Teaching Writing Guidelines for First-Year Writing

Back to The First Year Writing Program - for Faculty

The first year writing courses introduce students to the academic argument.  After reading a variety of texts, students are led through a process-approach to writing academic arguments on a broad range of topics.  Assignments will engage students in issues of some significance to academic or public audiences, and will require students to move beyond reflection on personal experiences, particularly as the courses progress.

Please note: all faculty are required to use Blackboard, at least minimally for announcements, posting of assignments and syllabi. I encourage greater use for your convenience. However, you must at least set up Blackboard so that your students can be notified in the event of an emergency or a last-minute change.

ENWR100 Introduction to Writing
1.    Five essays of formal academic prose (2 to 5 pages each).
2.    Revision, typically three drafts.
3.    Regular instructor feedback on drafts; evaluation of final drafts.
4.    Portfolio due during final exam week.
5.    Instruction and practice in peer review.
6.    Assignment and use of a thematic-based reader and handbook (see recommended list)
7.    Significant in-class and one-on-one support for development of clear sentence level writing. 
8.    One-on-one work with students.
9.    Mandatory review of borderline papers.  New faculty will submit a minimum of four student portfolios for review by two independent faculty readers.  Veteran faculty will submit at least one, and are invited to submit more.

ENWR105 College Writing I
1.    Five essays (3-6 pages each).
2.    Revision, typically three drafts.
3.    Regular instructor feedback on drafts; evaluation of final drafts.
4.    Documented essay (which is NOT a ten page term paper; see web site for guidance).
5.    Assignment and use of a thematic-based reader and handbook (see recommended list)
6.    Instruction in basic research techniques and more particular attention to teaching writing without plagiarism, i.e., summary, paraphrase and direct quotation. (Note: New Student Experience class instructors send students to library for a basic tour; 105 instructors should schedule a directive research class.)
7.    Review of MLA citation requirements from works cited page to introduction of quotes.  MLA documentation should be required for at least three essays; for the documented essay, students should not receive a passing grade unless and until they have appropriately documented the submitted essay.
8.    Portfolio due during final exam week.
        a.    Portfolio is variously defined but minimally must include additional re-writing of one or more of the five required essays.  Frequently also includes reflective essay and additional revision work.  Portfolio is graded and is part of the final.
        b.    Portfolio is in lieu of final exam.  This is not an exam course.
9.    Instruction and practice in peer review.
10.    Regular reading of intellectual prose on a variety of issues.

ENWR106: College Writing II
1.    6000 words of formal edited academic prose (24 pages; typically 4 essays).
2.    Revision, typically three drafts.
3.    Regular instructor feedback.
4.    Documented essay.  See above. (Frequently instructors choose to provide students with secondary sources so students can focus on the effort to integrate these sources rather than finding appropriate sources—which is hard to do in literature.)
5.    Regular practice in MLA citation work, from appropriate in-text citation to correct works cited pages for all essays.  Brief introduction to the conventions particular to citing literary texts.
6.    Portfolio (see above).
7.    Practice in peer review.
8.    Diversity of literary texts.
a.       Three genres—poetry, fiction and drama.
b.      Diversity of writers—by race, class and gender, canonical and non-canonical.

Grading
    Students should be evaluated by well-articulated and explained criteria.  While instructors will vary slightly in their emphasis and terminology, these are the criteria for evaluation.
        1.      Focus/Thesis
        2.      Development
        3.      Analysis/Argumentation
        4.      Organization
        5.      Clarity
        6.      Appropriate citation

      When determining student grades instructors should be mindful that final grades need to reflect summary judgments of student writing.  Thus students who end the semester writing at a C level, should get a C, perhaps a C+, and so on. Our grades are read by students and subsequent professors as indicators of students' writing abilities and therefore need to be indicators of just that--not students' effort, cooperativeness, or class participation.  These strong student attributes will improve writing over the course of the semester.

     Description of A, B, C, D, and F Final Grades:

    A.  Students whose essays are consistently strong in all of the above identified areas should receive A's.  As are reserved for those students who write quite well, and whose work is genuinely impressive to us as readers, not simply as teacher-readers.  These students have demonstrated themselves to be excellent writers.
    B.  Students whose essays are consistently strong in most criteria areas and adequate in all criteria areas should receive Bs.  These students have demonstrated themselves to be good or very good writers.
    C.  Students whose essays are comprehensible--moderately developed and reasonably organized, and generally make a point, if not a particularly interesting one, should receive Cs.  These students have demonstrated themselves to be fair writers.
    D.  Students whose essays may succeed in one or two areas, but which are not successful in two or more areas, should receive Ds.  For example, a D writer may write in a lively and clear style--nice paragraphs or sentences, perhaps-- but seldom is the point carried through from beginning to end.  Or, a D writer may have a basic point and have a few great moments of insight, but is significantly confusing in his syntax, grammar, or style, so much so that a reader is in fact unclear about the meaning of some sentences.  Or, a D writer may write minimally, dashing off a quick, brief draft that isn't particularly wrong, but reads like an in-class paper written by a high school student.  These students have demonstrated themselves to be weak writers.  A D grade tells a student that s/he is not writing up to university expectations.  (Recall that a 2.0 GPA is required to retain good standing.)
    F.  A F grade is often a result of failure to complete work or expectations, but an F can is be earned by a student whose essays do not meet minimum standards on most of the criteria.  If at the end of a semester you read a student's work and you say to yourself, "There's no way this student is writing like a college student and I'd be embarrassed to say he passed my class," that student is a candidate for an earned F.

Note: These are descriptions of final grade attributes. For guidelines on grading specific papers, please see grading criteria, here on the website and also in the Handbook.

Overall Guidelines:

      To some extent, your class GPAs will vary from semester to semester, class to class.  That said, in general most students will receive B and C grades, with outliers receiving As and Ds--in other words, many more Bs and Cs than As and Ds.  The proportion of F grades is mostly dependent on how many students make private decisions to drop out (without actually withdraw) by not meeting expectations.  That can really vary, but is typically easy for instructors to assess.

Note: More guidance on grading and responding to student writing, including sample benchmark papers, can be found throughout the web site.
 
June 2009