Teaching Students to Write Good Papers

At a Glance

Emphasize Process Over Product: Guide students through writing as a process that includes drafting, revising, and peer feedback to improve clarity, argument, and style.
Assign Shorter, Focused Tasks: Use brief analytical assignments throughout the semester to help students practice key writing elements like purpose, argument, and evidence.
Integrate Opportunities for Revision: Encourage confidence and growth by requiring drafts and revisions, especially for students unfamiliar with the revision process.
Facilitate Peer Review: Use peer feedback to develop students’ ability to assess writing for clarity, persuasiveness, and coherence.
Leverage Campus Resources: Support students with additional writing help through the Center for Teaching and Learning’s resources and model papers.

Steps for Better Writing

Use strategies for making sure students understand the assignment. Use individual meetings, short, in-class writing exercises or small-group activities to make sure students can articulate what their paper will accomplish (describe, compare/contrast, explain, argue) and to what standard.

Guide students in selecting and analyzing primary and secondary source material. Use in-class activities to teach students: the difference between types of sources and their uses; strategies for evaluating a source and its value in a given argument; and examples of how to incorporate source material into an argument or other text with proper citation.

Teach them to construct strong thesis statements and support their arguments with evidence. Use model documents to introduce students to strong, arguable statements. Give students practice developing statements from scratch and refining statements that lack importance or clarity. Ask students to analyze the relationship between thesis statements and supporting evidence in short essays. Teach them to use the active voice.

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