Rubric for Writing Designated (WD) Courses
In writing designated courses, students are instructed in the various writing skills needed, practiced, and valued by members of a specific discipline. Students are also given opportunities to find, access, evaluate, and use sources, as well as analyze, critique, and summarize writing within that discipline. Issues regarding grammar are reviewed depending on the needs of each individual student. The assessment of written assignments evaluates not only each student’s understanding of content in the course [a], but also their ability to progress in essential, discipline-specific writing skills throughout the semester. Thus, in writing designated courses, the process of writing, receiving feedback, and revising becomes the way in which students learn the most about writing. The emphasis is on higher-order concerns, such as purpose, organization, and the development of ideas. The opportunities to write in these courses may take the form of written analyses, close reading, press releases, scripts, lab reports, legal and business briefs, multimedia documents, or any other writing for the professions.
Use the rubric below to consider the ways in which your course meets the definition of a Writing Designated class.
The following items must be included in the instructional practices of a WD course:Elements of a Writing Designated (WD) Class / Strategy for Implementing in WD Class / Strategy for Assessing Skill in WD Class
1) Emphasis on the importance of original ideas and clarity of expression.
2) Frequent opportunities to write and to get critical feedback and evaluation on written assignments from both faculty and peers.
3) Writing is taught as a tool for understanding and articulating complex issues or perspectives.
4) Intensive practice in formats and conventions used by writers in that discipline or field.
The following areas of writing are to be emphasized in a WD course:
Elements of a Writing Designated (WD) Class / Strategy for Implementing in WD Class / Strategy for Assessing Skill in WD Class
1) Pre-writing Generating ideas through free writing, brainstorming, clustering, etc.
2) Drafting the Paper Thesis statements, paragraph construction, organization (logical development of argument), structure, use of evidence, introductions, conclusions, and transitions.
3) Revising and Editing Opportunity to make revisions to drafts of papers to emphasize the importance of re-writing and editing. Grammar (especially fragments, comma splices, run-ons, comma placement, subject-verb agreement) are referred to as needed using a grammar handbook.
4) Research Citations are completed according to the MLA, APA, CSE, or Chicago style manual (depending on the discipline of study), proper works cited, references, or bibliography pages and annotations, correct use of paraphrase and summary, identification and strategies for avoiding plagiarism, and use of appropriate sources.
Instructional Practices
1). Original Ideas and Clarity of Expression: In writing designated courses, writing becomes a vehicle for students to explore new ways of thinking about the course material. However, students also need to express themselves clearly, demonstrating that their writing has a sense of purpose (to inform, to persuade, to report, to synthesize, to argue, to entertain, etc. etc.) and is geared toward a specific audience.[b] For example, is the student informing fellow Endicott classmates about the dangers of second-hand smoke? Is the student persuading a local business to select the advertising campaign they designed? Is the student reporting their findings from a scientific experiment to other experts in the field? In order for students to express their thoughts and ideas clearly, they need to develop an understanding of the interplay between communicators, audiences, messages, and language within the specific discipline they are studying.
2). Write, Critical Feedback, and Evaluation: Whether it is through informal writing assignments such as journals or brainstorming exercises, or formal assignments like research papers, writing designated courses provide students with frequent opportunities to write, both inside and outside the classroom. Faculty members can provide feedback and commentary on multiple drafts of major assignments, enabling students to rethink the material and revise their writing. It is important to stress, however, that the emphasis in writing designated courses is on the quality of writing rather than quantity; that is, while students certainly may be required to write more in writing designated courses, the goal is to provide students with various opportunities to receive guided and focused instruction in writing and writing-related tasks. This type of instruction can be done in a variety of ways, including through periodic, one-to-one conferences between the student and the instructor, as well as peer review.
Some forms of peer review faculty may elect to incorporate into writing designated courses include:
· Anonymous
o Also known as “blind review,” this is a form of peer review where both the author(s) and the reviewers are not known to each other. In other words, any identifying information is removed in order to help reduce or remove bias during the review/critique process. The reviewer generally reads the piece silently in isolation, away from the author, and makes comments on global and localized (i.e. sentence-level) concerns.
· Face-to-face
o The author and reviewer are known to each other and work together, generally within the same space. The author or reviewer may elect to read the piece aloud, but the author maintains control of the document. In other words, the reviewer makes suggestions about possible improvement, but it is up to the author to make edits or revisions on the paper. Greater emphasis is on global concerns like synthesis of ideas, organization, etc.
Instructional Practices (cont.)
· Group
The author(s) work with a team of reviewers, generally those with a certain level of knowledge about the writing, the subject matter, or the project. The author(s) still maintain authority over the work and the focus is still on global concerns, however, the author has a larger pool of knowledgeable peers from which to pull ideas. Also, group members often adopt certain roles, such as “time-keeper,” “note-taker,” “facilitator,” etc.
3). Writing as a Tool: In writing designated courses the act and process of writing becomes a tool for students to explore new ideas, reflect on the course material, take risks, make connections between information, move from early, underdeveloped drafts to polished prose, and dialogue between peers and the instructor about relevant issues in the discipline. Writing can also be used as a tool for students to develop a greater awareness of their own writing processes by asking them to describe what difficulties they encountered while writing, how they addressed the comments/suggestions of their instructor or peers between drafts, what additional research (if any) students conducted, etc.
4). Formats/Conventions of Writers in the Discipline or Field: In writing designated courses, students are asked to learn about the writing skills needed, practiced, and valued by members of a specific discipline; however, some of the goals, aspects, and conventions of writing vary according to the discipline. This variance is particularly true in relation to the genre (the type of texts students produce in and out of the classroom), how arguments are posed and defended, what constitutes valid or meaningful evidence, the formality of language, the type of citation style (APA, MLA, CSE, Chicago, etc.), and the intended audience. Therefore, students are expected to understand, practice, and develop competency in the formal and informal rules of writing within a particular discipline as those rules pertain to organization of information, content presentation, formatting, and stylistics.[c]
Areas of Writing
1). Pre-writing: In the “pre-writing” phase, students think, learn, and understand the course material through informal (often ungraded) writing. As defined by Peter Elbow, pre-writing often involves “frequent, informal assignments that make students spend time regularly reflecting in written language on what they are learning from discussions, readings, lectures, and their own thinking.” Pre-writing allows the student to explore what they know (or what they think they know) about a specific topic, identify their purpose, and gather information. Some useful pre-writing techniques include: outlining, diagramming, free-writing, narrating, and researching.
2). Drafting the Paper: In the “drafting” phase, students are given the opportunity to write several drafts of their entire assignment or focus on specific areas, such as thesis statements, paragraph construction, organization, structure, use of evidence, introductions, conclusions, and transitions. Depending on the needs of students in the class, instructors may devote some class time to one (or several) of the areas noted above. For example, what information needs to be included in an introduction? Should a thesis statement be placed at the end of the first paragraph, or does it function better later in the piece? How is evidence used in a paper on the history of voting rights in the United States and what types of evidence are the most effective (statistics, interviews, historical accounts, etc.)?
3). Revising and Editing: In the “revising and editing” phase, students are asked to make substantial changes to written drafts, to (in some cases) literally “re-see” their argument, the topic, or how they have approached the assignment. In writing designated course syllabi, due dates for major written assignments can be spread out over the course of the semester to ensure enough time for the revision process. In addition, writing assignments that require revision can constitute a significant portion of students’ final grades. The editing of minor, sentence-level issues such as fragments, comma-splices, verb-tense agreements, etc. can be addressed in relation to each individual student in the form of commentary on written drafts and during conferences with the instructor.[d]
4). Research: Students in writing designated courses can not only learn and practice the appropriate citation style and format for the discipline being studied (APA, MLA, CSE, etc.), but can also be given the opportunity to search for the texts, data, artifacts, artworks, etc. that have not been pre-selected by the instructor. For some courses, it may be appropriate for students to generate data from primary research, such as surveys, interviews, observations, experiments, etc. Students can also be given opportunities to evaluate various sources through analysis and critique of discipline-specific writing.[e]
[a] In WD courses, the balance between content knowledge and the progression of written skills is also expressed in the VALUE Rubric on Written Communication. Specifically, students are to use “appropriate, relevant, and compelling content to illustrate mastery of the subject, conveying the writer’s understanding, and shaping the whole work.” For those faculty interested in utilizing the VALUE Rubric as a form of assessment for a WD course, the document is available from www.aacu.org/value/rubrics
[b] “Original Ideas and Clarity of Expression” coincides with the “Context of and Purpose for Writing” section of the VALUE Rubric in Writing Communication, which “includes considerations of audience, purpose, and the circumstances surrounding the writing task(s).” For those faculty interested in utilizing the VALUE Rubric as a form of assessment for a WD course, the document is available from www.aacu.org/value/rubrics
[c] “Formats/Conventions of Writers in the Discipline or Field” coincides with the “Genre and Disciplinary Conventions” section of the VALUE Rubric on Written Communication, which emphasizes a “detailed attention to and successful execution of a wide range of conventions particular to a specific discipline and/or writing task(s).” For those faculty interested in utilizing the VALUE Rubric as a form of assessment for a WD course, the document is available from www.aacu.org/value/rubrics
[d] “Editing” coincides with the “Control of Syntax and Mechanics” section of the VALUE Rubric on Written Communication, which emphasizes the “use of graceful language that skillfully communicates meaning to readers with clarity and fluency.” The For those faculty interested in utilizing the VALUE Rubric as a form of assessment for a WD course, the document is available from www.aacu.org/value/rubrics
[e] “Research” coincides with the “Sources and Evidence” section of the VALUE Rubric on Written Communication, which emphasizes the “skillful use of high-quality, credible, relevant sources to develop ideas that are appropriate for the discipline and genre of the writing.” For those faculty interested in utilizing the VALUE Rubric as a form of assessment for a WD course, the document is available from www.aacu.org/value/rubrics