First-Year Writing Program - for Faculty

Welcome to Teaching Writing at Montclair State University

On this page teachers will find resources for teaching first-year writing at MSU, though other teachers of writing and other disciplines are welcome to use these materials.  Comments on the contents of the page may be sent to the Director of First-Year Writing, Emily Isaacs.

• MSU Public First-Year Writing Pages
  First-Year Writing Home Page
  MSU Catalog Course Descriptions
  MSU Standards for Formal Written Work
  


• Course Requirements
  Guidelines to Teaching First-Year Writing Courses at MSU
  Requirements for First-year Writing Faculty  
  ENWR100: Introduction to Writing
  Full Course Proposal, Sample Syllabi, Assignments & Teaching Resources
  ENWR105: College Writing I: Intellectual Prose
  Full Course Proposal, Sample Syllabi, Assignments & Teaching Resources
  ENWR106: College Writing II: Writing and Literary Study
  Full Course Proposal, Sample Syllabi, Assignments & Teaching Resources
  
  
• Guidelines
  Requirements for Faculty: Employment Information, Work Expectations. 
  Handbook for New Faculty: Introduction to the Program at MSU, including requirements and guidance on both pedagogical and administrative issues. 
  Requirements for Syllabi: Briefly details requirements for all first-year writing course syllabi.
  Text Selection Guidelines: Includes links to publishers, lists of publisher representatives, notes on texts.
  Grading: Guidelines on grades and explanation of IN (incomplete) and NC (no credit) grades.
          Benchmark Grades for ENWR105 and ENWR106
          Grading Criteria: Description of A, B, C, D and F papers
          Sample End Comments for One ENWR100 Student: Exemplifies rubric, use of criteria, and grading.
          Revision Symbols: from U. of Maryland, Capital Community College, and Virginia Commonwealth U. 
  Efficient Evaluation: References to articles that help teachers evaluate efficiently.
  First-Year Students at MSU: Who Are They?: A quick summary of the incoming first-year class.


• Plagiarism
  Policy
  Avoiding Plagiarism
  Dealing with Plagiarism
  Plagiarism for Students
  Center for Academic Integrity
  
  
• Workshops
  Spring 2012 Faculty Workshops:
  
  Tuesday, March 6th 4:30pm - Kopps Lounge (Russ Hall): "Supporting Successful Student Revision" offered by Tatum Petrich, Maria Montaperto, Leslie Rapparlie, and Tavya Jackson.
  Models for Promoting Successful Revision DOC : PDF: Workshop follow-up for Supporting Successful Student Revision.
  
  Wednesday, March 28th 2:30pm - UH 1120: "Writing with New Technologies: Challenges of Keeping a Writing Standard, Using Revision, and Assessing and Using Rubrics" offered by Paul Caruso and Rick Reid.
  New Media Sample Rubric: Paul Caruso's sample rubric for evaluating new media projects in a writing course.
  Process Blog Assignment: Rick Reid's process blog assignment for ENWR 105/106 with examples.
  
  Tuesday, April 3rd 4pm - UH 1143: "Teaching Writing Through Rhetoric" offered by Laura Field and Jess Restaino.
  
  Previous Workshops:
  Making Connections: Jessica Restaino's worksheet and resource list for teachers wishing to support their curriculum with outside speakers and contact with a variety of agencies and non-profit organizations.
  Developing Writing Assignments: Guidelines on Developing Strong Writing Assignments. 2007, Workshop.
  Teaching Clarity: Addressing Error in Student Writing, Some Practical Ideas. March 2009, Workshop.
  
  Teaching Revision: Strategies for Teaching Revision. October 2010, Workshop.
  
  
• Outside Resources
  Dartmouth College Writing Program: This extensive website of hand-outs for students and guidelines for faculty is really impressive.  Here are just a few of the highlights:
          For Faculty: 
              Teaching Argument In our courses our primary aim is to teach students how to write argumentative essays.
              Teaching Grammar and Style. Some effective methods for teaching grammar and style.
              Responding to Student Texts. 
          For Students:
              What is an Academic Paper? Defines college academic writing against high school and non-academic writing.
              Revision: Cultivating a Critical Eye.  General guidelines and specific questions for revising.
              Attending to Style.  Guidelines for clarifying and streamlining prose.
  Bedford/StMartins' Teaching Writing Resources.  Bedford/St. Martin is actually one of the smaller publishers, but since a main focus for the company is composition, they support the field well.  This free portal has a lot of useful information.   Some highlights:
             On Plagiarism
             Teaching Peer Review Using Technology
             Updated List of Lunsford's Top 20 Errors
             Diana Hacker's Grammar Exercises  These should be used selectively for individual students, by need.
             Between the Drafts: Nancy Sommer's online teaching blog that posts a montly reflection on teaching writing.
  Evaluating Web Sites: Guidance from Northwest Missouri State University
  Guidelines on Citing Web Resources: Wendy Nielsen
  David Barholomae's "The Tidy House: Basic Writing in the American Curriculum.": A particularly useful and intriguing article for teachers of first year writing and the role of "basic writing" in the college curriculum. Linked from the Penn State University website.

August 2011