Strategies for Assigning Writing Composition

Overview

Strategies for Assigning Composition:

·         Low-Stakes Writing

·         Revision-Oriented Feedback

·         Handouts

·         Scaffolding

·         Real Revision

Low-Stakes Writing

Short, informal writing responses that help students develop critical thinking skills. 

A forum for exploring ideas, not “right answers”.

• Benefits: Stimulates thinking.  Encourages discussion.  Enforces      completion of readings.  Urges students to ask questions.  Helps reduce plagiarism.  Encourages thesis-driven writing. 

•  Examples & Methods:  In-class student writing.  Homework.  Exam preparation.  Thesis writing.  

•  Grading:  For content & analysis, not structure or mechanics.  Grading value should be small.  May be turned in with the final paper as a      portfolio of the student’s progress, research, and revision on a topic.  This may help reduce plagiarism.

Revision-Oriented Feedback

•  Understand that your feedback is a response within a greater conversation that you’re having with your student, the end goal being to produce a satisfying final draft.

•   Making effective comments requires a plan and consistent philosophy. 

•   We propose the following hierarchy for feedback:

Ø    Higher-Order Concerns:  the quality of ideas, organization, development, and clarity of the paper.

Ø    Lower-Order Concerns:  grammatical errors, misspellings, punctuation mistakes, and awkwardness in style.

Ø    Final Comments:  to encourage improvement by summing up strengths, identifying the problems that require attention, and making a few specific suggestions.

Handouts  

•  Determine the learning outcomes of assignments, and state them within the course objectives on your syllabus

• Type all handouts

• Explicate tasks

Ø              Is academic jargon clear to students?

Ø              Do students know the essay format?

•    Define the role and audience for the assignment

• Specify other business:  deadlines; length of paper, font, margins, reference-style; acceptable & minimum numbers of source

• State criteria for evaluation:  ideas, structure, thesis statement, quality of writing

Scaffolding:  Breaking Assignments Down Into Parts

• Help students discover that:  1) writing causes further discovery, development & modification of ideas; 2) in early drafts, expert writers struggle to clarify meanings for themselves; & 3) in later drafts, expert writers reshape ideas in order to meet the readers’ needs for effective organization, adequate development & clarification.

• Promote a “problem-driven” model, not a “think, then write” model of writing. 

• Scaffolding steps:  1) begin by asking students to turn in something early in the writing process to “check in” on how they are doing; 2) then ask for a draft; and 3) finish with a re-write or a final draft.

• Scaffolding encourages students to take the steps which will lead to well-written papers & allows student to construct them in stages. 

Goal:  get students personally engaged with the kinds of questions that propel expert writers through the writing process, so that writing becomes a powerful means of active learning in the discipline.

Real Revision

Develop a formal process of encouraging students to reflect critically on “finished” work and to re-engage with their written work.

  Practical Tips: 

• Ask students to approach papers as thesis-driven attempts to address specific problems that are outlined in a thesis, rather than        assigning topic-based papers.
• Create active learning tasks that encourage them to pose & explore problems.
• Intervene in the writing process from the start.
• Give practical advice on the mechanics of revision.  Differentiate between revising and editing.
• Have high standards for finished products.
• De-emphasize high-stakes essay exams; they reinforce the “one draft” idea.
• Give students the chance to meaningfully revise and resubmit papers.

For further information, please visit:  http://www.ccny.cuny.edu/wac/