The spring series of Writing Across the Curriculum workshops kicks off Wednesday, Jan. 31, with “Experts’ Notebooks: Increasing Course Writing; Reducing Grade Times.”
The program will be held from 1 to 2:30 p.m. in Room 240 of the Pollak Library.
Writing Across the Curriculum is a program focused on giving faculty members the tools they may need to assist students in becoming better writers. One of its goals, says Leslie Bruce, the faculty fellow overseeing the effort, is to teach faculty the wide range of ways to have students write beyond the standard term paper.
“Experts’ Notebooks” is described as a tool that allows faculty to increase student writing with minimal instructor labor. “Experts’ notebooks can take many forms, such as the scientist’s lab or field book, the artist’s sketchbook, the police field interview notebook, the commonplace book, or the journal,” says Bruce. “‘Expert’ forms of writing particular to individual disciplines — graphs, observations, analyses, illustrations and evaluations — are all equally at home in such notebooks.”
The workshop will go over the characteristics of effective notebooks, consider possible cognitive activities to include and discuss methods for reducing notebook grading time.
Coming in February:
Writing Across the Curriculum Lunch and Learn
Noon-1 p.m., Feb. 9, Pollak Library Room 260C
Led by Bruce, the program is geared to help faculty working on syllabi, writing prompts, or writing-to-learn activities to receive formative feedback from peers. Lunch is provided.
Clear, Concise Sentences: Five Quick Strategies to Teach Students
11:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m., Feb. 22, Pollak Library Room 256
As students strive to write academic prose, they often produce unclear or awkward sentences. This workshop will introduce five strategies that yield clearer writing. Teaching them to students will result in easier-to-read student writing and reduced instructor grading time.