Faculty Resources

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Pedagogy Recommendations

  • First-Year Composition by Deborah Coxwell-Teague and Ronald F. Lunsford
  • How to Teach Adults: Plan Your Class, Teach Your Students, Change the World by Dan Spalding
  • Performing Antiracist Pedagogy in Rhetoric, Writing, and Communication edited by Condon and Vershawn Ashanti Young
  • Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom by bell hooks
  • The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop by Felicia Rose Chavez
  • The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker
  • Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, Tenth Edition by Janet Burroway

Supplemental Readings

Here are some supplemental readings to recommend to your students or utilize in your class:

  • Concise Guide to APA Style, Seventh Edition
  • Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White
  • Gwynne's Grammar: The Ultimate Introduction to Grammar and the Writing of Good English by N.M. Gwynne
  • MLA Handbook, 9th Edition
  • Writing in Nursing: A Brief Guide, 1st Edition by Thomas Lawrence Long and Cheryl Tatano Beck
  • You, Writing! A Guide to College Composition by Alexandra Glynn, Kelli Hallsten-Erickson, and Amy Jo Swing

Fun Prompts

Sometimes, it’s difficult to get students engaged with their writing. Here is a list of interesting prompts for freewrites and assignments:

Narrative

  • Write a narrative essay about your favorite color.
  • Write about a gift you will never forget.
  • Write about a particularly painful injury.
  • Who is your family?

Descriptive

  • Describe a favorite room from your childhood.
  • Describe your first memory.
  • Describe one of your cultural traditions.
  • Describe a game close to your heart.

Persuasive

  • Should students utilize technology in the classroom?
  • Should it be okay to keep wild animals as pets?
  • Should sports teams be co-ed?
  • What is the best book or movie ever written?

Argumentative

  • Should healthcare be universal?
  • Do you think that people have the right to own a gun?
  • Has technology changed our definition of magic?
  • Should school lunches be free for all children?

Expository

  • If you had to be an animal, which would you be and why?
  • Explain the impact of different music genres on society.
  • Explain the impact of social media on society.
  • Explain how colorism affects certain cultures.

Definition

  • What is horror?
  • What is a sandwich? What qualifies as a sandwich?
  • What is multiculturalism?
  • What does it mean to be an American?

Process

  • Write an essay teaching an alien from Mars to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
  • How do you bathe a (name an odd animal to bate such as a cat or wolf)?
  • How do you fight biases and/or stereotypes?
  • How do you buy things from the internet without being scammed?

Compare and Contrast

  • What are the differences and similarities between communism and capitalism?
  • Compare and contrast two different cultures.
  • Compare and contrast virtual and face-to-face learning.
  • Compare and contrast a book and its movie version.

Cause and Effect

  • What are the causes and effects of post-traumatic stress disorder?
  • What are the causes of the (current war)?
  • What is the impact of online dating on an individual’s life?
  • Why did you choose your major?

Creative Writing

Fiction

  • For once, the villain doesn’t monologue. After their death, the heroes must figure out the villain’s plans.
  • There is a door. What is behind it? Why is it closed?
  • A person is brought to a conference with their other selves from alternate universes. Unfortunately, they are faced with the realization that they are the least accomplished version of themselves.
  • Start your story with someone breaking an awkward silence at a family dinner.

Non-Fiction

  • Everyone’s addicted to something in some shape or form. What is something you can’t go without?
  • Write about numbers or colors that have special meaning to you.
  • Write about doing something you don’t want to do.
  • Everyone’s family has different experiences. What is one memory you have of your family that might be considered abnormal?