In-class Writing Support for Faculty

Providing support for writing as it is practiced in the disciplines is the cornerstone of Laurier’s writing centre program. When we work with you to develop workshop material for a course, our goal is to enter into a collaborative process with you so that we can come up with engaging workshop material that supports the goals you have for the course and the assignment.

For us this involves learning about the course and the disciplinary writing conventions as well as consulting current research on writing. Therefore, if you plan to request an in-class writing workshop for your course, we like to have a copy of the syllabus and writing assignments, in addition to some sample papers to work from. We do between 40 and 50 in-class workshops a year.

See our brochure for faculty.

Support on Writing Instruction and Assignment Design

If you would like to discuss writing instruction and assignment design, we are always interested in meeting with you.

Current research on Writing Across the Curriculum connects student learning with writing, and we have some excellent resources on problem-based writing instruction and assignment design for both longer out-of-class assignments and short in-class assignments. These resources can help you to connect the learning objectives you have for the course with your course goals for research, critical thinking, and writing.

The best source is no doubt John C. Bean’s Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom.

We are fortunate to have copyright to two handout packages that John Bean developed for the 2008 Annual Teaching Day where he gave the keynote address and did a workshop on assignment design.    

Handout package 1: “From Novice to Expert: Using Problem-Based Writing Assignments to Accelerate Students’ Growth as Disciplinary Thinkers and Writers”

Handout package 2: “Designing Short, Low-Cost, Problem-Based Writing Assignments that Promote Inquiry, Active Learning, and, and Critical Thinking in the Classroom”

We also have a video of the keynote address available through both Teaching Support and the Writing Centre.

We have two lists of suggested print and web resources on writing research and writing instruction. The first is specifically on teaching writing in all disciplines and on writing support for graduate students: Recommended writing resources for faculty and graduate students.

The second lists important books on academic writing for undergraduate students as well as books on writing in the disciplines: Recommended books for undergraduate students.