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WRITING MATTERS #1
For teachers of writing-intensive classes
From assessment studies
conducted by The University of Hawai‘i Mānoa Writing Program
DESIGNING WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
Since 1988, more than 900 different UH
instructors have designed courses that give special emphasis to student
writing. Students who enrolled in one or another of the 5,283 UHM
"writing-intensive" (WI) classes have in general found that what
you write is what you learn best.
Faculty members report that they also learn
from teaching with writing. As a way to help faculty colleagues exchange
what they are learning, and as a way to pass on hints from experienced
students in WI classes, the Faculty Board and staff of the Mānoa Writing
Program are launching Writing Matters. We hope it will give you a
few new ideas and help you to make your students' WI experiences even more
rewarding.
WE’RE LEARNING FROM STUDENTS IN WI CLASSES
Over the last three years, the staff at the
Mānoa Writing Program has interviewed nearly 200 students about their
experiences in WI classes. In this issue, we focus on what most students
tell us is a key to making writing matter: a well-constructed writing
assignment.
HOW STUDENTS "READ" WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
We found in talking with students about their
writing assignments that sometimes the mesh between their assumptions and
instructors’ intentions is less than ideal. Consider these comments from
instructors and their students:
| What Instructors Expect |
What Students Understand |
| "For the short paper on a
video, I wanted students to make connections among the
archeologist’s questions, the methods used to get answers, and
principles from their reading."
|
"This assignment was like
writing a high-school movie review. I wanted to give my own
personal understanding about the video, so I was going to write a
narrative."
|
| "In the journals I wanted
students to really wield their own opinions and grapple with
issues, to really think about course material."
|
"When I first heard the
assignment, I thought I was supposed to write anything, like a
reaction, just to show if I learned something."
|
| "I wanted students to really
wrestle with the questions on the assignment sheet, to give
in-depth answers. I wanted students to distinguish between the
author’s words and their own interpretation."
|
"I was supposed to write a
6-page analysis on a reading and juice up the answers. I tried to
make it sound good by adding lots of details and sounding excited
in my writing."
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When we asked experienced WI
instructors to analyze instructor expectations and student
understandings, here is some of what we found:
1. Students translate an
instructor’s goals into processes they think they can handle.
An instructor’s desire to have
students "grapple with issues" becomes for the student
"to write anything, like a reaction, just to show if I
learned something." Translations such as this point to
significant gaps in students’ understanding of the
instructors’ purposes and expectations.
2. Students enter WI classes with
strategies they devised to deal with earlier writing assignments,
and they may try to use these strategies again rather than risk
something new.
For example, the student who tried
to make "a 6-page analysis . . . sound good by adding lots
of details and sounding excited" had learned to try to
please the teacher and thus to win the "A." Sometimes
prior experiences promote new learning; at other times they
impede learning.
WHAT STUDENTS WANT IN WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
How can professors bridge the gap
between what they expect and what students understand about a
writing assignment? For possible answers, we turn to students.
Here are some questions students told our interviewers that they
want to ask their professors:
| "How will the writing
assignment help me to learn the course material?" |
| Students are often accustomed to
writing only so that they can be evaluated; they haven’t
experienced "writing to learn." You can help students
learn the course material by explaining how some writing can help
them explore their own thinking (e.g., journals), while other
assignments help them improve their reading skills (summaries),
learn data-collection techniques ("process logs"), or
improve their analytic skills (synthesis of journal articles). You
will also help them by explaining how individual writing
assignments relate to your goals for the course. |
| "If you had to do this
assignment yourself, how would you do it?" |
| Students may not have done the kinds
of writing that you assign. For example, you may ask your students
to write an analysis of the methodology used in a research report,
but the students’ only experience with writing analyses may have
been in courses about short stories and novels. You can help your
students by making clear what points an analysis of methodology
should cover, and by demonstrating the ways you go about
evaluating methodology. When you ask students to revise an
assignment, you can help them by providing some samples of
effective revision, making clear what they should attend to. |
| "How does this writing
assignment or topic relate to the work that specialists do in this
field?" |
| Students particularly value writing
of the sort they may do if they choose to work in your profession.
But they often do not recognize that summary writing is an
important tool of the philosopher or that observation logs are
used by professional engineers. You might help them by showing
them samples of your own observation logs or mathematical proofs,
even if they are written in only a shorthand version of what you
want your students to write. |
| "If you evaluate my work on
this assignment, what exactly will you be looking for?" |
| Consider these suggestions from
experienced WI instructors:
"Give students in writing
the criteria for evaluation along with assignment guidelines.
Discuss these before students begin writing and as students
work on completing the assignment."
"Provide students with
examples, perhaps some well written and some not so well
written, of student work from previous semesters. Using the
criteria provided, have students assess the writing."
|
| "How will you be helping me
through this writing assignment?" |
| Students particularly like
assignment sheets that guide them through thinking processes and
writing processes. If given only a list of "provocative
questions," students often write little more than unlinked
paragraphs that answer the questions. In contrast, if you give
your students information on their audience (e.g., peers, field
professionals), purpose (to demonstrate, illustrate, or persuade),
and genre (research proposal, critique), they are more likely to
learn and to write more effectively. Students also really
appreciate advice on getting information, organizing their first
draft, editing, and even using a word processor. Finally, students
also want to know how much written feedback you will give them,
when you are available for conferences, and whether or not they
can revise what they hand in.
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In trying to answer these (and
similar) questions when you give your students writing
assignments, you may be taking important steps in helping your
students to write and learn more effectively.
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