Synopsis – October 2009: Director Annotations > Susan Coller Carlson

Welcome to our October edition of the KU WAC Newsletter!  We are very excited about moving to an electronic format and feel it will provide a more engaging venue for exchanging ideas about writing across the curriculum.  We encourage you to explore our past and current articles, post ideas of your own, and comment on the ideas of our contributing authors—your peers.  You will also notice that, in addition to new monthly articles, we will also be posting updates on upcoming workshops at the Writing Center and other announcements as well.  You can easily subscribe to our newsletter or become a follower so updates to the newsletter will be delivered to your inbox.

Tricia Berry kicks off our October issue with Writing Well is Not Just for Graded Work.  Tricia touches on a topic that’s close to my heart as we see a number of very poorly written emails come into the Writing Center from students asking for help.  Students have attached their papers for review into an email with notes like, “Pleaz correct this for I need it bak tommorw because my grads are sufering,” or “I ned help with my APAs sitations andwords.”  It can be frustrating and time consuming for folks to decipher messages like these to say the least.  Tricia gives us all pause for thought.  We are sending our students out into the workforce, and if their writing skills are abysmal, how does this affect their work?  Their clients or patients?  How does this reflect on us as a university?  Poor writing skills come with a cost on many levels.

Chris Halem (Encouraging Quality Writing on Discussion Boards) shares some of her ideas and best practices when it comes to facilitating an engaging discussion board based on a simple equation she shares with her students: Great content + Great form = Great discussion.

In Fragments, Kella Hammond explores how writing plays a critical role when it comes to “spearheading and deepening the conversations we are currently having about what we teach.”  Students can benefit from an interdisciplinary approach to education, but Kella asks us all to consider how we can help our students see “the panoramic whole” as opposed to fragments.  Conversation is essential (and so, of course, I must shamelessly plug our new interactive newsletter format again and encourage you all to participate in an on-going dialog about teaching, learning and writing).

Red Ink and Correction by Kurtis Clements brought back memories of my experiences in high school, and so I am curious to hear how others feel about their early writing teachers.  I remember the red ink and corrections from some of my more dogmatic teachers, of course, but I also remember Ms. Isabell and her head of white hair pinned and piled nearly as high as the fluorescent light fixtures on the ceiling.  She wore pink glasses and had a smile that rivaled that of the Cheshire cat.  Everyone loved her.  Why?  Not because at the age of 60-something she was hipper than any other teacher in the school and didn’t mind if the kids played Duran Duran or Elvis Costello on the boom-box in class.  Not because she was infinitely wise or because she taught night classes at the local maximum security prison (and yes, we were in awe of her bravery).  It was simply because she encouraged us—she practiced student-centered learning.  She pulled things out of us, made us think and let us explore ideas in new ways.  She let us feel good about the things we felt and cared to write about—whether it was politics, boyfriends, deer camp, snowmobiling, art or music.  She knew how to build confidence.

Susan Hovey, in Adopting a Student Friendly Approach to Project Writing, looks at writing from the perspective of a Medical Law and Bioethics instructor.  Susan focuses on the process of writing using a "step model" with her students and explains how clear guidelines are essential when it comes to reducing a student's fear of writing.

B. Marie Brady-Whitcanack (Group and Cooperative Learning: An Information Process Model of Teaching) reflects back on educational philosopher John Dewey’s theories on the social aspects of group learning and how students can, if properly guided, become more critical and democratic thinkers.

And finally, Diane Martinez writes about procrastination … something I know many of us can relate to.  In fact, during a phone conversation this week, Diane and I spent some time talking about how ironic it is that we tell our students how crucial it is to plan ahead, prewrite, create outlines … yet we don’t always practice what we preach.  And procrastination is not always the culprit.  We all lead very busy lives and it can be challenging to carve out time to do everything we need to accomplish—and our students are no different.  Killing Spiders and Cleaning Gutters: Differentiating Between the Writing Process and Procrastination is sure to strike a cord, and Diane offers some terrific suggestions that you can pass along to your students.

Enjoy the issue and we hope to hear from you!

Susan Coller Carlson is the Director of the Writing Across the Curriculum Initiative and Writing Center at Kaplan University.