Saving Time When Teaching Writing
Carolyn
Haynes
Director of Windate Writing Center
Miami University (Ohio)
Consider the possibility
of focusing the topic and objectives of
your course.
Although writing assignments
and instruction can reduce the amount of
content you can cover in a course, it can
also deepen what you do cover in ways that
are meaningful and lasting to students.
Writing enables students to engage actively
with and to gain a personal perspective
on course material in ways that reading
another chapter in the textbook or taking
another objective exam cannot do.
If you are unable
to focus the course enough to allow for
a number of different writing assignments,
try only assigning one or two.
Make sure that the assignment
is challenging enough to warrant multiple
drafts. Require students to seek feedback
on early drafts and to revise.
Rather than you, the instructor, commenting
on each draft, encourage peer responses.
In order to increase
students’ ability to comment meaningfully
on one another’s paper, give them
critique guides, a list of questions or
a scoring rubric (based on your evaluative
criteria) for them to complete as they read
their peer’s writing.
Invite students to visit the writing center
for feedback on drafts.
Communicate with the
center director about your assignments and
expectations. Take a field trip to the center;
or invite some tutors to visit your class
to introduce themselves. Or contact the
director about conducting an evening workshop
for your students on a writing topic of
your choice.
Minimize the amount of time you take reading
drafts or final versions of student papers:
- Insist that students word-process,
“spell-check” and proofread
their writing before submitting it. If
they fail to do this, return it to them
for revision or lower their grade substantially.
- Don’t edit or rewrite the paper
for students. Not only does it not help
them to write, it also can end up discouraging
or overwhelming them.
- Focus your comments on one (or two)
points that are related to your evaluation
criteria. Center on the area that is most
successful and the one that most needs
improvement. If you feel a need to let
the student know that this issue needing
improvement is not the only area of concern,
make a comment such as, “Once you
have a better grasp on how you want to
organize your thoughts, we can begin working
on supporting your claims.” Listing
all of the flaws in the paper can be debilitating
for the students as well as unnecessarily
time-consuming for you.
Offer students
some choices on assignments or vary the
mode and audience of some of your assignments.
Variation can make reading
student papers more enjoyable and easier
to read.
Create handouts
on common writing problems or require students
to buy a writing handbook.
Give individual students
pertinent handouts or refer them to certain
handbook chapters rather than writing out
all of the rules and guidelines on each
paper.
Consider the possibility
of assigning writing portfolios.
Students write a number
of different papers throughout the semester
and receive feedback on them from peers,
the instructor or tutors. At the end of
the semester, they select which papers shall
be evaluated for a grade. This method expands
students’ opportunities for writing
but does not demand that the instructor
reads and comments on all the writing produced.
Create a rubric
(or checklist) scoring guide that you can
complete as you read the papers.
Identify the traits that
you most value and least value in the paper,
then "check" each one off as you
encounter it.
Stagger assignment due dates so that you
are not reading one hundred papers at once!
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