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This memo is directed primarily at regular faculty who are scheduled to teach 115Ws in the near future, but it also contains information of use to graduate students teaching W courses. Faculty proposing new "W" courses can use the following link to submit their proposals to the Writing Committee: Course Proposal Form. For your convenience, I have included at the end of this memo a summary of minimum "W" course requirements, as determined by faculty legislation. (Graduate student instructors of W courses should consult the Minimum Writing Workshop Requirements, effective Fall 2001. English and CompLit TAs should also see Syllabus Design Guidelines for English and CompLit TAs.) Regular faculty are not bound by the requirements described in the preceding link for minimum writing workshops, but I encourage you to consider adopting such workshops on a voluntary basis. As you begin to think about ordering books for your "W" class, I would like to offer some recommendations about planning your writing course. I also want to take this opportunity to request that certain information be included on your syllabus, both for the benefit of students and for the convenience of the Writing Committee, which will review your syllabus each semester.
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Information on Syllabus: Please include the number of pages for each assigned essay, bearing in mind that when calculating the 20-page minimum for the semester, the Writing Committee counts 4-5 pages as 4. The Writing Committee also feels that students ought to have a sense of how much each writing assignment counts toward their final grade, whether through a table of percentages or through a point system. If all writing assignments count equally, it is worth saying so. You should also alert students to their obligation to attend writing tutorials over the course of the semester (see under Recommendations below). In general, the syllabus should make immediately clear, like any good introduction, the general goals and specific requirements of the course.
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Recommendations Handbook: all "W" courses must use a writing handbook of some kind. A few years ago, a faculty committee selected the Bedford Handbook for Writers by Diana Hacker as the Writing Program's recommended text. Virtually all English Department writing courses use the Bedford Handbook, so many students already will have a copy. There are obvious advantages to having a writing handbook in common across the curriculum, but feel free, of course, to order any other handbook you prefer. If you would like a free Instructor's Edition of the current Bedford Handbook, contact Dori Mikus (2-6527), and she'll send one your way.
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Fundamental design issue: Before slotting in reading, design your essay assignments: what kind of assignments? due dates for first version and for revisions? I strongly recommend the four essays and two revisions model. Once you've established the skeleton of writing assignments, you can begin to flesh out the content of the course. If you proceed in reverse -- as comes naturally to those new to writing intensive classes -- you are more likely to squeeze writing assignments in around reading to the detriment of both, and writing is less likely to be integrated into the course as a fundamental concern. (English and CompLit TAs should consult the more detailed Syllabus Design Guidelines for English and CompLit TAs.)
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Revisions: the more students revise, the better they write, so I recommend that you include as many revisions as you can handle. If you require students to hand in the earlier version with each revision, you can cut down on the time required for grading revisions. If you don't grade the first version of essays for which you require revision, you'll find that 1) students read your comments more carefully and 2) they no longer feel entitled to a higher grade simply for carrying out minor corrections instead of undertaking a thorough revision. (Warn them that failure to hand in a good faith first effort will result in a grade penalty on the graded version.)
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Sequencing Assignments: work back from the kind of essay you would like students to be able to write at the end of the semester and design your sequence of assignments to build toward that final performance. One sequence of assignments, for instance, might require students to write a précis of a difficult argument, compare and contrast competing arguments, critique an argument, and then write an argumentative synthesis. A research sequence might break the process of producing a relatively short research paper into manageable stages: a survey of literature or annotated bibliography, a compare and contrast essay, a critique, and then the research paper.
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Class time: what does it mean, as stipulated in the College Writing requirements, to spend time in class discussing writing (see #4. below)? Fifteen minutes in class discussing the characteristics of a good thesis or introduction, using examples from assigned reading or from student writing, can save time later when you comment on essays. Asking a student who has revised an essay successfully to describe for the class the revision process he or she used can be very helpful for students who don't understand revision as a process of rethinking one's argument. Describing your own revision strategies can also be useful. Highlighting the rhetorical strategies of the assigned reading from time to time can also help close the gap between reading and writing. But most fundamentally, you need to spend as much time as is necessary in class to articulate your expectations for each assignment.
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Tutorials: writing conferences are most helpful if they are planned to coincide with your schedule for revision(s). If you return essays with comments and ask students to see you with a written plan for revision (a paragraph is fine), you'll find tutorials more profitable and enjoyable. I also suggest you schedule them consecutively in order to keep the sessions to twenty minutes or so. During the weeks you schedule conferences it is acceptable practice to cancel a class.
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Writing Guidelines Sheet: I strongly recommend that you produce a handout describing what you look for when you evaluate student writing. Doing so will force you to clarify your own priorities, and students will look to the handout for clarification of what it takes to improve their writing, or, from their point of view, get a good grade. I use a handout designed to be general use to students: Writing Academic Essays. Feel free to use or adapt this for your own course.
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Please feel free to contact me if you wish to discuss any aspect of the Writing Program or to offer suggestions (2-6527 or Mark Wollaeger) Instructors new to the "W" program should also consider attending the one-day Faculty Workshop I run each August the week before school starts. If you are unable to attend this workshop, I will also be available in January to meet with you. Just contact my secretary at her e-mail address as noted on the previous page.
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Minimum "W" Requirements: 1. Students must write at least twenty typescript pages, not including rewrites.
2. Students must write at least five essays, at least one of which must be revised, or at least four essays, at least two of which must be revised. If you choose to have students write four essays, all four original essays must be due no later than the last day of class.
3. Instructors should meet with their students for tutorial sessions devoted to writing. (The usual practice is to schedule two required conferences during the term; students who want or need additional help should be encouraged to visit during regular office hours or to make special appointments.)
4. Some class time during the term should be devoted to discussion of the writing process. (This requirement has been interpreted as follows: writing courses should include several discussions of how one writes successfully; these discussions should be an ongoing part of the course, and they should be integrated into the course itself.)
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The Writing Committee feels that 1) considerably more than half of each student's grade in a writing course should be derived from written assignments as opposed to class participation, daily quizzes, and tests; and 2) the required essays should be evenly spaced across the term so that students begin to write early and continue to work on their writing throughout the term. Such spacing should provide writing course instructors substantial grounds on which to make mid-term assessments.
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