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Wednesday, 20 May 2009 |
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Instructors who have questions about writing a syllabus for a W or C course
can get help from the University Writing Center (UWC) through both one-on-one
discussions and group workshops.
UWC administrators can offer individual guidance to instructors—either
in person or via email—whether they’re just starting to develop a syllabus
or have an existing one they want to revise.
The UWC also offers group workshops on a variety of topics
related to teaching W or C courses, including syllabus design. These workshops
can be customized to meet the needs of specific colleges, departments, or programs.
Balester and the other UWC administrators can help instructors develop a syllabus
that
- integrates writing instruction with course content
- sequences assignments that build logically
- offers students opportunities for revision
- provides students adequate feed-back
- uses peer review to encourage self-reflection and critical thinking
- reduces the instructor’s grading load
- incorporates technology such as blogs or wikis
- discourages plagiarism.
“My staff and I are eager to work with instructors as they draft their W or
C course syllabus,” says UWC Executive Director Valerie Balester. “We can help
instructors adjust their assignments so they are both appropriate to that particular
discipline and encourage good writing practice. We can also advise faculty
who want to incorporate a new tool like a class blog or a podcast into their
course.”
Instructors can also get help from the UWC’s online faculty resources, including
Web pages on developing
a W course syllabus, minimum
syllabus requirements, learning
objectives, and creating
a W course assignment.
To schedule either an individual consultation or a group workshop on syllabus
development, contact the writing center at: uwc@tamu.edu.
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Wednesday, 13 May 2009 |
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The Writing Center will be operating on limited hours and only in the Evans Library during the interim:
Thursday, May 14: 9am - 5pm
Friday, May 15: closed
Saturday, May 16: closed
Sunday, May 17: closed
Monday, May 18: 9am - 2pm
Tuesday, May 19: 9am - 3pm
Wednesday, May 20: 9am - 3pm
Thursday, May 21: 9am - 2pm
Friday, May 22: closed
Saturday, May 23: closed
Sunday, May 24: closed
Monday, May 25: closed (Memorial Day holiday)
Tuesday, May 26: 9am - 2pm
Wednesday, May 27: 9am - 2pm
Thursday, May 28: 9am - 2pm
Friday, May 29: 9am - 2pm
Saturday, May 30: closed
Sunday, May 31: closed
Our regular summer schedule, also in the Evans Library only, will begin June 1:
Monday - Thursday: 9am - 8pm
Friday: 9am - 2pm
Saturday - Sunday: closed
The West Campus Library location is closed until the fall semester.
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Wednesday, 04 February 2009 |
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Professor Karen-Beth Scholthof, of the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, has won the 2008 W Course Teaching Award for her W course, Pathogens, the Environment and Society.
The $3000 award, funded by the University Writing Center and administered by the Center for Teaching Excellence, was presented to Scholthof in November in a ceremony at the J. Wayne Stark University Center Galleries.
Scholthof encourages students to use writing as a path to discovery, asking them to write critical analyses of readings about the impact of disease on human history.
Scholthof works hard to earn her students’ trust: “I want them to know they have permission to have opinions about what we red. Whatever they write, I’ll read it and take it seriously.”
She uses a rubric in responding to student papers, but offers extensive comments as well. This past fall, she also began incorporating peer review into her class and was pleasantly surprised by how well students took to it. Some students even took the initiative to get extra feedback from peers because they found it so helpful.
Students also surprised Scholthof by objecting when she dropped a requirement that they read part of the rough draft aloud to their peer reviewers: Scholthof worried that reading aloud was too time-consuming, but her students disagreed, saying it was a valuable way to find problems in their writing.
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Friday, 24 October 2008 |
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A video of our recent workshop on peer review is now available.
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