Working Writing into Your Course

a Viterbo University Writing Across the Curriculum workshop

9/6/06

by Bill Stobb

Working Writing into Your Course

Viterbo Writing Across the Curriculum workshop

September 6, 2006

When you want to introduce some new writing assignments into an existing course, there are a couple of questions you can begin by asking:

1)      What existing course objectives or student learning outcomes could be addressed in writing assignments?

2)      More broadly, are there any natural connections between writing and any of the content or skills I want to teach in my courses?

In the process of answering these questions, you might find it useful to have a conversation or exchange an email with someone familiar with the course.  Often, engaging in a dialogue will help us to articulate ideas more clearly.  Simple free-writing or other invention exercises might also help you to approach these questions, if they prove difficult. 

Once you’ve answered these questions, you should be able to focus your attention on one or two ideas that seem most productive or easiest to incorporate.  At this point, there are some practical questions to consider:

1)      What kind of assignment(s) am I thinking of?  Formal or informal?  A single assignment or a sequence?

2)      Is this idea a version of something I’ve done in the past?  Do I have any existing documents that might help me think this through?

3)      Where/how does the new writing idea seem to fit into my existing framework of assignment

4)      If I’m teaching the class this semester, is it possible to work a new assignment or sequence of assignments into the course right now? 

Next step—documents.  The best way to create a new writing assignment is to work within the genre at hand: the assignment sheet.  Writing a new assignment is like any other writing task in that it’s a process with stages: invention, planning, drafting, revision, editing, and presentation.  Give yourself a couple of sessions with the assignment sheet.  Explore a couple of different approaches to formatting the assignment and organizing it.  Use your course objectives or student learning outcomes to guide your assignment.  And do take a look at “Designing Effective Writing Assignments,” linked to the Viterbo WAC webpage.