Resources for First-Year Writing

Designing Writing Assignments

A well-designed assignment can focus and guide students’ work as they write papers and develop projects, and it can also make evaluating students’ work easier for faculty.  As Rebecca Weaver has argued, creating an assignment sheet is a challenging writing task, one that requires faculty to think not only about what they want students to produce but also what students need to know in order to produce good work.

Responding to Student Writing

For most faculty, the biggest concern with asking students to write is finding the time to respond well to student writing. Fortunately, research in Writing Studies suggests a number of ways to make grading easier and more effective. 

Peer Review

A video explaining how and why we should incorporate Peer Review into our classes.

Working with Second-Language Writers

Many faculty are unsure how best to support international students and those for whom English is a second language. We’ve collected ideas and links to resources from the experts.

Bibliographies of Scholarly Articles, Books, and Websites on Teaching Writing

Rebecca Moore Howard’s Writing Matters website has dozens of bibliographies on issues in Writing Studies, including several that relate to specific concerns in our program.

• On writing as a process
• On the idea of writing as a tool for learning
• On strategies for teaching critical reading and textual analysis
• On rhetorical analysis
• Language Standards (on what to expect and how to teach grammar and mechanics, as well as why students make errors)
• On strategies for using portfolios in writing courses
• On understanding and avoiding plagiarism
• On teaching the research process and the research paper

Discussion of “Teaching Literature in the Composition Classroom”

In late December and early January, scholars in writing and leaders of writing programs around the country engaged in a lengthy, spirited discussion of the role of literature in writing courses.  Since many of us in Georgetown’s writing program use literature in various ways in our courses, this discussion might be of interest.  The discussion began in December and the discussion continued into the first week of January.

Teaching in the Digital Age

HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory) hosts The Pedagogy Project, a collection of resources and ideas for using digital technologies in the classroom.

On Writing Transfer

Elon University has developed a statement on writing and the question of transfer, summarizing discussions about writing and transfer, not as an end-point, but in an effort to provide a framework for continued inquiry and theory-building.

Framework for Success in Post-Secondary Writing

This Framework describes the rhetorical and twenty-first-century skills as well as habits of mind and experiences that are critical for college success. Based in current research in writing and writing pedagogy, the Framework was written and reviewed by two- and four-year college and high school writing faculty nationwide and is endorsed by the Council of Writing Program Administrators, the National Council of Teachers of English, and the National Writing Project.