The Medium and the Message: How Written Assignment Genres Reflect Disciplinary Purpose

• In Event: Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: Creative Pedagogies to Promote Student Learning and Access

Abstract

This presentation examines four professors’ approaches to writing assignments in history and engineering. An investigation of writing instruction in two disparate disciplinary contexts clarifies which factors encourage and inhibit writing instruction, and the role that discipline plays in instructors’ implementation of writing assignments. The presentation introduces a guiding conceptual framework, which outlines the primary factors influencing faculty’s writing instruction. The presentation draws from an extensive qualitative case study, and data sources include in-depth interviews, field observations, and analysis of documents such as syllabi and writing prompts. Findings reveal more about the nature of discipline-based writing instruction, and proposes opportunities for future research on instructional approaches to disciplinary writing.

Author

• Megan Callow, University of Maryland