Writing About Writing (WAW) Synthesis Essay Assignment

Jessica Jorgenson Borchert

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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 Writing with the goal of having students understand how to synthesize source material and engage with topics related to the teaching of writing. In this assignment, students are asked to locate a topic from an essay in Bad Ideas about Writing or Writing Spaces and commit to further research on that topic. Because this course primarily serves future teachers, I ask them to read these sources to help them better understand pedagogical conversations in the field of Writing Studies. The assignment requires a full draft, final draft, and includes peer review and a writing conference with the instructor.