Writing Across Berkeley

Writing with a Living Outline

August 6, 2019
Benjamin Spanbock

“Strong outlines make strong essays.” The axiom might be attributed to any number of writing instructors or well-intentioned composition guidebooks. Indeed, student writers from a young age often learn that outlines are an essential part of the writing process. But what makes an outline strong? What should the outlining process look like, and what should it do for the writer? Perhaps because the outline is generally held to be a writer’s private document, or because the outlining process seems so obvious sometimes that the craft itself becomes easy to overlook, these questions often slip...

Making the Most of Your Introduction

February 28, 2020
Kim Freeman

In academic writing, we tend to put a lot of emphasis on the thesis statement, or core argument, of an essay. When assessing the thesis statement, instructors—among others—might wonder “so what?” In other words, they wonder why the thesis is significant or meaningful. Traditionally, thesis work is focused on what comes next: the body of the essay. Author Karen Gocsik suggests that a thesis needs to be an "umbrella idea," an idea “big enough that all of [the...

Campus Voices: Using Writing in Class

January 1, 2001
WAB Editors
How, in addition to essays and exams, do you use writing in your class? Rick Kern (French Department)

In French Department language courses, we use writing for a number of purposes other than essays and exams. At the most basic level, of course, we use written grammar and vocabulary exercises to help students master the basic forms of the language. More creative activities include writing cinquain poems (where students are given a schematic structure, but fill it in with words of their choice), scripting skits that students perform in class, keeping personal journals, and writing quick in-...

Saying "Yes" When Students Ask "Can I ..."

November 30, 2012
Jane Hammons

I teach a variety of writing classes at UC Berkeley–-two that fulfill the University’s Reading and Composition Requirement, an intermediate and an advanced writing class. The intermediate class–-CW 105: Finding Your Voice with Others–-is one in which students read current articles–-academic and journalism–-as well as a little theory–-Marshall McLuhan, Walter Ong, David Post, Lawrence Lessig, Sherry Turkle, Anne Wysocki, etc.-–about new media and technology. Multimodal forms of expression are required, and students write reflective journals with each project submitted, thinking about how...

Grammar Rules That Never Existed*

January 1, 2000
Steve Tollefson

You can’t start a sentence with “and” or “but.” Of course you can. You always could. “And” and “but” are coordinating conjunctions, and since they both coordinate and conjoin, they can begin a sentence. The trick, of course, is that it’s got to be a sentence that flows from the previous one.

Sentence fragments are never acceptable. Not true. They’re just pieces of sentences. Poorly used or thoughtless fragments are evil. Most good writers make use of fragments for rhetorical effect—and not just in fiction. Example: “Which public university ranks...

Teaching Writing to Multilingual Students

September 7, 2017
Michelle Baptiste

Several years ago College Writing Programs began offering writing consultations to faculty and GSIs teaching Reading & Composition (R&C) courses. Over the last few years, College Writing Programs has rotated the Multilingual Student Writing Consultant position among the applied linguists on our faculty. Each of us has had the opportunity to work with faculty and GSI’s from across campus—from English and Comparative Literature to Classics and Geography, as well as to field questions from faculty on other campuses.

Each of us has enjoyed the challenge of sharing our knowledge...

On Being a Son of a Times Journalist

January 11, 2017
Justin R. Murphy

The journey that I embarked on to become a tutor for the College Writing Programs is a long one. As I am a history major, I would like to put my story into greater perspective, starting before my academic career at Cal and Montclair High School. I would like to begin the narrative with my father, Dean Murphy.

My father is a newspaperman through and through. He started off as a child delivering papers for the Bethlehem Globe-Times, and as a teenager he wrote for them. After his teen years, he worked as a foreign correspondent for The Los Angeles Times in one of the...

Campus Voices: Best and Worst Writing Assignments #1

August 1, 2000
WAB Editors
What are the best and worst writing assignments you've ever given your students? Deborah Nolan (Statistics)

In a course I teach on sampling surveys, my students work in small groups to prepare a ten- to fifteen-page report describing a complex survey, such as the Current Population Survey or the National Crime Victimization Survey. The first time I assigned this project the results were disappointing. Too many papers read like abridged government documents. However, with closer supervision, this assignment is now quite successful.

To start them on the right track, I crafted a...

The 7 Stages of bCourses

February 24, 2014
Michael Larkin

Chagrin: “Ugh, I have to learn another LMS?”

Procrastination: “Develop my class first, worry about this later. Wow, my bathroom sink really needs to be cleaned.”

Overwhelmedness: “OMG! bCourses is ridiculously detailed and difficult to navigate! And all that great material I’ve carefully built into bSpace over the years…LOST!”

[kick computer]

Anger: “bCourses is trying to dictate the way I teach and how I structure my course! My glorious pedagogy! Out out, damned Modules!”

Resignation: “All right, all right. Let me learn how to work this damn thing.”...

The Fourth R: Reflection

January 1, 2001
Maggie Sokolik

“I did learn a lot: not just about the technology, or my strengths and weaknesses as a writer, but also about the power of the video medium, and the effect it can have on an audience. The class dogma definitely applies to this project, as it has for all of the others: the STORY is the most important thing.” —upper division student

“I prepare myself for class to try to gain accurate information from the reading assignments. Many times, I have read the writing assignments a couple times, hoping to have the best understanding of the assignments before I come to class....