Web Resource Links
This collection of web resources is for faculty and GTAs teaching writing courses and is derived from Writing Across Curriculum (WAC) and Writing In the Discipline (WID) programs across the country. Writing topics are arranged by category and resources for specific disciplines/subject areas can be found near the end.
If you have additional resources that we can add or would like to see an additional topic addressed, please contact Julianne Curran at jcurran3@fau.edu.
The WAC Clearinghouse, in partnership with the International Network of Writing Across the Curriculum Programs , publishes journals, books, and other resources for teachers who use writing in their courses. These are two notable and extensive resources.
Colorado State WAC Clearinghouse
International WAC Network
General Writing Across Curriculum Information and Writing Resources
Colorado State: An Introduction to Writing Across Curriculum
University of Minnesota: Basic Principles of WAC
University of Richmond: Writer's Web
National Writing Project
George Mason WAC Program Newsletter
Texas A&M Academic Writing
Purdue Online Writing Lab
Journals
The WAC Journal
Across the Disciplines
CompPile: an inventory/searchable database of publications in writing studies, including post-secondary composition, rhetoric, technical writing, ESL, and discourse analysis
Course and Assignment and Design
These websites offer assistance in drafting course structure and assignment prompts.
University of Hawaii at Manoa: Designing Writing Assignments
Colorado State: Teaching Guide: Planning a Class
University of Minnesota: Designing Effective Writing Assignments
Colorado State: What Makes a Good Writing Assignment?
University of Missouri: Assignment Genres
George Mason University: Creating Clear Assignments
Writing to Learn Activities
Generally, writing-to-learn activities are short, impromptu or otherwise informal writing tasks that help students think through key concepts or ideas presented in a course.
University of Hawaii at Manoa: Helping Students Make Connections
University of Richmond: Write-to-Learn Activities
University of Hawaii at Manoa: Writing Activities to get Students Thinking and Learning
University of Minnesota: Assignments and Activities: Approaches and Samples
University of Wisconsin-Madison: Designing Assignments and Courses
University of Hawaii at Manoa: Using Writing to Improve Reading
Commenting, Evaluating, and Grading
These sources give information about various commenting strategies that aim at formative feedback to help improve students' writing.
University of Hawaii at Manoa: Handling the Paper Load
Colorado State: Evaluating Writing Assignments
Colorado State: Teaching in the Margins: Commenting on Student Writing
University of Minnesota: Responding and Grading: Approaches and Samples
George-Mason University: Evaluating and Grading
George-Mason University: Feedback toward Revision
Peer Review
Peer-review workshops serve many useful functions for student writers. Most notably, they provide writers with real readers who must make sense of the writing, they help writers improve their reading/critical analysis skills, and they help writers improve their writing skills and final products.
Colorado State: Teaching Guide: Using Student Peer Review
Washington University in St. Louis: Using Peer Review to Help Students Improve Their Writing
George Mason University: Peer Response Groups
University of Wisconsin-Madison: Peer Review Across Disciplines
MIT: No One Writes Alone: Peer Review in the Classroom, A guide for Instructors
Revision
Most arguments, especially research-based arguments, require careful revision to be fully effective. These sources offer information for both instructors and students about the revision process.
Colorado State: Reviewing and Revising an Argument
Colorado State: Questions to ask as you revise your essay
Colorado State: Revision: History Theory, and Practice
Purdue OWL: Higher and Lower Order of Concerns
Purdue OWL: Steps for Revising Your Paper
Grammar, Editing, and Proofreading
Students who use a system for tracking their individual patterns of error and are held accountable for using that system to proofread their papers are more likely to improve their sentence-level errors over the course of the term. Below are some resources to help them achieve such ends.
Colorado State: Teaching Guide: Error Pattern Analysis
Colorado State: Editing and Proofreading Strategies
University of Minnesota: Approaches to to teaching grammar and mechanics
Texas A&M: Grammar Resources
Purdue OWL: Proofreading: Where do I begin?
Purdue OWL: Finding Common Errors
Specific Disciplines
In this section, find websites that target specific subject areas or topics directly as well as some that compile a variety of examples of syllabi and assignments from various subject areas.
University of Minnesota:
Browse sample syllabi, assignments, and resources by discipline
Texas A&M:
Scientific and Technical Writing
North Carolina State: LabWrite: Improving Lab Reports
Bowdoin College: Reading, Writing, and Researching in History: A guide for college students
Texas A&M: Business and Professional Writing
University of Richmond: Writer's Web: Examples of writing in different disciplines
Electronic Communication Across the Curriculum
Electonic Communication Across the Curriculum: Tips for Generating Engaged Online Discussions
Colorado State: Teaching Guide: Teaching with Technology
Colorado State: Teaching Guide: Conducting Online Discussions
University of Hawaii at Manoa: Examples from Disciplines
Rice University: How to Read a Scientific Article
University of North Carolina: How to incorporate figures and charts into your writing
Student Resources
Colorado State:
Questions to ask as you Revise your essay
Purdue: Online Writing Lab
Swarthmore: Student Resources on different parts of the Writing Process
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign: Writer Resources: Grammar Handbook
Plagiarism
University of Minnesota:
Preventing Plagiarism
Colorado State: Teaching Guide: Dealing with Plagiarism
ESL Students
George Mason University:
Resources for working with ESL students
Univ. of Hawaii at Manoa: Working with ESL Students' Writing: Opportunities for Language Learning
