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Evaluating Writing Reviews Teaching Writing

“Revision Makes My Students Thirsty” by Noreen Moore

When Noreen Moore asked her students to revise, she found they avoided the task either out of fear of messing up their hard-won first draft, or out of confusion about the process of revision. In this article, Moore offers creative solutions to help students revise their writing.

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Evaluating Writing Graduate Students Teaching Writing

Authentic Writing

photo-1414919823178-e9d9d0afd0acEmily Chambers is an English M.A. student in the Teaching Writing and Literature program and a Graduate Research Assistant for Mason WAC.  She taught sixth grade English for five years in Culpeper, VA before beginning her studies at GMU.  Emily’s main interests are in teacher development and curriculum resources.  She can be reached at echambe5@masonlive.gmu.edu.  

Educators often note that much of the writing students do in school settings (from k-12 to their first few years of college) is written for the “teacher as audience.” Many have suggested that “authentic writing” opportunities are more helpful to students, teaching them to consider audience and motivating them to write. Defined in simple terms, “authentic writing” is a phrase that describes writing for “real life” audiences and purposes. Examples might include asking students to write web text for a non-profit, proposals to granting agencies, letters to the editor, or pieces that will be submitted for publication.

In my five years of teaching middle school classes, the most successful and rewarding authentic writing experience was when I asked my students to submit to the America Library of Poetry Contest.  My sixth-grade students used the writing process to compose poems, and after peer- and teacher-conferences, they submitted these poems to be read by national judges.  We spent time through this lesson reading poems and talking about the strengths of good poems in our class sessions. This summer, I happened to read a short autobiography by a former student, written for a fundraiser.  As one of her interests, Lindsay listed “writing poetry,” and mentioned that she was a winner in a national poetry contest.  She had won! I was overjoyed to see that a classroom writing assignment had become a proud moment in my student’s life, and that she had taken on a role as a writer.  

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Evaluating Writing Teaching Writing

National Census of Writing report released

Carl Straumsheim’s Inside Higher Ed article summarizes and highlights the newly released National Census of Writing, a comprehensive data-based survey of writing at national two-and four-year public and not-for-profit institutions.  The researchers offer open access to the data, which includes contributions from the 2014-2015 George Mason WAC program team.  Data was collected from 900 colleges, and the survey is the most comprehensive survey of its kind.   We are eager to learn from this new report, which makes writing instruction trends clear on a national level.

Read the full article here: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/10/20/national-census-writing-releases-survey-results

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Evaluating Writing Modules

Commenting Strategies

Check out this easy video for speeding up commenting on student work!  It’s a great complement to Paul T. Corrigan’s essay  on correcting student work.  How do you give feedback to students?  What works for you?

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Evaluating Writing Teaching Writing

Error in Student Writing: A Balanced, Developmental Approach

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By Paul T. Corrigan

Paul T. Corrigan teaches writing and literature at Southeastern University, where he serves on the steering committee for Writing Across the Curriculum. He writes at Teaching & Learning in Higher Ed. You can reach him through Facebook, Twitter, and paultcorrigan.com.

Errors in writing may irk and confuse readers, imply ignorance or negligence on behalf of the author, and have unintended consequences in the real world. For these reasons, many teachers feel compelled to try to “cure” students’ writing of errors, often by prescribing heavy doses of red ink. I am grateful for the thankless efforts these teachers make to help students become clearer, more accurate writers. But I bear bad news. There is no cure for errors in student writing. We need to be absolutely clear on this. Short of not writing, students will continue to err, no matter what we do.

Butlet me hasten to addthis bad news is also the good news.