Writing to Learn and Learning to Write: making writing more visible to your students

Jeanne Godfrey

www.jeannegodfrey.com

J. Godfrey. HBS LT Conference 1

1. It is a means by which all students can engage and develop their disciplinary thinking and knowledge, regardless of their writing ability or intellectual abilities.

2. It is a central part of serious intellectual endeavour (which often centres around intelligent use of source material) and engenders in students a feeling that they are part of the academic community.

3. The most effective way of developing students as writers is within the discipline. Students most highly value activities that are initiated by subject lecturers as opposed to other staff (Wingate 2011).

4. The more a student writes, the greater facility with language s/he will develop. By giving the ‘writing to learn’ process priority, we are simultaneously helping our students learn to write.

Therefore, rather than seeing writing development as chiefly a support and/or remedial activity, it should be considered at the point of curriculum design as

a visible part of the syllabus.


1. Reading and writing go together.

2. Vocabulary development is crucial. Students struggle with non-specialist vocabulary as well as the technical vocabulary of the discipline.

3. Students need: subject matter knowledge, discipline community knowledge, rhetorical knowledge, audience knowledge, assignment brief knowledge and writing process knowledge.

4. Transference of writing skills from one genre to another does not happen automatically.

5. It takes time to develop as a writer and also to develop an informed academic identity.

6. Students need to be shown that they do not have to copy the writing style of published academic writing.

7. We need to remind ourselves of the complex writing demands we are making of our students who are usually (in an academic context) novice writers.

8. Use of source and the interplay between source and student voice is central to most academic writing.


1. It’s not helpful to ask students initially what they need re. academic writing, as they usually won’t know.

2. Writing can start in an informal/creative way, but all writing tasks must be carefully constructed and tested.

3. Do not present writing activities as a ‘little, fun ‘activities, but explain their role in intellectual and disciplinary development.

4. The sooner students start to write, the better.

5. Writing tasks do not have to be long to be useful – less (shorter) is more!

6. Process is as important as product – notes, plans, drafts with mistakes, redrafts, and revising, editing and polishing are all valuable written products and stages in their own right.

7. Showing students your own writing process gives them confidence and helps demystify academic writing.

8. Doing the writing task with your students signifies its worth, and encourages engagement and the idea of ownership of ideas within the discipline.

9. Writing doesn’t always have to be marked or even looked at – writing per se develops writing ability. J. Godfrey. HBS LT Conference 4

Reading and writing

In the lecture

1. Guided textual analysis: individual texts, text types, student writing and the whole process (see hand-outs).

2. Paraphrasing a highlighted sentence in a reading text (in lecture of bring to the next lecture).

3. Writing first a one, then a two/three-sentence summary of key reading (start/during/end of the lecture)

Outside the lecture

1. Writing down some questions about a text before reading .

2. Making notes on and then questioning, evaluating and locating the text.

3. Writing a short description/biog of the author of a text (even speculating on what they look like).

4. Writing a short reflection on what type of source a text is (primary, secondary, tertiary, a mixture,

background, evidence, argument, method/model) and what the author it doing or trying to do.

5. Writing an informal reflection on their reading.

6. Writing an annotated bibliography.

Assimilation of lecture or seminar information (all can be done in the lecture)

1. At start of lecture, free writing or minute writing on the topic/title (can be compared with neighbour or not).

2. At start of lecture, writing one sentence on main point of the previous lecture, and compare with peer.

3. Using the last 5 mins of the lecture to write a one/two-sentence summary of the main points covered.


Writing for assignments (Most done outside lecture. * Done/could be done in the lecture.)

1. Writing 1 or 2 sentences about what they think the writing development aspects of an assignment are/will be.*2. Writing a paraphrase of an assignment title.*3. Writing a detailed plan and having an in-class 5 -10 min peer discussion on their plans.*4. Writing a draft section and *getting peer comments (not peer marking).5. Writing up their thesis statement for a non-expert audience (any style is acceptable). 6. Bringing in a draft that is marked up/colour-coded and aligned to copies of source extracts and *discuss.7. Abstract writing outside class and then *in-class peer critique (see hand-out).8. Writing up short essay (pre- or post- marked) or draft in the form of an author to non-expert reader dialogue.9. Editing a poorly written essay with other students, via a wiki.10. Giving written comments on their own essay and giving it a potential mark as part of what they hand in.11. Peer reviewing and adding written comments on the other students’ work .*12. Writing a paragraph on the usefulness (or otherwise) of their written tutor feedback .13. Specifying in writing 1 - 2 aspects of their work on which they would like feedback .Hand in with assignment.

Other tasks1. Writing short persuasive memos (see hand-out).2. Keeping a ‘Reflection on Writing’ journal to reflect on their writing process.3. Having a seminar that focuses on discussing their writing process and the final product.4. Having a half-day writing retreat for the module about two weeks before the assignment deadline.

Writing tasks that can form part of an assignment:1. Students hand in their assignment colour-coded and marked up with accompanying copies of source extracts. They get feedback and then write an improved version .2. Students get to rewrite/improve a marked essay, rather than just moving on to the next one .3. Students keep and collect the results of the stages in the writing process for an assignment portfolio.


Guided Textual Analysis Guided Textual Analysis (Hand-out p.3)

Use guided textual analysis to look at argument development and persuasive power. Importance of: good research, content, ideas and logical structure; all of the above and also the use of reliable sources for overall author credibility; clarity of student voice/authorial position through contrast with source voices and the way in which the sources are integrated; use of hedges e.g. suggest / might / could / possible; use of boosters (warning - this category overlaps with empty persuaders!) e.g. shows / clearly / obviously / of course and their role in argument development and authorial position/voice.

NB. It is important to make students aware of the differences between textbooks and academic articles. Textbooks are a tertiary source but usually contain a mixture of secondary sources and views that are primary in terms of referencing.

Level 4 textbook. Crane and Matten (2007) Business Ethics. p 4.

Business ethics, it has been claimed, is an oxymoron (Collins 1994). . . . For example, in the latter

case, Albert Carr (1968) notoriously argued in his article ‘Is Business Bluffing Ethical’ that . . . . To

some extent, it is not surprising that some people think this way. . . After all, even what we might think

of as ‘bad’ ethics are still ethics of a sort. And clearly, it makes sense to . . . . Similarly, it would be

wrong to infer that scandals involving corporate wrongdoing mean that the subject of business ethics

was in some way naive or idealistic. Indeed, on the contrary, it can be argued that the subject .


Guided Textual Analysis Guided Textual Analysis (Hand-out p.3)

Academic article.

Constantin B. and Manescuba, C. (2013) ‘Strategic corporate social responsibility

and economic performance’. Applied Economics, 45, 2751 – 2764.

Descriptive statistics of our constructed strategic CSR index indicate that, as expected, . . . . This

confirms the hypothesis that CSR can be used to . . . before purchase (Siegel and Vitaliano, 2007).

However, contrary to this hypothesis, we also find that the sector showing largest proportion of firms

that behave CSR strategically is basic resources, which could be due to the higher environmental

pressure that firms in this sector face, as a result of their environmental impact. Using the outlined

dynamic panel modelling framework, we find evidence that strategic CSR has a neutral impact on . .

. . By contrast, an equally-weighted measure of CSR, based on the same underlying CSR scores,

is found to have a persistently negative impact on ROA. These contrasting findings emphasize the

role played in empirical research by . . . , as well as indicate that our DEA-based method can

capture the strategic component of CSR. That the relationship was not found to be positive, as

suggested in theory, might be due to the fact that . . .


Guided textual analysis: extract from a student draft essay which they have colour-coded to show their point, source as quotation, source as paraphrase.


Why can’t I write as I speak?◦ commonly agreed mode of written communication that does not rely on a common situation (e.g.

this one / that one ).◦ precision of meaning. E.g. make up versus constitutes◦ packing a lot of information into a small space e.g. compound noun phrases◦ much content vocabulary is Greco-Latin based.◦ agreed (and legally binding) way of building on previous knowledge and of owning new

knowledge (using sources)◦ a genre and register that signals belonging to a particular community◦ BUT language is in constant flux in both time and space, and this includes academic writing.

What words do I need to learn, and where/how can I find and learn them?

What is the point of putting a source into my own words?

How much do I need to explain/tell my reader?

How can my essay be original if I have to use lots of sources?

What can’t I use ‘I’ , and if I can’t use ‘I’, how do I give my informed opinion? How do I put my own position (voice) into my writing, and how will you describe and mark for this

in the assessment criteria?


Students will only become good writers through the act of

writing, and importantly, only if they care about and take full

ownership of their written work.

By increasing the visibility of writing on your course, you are

signalling to your students its importance and value, which will

in turn increase their motivation for investing in the writing

process.


Useful resources

WAC Clearing House http://wac.colostate.edu/

On-Line Writing Centre, Perdue University.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/WAC

Thinking Writing project, QMUL www.thinkingwriting.qmul.ac.uk.

University of Wollongong http://unilearning.uow.edu.au

Deane, M. & O'Neill, P. (2011). Writing in the Disciplines. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.


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Writing to Learn and Learning to Write: making writing more visible to your students