We all hold a lot of beliefs about writing, especially what “good writing” is and how it ought to be taught. But what if a lot of our assumptions are wrong? That’s the premise of Bad Ideas About Writing (2017), a collection of essays that is also available as a podcast. Lydia Wilkes, who earned… Read more »
Tag: Campus Writing Program
Helping Students Develop Their Citation Practices
Some students begin their post-secondary education with substantial experience in conducting research and properly citing sources while other students are less familiar with established research practices. At the college level, policies regarding citations, using sources, and avoiding plagiarism vary from course to course. Teaching your students how to handle research within your course will help… Read more »
Problems with and Alternatives to Traditional Approaches to Grading Writing
As John Warner notes in Why They Can’t Write, “there’s little dispute that grades do more harm than good in helping students learn writing” (2018, p. 213). Grades are both a disincentive for students to learn and an imprecise measure of what they have learned. Students in classrooms with traditional grading practices—that is, those that… Read more »
Why Can’t College Students Write?
As a college English teacher with over twenty years of experience, John Warner is often asked why recent graduates can’t write. Warner typically responds, “They’re doing exactly what we’ve trained them to do; that’s the problem” (2018, p. 2). As the subtitle to Warner’s Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities… Read more »
Help with writing in your courses!
Do you want to use writing in your courses but don’t know where to start? Do you worry about how to grade papers fairly? Does the thought of a stack of ungraded essays wake you up in the middle of the night? I’m here for you! As the new Campus Writing Program Director for CITL,… Read more »