Teaching Writing

General Education Literature Writing Goals

One of the major components of teaching classes in the General Education Literature program is instruction in writing skills. While it is sometimes perceived as the less-interesting portion of our job, our ability to teach writing skills is a valuable aspect of our program and will serve us in good stead both in terms of retaining our program’s largely unique status and giving our students something tangible to point toward when asked what this class was good for.

It may not be flashy, and it may be frustrating at times, but with a reasonably hard-nosed approach to writing instruction you can see your students improve greatly by the end of a semester’s worth of instruction. The moment of epiphany when discussing a text is flashy but ephemeral; the drudgery of writing over and over is dull but concrete.

Strategies and Tactics for Teaching Writing

• Teaching Higher Order Writing
• Claim/Evidence/Warrant handout
• Inductive + Deductive writing

Thesis Work

• Thesis Powerpoint
• Thesis Statement
• JCosner – Thesis Exercise 

Structural Concerns

• Writing Presentation, Structuring Papers-Steffes
• Structure and Organization in Interpretation of Literature Essays – Draft
• Paragraph Transitions
• BHassman – Sentence Ordering Worksheet

Using Quotations

• Using Quotations – Draft
• Integrating Textual Evidence
• Textual Contextualization and Integration
• MSteiner – Incorporating Quotes from Time Magazine

Effective Sentences

• Anna Stenson’s PowerPoint on Eliminating Intensifiers, adapted from a handout by Joanne Janssen: Eliminate Intensifiers
• Brooks Landon has a page on cumulative sentences called The Cumulative Sentence and a page on the Basic Grammar and Philosophy for Crafting Cumulative Sentences.
• Anna Stenson has a PowerPoint on getting rid of jargon, passive verbs, and prepositional phrases based on Richard Lanham’s “Paramedic Method.” Paramedic Method
• Anna’s PowerPoint adapted from Laura Capp’s handout on writing sentences with substance: Sentences with Substance
• Anna’s PowerPoint on using appositives and subordinate clauses to create more complex sentences: Building up sentences

Including Transitions

• Anna’s handout on different kinds of transitions: Transitions handout
• AWilliams – Topic Sentences Handout

Other Concerns

• Joanne Janssen’s handout on Using Formal Language: Using Formal Language
• Writing Advice from Nazlı İnal
• Colin Kostelecky, MLA 8 Citation Game

Grades & Grading

• See Grading Resources in Teaching Literature here
• See other assignments/rubrics here

Rubrics and Guidelines

• Victoria Sprow left us a writing rubric (Essay Rubric Handout), and covers multiple aspects of the paper, from the title, individual paragraphs, and various different aspects of each essay. It doesn’t have any numerical weight for grading, but it discusses a great many possible aspects and provides general guidelines for students.
• Micah Bateman’s writing rubric (08G1 Paper Rubric) covers the basic concerns that he works through whenever grading his students’ papers, listing a number of specific aspects of paper-writing with an evaluative component for each.

Example Assignments

This section provides a number of different options for assignment construction, and while some general guidelines will be forthcoming, here are some possibilities with which to whet your appetite.

Brooks Landon’s Major Essay

• Brooks Paper #1

Jacob Horn’s Two Primary Assignments

• In the past, I have had students write two major essays over the course of a semester, each one running with two major texts as primary writing possibilities. F09 – Assignment – Major Essay 01
• Also, for every major reading I have my students write a reader response (or two), and I always try to include options for them, so that they aren’t just writing on a single possibility. F09 – Assignment – Reader Response 04

Ann Pleiss Morris’ Assignments

• Ann’s assignment on understanding cultural context in a longer essay: Essay – Cultural Context
• Ann’s ‘taming a poem’ exercise: Taming a poem

Sarah Fay McCarthy’s Assignment

• Sarah’s major paper assignment relies on a series of prior drafts and expansions of earlier work: Sarah’s Essay #1

Anna Stenson’s Assignment

• Anna’s assignment on exploring the value of a minor character in a longer work: Minor Character Essay

Joanne Janssen’s Assignment

• Joanne has a great assignment for The Handmaid’s Tale, focusing on a specific article comparing current events to the events of the book: Handmaid’s Tale

Laura Capp’s Assignment

• Laura’s assignment on evaluating character decisions in a short story: Laura Capp Essay #1

Other Assignments

• How to analyze a primary source: Primary Source analysis guide
• How to analyze a photograph: Photo Analysis Worksheet
• Andrew Williams offers this assignment for sending students to literary readings: Reading Attendance and Review
• Jennifer Loman provides this writing invitation, responding to Brian Doyle’s “Pop Art”: Writing Diagnotic, Pop Art
• Another good early assignment: Kate Nesbit’s Writing Exercise Curiosity
• Sample essay prompt on “A Defence of Rubbish”: Defence of Rubbish
• Creative Writing Assignment: Enrico Bruno’s Writing Fairy Tales Assignment