Talking to Students About Writing

Staffing the WAC table at the Student Resource Fair last week gave me an opportunity to chat with some students about the writing they are doing in their courses here at Longview. We distributed tip sheets on college writing (Writing in College and Writing Tips) created by some Longview WAC instructors, which prompted a number of students to comment about how much they needed these since they were presently in the throes of working on projects.

That reinforced what I already knew, having visited a number of classes since the semester began August 24 where the instructors had gotten students writing immediately—in response to readings, in lab reports, in brief paragraphs. At the resource fair, students were eager to tell stories of their own writing situations from their concerns about the projects they have ahead of them this semester to their anticipated career plans.

When I have the opportunity to help present an assignment or run a peer workshop in a class, I jump on the chance to get students talking about their majors and career aspirations.

In any given Gen Ed course there is usually a pretty wide array of majors. In the Anatomy and Physiology class I worked with last week, most students intend to become heath professionals. Student ownership of writing and learning in a course ramps up when students realize that this course and the writing therein is leading them directly to the next level, whether that is a 4-year college or employment.

In A&P, we discussed the nature of the writing they will likely do: care plans, charting, patient education documents, as well as the current communication staple of most workplaces, email.

I usually use a brief survey to capture their perceptions of writing in order to launch a discussion of writing in school and the kinds of writing they will likely do in their professional lives. There are often discrepancies between their perceptions and the data I have to share with them. The instructor and I team up to mitigate those gaps and bring the discussion back around to the project at hand as we coach them on strategies for fulfilling it successfully.

Today I presented information on professional writing to an introductory Engineering class.  This group is often surprised by the sheer volume of writing even entry level engineers are required to produce. The writing in this course is a mix of different kinds and genres of writing---descriptive, technical, research-driven---and includes small-stakes (brief reports and discussion posts) as well as a semester project (career exploration).  All of the writing students do in this class is in service of the course outcomes and the instructor's goals to have students experience firsthand the kind of thinking and writing that is paramount in the field of engineering.

Students are willing to make that connection between the writing and learning in the course and their ultimate educational and career goals if we encourage it. Such a connection makes the course project relevant on another level besides just the immediate one—to get a grade and to complete the course successfully. This is perhaps especially true in the introductory courses students take to complete General Education requirements.

Visiting with students about writing is enlightening and gives you a perfect opening to tout the myriad values you see reflected in the writing projects and experiences you have designed for them.

How do you get students talking about writing?