This manual is intended for instructors who wish to help students improve their writing skills. Part 1 of the manual which is divided into three sections details reasons why students have problems with writing, and includes examples of some faulty constructions. The final section includes: (1) a summary of strategies for improving student writing;…

Describes an approach to composition instruction in which the students are given a body of real or fictional evidence about a particular case and asked to interpret or explain it by means of a closely-reasoned argument. (HTH)

Describes a philosophy course with an expanded writing component. Includes samples of writing assignments. (HTH)

The process of travel can be combined with the parallel process of research by developing a writing project assignment that uses the "Travels of William Bartram," an eighteenth-century account of a naturalist's journey through the Carolinas. Students can be asked to select a point on Bartram's original itinerary and retrace his discovery…

In-class writing assignments using such techniques as non-thought warmups, lead-sentences, completion, rewording, and wordbanks (write a paragraph using a given list of words), and debriefing can be used on a regular basis in the content areas without decreasing time spent on content and without increasing the time spent grading papers. The…

Discusses various ways that writing can facilitate learning in a developmental psychology course. Argues that writing assignments are valuable because they promote active learning and provide another way to teach psychology. (Author/GEA)

Describes writing assignments that other teachers may wish to present in their classes on women's issues. (CRH)

Describes how students are able to empathize with women writers and each other by reading and writing autobiography. (CRH)

A survey of 190 academic departments in 34 universities indicates that considerable variability exists across fields in the kinds of writing required and in preferred assessment topics. (FL)

Describes a documented term paper assignment that allows students to investigate topics in other courses in which they are enrolled. Discusses the advantages of enlisting help from instructors in other areas and offers tips for involving the cooperating instructors in a mutually satisfying way. (FL)

Domain-specific knowledge can be processed so that analytical/critical thinking in verbal and written discourse is encouraged in the classroom by using a guided design strategy intended to solve open-ended problems. Each of the four operations in the strategy (state the goal, generate ideas, prepare a plan, and take action) make use of the…

Explains how group journals can be used in literature classes to encourage students to respond to each others' ideas, by having students write entries on assigned or free-choice topics on odd-numbered pages, leaving even-numbered pages for other students' responses, disagreements, clarifications, and questions. Includes samples of student journal…

Explores the difficulties writing teachers and students encounter with content area writing assignments, using observations and interviews from two social science classes. (HTH)

Presents a comprehensive theory-based model that encompasses all writing assignments across all disciplines; adapts Jakobson's communication model to written communication. (HTH)

Noting that a case-study approach can stimulate student thinking and learning, this paper describes how students in a writing-intensive course on parasitology wrote brief medical case studies of parasites already studied for other students to read, evaluate, and identify the parasite. The paper presents a brief description of the course, an…