research

Writing About Writing (WAW) Synthesis Essay Assignment

Assignments, reading, reading strategies, secondary source research, Synthesis /

Jessica Jorgenson Borchert Assignments & Activities Archive Assignment Description This assignment comes out of my English 302: Advanced Composition course, a course that primarily services our English Education majors, and serves as an elective for all English majors and minors. Because of this audience, the assignment incorporates readings from Writing Spaces and/or Bad Ideas About […]

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Using Recipe Archives for Place-Based Research and Writing

Archival Research, Assignments, Place-based Writing /

Ashley M. Beardsley Assignments & Activities Archive Activity Description Cookbooks “allude to meals and events, people and places, success and failures, joys and sorrows, lives and deaths” representing “the life worlds—past and present—of their creators” (Theophano 83). Through archival research, students explore how cookbooks and recipes are more than instructions that teach people how to

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Engaging Podcasts as a Dynamic Genre for Invention

collaboration and group work, prewriting and invention, primary source research, secondary source research, visual/multimodal rhetorics /

Charles Woods & Devon Ralston Assignments & Activities Archive Assignment Description Instructors who maintain a robust definition of text “connect our students so much more with the real world of writing. We prepare them for the world […] so that they can participate in that conversation” (Marchetti & O’Dell). Podcasts represent a digital genre that

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“Establishing the Who”: Professional Writing, Power Dynamics, & Improv

Activities, critical thought and analysis, professional writing, rhetorical situation /

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

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Avoiding the Savior Complex in Community-Engaged Writing

Assignments, Community-engaged writing, genre and discourse community, Place-based Writing, rhetorical situation /

Charisse S. Iglesias Assignments & Activities Archive Assignment Description “Avoiding the Savior Complex in Community-Engaged Writing” is a three-day activity to prepare students for community-engaged writing partnerships. Community-engaged writing is a common undertaking in composition courses (Schutz and Gere). While community-engaged writing encourages civic responsibility, exposure to different communities, and engaged pedagogies, the practice does

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Creating, Using, and Sharing Information in Research Communities

genre and discourse community, secondary source research, volume 4 /

Cassie Hemstrom & Kathy Anders Volume 4 Chapter Description This chapter extends John Swales’ theory of discourse communities into the sphere of information literacy, as it is conceptualized in the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. We propose the concept of research communities, where discourse communities with the common goal of research use,

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Googlepedia: Turning Information Behaviors into Research Skills

secondary source research, Volume 2, writing technologies /

Randall McClure Volume 2 Chapter Description How do you, as a teacher, help students in the process of moving into the virtual library for their research needs, while respecting and understanding the information behaviors they practice and prefer? Growing up in the digital age, students often come to our first year writing courses with a

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Walk, Talk, Cook, Eat: A Guide to Using Sources

secondary source research, Volume 2, writing technologies /

Cynthia R. Haller Volume 2 Chapter Description Teaching students to write well with sources involves much more than teaching them to summarize, paraphrase, quote, and provide documentation. You can use this dialogue, in which a college student seeks writing advice about using sources from an online professor, to help students understand what it means to

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On the Other Hand: The Role of Antithetical Writing in First Year Composition Courses

rhetorical appeals and argument, Volume 2 /

Steve Krause Volume 2 Chapter Description During the research process, many first year writing students can become attached to their rhetorical positions which suggests an involvement in projects that help students learn and grow as researchers. However, if student researchers explore their stance at the exclusion of other viewpoints, they unintentionally limit their understanding of

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Looking for Trouble: Finding Your Way into a Writing Assignment

critical thought and analysis, demystifying writing assignments, Volume 2 /

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

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