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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en" xmlns:og="http://ogp.me/ns#" xmlns:article="http://ogp.me/ns/article#" xmlns:book="http://ogp.me/ns/book#" xmlns:profile="http://ogp.me/ns/profile#" xmlns:video="http://ogp.me/ns/video#" xmlns:product="http://ogp.me/ns/product#"> <head profile="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml/vocab"><script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/bundle-playback.js?v=HxkREWBo" charset="utf-8"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/wombat.js?v=txqj7nKC" charset="utf-8"></script> <script>window.RufflePlayer=window.RufflePlayer||{};window.RufflePlayer.config={"autoplay":"on","unmuteOverlay":"hidden"};</script> <script type="text/javascript" src="/_static/js/ruffle/ruffle.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript"> __wm.init("https://web.archive.org/web"); __wm.wombat("http://mcgill.ca:80/tls/teaching/writing-toolkit","20180315140319","https://web.archive.org/","web","/_static/", "1521122599"); </script> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/banner-styles.css?v=S1zqJCYt" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/_static/css/iconochive.css?v=3PDvdIFv" />  <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/> <script type="application/ld+json">{"@context":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20180315140319\/http:\/\/schema.org","@type":"CollegeOrUniversity","name":"McGill University","url":"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20180315140319\/https:\/\/www.mcgill.ca","sameAs":["https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20180315140319\/http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/McGillUniversity","https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20180315140319\/http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/edu\/mcgill-university-10890","https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20180315140319\/http:\/\/plus.google.com\/+mcgilluniversity","https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20180315140319\/http:\/\/twitter.com\/mcgillu","https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20180315140319\/http:\/\/www.instagram.com\/mcgillu\/","https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20180315140319\/http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/mcgilluniversity"]}</script> <meta name="description" content="The purpose of this toolkit is to help McGill instructors to integrate more writing in their courses, regardless of discipline or class size. It includes guidelines on how to design assignments that are more interesting for you and your students and ideas on how to assess student work and provide comments in efficient ways. It also contains a section with example assignments from McGill professors together with some ideas on how these assignments could be adjusted to different contexts. A Note from the Director of the McGill Writing Centre Why would I want to integrate writing in my courses? Design of Writing Assignments What are the characteristics of engaging assignments? What should I consider when designing an assignment? Commenting on Student Work How can I improve the feedback process? What makes feedback effective? Grading How can I grade more efficiently? Should I be using a rubric? If so, how do I design a rubric that works for me? McGill Examples View sample assignments from McGill professors, complete with comments from the professors and some ideas on how to adapt the assignments to different contexts (different disciplines, class size, etc.). References Bean, J. C. (2011). Engaging ideas: The Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. (2nd ed.) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Graff , G., Birkenstein, C., & Durst, R. (2011). They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing with Readings. (2nd ed.) New York: Norton."/> <meta name="generator" content="Drupal 7 (http://drupal.org)"/> <link rel="canonical" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180315140319/http://mcgill.ca/tls/teaching/writing-toolkit"/> <link rel="shortlink" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180315140319/http://mcgill.ca/tls/node/1672"/> <meta property="og:type" content="website"/> <meta property="og:site_name" content="Teaching and Learning Services (TLS)"/> <meta property="og:title" content="How to engage students with writing—a toolkit"/> <meta property="og:url" content="https://web.archive.org/web/20180315140319/http://mcgill.ca/tls/teaching/writing-toolkit"/> <meta property="og:description" content="The purpose of this toolkit is to help McGill instructors to integrate more writing in their courses, regardless of discipline or class size. It includes guidelines on how to design assignments that are more interesting for you and your students and ideas on how to assess student work and provide comments in efficient ways. It also contains a section with example assignments from McGill professors together with some ideas on how these assignments could be adjusted to different contexts. A Note from the Director of the McGill Writing Centre Why would I want to integrate writing in my courses? Design of Writing Assignments What are the characteristics of engaging assignments? What should I consider when designing an assignment? Commenting on Student Work How can I improve the feedback process? What makes feedback effective? Grading How can I grade more efficiently? Should I be using a rubric? If so, how do I design a rubric that works for me? McGill Examples View sample assignments from McGill professors, complete with comments from the professors and some ideas on how to adapt the assignments to different contexts (different disciplines, class size, etc.). References Bean, J. C. (2011). Engaging ideas: The Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. (2nd ed.) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Graff , G., Birkenstein, C., & Durst, R. (2011). They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing with Readings. (2nd ed.) New York: Norton."/> <meta property="og:updated_time" content="2014-09-08T11:55:13-04:00"/> <meta property="og:image:width" content="300"/> <meta property="og:image:height" content="300"/> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/> <meta name="twitter:site" content="@McGillU"/> <meta name="twitter:title" content="How to engage students with writing—a toolkit"/> <meta name="twitter:description" content="The purpose of this toolkit is to help McGill instructors to integrate more writing in their courses, regardless of discipline or class size. It includes guidelines on how to design assignments that are more interesting for you and your students and ideas on how to assess student work and provide comments in efficient ways. It also contains a section with example assignments from McGill professors together with some ideas on how these assignments could be adjusted to different contexts. A Note from the Director of the McGill Writing Centre Why would I want to integrate writing in my courses? Design of Writing Assignments What are the characteristics of engaging assignments? What should I consider when designing an assignment? Commenting on Student Work How can I improve the feedback process? What makes feedback effective? Grading How can I grade more efficiently? Should I be using a rubric? If so, how do I design a rubric that works for me? McGill Examples View sample assignments from McGill professors, complete with comments from the professors and some ideas on how to adapt the assignments to different contexts (different disciplines, class size, etc.). References Bean, J. C. (2011). Engaging ideas: The Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. (2nd ed.) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Graff , G., Birkenstein, C., & Durst, R. (2011). They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing with Readings. (2nd ed.) 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href="/web/20180315140319/http://mcgill.ca/tls/teaching" class="custom-breadcrumbs-item-3">Teaching @ McGill</a> </div> <div id="nav-column" class="transition"> <div id="nav-menu"> <a class="btn-nav">Section menu<i class="fa fa-angle-down fa-fw"></i></a> </div> <ul class="menu"><li class="first collapsed active-trail"><a href="/web/20180315140319/http://mcgill.ca/tls/teaching/writing-toolkit" class="active-trail active">Writing Toolkit</a></li> <li class="leaf"><a href="/web/20180315140319/http://mcgill.ca/tls/teaching/writing-toolkit/introduction">Introduction</a></li> <li class="leaf"><a href="/web/20180315140319/http://mcgill.ca/tls/teaching/writing-toolkit/design-written-assignments">Design of written assignments</a></li> <li class="leaf"><a href="/web/20180315140319/http://mcgill.ca/tls/teaching/writing-toolkit/commenting-student-work">Commenting on student work</a></li> <li class="leaf"><a href="/web/20180315140319/http://mcgill.ca/tls/teaching/writing-toolkit/grading">Grading</a></li> <li class="last collapsed"><a href="/web/20180315140319/http://mcgill.ca/tls/teaching/writing-toolkit/examples">McGill Examples</a></li> </ul> </div>  <div id="inner-container"> <div id="tabs"> </div> <div id="top-page"> </div>  <h1 id="page-title" class=" "> How to engage students with writing—a toolkit </h1> <div id="main-column"> <div id="top-content"> </div>  <div id="content"> <div id="content-inner"> <div class="region region-content"> <div id="block-system-main" class="block block-system region-content"> <div class="block-inner"> <div class="content"> <div id="node-1672" class="node clearfix"> <div class="content"> <div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><h3>The purpose of this toolkit is to help McGill instructors to integrate more writing in their courses, regardless of discipline or class size. It includes guidelines on how to design assignments that are more interesting for you and your students and ideas on how to assess student work and provide comments in efficient ways.</h3> <p>It also contains a section with example assignments from McGill professors together with some ideas on how these assignments could be adjusted to different contexts.</p> <table><tr><td> <h3><a href="//web.archive.org/web/20180315140319/http://mcgill.ca/tls/teaching/writing-toolkit/introduction">A Note from the Director of the McGill Writing Centre</a></h3> <p>Why would I want to integrate writing in my courses?</p> </td> </tr><tr><td> <h3><a href="//web.archive.org/web/20180315140319/http://mcgill.ca/tls/teaching/writing-toolkit/design-written-assignments">Design of Writing Assignments</a></h3> <p>What are the characteristics of engaging assignments? What should I consider when designing an assignment?</p> </td> </tr><tr><td> <h3><a href="//web.archive.org/web/20180315140319/http://mcgill.ca/tls/teaching/writing-toolkit/commenting-student-work">Commenting on Student Work</a></h3> <p>How can I improve the feedback process? What makes feedback effective?</p> </td> </tr><tr><td> <h3><a href="//web.archive.org/web/20180315140319/http://mcgill.ca/tls/teaching/writing-toolkit/grading">Grading</a></h3> <p>How can I grade more efficiently? Should I be using a rubric? If so, how do I design a rubric that works for me?</p> </td> </tr><tr><td> <h3><a href="//web.archive.org/web/20180315140319/http://mcgill.ca/tls/teaching/writing-toolkit/examples">McGill Examples</a></h3> <p>View sample assignments from McGill professors, complete with comments from the professors and some ideas on how to adapt the assignments to different contexts (different disciplines, class size, etc.).</p> </td> </tr><tr><td> <h3>References</h3> <p>Bean, J. C. (2011). <i>Engaging ideas: The Professor's Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom</i>. (2<sup>nd</sup> ed.) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.<br/><br/> Graff , G., Birkenstein, C., & Durst, R. (2011). <i>They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing with Readings. </i>(2<sup>nd</sup> ed.) New York: Norton.</p> </td> </tr></table></div></div></div> </div> <ul class="links inline"><li class="node-readmore first last"></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div id="bottom-content"> </div>  </div>   </div>  <div id="bottom-page"> <div class="region region-bottom-of-page"> <div id="block-bean-traditional-territory" class="block block-bean region-bottom_of_page block-bean-mcgill-block mode-full"> <div class="block-inner"> <div class="content">  <div class="entity entity-bean bean-mcgill-block clearfix"> <div class="content"> <div class="field field-name-field-m-block-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><h5>McGill University is located on land which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst Indigenous peoples, including the Haudenosaunee and Anishinabeg nations. 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