WR 120
Syllabus Checklist
This checklist includes important reminders, deadlines, links, and tips for preparing your WR syllabus. Please review this checklist before submitting your draft syllabus to ensure that your syllabus aligns with the latest Writing Program requirements. Note that this checklist is for your use only and should NOT be submitted along with your syllabus. Consult the […]
Facilitating Discussions
Each Flipped Learning Module (FLM) is a set of short videos and online activities that can be used (in whole or in part) to free up class time from content delivery for greater student interaction. At the end of the module, students are asked to fill out a brief survey, in which we adopt the […]
Student Presentations and Strategies for Audience Engagement
WR 111, WR 112, WR 120, and WR 151 all require oral presentations for students and value these opportunities for students to speak to their peers. However, instructors sometimes struggle to sustain engagement on the part of the rest of the class during presentations. The following list provides some strategies to motivate audience members to […]
Place-Based Possibilities: Experiential Learning Ideas for WR Courses
This guide helps instructors connect place-based experiences and experiential learning to different courses in the WR sequence. Guiding Questions for Adventures Outside of the Classroom How can students engage deeply and safely with a place/event and its community/ies? What clear ground rules can you create to protect students while giving them freedom to explore? How wide […]
Assignment Sequence: WR 120
These assignments and assignment templates are meant to offer new Writing Program instructors an easily adaptable overview of the WR 120 assignment sequence. They refer to sources using the BEAM/BEAT framework, which we recommend but do not require you to introduce to your students in WR 120. Opportunities to specify your course material and alternative […]
Writing Program Shared Vocabulary
This list represents some of the core shared vocabulary of the CAS Writing Program’s curriculum. Using these terms with students helps foster a common language across course sections and levels. Rhetorical Situation Audience Purpose Context Genre Mode (more applicable in WR 151/152) Argument Claim Reasons Evidence Acknowledgment and response Introductions Current situation/[common ground]/[background] Research question/[problem statement] […]
Faculty Guide to Teaching WR 120 and WR 15x
The following guide is aimed at instructors new to the CAS Writing Program and walks them through the process of preparing their courses for the first time. Note that while some sections of WR 120 are reserved for English language learners (ELLs), all WR 120s use the same learning outcomes and course requirements. Similarly, while […]
Building Your Syllabus (Syllabi Templates)
The Writing Program offers the following set of resources to help you build your own syllabus, rather than a single syllabus template for each level. We have broken the syllabus down into three parts, so that it is clearer which parts of our syllabi are common to all courses in the Writing Program and which […]
Cumulative Portfolios in the Writing Program
As of Fall 2023, all WR students will create a portfolio in their first WR course and continue to add to it throughout subsequent WR courses. This cumulative portfolio assignment will create a shared experience for WR students, offering them a space to reflect on their growth and their developing identities as college writers and […]
Sample WR 120 Assignment: Op-ed
Use, or adapt, the following to structure an op-ed (or “guest essay”) assignment as an alternative genre assignment to an academic paper in WR 120 or another class. Objective To analyze one or more model op-eds; to argue effectively for a point or claim in the context of an op-ed, while providing evidence and considering […]