Category: Evaluating Writing

Write Nerdy to Me: Utilizing Fanfiction in WAC/WID Courses

Post author By caitlincholmes
Post date October 9, 2014

By Caitlin Dungan

Caitlin Dungan is a PhD student in Mason’s Writing and Rhetoric PhD Program. Caitlin is a Graduate Research Assistant for Mason’s Writing Across the Curriculum Program, and her current research interests include fanfiction, digital media and rhetoric, online feedback practices, and participatory culture.

It’s interesting, perplexing, and – I think – exciting that geek culture has emerged as mainstream. Realms previously reserved for a few indoctrinated fans are now open for participation to the many. One of the side effects of this growth in fandoms is the increasing number of emergent writers embracing fanfiction as a creative outlet. As young fans pursue this unique composition practice and post their works on online forums like fanfiction.net or Archive of Our Own, how much of this self-sponsored writing is informing their writing practice in the classroom?

Tags College Composition, composition, digital media, digital rhetoric, fan culture, fan fiction, fandom, fanfiction, fanfiction writing, Feedback, higher education, nerds, pedagogy, transfer, Writing, Writing Across the Curriculum, writing feedback, writing pedagogy

Evaluating Writing Teaching Writing Technology

An Attempt at “Teaching Naked”: Implementing José Bowen in ENGH 302

Post author By caitlincholmes
Post date October 2, 2014

By Caitlin Holmes

Caitlin Holmes is the Assistant Director of Writing Across the Curriculum at George Mason University. She blogs regularly about teaching here at thewritingcampus.com. You can reach her via email at wac@gmu.edu.

Dr. José Bowen, President of Goucher College and author of Teaching Naked, came to George Mason’s Innovations in Teaching and Learning Conference sponsored by the Center for Teaching and Faculty Excellence on September 18-19. During his visit, he led a 4-hour long workshop and then delivered a keynote presentation. During his presentations, Dr. Bowen spoke passionately about the importance of integrating technology more effectively into and out of the classroom as a way to encourage student accountability for learning and – most importantly – to transform the classroom into a site of thinking, not just knowledge acquisition.

Tags College Composition, composition, higher education, pedagogy, Teaching, Writing, Writing Across the Curriculum, Writing in the Disciplines

Evaluating Writing Teaching Writing

Small-Group Writing Conferences for Better Feedback and Student Peer Review

Post author By caitlincholmes
Post date September 18, 2014

By Steven J. Corbett

Almost everyone who teaches writing has an opinion about peer review and response. We’ve heard teachers bemoan how students just don’t take it seriously. We’ve struggled with trying to make it fit in an already over-loaded curriculum. Yet student peer review and response can become a writing teacher’s most promising pedagogy . . . if we approach it with the right attitude and a few helpful strategies and resources.

Tags Peer Review, Teaching Strategies, Writing Across the Curriculum

Evaluating Writing Reviews Teaching Writing Technology

Recent NPR Story: “Turnitin And The Debate Over Anti-Plagiarism Software”

Post author By Michelle LaFrance
Post date September 13, 2014

“The fact that anti-plagiarism software can’t tell the difference between accidental and intentional plagiarism is just one reason that Rebecca Moore Howard, a professor of writing and rhetoric at Syracuse University, is not a fan. Here’s another reason: ‘The use of a plagiarism-detecting service implicitly positions teachers and students in an adversarial position,’ Howard says.”

Read or listen to the whole piece here:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2014/08/25/340112848/turnitin-and-the-high-tech-plagiarism-debate