Job Discussion Forums

[tangmu]

I'm set to teach a few writing classes in addition to my spoken English duties next semester and am wondering how to go about structuring this kind of class. I've heard that teaching writing class is a bit of an ordeal. Can someone who has had the experience behind them share a few pointers of what to do with that sort of class? Is it a bit like teaching freshman comp. at an American college? Did you make it into a creative writing class? Or did the whole thing end up getting bogged down in weekly discussions of writing mechanics?

I'm at a private technical uni, so probably the papers will be full of nonsense and plagiarism, but maybe there's a way to make this into something valuable and even enjoyable (despite the fact that the students are probably not aspiring poets.)

[roadwalker]

I only taught writing once and I don't look forward to teaching it again. We had a course book that was structured in a logical fashion to teach writing so that part wasn't a problem. Chinese writing and correspondence isn't as direct as English countries' writing tends to be. So figure on going over essay structure a lot. Also verb agreement. Also cutting out cliches. And so on.

I expect that you'll be too bogged down in the basics to worry about keeping the topics interesting for the students. We had both fiction and non fiction in the course, with emphasis on different aspects of fiction and different purposes for non-fiction as you would expect. If I were to do it again I'd put more emphasis on writing practice in class: small assignments that could be immediately critiqued in class. I would do that mainly to see who actually can do some of the work and who don't bother to write their own papers. And I'd probably have a written final exam in addition to longer assigned papers, for the same reason.

You may have a couple of students that are able to communicate well on paper, but you'll likely have many that are really bad at it. They don't practice English as much as recognize English in school in China. As a result, they often struggle in writing.

[El Macho]

You're going to spend quite a lot of time marking. Be prepared.

Teaching writing to undergraduates is difficult because of all the different skills wrapped up in it. What I've done (and what I'd suggest) is starting off having students write short opinion essays. Then introduce Western argumentation and ask students to start writing arguments while also introducing organization & structure. From there, the sky's the limit. I've found it's good to have the kids do a mix of reading, presenting, debating, and writing. It works all the skills, keeps things fresh, and helps them to find some aspect of the various topics that is of interest.

Make your expectations clear. Give model papers, even though that means you having to write them. Keep good and bad student work & use it in class. Have grading rubrics, and be willing to spend class time going over papers and looking at where the various features of the paper fall on the rubric.

Good luck and enjoy. I've found that teaching writing is as fun as it is time-consuming. It's a great way to get an idea of how and what your students think.

[jm21]

[Babala]

I teach both writing and business writing courses to 3rd and 4th year university students.

You will really have to concentrate on the basics. Their grammar, sentence structure and punctuation are terrible. The biggest problem is that they tend to be lazy and just write down the easiest sentence they can. They also tend to write what they feel like as opposed to sticking to the guidelines of the assignment.

One thing I do is after I grade the assignments, I take excerpts from various papers both good and bad and we go through them and I then explain why it's good or bad. I find that helps.

[Bud Powell]

My reply applies to university level English majors.

This is what works for me. It may not work for others.

Unless the students' spoken English is really bad, tell them to write it as they would say it in English. This is a strategy that works for both EFL, ESL, and E1 speakers. Too many times, students get caught up in misunderstood rules and create some of the most improbable constructions. With E2 writers, there's the native tongue interference. Writing requires them to think in English to some degree, and though they may be accustomed to thinking in English when they speak, they haven't become accustomed to thinking in English as they write.

To combat plagiarism, require the students to write about personal experiences, to describe a member of their family (or a friend). A personal topic is not likely to be found online. (If it is found, you'll discover the plagiarism. You'll get the same essay from two or more students).

As Babala points out, the students will turn in any trash in the beginning. This is because, I believe, their Chinese teachers don't bother to correct their papers. I got this impression from Chinese teachers who were aware of my extensive corrections. They couldn't fathom any teacher spending so much time on corrections.

DO correct papers the best you can. It is time consuming, but in the long run, it will benefit the students.You can start with the first three sentences and make a note for the student to REVISE and resubmit for a grade. (It's not necessary to completely trash a student's paper unless you learn that you have conditioned them to spend time on only the first three sentences). Stress the fact that if they don't resubmit they get no grade. If you can show up twenty minutes early for class and let students see you working on their papers, they'll get on the ball and realize that you take their work seriously.

Require the students to keep a folder of their work that will be evaluated at the end of the term. Stress that you are looking for PROGRESS. (This is especially important if one is teaching any type of low-ability class. Some students come to class defeated on Day One because their ability is low). Knowing that you are interested in progress will help to alleviate some of their anxiety. This situation should not exist among university English majors, but it happens sometimes).

Make short, in-class assignments that require them to spend the first ten or fifteen minutes of class writing about something. ANYTHING. This accomplishes two goals:

1. The student becomes accustomed to producing compositions on-demand

2. Doing so lowers anxiety in the long run.

Even among E1 students, anxiety can cause a student to freeze.

If a student can't turn in an assignment on-time, give him a few extra days, but stress that you MUST receive the assignment at some point.

A few years in a row, I assigned no grades until close to midterm. When a student asked me about grades, I told them that nobody got a grade until everybody showed some progress. (I know, that's assigning collective guilt, but it also built a strange team spirit. No one wanted to be the cause for failure of another student).

Listen to your students. If the Foreign Languages department gives you a book of grammar exercises, and a student tells you that they've had all of it drilled into their heads and don't need it, review the book with them, assign a few exercises, then look at their results. One of my first upperclassman writing classes told me this. All forty-two students. They knew their English grammar better than most native speakers, but they couldn't write three coherent, cohesive sentences to save their lives.

I was reminded of a famous quote that has been ascribed to various artists in response to the question about how to play jazz. The answer was, "Learn all the rules, then forget them and just play." While there are serious flaws to this answer as it applies to both jazz and writing, it does wonders to allay fears and anxieties.

Make class interesting. Class doesn't have to be about the mechanics of writing every day. You can discuss interesting passages in literature. You can ask them to look in a newspaper for mistakes and strange constructions. You can propose an argument. Those in favor write their statements on the left side of the board. Those against write their statement on the right side of the board. Allow the class to correct the mistakes in the writing, but DON'T dwell upon the mistake. Everyone will get it. Discuss the idea.

A note about correcting papers: probably the most interesting and consistently proven idea that I learned from studying the various idiotic theories about teaching writing is that students REALLY DO tend to pay more attention to comments written in the margins than they do to comments written above the mistake. I can't explain it. It's just one of those things. You might want to take advantage of this phenomenon in some way.

Try to make comments about content. Indicate an interest in what the student wrote. You may make a comment in class and say something like: "Someone wrote that she was afraid of the dark until she was almost fifteen years old. I know the feeling..."

To those who have taken courses about teaching writing: you've probably already learned that most of it is BS. Concepts such as looping, cubing, mapping, and several other terms are idiotic, time wasting strategies.

Following is a website that I like a lot. I have relied upon it for tutoring in the States and in China, as well as in the class room in the States and China since I discovered it in 2000. The link takes you to the site map of the Online Writing Lab. It was created by Purdue University. Some of it isn't too useful, while most of it is quite good. Almost everything you'll need is right here:

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/sitemap/

One more thing: if what I propose here doesn't look like it'll work for you, do something else. Life is too short and your students' education is too important for rigidity.

[buravirgil]

Great post, B. Powell.

[Babala]

Another thing I forgot to add is that you need to stress proofreading. They almost never check their papers after and just hand them in. I am constantly on them to check their work as most of the grammar mistakes they make are simple ones that they can fix themselves.

I also have them do peer review from time to time. After a short writing assignment, I will have them trade papers and mark their classmates work (I take in all the papers and also check them after).

[damn_my_eyes]

I'd add that you can spend a lot of time on activities that don't involve taking home tons of essays after every lesson.

Practicing the correct use of prepositions, conjunctions, verb tense agreement etc.
Activities such as cloze and dictogloss (do a google search if you're not familiar), proofreading, conducting surveys and summarizing the results plus loads more, these can all be done in the class without any homework for teacher!

I'd suggest building them up slowly and not expecting them to write full essays to begin with, that worked for me.
Once I got a plan together with what I was doing with the class I enjoyed the writing classes more than the speaking ones.

Also, ask if you can have a copy of old CET 4 exam papers. These will give you an idea of what kind of activities they do and are familiar with.

[Bud Powell]

[El Macho]

Some great advice in this thread. Thanks to Bud Powell and Babala for sharing your experiences.

I agree completely with the comments stressing the importance of marking papers. The students will be shocked that you do it, and once they see that you take the class seriously the quality of work will improve drastically. Even though it's a time suck, I enjoy it. I like reading the students' opinions and watching them develop over the course of the term.

There are different types of marking. You can mark for grammar and orthography, for content, for organization, and so on. You'll develop your own marking symbols. My own preference is to draw attention to chunks of words rather than just the mistake. The most common marks I make are: highlighting chunks w/grammar errors; underlining phrases w/missing words (usually prepositions), adding a vertical line at the point of the missing word; and writing comments in the margin.

I structure my writing classes around the idea of process writing – students are required to make a number of revisions to and expansions of previous work. This helps to get them proofreading since there's nothing more embarrassing than having to read what you wrote in a hurry.

Regarding resubmitting work, I require students to turn in the original, marked paper along with the new revision. They fear that I'll do a close reading of the new and works, but really I use it when I find new mistakes, to see if I'd drawn their attention to it before.

I have used daily writing (blocking the first X minutes of class for a writing assignment) in cases where I've met with the students multiple times/week. I have found it best to start the term with a short amount of time (5 min), which is gradually expanded throughout the year (maxing at 15 min). The students have been receptive to this since they know timed writing is a test-taking skill.

Careful about peer review activities. At first the students will turn it into a grammar massacre, an exercise in finding errors. I've found it best to give them certain tasks to complete. (e.g. "Does the second paragraph have a clear topic sentence?" "Please write a one sentences summary of the second paragraph.") If your school has TurnItIn, it can be a very useful tool for facilitating meaningful peer review.

[Bud Powell]

At first the students will turn it into a grammar massacre...

I almost fell off my chair.

Peer review seems to work better in China than in the States.