The document describes an experiment in teaching essay writing. It aimed to make the process of writing and grading essays more systematic and effective. The instructor broke the first essay assignment into four shorter assignments focusing on evidence, analysis, structure, and thesis statement. This made providing feedback easier and allowed students to build their essay incrementally. It led to less time spent grading, improved student papers, and a more useful rubric for assessment. However, revising the grading rubric and one assignment proved difficult. Overall, the instructor found the new approach led to better student writing and more organized feedback.

1. Essay Writing:
A Teaching Experiment
Assignments, Handouts and Samples available on the
BHCF Blackboard at
InstructionHE Paper Topics & AssignmentsHunter
Essay Writing: A Teaching Experiment

2. Why?
• Effort expended on grading 1st
essay not
translating to significant improvement on 2nd
essay
• Many causes…but which can I affect?
• Phronesis: essay writing (in the student mind) is a
universal; they need experience with particulars
to gain practical wisdom

3. What I Did
• Create a (more-or-less) systematic procedure
for constructing an essay
• Divide the first essay into four chewable
tablets:
 Evidence
 Analysis
 Structure
 Thesis Statement

4. Desiderata
• Do not increase the number or length of in-class
writing exercises
• Reduce time spent on…
a) futile commentary
b) generic advice during consultations
• Increase overall quality of student papers

5. What Went Well
• Less time spent grading essays, including office
consultations with students
• Students’ perception of their improvement as writers
• Few horrific papers; more ‘A’-worthy papers
• More effective rubric for paper evaluations (but see
next slide…)

6. What Didn’t Go Well
• Assessment and scoring of the short assignments
• Structure Assignment too complex or poorly
conceived
• Unrevised grading rubric—old organization of criteria
did not map well onto new essay writing
methodology

7. Why I Like It
• Grading the first “essay” broken up into bite-size
chunks; commentary more effective and efficient
• Grading the second essay explicitly connects to earlier
performance on the four components—commentary
more organized and focused
• First “essay” has built-in mechanism for continuous
review and revision of previous ideas