1 Guidelines

GUIDELINES FOR TEACHING WRITTEN EXPRESSION (ENGLISH 1)

The University of Vermont
Department of English

GOALS

The English 1 program at the University of Vermont introduces undergraduate students to a wide variety of roles that writing may play in their personal and academic lives.

Writing is a mode of learning. Students learn that writing is a tool to further writers’ understanding of themselves, of texts, and of the world around them.
Writing is a complicated process. Students learn that writing is commonly the result of an unpredictable, multi-stage process that includes exploring, composing, researching, revising and editing, and that each needs to learn which process works best for him or her.
Writing takes place in a rhetorical situation. Students examine how rhetorical context influences both the process and product of composing. They learn to develop their voice according to the purpose, audience, and situation of each writing task.
Writing sharpens critical thinking skills. Students learn the importance, in all types of writing, of making claims, finding and evaluating evidence to support those claims, and analyzing and evaluating the claims and evidence of others.
Reading skills are closely related to writing skills. Students learn to read others’ texts with an eye to writing their own, and they learn to write their own texts with an eye to the needs of readers.
Research skills strengthen writing skills. Students learn to find, assess, and use information in the library, on the Internet, and in the field to inform a wide variety of writing tasks.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Because English 1 is offered in approximately fifty sections each year, instructors are encouraged to require approximately the same amount of reading and writing work during the semester and to include these requirements clearly on a written syllabus given to all students in each class. Specific suggestions follow.

I. FORMAL WRITING

Number: During the term students write three to five finished papers in several drafts, each containing substantial amounts of revision, research, and/or editing with a final result of approximately twenty pages of finished writing.

Process: In each of the formal writing assignments students are encouraged to explore and practice the many dimensions of the writing process, including inventing, composing, researching, revising, editing, and publishing. Final drafts are edited for completeness, clarity and correctness. Most instructors view this multi-draft process as evolutionary and so do not grade early drafts of each paper. Instructors are encouraged to assess student writing via mid-term and final writing portfolios (see V).

Types of writing: Students are encouraged to write a variety of nonfiction that explores, explains, and interprets their world as well as their own lives within that world. They are encouraged at all times and in all genres to conduct appropriate research as a means of establishing credibility as well as to explore imaginative and creative forms for expressing their ideas. Common assignments include, but are not limited to: 1) experiential writing based on observation, artifact, and memory that explore important dimensions of the writer's life; 2) expository writing that examines, explains, and reports on the world; and 3) persuasive writing that makes claims about issues, ideas, institutions, and texts, and that supports those claims believable evidence.

1. Experiential writing explores and reflects upon different dimensions of the students’ past or present lives as accurately and honestly as they are willing to share with their classmates and instructor. The purpose of such assignments is to increase the writer's awareness of the evolution of personal values, beliefs, and ideas, and to understand the writer's self in relation to others and the world. Assignments that emphasize experiential writing include:

narratives or memoirs that explore episodes of the writer's life;self-studies that present a portrait of the writer in the present moment including profiles or interviews; autobiographical studies that examine themes in the writer's life including literate life histories or the evolution of the writer's voice or style; personal essays featuring the writer exploring a subject and, at the same time, revealing important dimensions of his or her self.

2. Expository writing examines and explains some aspect of the writer’s world. The purpose of such assignments is to teach students how to write about concepts, institutions, processes, or objects with clarity, accuracy, and credibility. Such writing is commonly based on library, field, or online research; it is sometimes collaborative or has collaborative dimensions. Assignments that emphasize expository writing include:

reports that explain how concepts, processes, or institutions work;
proposals that describe problems and suggest solutions;
profiles or portraits of persons featuring interview research;
feature stories based on research that might appear in newspapers or magazines.

3. Persuasive writing interprets the meaning of texts or asserts positions about issues or ideas. While in the largest sense all writing is persuasive in attempting to create reader belief, this category, in particular, seeks to persuade readers to believe one thing rather than another. In persuasive papers, students defend their interpretations or arguments with careful claims supported by specific and credible evidence. The purpose of such assignments is to sharpen writers’ abilities to read and research carefully, to reason logically, and to argue positions convincingly. Specific forms of these assignments might include:

critical or analytical essays that interpret the meaning of one or more texts (written or otherwise);
position papers that make and defend claims about issues, ideas, or institutions;
editorials or letters to the editor that argue one side of an issue;
personal and reader-response essays that explore a text in relation to the writer's self and experience.

II. INFORMAL WRITING

Students in many sections of English 1 do a substantial amount of informal discovery writing in the form of freewriting, journal writing, or letters shared with classmates and/or the instructor. Here they write about their development as writers, explore ideas for drafts and make plans for revision, record personal reactions to reading and class discussions, and write about whatever else they find related to their growth as writers. In addition to periodically sharing this writing with classmates and instructor, students commonly include self-selected samples in their writing portfolios to aid in final assessment.

III. READING

Students read a substantial number of other texts: they respond to other students' papers; they analyze how the rhetorical situation has shaped other writers' choices (and the effectiveness of those choices) in examples by both student and professional writers; they draw on research from other texts to support their own written claims; and they examine one or more texts closely for interpretative purposes. English 1 emphasizes student writing; therefore, student-generated texts are central to this course at all times. Commonly assigned course texts include rhetorics, handbooks, readers, and course packets, each explained below.

Rhetorics. Students often read one text that offers advice, strategies, and exercises about the act of writing. A rhetoric may provide the focus of class discussions or serve the student as a reference.
Handbooks. Some instructors require either a brief handbook of grammar and usage in addition to a rhetoric or a comprehensive handbook that includes a rhetoric.
Readers. Students may be asked to read essays published in anthologies and written by professional or student writers to see examples of different genres, forms, and styles. In addition, a reader may include texts which students use as resources for expository or persuasive writing.
Course packets. Instructors may create their own readers by putting together photocopies of student essays or individually-selected published essays. (Student or copyright permission must be received for all instructor-created reading packets—contact University Graphics and Printing for help).

IV. PEDAGOGY

Much of classroom time is spent reading, discussing, and anyalzing the students' own writing. Useful instructional techniques might include the following:

Conferences. Instructors schedule individual conferences with students in order to respond to drafts, discuss a student's progress, or reflect on the student's writing process. In such conferences, writers are asked questions rather than told what to do; ownership of the writing remains with the student. Instructors are encouraged to schedule at least two such personal conferences per semester with each student.
Writing Groups. Students often get responses from readers in addition to the teacher through peer group workshops. Such groups are supportive rather than corrective; again, ownership of the paper must remain with the author.
Demonstrations. Instructors often spend class time discussing samples of student writing, both formal and informal. These may come from the current class or from previous classes.
Prose Models. Instructors often spend class time analyzing examples of professional and student prose to illustrate effective (or less effective) use of language, organizational patterns, etc.
Exercises. Exercises designed to teach general principles of good writing such as effective lead sentences or transitions are often created from student papers.
Multiple drafts. Instructors provide students with as many opportunities as possible to write more than one draft of a paper, making sure the writers receive some response from the instructor or students before the next draft is due. Early drafts are looked at for ideas; later drafts for editing.
Class books. Instructors publish class books that include papers written by the students during the term. These books are commonly edited by a voluntary team of students who collect camera-ready copy from classmates (including graphics), arrange the essays in order, construct a table of contents, write an introduction, design a cover, and collect brief biographies of all contributing members. University Graphics and Printing produces and sells the books at cost. When the books are published, the class discusses the positive merits of the collected essays.

V. EVALUATION

Instructors are encouraged to use a portfolio system to evaluate student writing in English 1 classes. However, instructors who prefer to grade each paper should assign grades only to the final drafts. Both systems can provide students with the maximum amount of time to get their writing into shape, allowing for false starts, dead-ends, experiments, and the like. Both can also provide instructors with qualitative information on which to base final grades; in other words, both the process and the product can be factored into the final evaluation of student performance. Instructors commonly assign either a comprehensive or a story portfolio.

A comprehensive portfolio includes a cover letter or introduction by the student reflecting on the contents of the submitted portfolio along with copies of all paper drafts and selected pieces of informal writing.
A story portfolio tells the story of the writer’s progress through the course in chronological order in a narrative framework that includes excerpts from all important writing in the course, and concludes with a reflection on writer growth during the term. The complete final drafts of formal papers are commonly included in an appendix.

With either a comprehensive or a story portfolio, instructors ask to see portfolios at mid-term in order to provide students with an indication of their grade so far and to coach students about expectations for the final portfolio. The mid-term portfolio includes all written work through week seven or eight, which may be only one or two final or semi-final drafts in addition to many rougher drafts and samples of informal writing or class exercises. After examining the work-in-progress, the instructor may choose to give each student a verbal evaluation or an indicator grade of his or her progress in the course thus far. A final portfolio includes all work required during the semester and is usually due the last day of classes or shortly thereafter. The student's final grade is determined by the quality of the written drafts as well as the student’s record of meeting deadlines, attending all classes, and contributing to whole class and writing-group discussions. Mid-term grades may be factored into final grades or dropped in light of later progress.

(This document drafted by the Writing Committee: Toby Fulwiler, Chair; Jason Clark, Paul Eschholz, Susan Dinitz, Kate Hoffman, and Brian Kent. December, 1998)