University Writing

What’s Next in Writing Instruction at Brigham Young University:

 

Teaching for Transfer?  Building Sequenced Curricula?

 

 

  Dr. Anne Beaufort

University of Washington Tacoma

beaufort@u.washington.edu

 

October 31, 2008

 

Strategies for Teaching Five Aspects of Writing Expertise Across the Curriculum

 

 

 

1. Teach subject matter knowledge required for writing tasks including, for example:

·         discipline and genre-specific reading skills

·         practice using appropriate analytical frameworks

·         learning  what counts as “evidence”

·         learning what types of argument are appropriate

 

 

 

 

2. Define and teach discipline-specific genres (e.g. literature review, proposal, report, position paper, historical essay, etc.) rather than school genres (e.g. “term paper,” “research paper,” “ essay”)

 

 

 

 

 

3. Describe the specific rhetorical occasion, purpose, and audience for writing tasks—even if it’s an audience of one, i.e. YOU.  What do you want to get out of a student’s work?  Be a genuine “reader.”

 

 

 

 

 

4. Teach writing process strategies that are specific to the genre assigned.

·         How can the task be “chunked” into manageable segments?

·         Consider doing pre-writing and mid-process activities during class (for exampling, brainstorming, developing thesis ideas, finding a suitable structure, etc.)

 

 

 

5.  Identify and discuss discourse community features so students understand your standards for writing— underlying values/goals, typical genres & occasions for writing, norms for writing, ongoing conversations of the discipline & writers’ social roles

 

 

 

Three Strategies for Teaching  Transfer of Learning

 

 

 

1. Make explicit, repeatedly the strategies & skills  used in reading, writing, analysis, etc. that are applicable in other situations.  For example,

• writing process strategies
• reading strategies
• analyzing discourse community features
• analyzing genre features

 

 

 

2. Give students practice applying general principles in several different tasks.  For example:

• Claims/evidence analysis
• Constructing matrices for analysis, synthesis, comparisons
• Comparison of 2 genres

 

 

 

3. Foster mindfulness, or metacognition about learning.  For example,

• At the end of class, give students 5 minutes to journal, summarizing what             they’ll take from the session
• Ask for reflective cover memos as part of each major assignment.  Prompt students with reflective questions for the memo.
• At the end of the course, ask students to journal about what they want to remember, and carry forward, from this class.

 

 

 

Sequencing Assignments—Some Principles to Guide the Developmental Process of Writers

 

 

WHAT PROFESSORS CAN DO

Principle #1 Start at the global level then move to the “local”

·         content: go to the “heart” of the discipline rather than covering all topics

·         writing skills: whole text  issues first,  sentence level issues last.

 

Principle #2 Move from simple to complex tasks

·         use Bloom’s hierarchy of critical thinking tasks

·         consider the order of writing activities in your field (simple tasks    embedded in more complex ones

 

Principle #3 Give repeated occasions for short writing tasks

·         summaries

·         annotated bibliographies

·         micro-themes ( 2-3 pages)

 

 

WHAT DEPARTMENTS CAN DO

1. Develop departmental writing guide:

·         discourse community goals/values

·         descriptions of key genres (use names consistently)

·         standard grading rubrics for key genres

·         research strategies (key reference works, databases, etc.)

·         reading strategies that are discipline specific

·         standard citation format & paper format

·         standard writing handbook required in all courses

 

2. Seek grants for faculty to develop sequences of writing tasks across courses

 

3. Designate a capstone course that includes a writing portfolio

 

4. Conduct departmental assessment of a sampling of writing portfolios at least every other year.

 
Discourse Communities Diagram, by Anne Beaufort