Writing 5 Guidelines for Faculty

WRIT 5 is a writing course in which students write regularly and frequently. While engaged in this process, students are encouraged to think primarily about argumentative exposition: its conventions, contexts, structure, registers, and style.

With these aims in mind, faculty should attend to certain guidelines as they design their courses:

1. Ample classroom time will be spent on writing instruction, including all stages of the writing process. Writing instruction may include the following:
   1. varieties of pre-writing strategies
   2. a repertoire of ways to set up an argument (problem-solving, question-forming, thesis-formulating, etc.)
   3. collaborative editorial processes, such as in-class group work and peer commentary
   4. strategies for substantive revision
2. Ample classroom time will also be devoted to instruction in reading strategies and their integration into the writing process. Reading instruction may include the following:
   1. the characterization of arguments (their premises, claims, and terms)
   2. arguments as products of specific historical periods, produced in response to other arguments
   3. how texts work within conventions that are discipline- and genre-specific
   4. the evaluation of evidence
   5. style/voice
3. Instructors will schedule conferences with students, individually and/or in small groups.
4. Readings for the course will expose students to a variety of intellectual perspectives.
5. The syllabus will contain a daily schedule of activities and readings.
6. The amount of reading assigned will be enough to stimulate thoughtful engagement and discussion, but not so much as to divert the attention of the course from writing instruction.
7. Attention will be given to developing the oral skills of articulate conversation and critical debate in classroom discussions.
8. Some classroom time will introduce students to the skills required to engage with secondary critical text(s).
9. At least one class meeting will be a session of library instruction, coupled with an investigative assignment appropriate to the materials of the course
10. Students will write at least three formal papers. Two of these assignments must include shared essays one and two.