teaching a W course?
"Seeing the students improve in their proof-writing."
What's the worst thing about teaching a W course?
"The extra grading."
Andrew Klein, Geography
W courses you have taught/are teaching?
"I have taught GEOS405 - Environmental Geosciences 3 times and I am teaching GEOG476 - GIS Practicum for the first time this semester."
Has more writing for the students meant more work for you? If so, how have you handled the increased demands on your time?
"Both of these classes are new and were designed from the start to incorporate writing so in a sense being designated a W-course does not necessarily reflect more work than these courses would be if they were not writing courses. Generally, diligent reading and critiquing student work takes time so of course it represents more work. I am still working on handling the writing, but generally when writing assignments are due, I try to go home and grade for a couple evenings with my dog and a bottle of wine."
What types of writing have you assigned to students?
"That depends on the W-course and its goals. For example a large part of
GEOS405 is a Problem-Based Learning activity in which the students work in teams; therefore, group writing has a more important component than in other classes and this consists of writing several items, including a final report for the project. In GEOS405 students also write 3 book reviews to work on individual writing. To give students some idea of how consensus documents (such as the recent IPCC report on climate change) are produced, I have had the entire class compose a short document detailing the positive and negatives of the Environmental Geoscience and Studies programs which are new programs. They point is for students to have to work together to come up with a document that everyone is willing to sign off on. My other writing class incorporates independent research so the writing is more aimed at producing a final report - using intermediate writing projects to build to the final report. They also are producing 2-page memos on some professional topics we discuss in class."
How are you integrating writing and the course subject matter?
"Both of my W-courses have a research component, so I try to build writing (as well as research skills, such as bibliographic searches) into the course. Because of the structure of the course, I try to do this informally and I use the assignments that students turn in to identify areas where students may have problems. This semester for example, I noticed that there needs to be some emphasis on citations, so I will discuss that. In GEOG476, about 1/2 the class will be aimed at building professional presentation skills, including writing, oral presentations and maps so in this setting I will be more formal in presenting content on writing."
How are you responding to your students' writing? Do you use a rubric, hold conferences, or facilitate peer review? Do you use CPR/Vista or turnitin.com?
"Primarily the good old fashioned way - with a red pen. I use the approach that one of my graduate advisers, who was an excellent writer, used in his classes take the time to mark up a students paper. It did wonders for me. In fact at the start of each semester, I use the same quote he used in his classes. "When you get your paper back it may look like a chicken was slaughtered on it" Obviously I, hope, that I manage to lessen student angst and concerns with receiving a marked up assignments by using humor both in the comments and in the approach. I also make sure the students know that if they have concerns or questions, they should come see me.
I personally don't see any shortcut in correcting student
Writing without taking the time to read it and comment on it.
I also use peer-review. I exchange student's papers anonymously and they have to edit/comment on other students work. I also learned this from my graduate adviser.
I have not used rubrics in grading or peer review, thought I hope to begin doing it this semester as I see the advantages of greater structure. I have used turnitin.com and will probably use it again this semester as I have found plagiarism in the past."
Have your students used University Writing Center (UWC) resources such as face-to-face consultations, the on-line writing lab (OWL), handouts on the UWC Web site? If so, what were their impressions?
"I always let my students know about the UWC and in a few cases I have specifically suggested that students use the UWC to improve their writing skills. I haven't asked how they felt it helped."
Have you used any of the UWC resources for faculty such as our classroom workshops, podcasts, material on the pedagogy sections of our Web site, our faculty workshops, or the Undergraduate Writing Assistant (UWA) program? If so, what were your impressions?
"I am starting to use the UWC resources, including links and handouts."
What advice would you give to someone teaching a W course for the first time?
"The first semester the course is taught, request their department head/dean to make it the only course they teach. I think I would have benefited from a bit more time to be able to build more support around the writing component."
Have you noticed changes in your students' writing over the course of the semester? If so, what kind of changes?
"Each semester I have taught a W-course, I see a big improvement in writing between the 1st and 2nd assignments."
How has the writing in the course impacted student learning?
"I have not conducted any assessment to investigate this...it is a good thing to do though."
Has anything about teaching a W course surprised you?
"How much the students’ writing typically improves after the first assignment. I suspect many A&M students can actually write pretty well, but often they are just not challenged to write well. When they find out that good writing does matter in their grade, they respond and "kick it up a notch.""
What's the best thing about teaching a W course?
"By far the best thing about teaching a W-course is getting to better learn about students. I especially enjoyed reading student book reviews as it provides insight into their philosophies and interests. This is something I don't normally experience in my other classes."
What's the worst thing about teaching a W course?
"Thinking about all the grading :-). Actually contemplating grading is often worse than doing it. More seriously, I think having to deal with a plagiarism issue was the worst thing.
For me, I think the hardest thing is learning how to critique writing in a way that enhances a student's individual writing style."
Ronald Lacey, Biological and Agricultural Engineering
W courses you have taught/are teaching?
"BAEN 480, Senior Design II"
Has more writing for the students meant more work for you? If so, how have you handled the increased demands on your time?
"Fortunately this has always been a writing intensive course before being designated as a W course so there was little increase in my workload."
What types of writing have you assigned to students?
"Writing assignments are progress memos, oral presentations, and technical reports. I try to model the assignments on the types of writing that most engineers find themselves doing after graduation."
How are you integrating writing and the course subject matter?
"The writing is about the subject matter. They are creating engineering design solutions to real world problems and telling me, their clients, and their faculty advisors about them in the memos, presentations, and reports."
How are you responding to your students' writing? Do you use a rubric, hold conferences, or facilitate peer review? Do you use CPR/Vista or turnitin.com?
"I use a rubric and this semester I'm trying peer evaluation. I have used WebCT for submissions and returns but it is sometimes unwieldy and doesn't always work if the computer the student is using doesn't have the correct Java engine so I'm relying more on email and hard copies. I only have 25 students so that's not too bad but I'd hate to do this with 300."
Have your students used University Writing Center (UWC) resources such as face-to-face consultations, the on-line writing lab (OWL), handouts on the UWC Web site? If so, what were their impressions?
"I have a UWA this semester and that has been a tremendous resource. I think the students like having fresh eyes look at their work without having to grade it. I definitely appreciate it. I have used some of the UWC handouts on plagiarism and referencing and I maintain a link to the UWC pages (and other writing resources) on the class web page. http://baen.tamu.edu/users/rel/baen480"
Have you used any of the UWC resources for faculty such as our classroom workshops, podcasts, material on the pedagogy sections of our Web site, our faculty workshops, or the Undergraduate Writing Assistant (UWA)program? If so, what were your impressions?
"I did participate in a workshop on developing W courses and I found it to be very helpful. I need to find time to utilize more of the UWC resources."
What advice would you give to someone teaching a W course for the first time?
"It is definitely more challenging than teaching a standard technical engineering course. There is a much greater range of ability in writing than in technical ability for the seniors that I teach."
Have you noticed changes in your students' writing over the course of the semester? If so, what kind of changes?
"The average level of writing in the class improves over the semester. Also, the class average seems to have improved every year that I've taught the course, probably because of me better stating my expectations and the student grapevine getting the word out that I'm expecting good writing."
How has the writing in the course impacted student learning?
"My impression is that the overall design performance has been better the last couple of years and I'm sure at least part of that can be attributed to spending more time writing and thinking about their design problems and their solutions."
Has anything about teaching a W course surprised you?
"No more that teaching any other course."
What's the best thing about teaching a W course?
"The students hate it but they recognize the benefit to their careers, so they do it. Kind of like exercise, not usually much fun but you know it's good for you so you do it."
What's the worst thing about teaching a W course?
"Dealing with my own shortcomings in writing and in English.
Like many in my area, I was drawn to engineering because I enjoyed science and math and didn't care so much for English class. If I'd known then that I'd need a better handle on this, I'd have paid more attention."
Roel Lopez, Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences
W courses you have taught/are teaching?
"WFSC 406, Wildlife Habitat Management"
Has more writing for the students meant more work for you? If so, how have you handled the increased demands on your time?
"Converting my course into a “W” course did not mean more work. The course already was writing intensive due to the nature of the course material. Working with the UWC, I was able to develop grading rubrics and developed an on-line paper submission website that increased my efficiency in grading assignments in the course."
What types of writing have you assigned to students?
"The primary writing assignment for WFSC 406 is the development of a wildlife habitat management plan for 2-3 local landowners. This is submitted in parts throughout the semester and compiled into the final document to present to landowners at the end of the course. The other writing assignment (i.e., Writing in the Wood) is a short, in the field writing assignment given during field trips where students synthesis wildlife habitat concepts they learned throughout the day."
How are you integrating writing and the course subject matter?
"Writing is an integral part of wildlife management. Their integration is natural and easy to do."
How are you responding to your students' writing? Do you use a rubric, hold conferences, or facilitate peer review? Do you use CPR/Vista or turnitin.com?
"I use several tactics in providing feedback to students including grading rubrics, peer review, weekly class discussions, and use of Microsoft track changes."
Have your students used University Writing Center (UWC) resources such as face-to-face consultations, the on-line writing lab (OWL), handouts on the UWC Web site? If so, what were their impressions?
"Not sure. I refer them to UWC for information about plagiarism."
Have you used any of the UWC resources for faculty such as our classroom workshops, podcasts, material on the pedagogy sections of our Web site, our faculty workshops, or the Undergraduate Writing Assistant (UWA) program? If so, what were your impressions?
"UWC programs are well developed and beneficial for faculty at all stages in their careers. I have attended workshops in the past."
What advice would you give to someone teaching a W course for the first time?
"Use the UWC, they can help! Also, try and demonstrate the relevancy of writing and/or writing assignments to students in their career preparation. If students can see how learning to write can help them in their careers, they tend to be more engaged in the assignment."
Have you noticed changes in your students' writing over the course of the semester? If so, what kind of changes?
"There writing obviously improves by the end of the semester. For the most part, students are surprised and proud of the kind of writing products they can produce if they set their minds to it."
How has the writing in the course impacted student learning?
"Students are much more engaged and interested in the course. They easily see the relevancy of the writing assignments in their future careers. Working with real landowners really makes this connection."
Has anything about teaching a W course surprised you?
"Due to the potential time demands in a writing intensive course, you tend to increase your grading efficiency and constantly seek ways to improve your course grading. This is how I developed the on-line paper submission web application and the use of peer-reviews in grading assignments."
What's the best thing about teaching a W course?
"The experience students gain in working with landowners on their management plan."
What's the worst thing about teaching a W course?
"Grading Part II of management plan. It takes about 3-4 entire days…."
Courtney Schumacher, Atmospheric Sciences
W courses you have taught/are teaching:
"ATMO 459"
Has more writing for the students meant more work for you? If so, how have you handled the increased demands on your time?
"Slightly."
What types of writing have you assigned to students?
"Term paper, journal article review, hurricane case study, minute papers."
How are you responding to your students' writing? Do you use a rubric, hold conferences, or facilitate peer review? Do you use CPR/Vista or turnitin.com?
"Extensive guidance and feedback on the term paper, including a rubric. Moderate written feedback on the smaller homework assignments. Discussion about the minute paper responses."
Have your students used University Writing Center (UWC) resources such as face-to-face consultations, the on-line writing lab (OWL), handouts on theUWC Web site? If so, what were their impressions?
"I provided a few handouts from the UWC web site."
Have you used any of the UWC resources for faculty such as our classroom workshops, podcasts, material on the pedagogy sections of our Web site, our faculty workshops, or the Undergraduate Writing Assistant (UWA) program? If so, what were your impressions?
"No, maybe next time!"
What advice would you give to someone teaching a W course for the first time?
"Many of the students have varying levels of trepidation about a
W course, so allay their fears. Make expectations clear and let them know you don't expect perfect grammar and organization on every assignment, that writing can have different purposes."
How has the writing in the course impacted student learning?
"I like how writing forces different avenues of thinking about a topic and the synthesis that the students arrived at in the final project."
Harvey Tucker, Political Science
W courses you have taught/are teaching?
"POLS 307, The Texas Legislature."
What types of writing have you assigned to students? "1. Several short paper opportunities and
2. One long research papers.
The short paper assignments are identical: explain how an idea about the Texas Legislature explained by a member, journalist or other observer could be stated as a hypothesis and tested with comprehensive empirical data. The long paper executes one such research project."
How are you integrating writing and the course subject matter?
"Knowing subject matter is necessary but not sufficient. Communicating what you know to a number of different audiences is also necessary. Subject matter skill and written communication skills are different. However, one must master subject matter to have something worth communicating. These ideas are particularly important for students taking a course such as mine where the majority of what is true today will not be true 10 or 20 years from now."
How are you responding to your students' writing? Do you use a rubric, hold conferences, or facilitate peer review? Do you use CPR/Vista or turnitin.com?
"I provide detailed instructions for writing assignments and also a list of frequently seen problems and intolerable writing mistakes. I give detailed comments on each submission. Students who write multiple short papers improve their skills and grades quickly."
Have your students used University Writing Center (UWC) resources such as face-to-face consultations, the on-line writing lab (OWL), handouts on the UWC Web site? If so, what were their impressions?
"I had a UWC rep make two presentations to my students. That encouraged several of them to make appointments for advice on paper drafts on their own."
Have you used any of the UWC resources for faculty such as our classroom workshops, podcasts, material on the pedagogy sections of our Web site, our faculty workshops, or the Undergraduate Writing Assistant (UWA) program? If so, what were your impressions?
"Classroom workshops and a faculty workshop."
Have you noticed changes in your students' writing over the course of the semester? If so, what kind of changes? "
• Much greater attention to written instructions
• More attention to detail
• More economical writing
• Greater inclination and ability to write for a specified target audience: people who have not studied the course material."
How has the writing in the course impacted student learning?
"In some courses students are successful with passive learning activities such as reading and listening. Many excellent students choose not to develop their skills in discussing, persuading and leading. Students in writing courses must active skills in order to communicate their information successfully by the written word only."
Has anything about teaching a W course surprised you?
"Some students apparently believe that they can be successful in their careers without good writing skills."
What's the best thing about teaching a W course?
"When students recognize at the end of the semester how much they have improved their skills."
What's the worst thing about teaching a W course?
"Students who make no effort to improve their writing skills."
Darla-Jean Weatherford, Petroleum Engineering
W courses you have taught/are teaching?
"Labs for 311 (petrophysics) and 310 (Petroleum Fluids), technical presentations 335 and 435."
Has more writing for the students meant more work for you? If so, how have you handled the increased demands on your time?
"For too long, I graded papers on a schedule that seemed to be endless. I have learned to come up with assignments that are low-stakes enough that the students have to write a lot but I can just check quickly, more to see if they made an earnest attempt to learn the material than to nail them for grammar and style errors.
I have had less success with the labs, where some of the profs I work with seem to think that adding detail to the students' load is the only way to teach "better." I'm working this semester with a prof who understands that allowing the students to do shorter assignments is likely to produce more meaningful results, and I'm looking forward to seeing how this works out."
What types of writing have you assigned to students?
"My students typically begin working with fairly short, straightforward lab reports. In my class, they write memos, letters, resumes, proposals, literature reviews, separate assignments on abstracts and introductions, short analyses of abstracts, introductions, and graphics, personal essays, and paper reviews."
How are you integrating writing and the course subject matter?
"In the technical presentations class, the students integrate the subject matter into the writing. In the labs, I do a lesson or two on "how to write a report," and then the students sort of learn by baptism by fire; much of the "instruction" is either individual conferences or the give and take of my comments on their papers and their responses on paper revisions."
How are you responding to your students' writing? Do you use a rubric, hold conferences, or facilitate peer review? Do you use CPR/Vista or turnitin.com?
"Mostly, I start with a rubric that guides the students in their design of the response to the assignment, but I mark up the papers with lots of comments and questions. I hold conferences on request (most of our students are brilliant and many require less "coaching" than I would expect in some other departments). Seniors have to critique at least one paper by another senior and have their papers critiqued by two industry professionals (usually one who knows them and one I invite). I have not been enthusiastic about CPR, and I've frankly been too swamped so far to use turnitin.com, although I hope to implement it this fall."
Have your students used University Writing Center (UWC) resources such as face-to-face consultations, the on-line writing lab (OWL), handouts on the UWC Web site? If so, what were their impressions?
"I've had a UWC assistant for the past couple of years, and the students have been enthusiastic about them. The ones who have been to the UWC for help have found it profitable for them."
Have you used any of the UWC resources for faculty such as our classroom workshops, podcasts, material on the pedagogy sections of our Web site, our faculty workshops, or the Undergraduate Writing Assistant (UWA) program? If so, what were your impressions?
"UWA has been wonderful. As I said above, I've spent several years grading like a machine, which hasn't left much time for personal edification..."
What advice would you give to someone teaching a W course for the first time?
"Think very carefully about your goals for both the course and the writing phase. Writing is often a good way to learn about ourselves and our subject matter, so think of it not as an intrusion into the learning experience but an extension of it. Consider whether you can move away from "lecturer" to "coach" to help students come to their own discovery and document it for you."
Have you noticed changes in your students' writing over the course of the semester? If so, what kind of changes?
"In the labs (and in my graduate classes), students at first go into shock because they are so surprised by the difference in the kind of writing I ask of them and what they have learned from years of English classes. By the end of the semester, they have learned that they can develop responsible papers in short order, and by the time they have finished my course sequence, I occasionally hear one say, "I just use the d-j way for writing everything now...""
How has the writing in the course impacted student learning?
"In the labs, I've frequently had to coach the students to understand the engineering so they can write about it intelligently, but they often tell me that they really don't understand the concepts until they have put them down into a report for me. In the tech pres courses, the students become aware of writing in the literature that is frustrating to read and want to write more clearly. They learn a good deal there just in completing enough literature review to write a responsible paper."
Has anything about teaching a W course surprised you?
"Since I'm a technical/journalistic writing by training not too much. I was thrilled when I made huge changes to my junior-level presentations course so I could teach online and saw how much the students really got out of what is essentially a self-study course."
What's the best thing about teaching a W course?
"Working with the students. I scare them to death at the beginning of lab, but the soon learn that I consider myself their coach, not their lecturer, and they begin to work *with* me rather than *for* me. By the end of the junior course, they are comfortable dropping by my office to show me "horrible examples" they have found--which tells me they care and they've learned enough to feel confident identifying a horrible example for what it is. By the time they finish the senior project, they realize that they have learned some useful things--and some of my industry reps compliment their work highly."
What's the worst thing about teaching a W course?
"In my case, working with faculty in the lab courses who are not open to new ideas. One of the labs has been too complex for students to comprehend under the best of circumstances, and it requires huge effort on the part of the students to comprehend and translate into usable information--and similar amounts of time for me to try to evaluate. That is completely inefficient; I am convinced that part of why this program has worked as well as it has is that I give the students rapid, robust feedback, but when the lesson is to complex for them to grasp, neither of us can focus adequately. Another lab is perfunctory: The students use simulators to simulate the same things in the same way year after year, and the "results" they get always match the textbook answers--also not a good learning environment, and not a good place for teaching writing."
Larry Wiese, Management
W courses you have taught/are teaching?
"Management 464, The Political Environment of Business."
Has more writing for the students meant more work for you? If so, how have you handled the increased demands on your time?
"Yes, I anticipate that it will. My wife, who has taught W courses before in the School of Education, has promised to help with my grading this "first time out"."
What types of writing have you assigned to students?
"Two business memos covering topical issues; the review of a book that is also topical, and a research paper."
How are you integrating writing and the course subject matter?
"Yes."
How are you responding to your students' writing? Do you use a rubric, hold conferences, or facilitate peer review? Do you use CPR/Vista or turnitin.com?
"I plan to allow for revisions to first drafts and also engage in peer review."
Have your students used University Writing Center (UWC) resources such as face-to-face consultations, the on-line writing lab (OWL) handouts on the UWC Web site? If so, what were their impressions?
"Yes, we had a speaker from the W-center, who gave a very well-done presentation on basic grammar pitfalls."
Have you used any of the UWC resources for faculty such as our classroom workshops, podcasts, material on the pedagogy sections of our Web site, our faculty workshops, or the Undergraduate Writing Assistant (UWA)\ program? If so, what were your impressions?
"No."
What advice would you give to someone teaching a W course for the first time?
"I haven't been doing this long enough to have any credibility for advice."
Have you noticed changes in your students' writing over the course of the semester? If so, what kind of changes? How has the writing in the course impacted student learning?
"Too early to tell."
Has anything about teaching a W course surprised you?
"Too early to tell."
What's the best thing about teaching a W course?
"Too early to tell."
What's the worst thing about teaching a W course?
"Too early to tell."
Patricia P. Wiese, Teaching, Learning and Culture
W courses you have taught/are teaching?
"I am currently teaching Reading 371: Multicultural and Interdisciplinary Literature for the Middle Grades and EDCI-489 (pending a permanent reading course number): Teaching Writing in the Middle Grades. In the past, I have taught Reading 302: Teaching Reading through Children’s Literature and EDCI-489: Teaching Writing in the EC-4th Grades."
Has more writing for the students meant more work for you? If so, how have you handled the increased demands on your time?
"Although the additional writing has its rewards, as discussed below, it has clearly meant more work for me in terms of assessment/grading. This semester our department has hired two graduate teaching assistants to assist the TLAC “W” instructors with the increased workload, and I believe this will be a tremendous help to all of us. In the past, I guess I just slept less."
What types of writing have you assigned to students?
"I try to assign my students a variety of writing assignments. Some are “low stakes” in that the students’ only grades are my recognition that they have completed the assignments in a complete and thoughtful manner; these include dialogue journals over the writing text between either two students or the student and me, introductory Calibrated Peer Review (CPR) assignments where completion is the only requirement, and various in-class “quick” writes. For other, more “high stakes” assignments, the final products (after drafting, peer reviewing, editing, etc.) are assigned grades; these include reading-writing workshop papers and research-based essays."
How are you integrating writing and the course subject matter?
"It is probably easier for me since our students are training to be language arts teachers and will be teaching writing as a part of their future careers. However, I have added writing texts to my two literature courses, and the added texts have created a challenge in terms of trying to cover all the necessary material. To manage this, we have been conducting the above-mentioned dialogue journals; with these, students write their own journal reflections to the readings on Tuesdays and respond to their assigned partners’ journals on Thursdays; to reinforce the writing, assigned students lead 15 minute panel discussions over the readings and journal responses."
How are you responding to your students' writing? Do you use a rubric, hold conferences, or facilitate peer review? Do you use CPR/Vista or
turnitin.com?
"I actually do all of the above (except turnitin.com, which I am introducing into my EDCI 489 course this semester), although the conferences are held during my posted office hours and students are invited but not required to come. I have begun using CPR for the peer review phase of my reading-writing workshop by using the feedback option to allow students to give detailed, anonymous feedback to their peers on their drafts. I then grade the final “published” papers using a rubric that is based on the guiding CPR questions."
Have your students used University Writing Center (UWC) resources such as face-to-face consultations, the on-line writing lab (OWL), handouts on the UWC Web site? If so, what were their impressions?
"I encourage my students to use all the many resources provided by the University Writing Center and post information about the UWC on WebCT. I have always received very positive feedback from the students who have taken advantage of all the UWC has to offer."
Have you used any of the UWC resources for faculty such as our classroom workshops, podcasts, material on the pedagogy sections of our Web site, our faculty workshops, or the Undergraduate Writing Assistant (UWA) program? If so, what were your impressions?
"In addition to posting the resources about the UWC, Dr. Valerie Balester and Ashley Smallwood (a graduate UWC tutor who is working with TLAC this semester) have made presentations to TLAC faculty at faculty workshops. I have also observed and received reports of excellent classroom presentations by UWC staff."
What advice would you give to someone teaching a W course for the first
time?
"I would recommend that he or she (1) take full advantage of the excellent support the UWC can provide, (2) incorporate low-stakes writing assignments into the course to encourage student writing without “fear” of grades, and (3) follow through on the various steps of the writing process (drafts, peer reviews, editing minilessons, etc.) to help ensure a high-quality final product—it is a lot more time-consuming and frustrating to grade a bad paper than a good one!"
Have you noticed changes in your students' writing over the course of the semester? If so, what kind of changes?
"The most rewarding change in my students’ writing is the change in their perceptions of themselves as writers. When students connect with and care about their writing, they take pride in their finished products."
How has the writing in the course impacted student learning?
"I believe the increased writing, especially with the journal dialogues over the assigned readings, has significantly increased student learning. When a student formulates his or her thoughts and writes them down in a readable, thoughtful manner, the learning is reinforced."
Has anything about teaching a W course surprised you?
"I think the most surprising thing is how much my students and I enjoy the writing aspects of the course and how much better I am getting to know my students (and vice versa)."
What's the best thing about teaching a W course?
"Clearly, for me, the best thing is to observe my students begin to think of themselves as writers and to become passionate about the way they want to teach writing to their future students."
What's the worst thing about teaching a W course?
"The grading can be overwhelming."
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Stand and Deliver: A Blog for Faculty 