Writing Matters
A newsletter for faculty · Writing Matters ·
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Karen-Beth Scholthof uses literature and art to teach students about the human cost of disease.
Science professor experiments with writing
Karen-Beth Scholthof, a professor in the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, has won the 2008 W Course Teaching Award for her work in the course, “Pathogens, the Environment, and Society.” The $3,000 award, presented to Scholthof last November, recognized her spirit of innovation and unwavering commitment to improving her students’ writing.
Students in her course learn not only about the science behind some of history’s most notorious epidemics, but also—through Scholthof’s use of relevant fiction and poetry—discover the human consequences of these outbreaks. (more…)
Group writing projects will be the topic of a January UWC faculty workshop led by Nancy Small, an English department lecturer and veteran writing instructor.
The workshop, entitled “We’re All in This Together: Tools for Supporting Group Writing Projects,” will be held from noon to 2:30 p.m. on January 28 in Evans Library 204B. Lunch will be included. (more…)
Kim Hill, winner of the 2007 W Course Award, says there are no golden rules in teaching writing.
Poli sci professor wants students to value writing
Kim Quaile Hill, a professor in the Department of Political Science, has won the 2007 W Course Teaching Award. The award is presented annually to a W course instructor who teaches writing with thoughtfulness and vigor.
Hill received the $3,000 prize for his work in POLS 209, Introduction to Political Science Research Methods, a required course for all majors in his department. Even before the advent of W courses, Hill, who has taught at Texas A&M since 1988, incorporated frequent writing assignments into his courses. He stresses writing because he believes it helps his students learn. (more…)
Assistant Director
Steve Kaminczak.
Web Designer
Stephanie Leary.
The UWC is pleased to announce the addition of two key staff members: Steve Kaminczak has signed on as the UWC’s assistant director and Stephanie Leary is the writing center’s first full-time Web designer.
Kaminczak was previously the assistant director for the writing center at Sam Houston State University. At the UWC, he’ll have a variety of administrative duties, including overseeing the schedule, and he’ll work closely with consultants as a team leader. (more…)
Margarette Goss.
Margarette Goss, senior office associate, saysworking with students is the best part of her job.
First impressions matter. That’s why the UWC is delighted that Margarette Goss has signed on as Senior Office Associate.
In that role Goss is often the first person clients see when they walk through the door, as well as the voice they hear when calling for an appointment. Her warm demeanor and confident efficiency put everyone at ease. (more…)
The University Writing Center is showcasing a new podcast called “Write Away” that adds another tool through which instructors can get information and inspiration for teaching writing.
“Hearing other instructors’ experiences can be invaluable for brainstorming new teaching techniques,” said Executive Director Valerie Balester. “Podcasts are the perfect way to share those anecdotes.” (more…)
The University Writing Center has created an award to recognize innovation and excellence in the teaching of a writing-intensive (W) course. The new University Writing Center Teaching Award is being funded for five years with one $3,000 award given annually.
According to Dr. Valerie Balester, Executive Director of the University Writing Center (UWC), the award acknowledges the work of faculty members teaching W courses.
“The W courses are meant not only to improve students’ writing abilities, but also to encourage them to think critically about topics central to their discipline,” Balester explains. “These courses truly enhance the quality of our students’ undergraduate education.” (more…)
Symposium highlights views on writing, diversity
How does a university encourage high standards of academic literacy while embracing a diverse population of varied linguistic traditions?
That question was at the heart of the 2004 University Writing Center Symposium on Literacy. Held at the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum on October 8, the symposium marked the inauguration of Texas A&M’s new writing-intensive course requirement for undergraduates. The symposium was held as part of Literacy Across Cultures, a two-day celebration of literacy with presentations by both local and visiting scholars. (more…)
If you’re a faculty member with questions about how to use writing in your classes (or want advice about handling the paper load), take a cue from your students and look for help online. Your first stop?
The University Writing Center’s website: http://uwc.tamu.edu. There you’ll find not only general advice about writing, but also a wealth of suggestions for successfully incorporating writing into your classroom.
More specifically, if you access uwc.tamu.edu/faculty/ you’ll
discover pages of information aimed specifically at A&M faculty
members, including how to design a W course to meet the new university
requirements. There’s also a section on pedagogy, where you’ll find
perspectives on a wide-variety of classroom issues, such as how to:
d Incorporate more “low-stakes” writing practice, such as journals or mini-essays, into your courses;
d Handle writing in large-enrollment courses;
d Instruct your students to serve as peer reviewers for their classmates; and
d Teach the critical thinking skills that underlie all academic discourse.
Because
grading is such a thorny issue when it comes to writing assignments,
we’ve also included suggestions on how to respond more efficiently and
consistently to your students’ writing:
uwc.tamu.edu/faculty/pedagogy/respond/.
Also on the UWC’s
website are dozens of handouts
UWC offers training in response to faculty requests for advice, help
The UWC’s third annual summer faculty workshop will focus on teaching grammar and punctuation. Titled “What We Have in Comma: Trials and Tribulations of Teaching and Grading Grammar,” the workshop will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on July 28 at the Bright Complex overlooking Kyle Field.
UWC Executive Director Valerie Balester selected grammar and punctuation as a topic in response to faculty interest. (more…)
Candace Schaefer comes to the University Writing Center from her post as assistant director of Instructional Technology Services at Texas A&M. The University Writing Center is pleased to announce that Candace Schaefer will become the UWC’s Associate Director Jan. 2.
Schaefer, formerly assistant director for Instructional Technology Services at Texas A&M, also worked for three years as the dean of distance education at Blinn College.
Schaefer is no stranger to the world of writers. She earned an M.A. in English from the University of Northern Colorado and has taught writing in several college settings. Currently a Ph.D. student in higher education administration, Schaefer is researching the faculty perspective on academic dishonesty in the classroom.
“The UWC’s mission is critical to the university,” Schaefer says. “I’m excited to come on board and share in the endeavor of improving writing across the curriculum.” (more…)
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It’s easy to find what’s wrong with your students’ writing and harder to find what’s right. But focusing on what students are doing well may ultimately be more useful in helping them to improve.
From grade school on, most of the feedback students receive on their writing focuses on what they’ve done wrong: spelling errors, comma mistakes, vague wording, awkward sentences, rambling paragraphs. They may see the occasional “Nice!” or “Good example” in the margins, but most writing teachers focus on what they think needs “fixing.” As a result, students often approach a writing assignment feeling defeated before they even begin. They’re like dogs that have been kicked by a previous owner; they’re wary and worn down.
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Working at the University Writing Center is like seeing the state of writing at Texas A&M through a wide-angle lens.
We conduct more than 5,400 consultations a year with students at all levels—from freshmen to doctoral candidates—who come from all colleges and departments. We help with everything from English 104 papers to wildlife management plans.
As we work with your students on the writing you’ve assigned—as we question, advise, cajole, and cheer them—they are teaching us as much about writing as we are teaching them.
Some of what we’ve learned from our work might surprise you.
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When I hear W course instructors express frustration over students’ lack of basic writing skills, I am sympathetic. Students in a W course should already know how to write a well-formed sentence within a well-formed paragraph; how to adapt their style and arguments to a general, educated reader; how to organize an academic essay or research paper; and how to cite scholarly sources.
So why, if our students have taken foundational writing courses (here or elsewhere), do they often seem unable to handle the basics?
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When Assistant Professor Ginger Carney tells her biology students that writing will be important in their future careers, she’s speaking from experience. Carney became a biologist because she loved science, but she soon found she was spending more than half of her time writing. That’s why, when she came to the biology department at Texas A&M four and a half years ago, she agreed to teach the department’s first W course, “Critical Writing in Biology.”
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“Their Cheating Hearts: Why Students Plagiarize and What You Can Do About It” will be the topic of the UWC’s summer faculty workshop to be held Friday, July 10 in Evans Library, Room 204E.
UWC Executive Director Valerie Balester and UWC Associate Director Candace Schaefer will discuss how faculty can actively discourage plagiarism, including using tools like Turnitin.com proactively and designing assignments that minimize students’ opportunities to cheat. Matt Fry, director of the Aggie Honor System Office, will discuss how to proceed if you suspect a student has plagiarized.
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Put some English on it
Helping students learn to write is never simple, but with students who aren’t
native speakers of English, [...]
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Candace Schaefer leads a recent UWC graduate student workshop.
Candace Schaefer, associate director of the University Writing Center, knows
first hand the [...]
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Students can also come to West Campus Library for writing help.
Behind the scenes at the UWC
When your students come to [...]
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UWC Executive Director Valerie Balester urges instructors to assign more writing in all courses, not just Ws. Students need the [...]
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Happy Halloween.
This fall, the UWC provided supplies and writing consultants to help students
make one-of-a-kind Halloween cards. The service was offered [...]
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This fall the UWC unveiled its new Dissertation and Thesis Assistance (DATA)
program, designed to provide graduate students with the specific [...]
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The UWC has recently expanded its list of classroom workshops available
for both W and graduate courses. The new workshops focus [...]
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Students enrolled in C courses will be expected to make at least one five-minute oral presentation.
Communication-focused courses offer W alternative
Departments [...]
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Happy Valentines.
To celebrate Valentine’s Day, the UWC provided supplies and consultants to help students make creative valentines. The service was [...]
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Grading papers can be the bane of a writing teacher’s existence. It’s time-consuming, yet doesn’t necessarily improve [...]
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Don’t limit yourself to using student papers as models—articles from professional or trade journals can also serve as effective [...]
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This month the UWC introduces a new option for faculty who’d like to know more about teaching [...]
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What UWC staffers want you to know
UWC consultants view writing at Texas A&M from a unique vantage point. They’re not [...]
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UWC Executive Director Valerie Balester urges instructors to assign more writing in all courses, not just Ws. Students need the [...]
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UWC services are available at our West Campus location as well as in Evans Library.
Encourage your students to use our [...]
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While W courses are usually thought of as upper-level classes, there are a few departments and colleges offering Ws [...]
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Students are less likely to plagiarize when instructors discuss not only how to cite sources but why.
If you teach writing, [...]
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Assistant Clinical Professor Pat Wiese wants her students to understand the power of writing well.
Pat Wiese, assistant clinical professor in [...]
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This summer the University Writing Center joined with several other campus entities to create the Teaching & Learning Cooperative [...]
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In October, UWC Executive Director Valerie Balester took a group of 15 undergraduate and graduate consultants and administrative staff [...]
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Graduate students are welcome to make appointments for consultations at the UWC.
As of this fall, graduate students are welcome to [...]
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This fall UWC Executive Director Valerie Balester received the Association of Former Students College-Level Distinguished Award in Teaching.
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The UWC’s popular Classroom Workshop series for W courses has expanded to include two new offerings: peer review and [...]
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Many of the first W courses approved will soon be up for recertification. The recertification process ensures that all [...]
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UWC Executive Director Valerie Balester urges instructors to assign more writing in all courses, not just Ws. Students need the [...]
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Two of the newest online tools available to writing instructors are blogs and wikis.
Although students spend more and more time [...]
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Interns Meghan Wall and Mandy Crawford.
Interns Meghan Wall and Mandy Crawford will work with W Course instructors to create customized [...]
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Dr. Terri Flateby
Dr. Terri Flateby, director of assessment at the University of South Florida, presents a UWC-sponsored workshop on assessing [...]
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What do you do when you’re reading a student’s paper and come upon an especially confusing passage? What if the [...]
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Writing courses are intensive for faculty, too
What’s it like to teach a W? The University Writing Center recently sent [...]
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UWC Executive Director Valerie Balester urges instructors to assign more writing in all courses, not just Ws. Students need the [...]
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Departments wanting to offer students a research-focused, writing-intensive course (numbered 491) now have two options: one administered by an [...]
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Beginning with the 2007-08 undergraduate catalog (No. 130), a minimum of two writing-intensive courses will be required for graduation [...]
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Emilee Frame, left, a UWC graduate assistant writing consultant, talks about services offered to students at the new West [...]
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The University Writing Center will host a workshop Jan. 10 on how blogs and wikis can be used as tools [...]
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Wendy Boswell, associate professor of management in the Mays Business School and a Mays Research Fellow, had good reason for [...]
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Texas A&M University at Qatar opened its long-awaited Technical Communications Center this fall, a major step in efforts to enhance [...]
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Most instructors, I think, have at least a vague notion of what the University Writing Center’s peer consultants do. I [...]
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Writers make mistakes. Beginning writers, experienced writers, corporate writers, scholarly writers
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When students come to the writing center for help, they spend 30 to 45 minutes working one-on-one with a consultant. [...]
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UWC adapts to meet student, faculty needs
At the University Writing Center (UWC), we believe in revision. We’re forever advocating that [...]
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Why do we see so many errors in our students’ writing? Most of us assume students make errors because they [...]
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Professor Jon Olson, Director of the Center for Excellence in Writing at Penn State, knows that instructors sometimes dread responding [...]
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As the winner of this year’s W Course Teaching Award, Petroleum Engineering’s Darla-Jean Weatherford will receive a $3,000 prize.
Weatherford, a [...]
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For Mike Stecher, the proof is in the writing
Mike Stecher had his doubts.
An associate professor in the Department of Mathematics, [...]
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As I have listened to colleagues talk about implementing the writing-intensive requirement, I’ve heard two persistent concerns: handling the increased [...]
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Undergrads to aid W course instructors
This spring the University Writing Center (UWC) began training the first Undergraduate Writing Assistants, a [...]
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Committee member Sarah Bednarz discusses proposing a W course
What does it take to propose a writing intensive (W) course? Sarah [...]
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Scoring tool simplifies a tough job: grading students’ papers
For many instructors the least enjoyable part of teaching writing is grading [...]
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“Why,” my colleagues often ask me, “haven’t my students learned about paragraphing (or argument or documentation or punctuation or any [...]
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That’s our business. We take it seriously.
Have you ever found yourself in a situation like this:
You’re holding a conference with [...]
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Sociologist says learning to write critical for students
Katheryn Dietrich, a senior lecturer who has taught in the Department of Sociology [...]
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Your students might learn more.
You’d like to assign more writing in your classes, but how on earth would you grade [...]
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Fall 2004 marked the inauguration of Texas A&M’s new writing-intensive course requirement for undergraduates. The courses that fulfill this requirement
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Writing helps students become actively engaged with course material
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Writing professor advocates a pedagogical approach to curbing academic dishonesty.
Dr. Rebecca Moore Howard, Associate Professor of Writing and Rhetoric at [...]
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Chuck Kenerley’s students explore the power of writing.
Twenty years at Texas A&M have turned Chuck Kenerley, Professor of Plant Pathology, [...]
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It is my pleasure to introduce you to the first issue of Writing Matters, a publication created to assist Texas [...]
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A&M’s new writing courses debut this fall.
Dr. Robert Gates and Dr. Valerie Balester at the UWC.
Texas A&M President Dr. Robert [...]
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The UWC is currently accepting nominations for the second annual University Writing Center Teaching Award. The $3,000 prize will be [...]
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Situation Critical: Good thinking can come from better writing
Writing is often regarded as a highly useful tool for developing students’ [...]
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Joan Mileski, William McMullen, and Joselito Estrada.
Faculty members (left to right) Joan Mileski, William McMullen and Joselito Estrada are teaching [...]
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“Open up the world to your students.” That’s one key piece of advice offered by Colorado State University Professor Mike [...]
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Writing prof gives candid advice
Palmquist Workshop
Dr. Palmquist’s presentation gave faculty historical context about the technology that has revolutionized teaching. One [...]
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In January a headline in the Bryan-College Station Eagle heralded disturbing results from a study of the literacy skills of [...]
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Faculty, students alike finding that UWAs are an invaluable resource
Three students working together
Undergraduate Writing Assistant Christine Philip, left, teaches two [...]
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More students turn to online lab for writing help
UWC peer writing consultant Mary Compton reviews a student submission to the [...]
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An effective writing assignment encourages students to consider the needs of their readers. Students see writing differently when they [...]
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Ritter rethinks revision when grading papers
When it comes to teaching writing, there’s one thing Professor Kurt Ritter has long [...]
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A lot—we’ve been busy. With the W courses now in full swing in departments across campus, the University Writing Center [...]
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Undergraduate students can help faculty members teach writing by helping each other.
Many will believe I’m deluded when I assert that.
To [...]
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Like a lot of instructors, Tiffany Tyer has spent many hours this semester poring over papers, penciling in advice to [...]
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Class lessons are real in ‘Writing in the Woods’
Assistant Professor Roel R. Lopez of the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries [...]
