Integrating Writing Into Your Course

OVERVIEW

Integrating writing into your course can provide huge benefits for your students. In addition to improving their general writing skills, writing in every discipline helps students to gain a deeper understanding of what they are learning. At the same time, writing provides students with the chance to become active participants in the conversations in their field, enhancing both their mastery of the material and their knowledge of discipline-specific terminology, style, and format.

This section provides general resources related to integrating writing into your (non-writing) course.

Also see: Designing Assignments and Writing in the Disciplines and Across the Curriculum for resources to help you create writing assignments in both writing courses and other disciplines.

GENERAL RESOURCES

30 Ideas for Teaching Writing (National Writing Project)
“The National Writing Project’s 30 Ideas for Teaching Writing offers successful strategies contributed by experienced writing project teachers. Since NWP does not promote a single approach to teaching writing, readers will benefit from a variety of eclectic, classroom-tested techniques.”

50 Years of Research on Writing: What Have We Learned? (University of California Television) (Video)
Posted on YouTube: January 31, 2008 | length: 59:50
“Three of the world’s leading scholars in the field of writing instruction and research [Charles Bazerman, Professor of Education UC Santa Barbara; Peter Elbow, Professor Emeritus of English, University of Massachusetts; and George Hillocks, Professor Emeritus of English and Education, University of Chicago] examine the state of knowledge in the field and its relevance to questions about teaching and learning writing at all levels of education Series: ‘Voices’ [11/2006].”

Donald Graves Tells Us How to Get a Writing Class Started (Barry Lane) (Video)
Posted on YouTube: November 19, 2007 | length: 1:34
“Author/Teacher Donald Graves has written many books on teaching writing, including the classic book, Writing: Teachers and Children at Work (Heinemann). Here tells us how to get a writing class started.”

Integrating Reading and Writing (Dartmouth College, The Institute for Writing and Rhetoric)
Discusses how to effectively integrate reading and writing into a course so learning is built upon their codependency.

Integrating Writing into Any Course: Starting Points (Kate Kiefer, Colorado State University, WAC Clearinghouse)
Reprint of an article published in Academic Writing July 25, 2000 that walks one through how to integrate writing successfully into any course so that the writing enhances learning without placing too great a burden on the instructor through increased paper load.

The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation (Jane Straus, GrammarBook.com)
Includes free online usage rules in addition to information about this workbook which features “English grammar, punctuation, and usage”.

Teaching Writing Guides (Writing@CSU)
Teaching Guides on Writing@CSU that address how to help students develop specific writing skills.

Writing at the Threshold: Featuring 56 Ways to Prepare High School and College Students to Think and Write at the College Level (Larry Weinstein)
This book is in circulation at Sprague Library and serves as a great resource to those teaching a writing course at the college level. Many of the activities in the book can be adapted to fit the needs of writing tutors as well.