Syllabus for CHS 514: Preparation for Graduate Writing
Writing Yourself into Your Field San Francisco State University Objective: To attain the reading, writing and thinking skills required in each student’s field. Course Description: Designed for...
View ArticleWriting Assignment: Issues of Language and Education
Background: As a class, we have examined issues involving language and education, including the effects of education on family life, motivation of students with non-academic interests, cultural...
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Express Yourself . . . in a Composition Class?
At the beginning of each semester, I give my students a questionnaire, asking them, among other things, what they like and dislike about writing. About 70% respond that they like writing because they...
View ArticleThe Draft is Obsolete: The Word Processor and the Writing Process
The concept of the draft is obsolete, in both academic and creative writing, if drafting is a process of rewriting a work anew, recreating and reforming what has already been written in a wholly new...
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Composing a Class for Freshmen (Rather Than the Teacher)
These main principles are fundamental to the Freshman Composition course I teach: learner-centeredness, high expectations, flexibility, and, most importantly, authentic audience and purpose....
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“You’re Sick!” Says the Diagnostic Essay
“You’re sick!” says the diagnostic essay, and students hear the message plainly enough. In classes on connotation, I ask students what the associations of “diagnostic” are. Normally, I don’t need to...
View ArticleIntensity and Sophistication: Basic Skills versus Transfer Level Composition
Students in pre-transfer and transfer-level classes need to develop similar skills: studying, reading, thinking, and writing. The principal distinctions are intensity and sophistication. Basic skills...
View ArticleLanguage, Education and Identity: Writing Assignment for Pre-Transfer Level
Background: We spent the first half of the semester exploring our “hidden intellectualism,” the academic skills we use in non-academic pursuits, then turned to questions of language and identity. We...
View ArticleThe Electric Word: A Hybrid Second-Year Composition Course
English 214: Second Year Written Composition Instructor: Ronald B. Richardson The Electric Word: Class Blog Descriptions of and Links to Student Blogs Course Description Welcome to the Electric Word:...
View Article“Mention,” a Favorite Verb of Student Writers
I’d just like to mention that student writers love to use the verb “mention.” This writer mentions this and that writer mentions that. But Herman Melville did not mention a white whale in his novel;...
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