Online writing Tips

Contributed by:

Musostudy

Intended Learning Outcome:

To improve the quality of student writing

Tool:

As we explore opportunities to create TLAs online we may find that we rely more on getting students to write. This TLA scaffolds that process with help on writing more, writing more confidently and collaborating.

Activity:

Here is a list of suggested online writing activities:

Provide support to correct writing errors – use this punctuation guide – also use the linking words and sentence starters TLAs. You may also find it useful to create lists of jargon (see the Glossary of jargon and Jargon Busters TLAs)

Promote joint reading and writing exercises. It is easier to write the more you read and vice versa. To introduce a piece of reading before you start a writing task. This writing could be in a shared Google Doc.

Instead of writing parts of an essay, use different forms such as a gig flyer, a VIP invite, a postcard, a poem, a How-To guide, a Wiki, a commercial script, a song lyric, a blog, a gig review, a news feature, a letter, a CV or an interview etc.

Share the written work on the blog and invite feedback.

Discuss how this writing is similar/dissimilar to the writing required for the assessment and discuss approaches to that.

Ask questions such as ‘How is this different from academic writing?’

How:

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Examples:

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Large Group Teaching:

With large groups, you can either run this as a solo activity and then put students into groups to discuss/adjust their decisions or you could have small group discussions and collaboratively written pieces.

Online Teaching:

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Success:

Students are confident with their writing and aware of the writing required for the assessment.

Next Steps:

Begin to write sections of the assessment piece in class and make opportunities for feedback.

Links to other activities:

Use the punctuation guide (see below) – also use the linking words and sentence starters TLAs.

Linking Words TLA: https://www.musostudy.com/tla-linking-words/ ‎
Sentence Starters: https://www.musostudy.com/tla-sentence-starters

You may also find it useful to create lists of jargon (see the Glossary of jargon and Jargon Busters TLAs):

Glossary of Jargon TLA: https://www.musostudy.com/tla-glossary-of-jargon
Jargon Busters TLA: https://www.musostudy.com/tla-jargon-busters

Acknowledgements:

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Resources:

Punctuation guide: www.musostudy.com/resources/3SS/punctuation.pdf