Teacher Tips/Training

I require a research paper in my computer systems course, and no matter how structured I make it I am lucky to receive ¼ of the papers written well. The structure I use, expectations I put in place and the grading rubric are similar to what my students receive in their English classes when writing a research paper. It is almost as if once they walk out of English class all knowledge of formal writing flies away.

I spoke with an colleague about this and showed her some of last fall’s research papers. She was amazed at the low quality of the writing exhibited by most of the students, several of which were in her advanced English class that semester. I selected a few of these students and asked them why their writing quality was so different between her class and mine and received the overwhelming response that they didn’t think the quality mattered as much because they were writing for a computer class.

Writing across the curriculum is not a new idea and many schools enact it in various forms. But students still think that once they reach middle school subjects are separate; math stays in math class and writing skills are for English teachers. Searching for strategies online can be frustrating; there are plenty of guides for writing research papers for students but not to help teachers create them. I have found some strategies that are helping me.