How can I get my students to pay attention to style in their writing?

The MLA and APA have recently revised their style manuals, and it’s a good opportunity to talk with your students about the stylistic conventions that scholars in your field follow. On the one hand, these conventions are formal–citations of different kinds must be written in a specific format, and rules for specialized cases of usage must be obeyed. On the other, style can also be taught as a tool of writing that helps student develop their individual writing voices while they also learn how style embodies particular ways of thinking within a discipline. Because style often embodies scholarly and disciplinary values, it is important for students to understand its significance and feel comfortable making appropriate stylistic choices within their writing. Here are some approaches to addressing style with your students: (more…)

Bruce Bellner, an instructor in the department of Economics, invited me to give a class presentation/workshop about writing research papers and on line libera. thesis statements in his Economics 367 class.
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In my second session with Mark Moritz’s Anthropology 620 class, we talked about developing a style manual for the wiki that the students were contributing to during the quarter. (more…)

I had the pleasure this quarter of working with Professor Mark Moritz and his Anthropology 620 class. Dr. Moritz centered his class writing assignments on producing a wiki on the topic of the class, which was hunter-gatherer societies. I came into the class twice, and I’ll divide my comments for each session into two posts. The first session addressed how wikis might fit into disciplinary attitudes toward writing and knowledge production. (more…)

An attendee of several of our workshops, Mariam Tumeo, connected us with Professor Larry Feth, who invited me to speak to his graduate pro-seminar about Writing Across the Curriculum and technology. (more…)