Anita Chaudhuri & Subrata Bhowmik Assignments & Activities Archive Assignment Description Writing a personal narrative assignment is commonplace in first year composition classrooms and the proposed assignment presents it as a literacy autobiography (LA) which can, according to Canagarajah, focus on individual learning journeys and underline “in-between identities and discourses” (p. 13). The transnational identities […]
Literacy Autobiography Read More »
Cheyenne Franklin Assignments & Activities Archive Assignment Description “… dont nobody’s language, dialect, or style make them ‘vulnerable to prejudice.’ It’s ATTITUDES” (Young 110). Vershawn Ashanti Young, along with Asao Inoue, Geneva Smitherman, and more recently April Baker-Bell, have long fought against oppressive language standards in education. It is not enough, they have jointly argued,
Non-standardized Grammar Assignment Read More »
Stina Kasik Oakes Assignments & Activities Archive Activity Description What’s a lobster? A second conversation? For years I worked to explain to students how to incorporate purpose, depth, and meaning into their writing with the terms “deeper meaning,” or “story under the story,” or “what the essay is really about.” But these phrases didn’t quite
Lobsters & Second Conversations: Addressing the “So What” in Your Writing Read More »
Lauren Esposito Assignments & Activities Archive Activity Description When I started teaching professional writing, I would ask students: “Imagine you’re a nurse and you need to explain the signs of a stroke to a young child. Or, imagine you’re a business student writing a “how-to guide” for investors that will be published on a company
“Establishing the Who”: Professional Writing, Power Dynamics, & Improv Read More »
Angela M. Laflen Volume 5 Chapter Description Data stories are multimodal texts that combine data with words and images to tell a story to or make an argument for a particular audience. They are increasingly common in everyday life as technology has resulted in an information explosion. Data often do not make sense unless
Strategies for Analyzing and Composing Data Stories Read More »
Kara Taczak Volume 4 Chapter Description This essay explores the importance of transfer in first year writing. Transfer is the ability to take writing knowledge and practices from one context and use it to repurpose or reframe it in a new/different writing context. To help students better understand how to effectively transfer, this essay examines
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Mike Bunn Volume 2 Chapter Description Learning to “read like a writer” can be a great benefit to students. As teachers of writing know, a term goes by too quickly, and there is much to cover. This chapter, however, suggests ways students can improve their interaction with text by reading like writers from the start
How to Read like a Writer Read More »
Catherine Savini Volume 2 Chapter Description How can we help students become invested in their writing? How can we help students write interesting papers that we look forward to reading? Students can learn to write interesting papers that develop complex ideas if they begin by “looking for trouble.” This chapter provides students with a step-by-step
Looking for Trouble: Finding Your Way into a Writing Assignment Read More »
Gitanjali Dasbender Volume 2 Chapter Description This chapter works to define critical thinking for first year writers, explaining a process that helps them think, read, and write critically. With a focus on Annie Dillard’s essay, “Living like Weasels,” you can show students how they can learn to read carefully for ideas, to identify and analyze
Critical Thinking in College Writing: From the Personal to the Academic Read More »
