Below you will find changes and additions to the TRC Writing Project suggested by participants in a recent CAI workshop and colloquy. I am thankful for this feedback, and hope other visitors will offer other suggestions for improvement. I look forward to presenting more complete and user-friendly versions of the TRC Writing Project in the future.
To offer comments, please contact Andy Jones at aojones@ucdavis.edu.
Break the large grid into manageable sections. The current grid overwhelms the user with too much information.
Provide a one-page checklist of most useful writing topics and sites that an instructor could print out and present to students.
Provide a list of sites that would be most helpful for specific kinds of writing tasks, such as research papers, literature reviews, etc.
Create a sample class syllabus that shows, class by class, how the resources listed in the grid could be assigned to students as supplements to actual assignments. (This approach was tried with The Hamlet Project, an experimental online/hybrid class created during the summer of 2000.)
Provide sample papers with comments, including links to relevant writing resources. Religious Studies Naomi Janowitz and three instructors from the English Department experimented with this approach in Winter, 2002.
Provide grading standards for several classes. The English Department Grading Standards are already available on the web. John Stenzel and others have written Grading Standards for Advanced Composition courses; more generic standards can be found at CriticalThinking.Org. (See also other Campus Writing Center handouts.)
Provide a list of others' favorite writing handouts, such as the list of "Resources for Writers" compiled by Duke University's Center for Teaching, Learning, and Writing.
Set up a separate site that evaluates and links to textbook companion sites established by academic publishers. I reported on such sites during SITT 2000.
Consider having each new handout/link open in its own window.
A Grid Showing Links to All Handouts
Online Writing Labs and Other Resources