Tips for teaching writing (B. Shwom, Writing Program, 2007)

Tips about Teaching Writing in Freshman Seminars
Ideas from faculty in the WCAS Writing Program

For questions, contact bshwom@northwestern.edu

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Explain to students what you want them to learn about writing during the course.
Each freshman seminar is likely to emphasize different elements of writing. Let students know at the start of the course which elements you will specifically target in your course.

Give students the opportunity to write throughout the quarter.
Writing is a skill that students learn over time. By including writing throughout the quarter, you give students the opportunity to take advantage of all ten weeks to practice and learn. 

Devote class time to discussion of writing assignments.
Students benefit from hearing your explanations of what you are expecting from a particular assignment and how they should approach planning and writing it.  Your explanations can be supplemented with models that illustrate especially good examples of what you are looking for.  In addition, you might ask students to come to class with notes for a draft (e.g., a rough thesis and outline), have them discuss those notes in small groups, and then give them the opportunity to ask questions.

Build revising and feedback into your assignments.
Students learn much about writing in the process of revising.  Here are good practices for incorporating revising into a freshman seminar:
•    Have a specific due date for a draft, and encourage students to think of drafts as serious but unfinished pieces of work, requiring revision.  While some instructors grade drafts as a way of encouraging students to take the drafts seriously, more often instructors do not grade drafts because this practice is time-consuming and may cause students to see revision only as a way to improve a grade rather than as a normal part of the writing process. 
•    Provide one or more mechanisms for feedback.  Mechanisms may include instructor comments, peer reviews by fellow students, or tutor feedback in the Writing Place.
•    When commenting on drafts, help students engage with the revising process and learn how to make good revising decisions. Ask questions, make suggestions, point out and explain problems, give directions, or edit a paragraph or two to show students how to correct a specific kind of mistake.  Don’t feel as if you have to copyedit a student’s entire paper.  Editing is a useful tool for teaching students about grammar, punctuation, and style. However, correcting every error is not only time-consuming; it also may encourage students simply to transfer your edits to their revisions.
•     Schedule individual conferences to review drafts with students.  You can do this in addition to—or instead of—putting comments on students’ drafts. You can also ask students to prepare for these conferences much as they would prepare for class. As one example, you might ask students to visit the Writing Place to plan a revision and then come to a conference to talk with you about what they learned in their tutoring session and how they plan to revise. 

Include short “write to learn” assignments as well as long ones.
Writing is an excellent tool to help students learn material and prepare for class. Here is an example of a “write to learn” assignment from Fran Paden, who teaches a Gender Studies freshman seminar:

For each reading assignment, students post on email, by 8 a.m. on class days, a one paragraph response to the reading. I specify that the paragraph be reasoned commentary that includes a strong topic sentence followed by sentences citing details from the text to support the point they are making.I require that students send a copy of their e-mailed response to themselves, as well as to me, and file the copies in a folder on their computer. Before meeting class, I read through their paragraphs quickly but respond in writing only occasionally, usually when the paragraph expresses either keen insight or a serious error in reading or writing. A fringe benefit of this assignment is that it helps both the student and the instructor prepare for meaningful discussion.At the end of the quarter, the students print out and turn in all their postings, in the order in which they wrote them, along with a two page "reflection paper" in which they discuss their observable progress as thinkers and writers. My students report that they find this opportunity to synthesize and reflect a meaningful one.

Provide explicit instruction about good citation practices.
Most freshmen need instruction about how to transition from high school practices to college expectations. Take time in class to discuss research, citation, and documentation. Point out how scholars use citation in your class readings. Encourage students to ask questions about citation as they draft.

For international students, distinguish between content and mastery of writing rules.
Many international students face multiple challenges in learning how to write acceptable academic prose in English.  In addition to the challenge of learning correct grammar and usage (verb tenses, plurals, articles, etc.), they often have learned a different set of conventions for incorporating or using outside sources and authorities.  As their freshman seminar instructor, you will also be their cultural guide instructing them in the expectations for academic writing at an American university.  It’s best to separate their development of ideas and content from their mastery of the rules of writing.  They may get easily discouraged at the pace of their improvement in writing error-free prose, but you can keep them engaged in their writing by responding to their thinking and ideas.

Take advantage of the Writing Place.
The Writing Place is an excellent resource not just for struggling writers but for anyone who wants to improve his or her writing. The peer tutors at the Writing Place can respond to writing at any stage of the writing process and provide your students with feedback that helps them move forward in their writing projects.  If you want the tutors to help a student with a specific element of writing, such as organization or punctuation, ask the student to bring it up with the tutor.