About the Seminar
Everyone wants their students be effective, clear writers. But many faculty also find that simply adding a writing assignment to a syllabus reveals more about what students haven’t yet learned than what they have. Explicitly teaching writing skills in the classroom can raise concerns that course content will need to be sacrificed, or that such instruction simply lies too far outside one’s expertise. Knowing what “good writing” looks like does not, after all, mean knowing how to do it—much less knowing how to teach it.
Fortunately, a long tradition of writing-across-the-curriculum research has uncovered best practices that create meaningful opportunities for students to develop as writers throughout their academic careers, and in ways that support their content acquisition. Many of these strategies are readily implemented without onerous training. To support faculty in the Department of Management interested in a deeper look at integrating writing strategically, the Institute offered an intensive seminar in Summer 2016. Drawing on canonical writing-across-the-curriculum scholarship, the seminar responded directly to faculty desire to develop students’ writing skills sustainably and effectively. Together, Management faculty engaged in working sessions on topics such as:
- Designing formal writing assignments that complement and enhance course content
- Integrating informal writing activities strategically, so that students can practice and receive feedback on the most important skills and moves
- Responding to multilingual students’ writing so as to support their language acquisition and development most effectively
- Providing feedback efficiently, even in large classes
Resources
The resources below offer a general but concise introduction to integrating writing successfully in any discipline.
- Common Informal Writing Activities. A one-page cheat sheet of the most useful and targeted activities
- Very Short Guides to High-stakes and Low-stakes Assignments, Formative and Summative Feedback, and Responding to Student Writing
- The Elements of Teaching Writing: A Resource for Instructors in All Disciplines by Katherine Gottschalk and Keith Hjortshoj. Seminar participants read portions of this accessible and practical guide; we recommend it as one of the best ways to get started, and are happy to provide you a copy upon request.
Be in touch!
If you’d like to learn more about the seminar, or for consultation and support on writing in your course, be in touch.
