Forsyth's Teaching Technology Resources

Return to Teaching Psychology Resources Page

Composition

The professor's defense against writing assignments-"I teach psychology (or sociology, or anthropology, or...), not English, so why should I assign writing activities?"-is a weak one. Many students certainly do need help with their writing, for despite years of schooling they still have many problems with grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and vocabulary. But writing assignments are not just exercises in grammar and grading. They are exercises in learning.

Writing as a Learning Process

Psychologists and other cognitive scientists know so much about psycholinguistics, language, and memory that they should well understand the close link between composition and knowledge. Yet many view writing as only a means of assessing a students' understanding of course material, and overlook the profound impact that the writing process has on understanding itself (Boice, 1982). As writer and professor of English composition Murray (1985, p. 3) explains:

Meaning is not thought up and then written down. The act of writing is an act of thought. This is the principal reason writing should be taught in the academy, yet, ironically, it is this concept that is most often misunderstood by academicians. They give writing assignments based on the assumption that writing begins after thinking is concluded, and they respond to those assignments as if the etiquette of language were more important than the thinking represented by the language."

Granted, students who just write a formulaic paper will experience few of the benefits of the experience, but students who author a paper become an "authority" on the subject. They must create, comprehend, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate as they fill the blank page or screen with text. They must identify their topic and the goals they hope to achieve. They must then plan out the paper, breaking down this complex process into manageable pieces that can be tackled in sequence. The writer must then generate the text: the words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs that will communicate the content to a reader while conforming to the rules and etiquette of language. The good writer must also review and rewrite the text, making certain that the words convey the meaning clearly and, ideally, creatively.

Writing, then, is a profoundly active learning experience, for when people write, they identify and define problems, evaluate evidence, analyze assumptions, recognize emotional reasoning and oversimplification, consider alternative interpretations, and reduce their uncertainty (Wade, 1995). Indeed, in many cases writers do not understand a concept clearly until they must organize their thoughts on the topic and communicate those thoughts through composition. As a result, authors are often surprised by the ideas they themselves write, for understanding emerges during the struggle to make points clear to others (Murray, 1985).

Types of Writing Assignments

McGovern and Hogshead (1990) relate an apocryphal story of the senior major who, in her final semester, finally had the time to take an elective in an upper-level English literature course. The English professor, after reading the student's first two papers, took her aside to explore the source of her weak writing. The professor traced her deficit back to the dearth of writing assignments in her major courses. One professor required she write two short papers and another instructor required that she write a research report, but what of her other 45 hours of course work in her major? No papers, no essays, no writing.

Professors who wish to add just one element of student-centered instruction to an otherwise professor-centered approach should start by asking students to write. These writing assignments may include the traditional favorites-term papers and essay tests-but Walvoord (1982) wisely recommends giving shorter, but more varied and frequent, writing assignments.

For example:

Freewriting: experts on teaching composition agree that students need to write on a regular basis without having to worry about how their text will be judged. They therefore recommend students spend time each day writing a paragraph or two about something. They should write quickly, without editing or rereading, and not worry about style or technique (see Hinkle & Hinkle, 1990).

In-class writing: to help students find the time some professors stop class for 5 minutes from time to time for unannounced periods of freewriting.

Journals: journals are dated, autobiographical notes that offer personal commentary on daily or weekly experiences. When Hettich (1990) uses journal writing he distributes a set of guidelines for journal writing that stresses the value of connecting class material to everyday personal experiences. Students, when they evaluated the impact of the experience, felt that it increased their level of critical thinking, provided feedback about comprehension, and served as a means of self-expression.

Activity-based reports: Writing assignments can be used to cement the connection between a experiential activity and the underlying principle it addresses. If students must reflect on the meaning of the activity in a written assignment, the educational impact of activities and demonstrations will be enhanced.

Abstracts: Because published abstracts rarely contain sufficient information for their use in papers (and they are copyrighted), students should abstract articles themselves by should describing the (1) theoretical background and hypotheses; (2) procedures used to test the hypotheses; (3) results; (4) applications. They should be urged to never copy the abstract in the original article, although they can quote clever or essential portions of the article so long as they include page numbers and the quote doesn't exceed 50 words. Writing abstracts of course and text material also improves students performance (Radmacher & Latosi-Sawin, 1995).

Literature reviews: When students write detailed reviews of the published literature they learn a number of scholarly skills. Poe (1990) offers suggestions for helping students write literature reviews by breaking the project down into discrete components and Froese, Gantz, and Henry (2000) teach students to use meta-analytic strategies to help them narrow and integrate their papers.

Research articles: Students, working individually or in teams, can in some cases collect the data they will need to generate a report of an empirical investigation. In such cases students can develop their project into an APA-style paper complete with abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, and references (Snodgrass, 1985).

Research proposals: When students do not have time or opportunity to collect data they can generate a proposal for a study or series of studies. Procidano (1991), who links this type of paper to the course goals clearly, reports that students valued the assignment as an opportunity to design their own studies and think creatively.

Reviews: Students can write book and article reviews modeled after those published in Contemporary Psychology or American Journal of Sociology. They should be reminded to not abstract the book, but instead review the purpose, the ideas, and conclusions critically. The best reviews are those that aspire to literary as well as scholarly excellence.

Alternative genres: Although most social science text is scientific writing, students can use alternative genres-poetry, fiction, letters-to communication information about psychology (or sociology, or anthropology, or...). Dunn (2000), for example, asks students to write letters to peers in other sections of her statistics classes to help them learn to express statistical concepts in their own words.

Open assignments: Students can be given unstructured, free assignment to write about anything that interests them, so long as they connect the essay or paper to the contents of the course. They will often need guidance in selecting and narrowing down a topic, but their papers are generally more interesting since they presumably pick topics that they want to know about rather than topics their professor wants to read about.

Coaching and Grading

When students write they are learning to use "the traditions of language to discipline their thinking and to make that thinking clear to others" (Murray, 1985, p. 52). Unfortunately, many students will need coaching on the process of writing and feedback about the quality of the writing they generate. The professor must, as Walvoord (1982, p. 3) suggests, "make writing assignments meaningful, establish a wholesome and stimulating writing environment for their students, coach pupils in the writing process, respond accurately and specifically to student papers, communicate clearly with students about their writing successes and failures, and help student improve writing as they learn and in order to learn." How can the teaching professor enact Walvoord's charge?

Clarify the assignment. Nodine (1999) notes that students need to learn about writing assignments as much as they need to learn about writing per se. Telling the students to "write a 5-10 page paper on one of the topics covered in this unit" is likely to frustrate students and disappoint professors. Instead, the assignment should explain the paper's purpose, the audience for the paper, the genre, voice, typical length, style, degree of documentation expected, and deadlines.
Challenge myths and misunderstandings about writing. Boice (1990) notes that many students misunderstand the process of writing. They feel that writing is a private, secretive process that requires huge blocks of time. Others feel that writers must be first moved by the Muse, and so they procrastinate too long before beginning. Most also fail to recognize the amount of planning, research, and drafting that is needed to generate a final paper. These myths should be discussed and replaced with more accurate information about writing.
Provide students with some guidance on the process of writing. Some students will need to know about the importance of selecting their topic, planning their draft, library research, drafting, reviewing and revision, and preparation of the manuscript final draft. Murray (1985) recommends spending class time discussing "The Writing Process" so that students can share their ideas with one another.
When giving feedback, focus on content first, then mechanics. Willingham (1990) recommends establishing a hierarchy of comments, and putting content above mechanics. Psychology (or sociology, or anthropology, or...) professors may be able to edit a paper as deftly as a composition teacher, but their focus should be on ideas, thoughts, and conclusions in the paper. Circling misspellings and crossing out extra commas may send the signal "I have read this paper," but they also confirm students suspicion that form is more important than substance. Comment primarily on their ideas, and send them to the English writing lab or department if their grammar needs repair.
Offer specific comments: Both Willingham (1990) and Handelsman and Krest (1999) recommend offering specific, but not too specific, suggestions. Vague complaints, such as "Think more about what you're saying here," "Rephrase," "Vague," and the favorite "awk" do not point students to the specific problems with their text. More specific comments, such as "This sentence is too long and wordy," "Help the reader connect the ideas you are discussing in this paragraph to the ones you discussed in the previous one," and "I'm confused by the way you are using the word 'reward'" provide students with more direction for the next draft. (Table 1 suggests other wordings for feedback from Handelsman and Krest, 1996.) Rewriting the section entirely for the student, though, should be avoided. Students should not be able to revise their papers by typing in the professors' comments directly into the previous draft.
Comment kindly: Comments that are too harsh will likely not be heeded, so they do not help students revise their work. The best comments are ones that are written as if the professor is giving comments to a peer. Rather than bluntly criticizing the paper, skillful reviewers first comment on the papers strengths before identifying weaknesses. Negative comments, too, should be conversational tone, and can often be phrased as questions rather than declaratives (Willingham, 1995).
Bolster students' motivation to write: Writing, as Bruning and Horn (2000, p. 28) explain, is a difficult task that requires "extended periods of concentration and engagement in which writers must marshall all of their cognitive, motivational, and linguistic resources." Bruning and Horn suggestions for augmenting students' motivation to write are summarized in Table 2 include nurturing their writing self-efficacy, assigning interesting topics, giving feedback carefully, and modeling positive attitudes about writing.

Table 1. Handelsman and Krest's (1996, p. 23, 31) Ten Most Common Problems in Students' Writing and Examples of Feedback

Frequent Problems	Example of Comment
The significance of the topic, issue, or paper is exaggerated	"My first impression was that this paper was about stereotypes rather than a study of student attitudes. How about starting closer to your topic" (p. 23).
Key details are omitted or ideas are not linked to the paper's overall themes	"Readers who have not read Smith's article may not understand the basis of this argument" (p. 23).
Too much detail about specific studies or examples is included	"Omit these details that readers don't need"(p. 23).
Large portions of the paper consist of summaries of studies without no interpretative framework provided	"How do these the two paragraphs tie into each other, and into the rest of the paper?" (p. 23).
Original sources are quoted extensively	"Paraphrase these quotations, and explain their significance" (p. 23).
Only one ideological or theoretical position of many is examined	"What are the distinctions between behavioral and psychodynamic approaches?" (p. 23).
Conceptual distinctions are examined, but their implications are not discussed	"I need less definition of the principles and more about how they apply" (p. 23).
The paper draws conclusions that overreach the paper's contents	"I don't understand how you came to your conclusions. Your reasoning is the most interesting, creative, and important part of your paper! Please share your thinking with me" (p. 31).
No conclusions are offered	"After all your good analysis, I'd love to hear your personal conclusion; what is your judgment on the ethics of deceptive research?" (p. 31).
The writing is stilted or mechanically inadequate	"Watch out for passive voice throughout the paper" (p. 31).

Table 2. Factors in Developing Motivation to Write

Cluster	Related Motivation-Enhancing Conditions
Nurturing functional beliefs about writing	Creating a classroom community supporting writing and other literacy activities Displaying the ways that teachers use writing personally Finding writing tasks that assure students success Providing opportunities for students to build expertise in areas they will write about Using brief daily writing activities to encourage regular writing Encouraging writing in a wide variety of genres
Fostering student engagement through authentic writing goals and contexts	Having students find examples of different kinds of writing (e.g., self-expressive, persuasive, entertaining) Encouraging students to write about topics of personal interest Having students write for a variety of audiences Establishing improved communication as purpose for revision Integrating writing into instruction in other disciplines (e.g., science, math, social studies)
Providing a supportive context for writing	Breaking complex writing tasks into parts Encouraging goal setting and monitoring of progress Assisting students in setting writing goals that are neither too challenging nor too simple Teaching writing strategies and helping students learn to monitor their use Giving feedback on progress toward writing goals Using peers as writing partners in literacy communities
Creating a positive emotional environment	Modeling positive attitudes toward writing Creating a safe environment for writing Giving students choices about what they will write Providing feedback allowing students to retain control over their writing Utilizing natural outcomes (e.g., communication success) as feedback source Training students to engage in positive self-talk about writing Helping students reframe anxiety, stress as natural arousal

Finding the Time

Adding writing requirements need not generate stacks of too-be-graded papers so tall that one's own writing, research, and mental health suffers. In many cases the papers need only be checked as completed, rather than assigned a grade. Wade (1995), for example, assigns eight papers a semester, and students must complete six of the 8 to pass the course. She comments on the papers, but she does not give them grades. Students can also revise their papers if they are unsatisfactory, or replace them with a paper on a different topic. Some composition teachers save time by giving feedback to their students orally. They may, for example, give students an in-class writing assignment and then hold short feedback sessions at the front of the class with individual students. They may also walk around the classroom reviewing students' journals or brief papers (e.g., summaries, lab reports) informally, giving feedback as necessary. Some also tape record their comments for students or, time allowing, meet with students individually or in small groups (Murray, 1985; Walvoord, 1982).

Time can also be saved by shifting the locus of evaluation elsewhere: to a set of guidelines, to peers, or to the students themselves. Some professors, before students begin their work, develop and review with students a set of numbered orienting guidelines and frequent mistakes. This structuring information reduces the number of mistakes students make, and also speeds up the feedback process; if students violate a element of the guidelines their error can be noted by referring to its number. Many, too, make use of peers. Students can comment on each others early drafts, provided they receive some guidance in how to present their comments and suggestions. Writing groups are based on the same principle, and work effectively as long as students are not competing for a limited number of high grades. Some professors also ask students to critique their own papers, turning in with the paper a brief synopsis of their view of the work's strengths and weaknesses (Willingham, 1990).

Virginia Commonwealth University | Donelson R. Forsyth
Contact Us
Date Last Modified: November 2001