Helping Students Write Well
A Guide for Teachers in All Disciplines, (2nd edition)
- Author: Barbara E. Fassler Walvoord
- Pages: xiii & 253 pp.
- Published: 1986
- ISBN: 9780873522014 (Paperback)
Helping Students Write Well has become the standard manual for college instructors seeking to integrate writing into their courses more effectively. The book suggests techniques for responding to student work, guiding student peer groups, and dealing with specific writing problems. Aimed at college faculty members in a variety of disciplines—history, sociology, biology, marketing, psychology, literature, and others—Barbara Walvoord’s lively text provides methods for helping students
- generate ideas
- bring topics into focus
- gather and integrate library information
- organize reasoning and evidence
- follow a required format
- draft, revise, and edit
- improve style and mechanics
- compose visual aids
Unique to this edition are seven detailed case histories that describe how teachers in various disciplines have applied Walvoord’s techniques in actual courses.
Helping Students Write Well is an essential tool both for those who teach writing and for those who want to make writing a significant part of their courses.
Acknowledgments (xi)
PART ONE: COACHING THE WRITING PROCESS (1)
Chapter One: Why Write? (3)
Chapter Two: Considering Goals and Options for Writing in Your Course (6)
The Instructor as Manager (6)
Purposes for Writing in a Course (6)
Types of Writing (8)
Writing in Class (9)
Levels of Polish (17)
Audience and Context for Writing (18)
Sequence and Difficulty of Writing Assignments (22)
Chapter Three: Planning to Coach the Writing Process (29)
The Importance of Coaching (29)
The Writing Process (29)
Questions to Guide Your Coaching (32)
Helping Students Understand the Writing Process (33)
Helping Students Become Involved (34)
Helping Students Pace Their Work (35)
Helping Students Analyze the Assignment (36)
Helping Students Find Help (49)
Helping Students Assess Audience, Purpose, and Context (52)
Helping Students Generate Ideas and Focus the Topic (53)
Helping Students Gather and Integrate Library Information (68)
Helping Students with Interviews (76)
Helping Students with Observation and Experiment (78)
Helping Students with Reasoning, Evidence, and Organization (79)
Helping Students with Drafting and Revising (84)
Helping Students with Visual Aids (89)
Helping Students with Style and Mechanics (89)
Observing the Writing Process (105)
Summary (110)
Chapter Four: Using Student Peer Groups (111)
Response Groups (111)
Task Groups (118)
Chapter Five: Course Plans: Some Case Histories (123)
A Core History Course: John R. Breihan (123)
A Sophomore Core Literature Course: Barbara Walvoord (125)
An Introductory Psychology Course: Susan Miller Robison (128)
Introductory and Advanced Biology Courses: Virginia Johnson Gazzam (130)
An Introductory Sociology Class and a Word about “Journals”: Michael Burton (133)
Task Groups in an Upper-Class–Graduate Course in Marketing Research: Larry S. Lowe (134)
Task Groups in an Introductory History Course: James Van Hoeven (135)
More Suggestions for Specific Disciplines (137)
PART TWO: RESPONDING TO THE STUDENT WRITER (139)
Chapter Six: Principles of Effective Response (141)
Pen, Tape, or Conference? (141)
Being a Transparent Reader (146)
Suiting Response to Purpose (147)
Setting Goals and Rewarding Achievement (148)
Using Praise (149)
Being Thorough and Specific (149)
Naming and Summarizing (150)
Grading Writing (151)
Sample Teacher Responses to Student Writing (153)
Responding to In-Class Writing (158)
Responding to Journals (159)
Responding to Planning Statements (161)
Chapter Seven: Responding to Problems in Focus and Organization (162)
Responding to Problems in Focus (162)
First and Last Paragraphs (180)
Responding to Problems in Organization (184)
Chapter Eight: Responding to Problems in Style (206)
Analyzing the Situation and Setting Goals (206)
Responding to Tone and Voice (207)
Responding to Incoherent or Confusing Prose (210)
Responding to Problems of Emphasis (210)
Responding to Problems in Indicating Relations (212)
Encouraging Economy (224)
Encouraging Precision, Concreteness, Vividness (230)
Chapter Nine: Responding to Problems in Grammar, Punctuation, and Spelling (234)
Analyzing the Situation and Setting Goals (234)
Addressing Performance-Based Problems (235)
Addressing Knowledge-Based Problems (237)
Summary (240)
Works Cited and Selected Bibliography (241)
Index (246)
