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Use Writing in Your Classes

Writing can increase deep learning. Writing filters new ideas through your cognitive system and thus provides the means to deeply understand that idea. Consider ways to increase the writing your students do—or add writing to your course if you’ve not already done so.

Writing can be done across the curriculum. Writing isn’t limited to Liberal Arts and Sciences courses. Look up the diverse "Writing Intensive" Teaching Posters on this link:
http://lumen.georgetown.edu/collaborators/kansascte/

These KU professors have successfully adapted writing for Public Administration, Psychology, Communication, Social Welfare, and Aeronautics Engineering courses. Many of these professors met with KU Writing Center consultants to fine-tune the writing aspect of their courses.

KU’s Writing Center offers any instructor or student support for writing. They have many programs already available and will assist you with all your writing needs:

Writing assignments—daily, journals, short to long papers
Rubrics for grading
Classroom visits
Individual consultations for students
Individual consultations for instructors
On-line "Grammar Guru"
Web site
Ideas to teach for learning
Ideas for helping students attribute sources

Read the two following excerpts from their helpful web page. Please visit it via the link below.

Different Types of Informal Writing
Using writing in a class need not be only a multi-page, graded research paper. Smaller, informal writing projects also can provide learning benefits. Consider these suggestions and check the web site for more details—or set up a one-on-one meeting with a writing consultant to discuss informal writing for your specific course.

Brainstorming
Peer response
Informal short writings
Journals or logs (great for labs and studios0
Outlining
Paraphrases
Summaries
Microthemes
Note taking

Seven Compelling Reasons for Using Writing in Your Courses

1. Writing creates learning: it entails high-order, domain-spanning thinking processes.

2. Writing encourages active learning: it provides a way for students to visualize what they think and to elaborate on it.

3. Some kinds of thought emerge only when we try to communicate them. Writing fosters the ability to explore and articulate relationships, to wrestle with "why" and "how," to learn what counts as support in a discipline, and to refine thinking.

4. Many disciplines evaluate student performance in terms of writing ability. Through writing, you give students vital practice.

5. Writing is learnable. Providing opportunities to write will improve idea fluency and flexibility, develop metacognitive abilities required to engage in complex decision-making tasks, and introduce students to the ways of communicating ideas specific to their discipline.

6. Writing is important to achievement in other workplace settings. When you’re out on a job, the writing that you do can mean the difference between success and failure.

7. Emphasizing the uses and benefits of writing improves students' attitudes toward their own abilities and invites them to use writing in new ways. Moreover, using writing to enhance learning makes you more aware of what constitutes writing effectiveness and stands to improve the quality of your own work.

Adapted from University of Georgia Writing Intensive Program

Writer’s Roost