Courses
What to Expect
You will write a lot. Most instructors will ask that you generate as much as five typewritten pages of work a week. Sometimes these are single essays, and sometimes they are a combination of shorter assignments, including journal entries, reading responses, sketches, or short drafts. You can expect to write in class, too. Many instructors will give you in-class writing exercises and assignments.
You'll spend time exploring the writing process. Though a big part of your grade will be the quality of the writing you produce, all of our composition courses spend a lot of time exploring how you might go about creating good writing. For example, at what stage in the writing process is it most productive for you to pay attention to editing? How might you generate information or ideas for a paper? What are some approaches to revision? What are some of the tools you need to write well? What are some strategies you can use when you get stuck? A lot of class time is spent discussing writing processes and how you can make them your own. It's also something you'll likely write about as well.
You'll work closely with other students and your instructor. Most of our writing teachers strongly emphasize group work in their classes. Essentially, you'll be joining a community of writers who happen to be students like you. You'll not only get together in small groups to discuss things you've read but also share works-in-progress. In some classes, writing workshop groups of four or five students meet weekly to give each other feedback on their drafts. Most students find it essential to have real readers for their work who can give advice on how to revise their essays. You'll also meet with your instructor one-on-one in a conference to discuss your work. In some classes, the instructor will meet with you four or five times a semester.
You may not be graded on everything you write. One of the conditions that seems to help writers improve is being given the chance to try out topics and approaches to topics without evaluation by the instructor. That means that your first drafts may not be graded. You will, however, receive helpful comments from your instructor and other students that may help you revise those drafts to make them stronger. Many of our writing classes also use portfolios as a means of evaluation. With portfolios, your final grade in the course won't be fully determined until you submit a folder of your best work at the end of the course. Each instructor has particular guidelines for what should be included in the portfolio and particular criteria for how it will be evaluated.
You'll revise, revise, revise. A common saying is that the essence of writing is rewriting. Sometimes you need to write a draft to simply figure out what you really want to write about, or what it is you want to say. In revision, you re-focus and clarify that for yourself and your readers. Sometimes you think your draft has a clear purpose, but then you discover that your workshop group is confused about what you're saying. Their comments help you return to the draft, cut or add information, rearrange material, or rewrite sentences. Revision is not merely "fixing" little things, like spelling, or changing a word. It's about "re-seeing" your topic, re-conceiving your approach. All of our instructors actively encourage revision.
You'll do a lot of reading. Reading and writing are married in some fundamental ways. The more you read, the more sophisticated you get at using language. The more you write the more you notice about the possibilities of language in what you read. The process of making sense of what you read and making sense of what you write is also very similar. Your class may require that you buy a reader which includes a selection of essays, or your instructor may assign a reading packet, or book. You'll be frequently asked to read a published piece and write about it. The aim of these reading responses is not to simply summarize what you've read, or find some "hidden meaning" that the instructor knows and you have to figure out. Most often, your instructor is interested in your interpretations and ideas. You'll be expected to support these with evidence from the text you read. In some classes, you'll read for information, usually as part of a research project. And sometimes you'll read published essays because they are suggestive models for how you might approach one of your own papers.
What is Expected
You must attend class. Attendance is required in all the composition courses. Here's why: Our instructors try to create a community of writers in their classes through group work, sharing of student works-in-progress, and open discussion. Sporadic attendance signals, among other things, that you don't take your membership in that community seriously. Ultimately, you suffer, because you aren't involved--you don't get the benefits of feedback on your writing, insights from others on what you're discussing in class, or information on upcoming assignments. Because the content of a writing course is not something you can get from a textbook or by borrowing someone else's notes, your actual presence in class is essential. The Writing Program encourages its instructors to adopt the following policy concerning class attendance: For a class that meets three times a week, any student who misses seven or more sessions will not pass the course; for a class that meets twice a week, a student must not miss more than five sessions; and for a once a week class, three absences result in failure. There may be excusable absences, or variations on these attendance policies. These are up to your instructor. All of us try very hard to make each class engaging and productive for you. We ask that, at the very least, you be there.
Your work is submitted on deadline. Part of becoming a stronger writer is developing work habits that help you get the work done. One of the most important of these is meeting deadlines for submission of drafts or assignments. Sometimes that means you have to hand something in you're not completely happy with. We find many of our students are intensely self-critical about their writing; they simply can't bear to lower their standards a little so they can finish a draft on time. Remember that almost all instructors encourage revision. There is ample opportunity to "get it right" later. Other students are procrastinators, and simply don't leave enough time to do a good job, or to do the job at all. Part of working on your writing process is finding ways to produce acceptable work on deadline, an expectation that is common not only in college but in the workplace.
You take responsibility for your own learning. A class that focuses on process is different from a class that focuses on transferring knowledge. You will never see your writing instructor lecture as much as, say, your art history teacher. You won't learn to write well by listening to lectures about how to do it anyway. You must write, and write a lot. Share your writing with others. Talk about what works and what needs work. Reflect on how you approached the writing and how you might approach it differently. Though your instructor will facilitate and lead the class, what you get out of it is largely up to you. Are you engaged in class discussions, in contributing to your groups? Do you take assignments seriously, and give them your best effort? Are you willing to take risks with your writing, try topics and approaches that might not work at first? If you do all of these things in this class (or any, for that matter) you'll make the most of the class.
Portfolios
Many of the instructors in our writing courses use portfolios as a primary means of determining your grade in the course. At first, you may find portfolio assessment strange because its an approach that often postpones grading until the midterm or even later in the course. School traditionally creates a "grading culture" in which you expect everything you do and everything you hand in to be ranked. Portfolios often work against this culture in ways that may make you a little uncomfortable. On this page, we try to answer some of the most common questions about portfolios. Also ask your instructor if you have questions about portfolio requirements in your class.
Why do some writing teachers use portfolios instead of the usual system of grading every paper and giving exams?
Of course, not all writing instructors like portfolios, but a growing number do. There are many reasons, but perhaps the most important is the idea that writing skills develop over time. You'll likely be a better writer at the end of the course than at the beginning. Portfolios, usually handed in at the end of the semester, allow you to demonstrate your best work because you've had the time to develop your skills. In many classes, you have some choice over what to include in your portfolio. This also gives you some control over how you want to represent what you've learned as a writer in the course. There is some evidence that grading drafts as they come in, rather than using portfolios, discourages genuine revision. Think about it. If you got a "C" on a draft from your instructor and you wanted a better grade, would you revise your essay according to what you, your workshop group, and your instructor thought, or would you simply try to do everything the instructor told you to do, regardless of whether you thought it was a good idea? And how would that effect your commitment to that draft? Portfolios allow writers the freedom to seriously consider multiple responses to a work-in-progress, ultimately giving them a stronger sense of authority over their own work.
But not getting grades all the way along makes me nervous. I like to know how I'm doing at all times.
Most instructors do give some grades all through the course. They may grade particular assignments, or exams, or continually assess your work habits--things like attendance, involvement in group work, and meeting deadlines--periodically during the semester. Other instructors may require the submission of a midterm essay or portfolio for a grade. Still other instructors hold midterm conferences with every student to evaluate their progress in the course. It's true, though, that in most cases at least half of your final grade will be determined by your final portfolio. That's really not all that different from the importance assigned to final exams in some other courses. Still, it's a pretty big deal. A few students, frankly, will just never be comfortable with the portfolio system. And who can really blame them? We are all products of a school culture that constantly ranks performance; grades can ultimately be the only motivation for doing well and the only measure for gauging how well you're doing. But we've found that the great majority of students--even after some initial skepticism--really come to like the chance to work on their writing in a class where their work isn't constantly graded. And they often feel a real sense of accomplishment as they assemble their final portfolio.
Does this mean that I'll never really know what my teacher thinks about my writing until the end of the class?
No. You'll be getting frequent feedback--either written or in one-on-one conferences--from your instructor. What you may not get is a grade attached to those comments. An interesting thing often happens in how these comments are offered by your instructor and how they are read by you: a genuine conversation seems to take place about how your work might be made stronger. Frequently, the comments accompanied by a grade simply attempt to justify the grade. When the grade isn't there, the instructor often feels freer to make a range of suggestions to you that often give you more choices about how to rewrite the draft. You, in turn, will read these as suggestions, not justifications. It's a much more collaborative relationship. It is true, though, that it is your teacher's evaluation of your work that ultimately matters most in terms of the grade you get in the course. Your instructor will have some specific guidelines about what is expected in the portfolio and how she will evaluate your performance in it. If you have any questions about how final portfolio grades are figured in your class, make sure you ask.