Guides & Tips
Effective Collaboration with Writing Centers
How can we as faculty make the best use of the Writing Center for our students? This guide offers some suggestions for how to introduce the Writing Center at the beginning of the semester, how to discuss tutoring with individual students before they make an appointment, and how to encourage students to respond critically to […]
Providing Feedback
One of our expectations in the CAS Writing Program is that faculty will provide students with “timely and substantive” feedback on their writing, both on drafts and on final versions of papers/projects. In general, all faculty will meet with students individually at least twice in the semester to discuss their writing in formal writing conferences, scheduled […]
Student Presentations and Strategies for Audience Engagement
WR 111, WR 112, WR 120, and WR 151 all require oral presentations for students and value these opportunities for students to speak to their peers. However, instructors sometimes struggle to sustain engagement on the part of the rest of the class during presentations. The following list provides some strategies to motivate audience members to […]
Place-Based Possibilities: Experiential Learning Ideas for WR Courses
This guide helps instructors connect place-based experiences and experiential learning to different courses in the WR sequence. Guiding Questions for Adventures Outside of the Classroom How can students engage deeply and safely with a place/event and its community/ies? What clear ground rules can you create to protect students while giving them freedom to explore? How wide […]
Writing Program Shared Vocabulary
This list represents some of the core shared vocabulary of the CAS Writing Program’s curriculum. Using these terms with students helps foster a common language across course sections and levels. Rhetorical Situation Audience Purpose Context Genre Mode (more applicable in WR 151/152) Argument Claim Reasons Evidence Acknowledgment and response Introductions Current situation/[common ground]/[background] Research question/[problem statement] […]
Faculty Guide to Teaching WR 120 and WR 15x
The following guide is aimed at instructors new to the CAS Writing Program and walks them through the process of preparing their courses for the first time. Note that while some sections of WR 120 are reserved for English language learners (ELLs), all WR 120s use the same learning outcomes and course requirements. Similarly, while […]
Faculty Guide to Teaching WR 111 and WR 112
The following guide is designed for faculty who are teaching WR 111 or WR 112, our courses for English language learners (ELLs), for the first time, or who would like to refresh themselves on our curriculum. WR 111 is an ELL academic writing course designed to orient students to the university, while WR 112 is […]
Building Your Syllabus (Syllabi Templates)
The Writing Program offers the following set of resources to help you build your own syllabus, rather than a single syllabus template for each level. We have broken the syllabus down into three parts, so that it is clearer which parts of our syllabi are common to all courses in the Writing Program and which […]
WR 151 Additional Ideas and Supplemental Resources
Throughout the semester, WR 151 aims explicitly to make the resources of writing available to speech/signing and vice versa: Students learn to infuse their writing with the liveliness and urgency of oral exchange and to develop an oral style commensurate with the thoughtfulness of their reading and writing. The signature approach of WR 151 is […]
WR 153 Additional Ideas and Supplemental Resources
In WR 153, students will develop a sustained project or series of projects guided by the process of design thinking (empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test, assess/reflect). The signature of WR 153 is a focus on creativity and design throughout the semester and a project exploring creativity and informed by the student’s research. The following guide is […]