The Writing Campus: George Mason's WAC Program

12/06/2022

Shenandoah National Park is honored to be included in this year's White House Christmas décor as part of the "We the People" theme. Shenandoah is one of four national parks to be featured in the East Room which celebrates the "communion we find in nature."

We hope our little corner of the world provides a place of retreat for merriment and tranquility this holiday season.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/holidays-2022/

07/09/2021

03/21/2020

GMU’s Associate Professor Melissa Broeckelman-Post offers tips for success in virtual learning.

Associate Professor Melissa Broeckelman-Post offers students five tips for being successful as George Mason University transitions to virtual learning.

03/11/2020

Having to shift to online instruction mid-semester can be a daunting task, especially for those haven’t taught courses online.

An open educational resource, *Personal, Accessible, Responsive, Strategic: Resources and Strategies for Online Writing Instructors* offers extensive examples of how to create assignments, syllabi, and accessible, productive learning spaces, and draws on work in the design of user experiences to explore how we can design online writing courses with our students' experiences in mind.

Drawing on their novel PARS framework, Jessie Borgman and Casey McArdle explore the complexities and anxieties associated with online writing instruction. PARS offers an innovative way to support your own online instructional efforts as well as those of faculty members in programs that offer online....

03/10/2020

If you’re spending part of your spring break making plans in case Mason moves instruction online because of COVID-19, Eli Review will let you and your students use their peer feedback tools free of charge for the rest of the term. We’re huge fans of Eli Review, and our Graduate Assistant Director uses it in all his classes.

As campuses are making plans for possible containment or quarantine efforts related to COVID-19 outbreaks, we recognize that we might be of some assistance. Eli Review is an online resource for teachers and students who use peer learning – students sharing work, doing peer reviews, and planning re...

03/04/2020

In our latest The Writing Campus blog post, we continue our discussion of effective feedback by examining what formative feedback looks like, both describing its characteristics and providing examples of formative feedback statements.

In our previous post, we discussed the why, how, and when of giving feedback, and we identified formative feedback as one of our most effective tools for teaching and learning. In this post, we& #82…

03/02/2020

Need help implementing peer-learning pedagogies while shifting a course online because of COVID-19? Eli Review is offering the use of Eli at no charge through the end of their Spring 2019 terms.

As campuses are making plans for possible containment or quarantine efforts related to COVID-19 outbreaks, we recognize that we might be of some assistance. Eli Review is an online resource for teachers and students who use peer learning – students sharing work, doing peer reviews, and planning re...

02/29/2020

Will Silly Saturday become a thing? Probably not. But in honor a Saturday Leap Day, today we'll make an exception.

02/27/2020

For this week's visit to The Writing Campus archives, we revisit Tom Polk's "Designing High-Impact Writing Assignments" based on research from Paul Anderson, Chris Anson, Robert Gonyea, and Charles Paine.

We often think of writing as a tool that prompts deep learning, but we don’t always talk about how to use writing assignments to realize this goal. That might let us assume that assigning any kind…

02/27/2020

: An excellent twitter thread on how instructors build writing supports in their courses.

“What are some ways you build writing supports in your class? I know we have peer review, rough drafts, and writing conferences, but do any of you smarties do other things? Mostly curious.”

02/26/2020

Five research-based tips for providing students with meaningful feedback. Infographic by Rebeca Zuñiga.

02/21/2020

Formative feedback given during the process of working on a task or on some smaller component or stage of an assignment is one of our most effective tools for teaching and learning. Emily Wray's RISE Model offers a method of providing formative feedback aligned with Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives.

The RISE Model was created by Emily Wray, founder of Make Sense Media, to facilitate the giving and receiving of meaningful feedback and positive critiques in the classroom and beyond.

02/20/2020

In "Writing Blocks and Tacit Knowledge," psychologist Robert Boice argues that the assumption of tacit writing knowledge is a major cause of blocked writing in academics, including faculty. If you expect students—undergrad or grad—to know specific disciplinary genres, teach how to write those genres.

Julie Libarkin's How to Write a Manuscript: https://geocognitionresearchlaboratory.com/2017/11/21/how-to-write-a-manuscript/

02/20/2020

For this week's visit to The Writing Campus archives, we revisit Tom Polk's "Characteristics of Effective Feedback."

Writing intensive courses are built on the concept that students improve as writers when they are given frequent opportunities to revise their writing based upon feedback from faculty. While provi…

02/19/2020

In our latest The Writing Campus blog post, we explore the How, What, and When of giving effective feedback.

https://thewritingcampus.com/2020/02/19/giving-effective-feedback/

02/17/2020

Before you set out to provide feedback on student work, consider the contexts governing your feedback.

02/16/2020

Psychologists have uncovered reasons why students put off important work. But there are a few simple things teachers can do to keep students on track.

02/14/2020

In "Argument as Emergence, Rhetoric as Love,” Jim Corder asks us to think of argument not as an adversarial act but as a cooperative act of sharing our emerging truths with each other. How might Corder's call for a commodious use of language shape the way we teach disciplinary writing?