WHAT YOU KNOW AND HOW YOU WRITE IT: A PROJECT FOR TEACHING AND ASSESSING WRITING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM

Writing evaluation conventionally relies on essay tests, but more informal methods can help reveal students' writing skills. A classroom project was designed to examine students' awareness of the demands posed by various academic writing, tasks, to discover how that awareness develops with experience, and to orient new students to the roles writing plays in their academic lives. The project involved three groups: freshmen enrolled in introductory writing classes for the first time, freshmen and others repeating the introductory classes, and upperclass students enrolled in a course in professional writing. At the beginning of the semester, all were asked to report any information they could find that would help them complete the semester's writing tasks. At the end of the semester they added information they had gained in the interval. Reports from all groups contained the same kinds of information, but students in professional writing noted more often that purposes of assignments related to goals for the course, while the freshmen added more late information about writing processes. The project was a valuable learning activity and suggested what roles writing plays in students' academic lives. Similar projects should be included in a thorough assessment of writing programs.