The Sociology Department's Writing Enriched Curriculum isn't your only resource for teaching through writing! Below, we offer you additional links to resources within the University of Minnesota and from other organizations.
The Center for Writing is the coordinating body of the WEC program, and a wonderful tool for all University students & instructors. Among its many resources, the center offers one-on-one writing consultations through its "Student Writing Support" program. Students can schedule an appointment online or do a walk-in visit!
A part of the Center for Writing, TWW offers timely and relevant teaching consultations, and an annual series of workshops and discussions, seminars, and hunkers to all faculty members and instructors from across the campus. The program also offers online resources for integrating writing into UMN courses.
We cannot assume, especially in introductory courses, that our students already know how to do secondary research. The UMN Libraries website offers a series of online and in person tutorials for students and instructors, including a helpful introductory module on library research.
The UW-Madison Writer's Handbook offers a breadth of materials and tips for various kinds of writing, from academic papers, to CVs, to blog posts. It also offers handouts, tips, and worksheets for students on various aspects of writing.
Grammarly is an online grammar checker, and its blog offers some great tips on writing and grammar, and especially the use of punctuation. Finally, an answer to what the semi-colon is really for.
Grammarist is another helpful grammar website to assist instructors and students with common grammar and punctuation mistakes, homophones, how to properly use idioms, or just learn something new about the English language!
For instructors interested in learning more about teaching quantitative writing, there are a number of useful texts you can use. If you are interested in incorporating a quantitative data project into the classroom, the above also links to examples of interactive data tools you can use.
Charles Bazerman's The Informed Writer is available open-access. Bazerman addresses a wide range of writing activities and genres, from summarizing and responding to sources to writing the research paper and writing about literature. This edition of the book has been adapted from the fifth edition, published in 1995 by Houghton Mifflin.
Open the entire book: In PDF Format
Chapter 2: Reacting to Reading: Annotations and Journals
Chapter 3: Paraphrasing: The Author's Thoughts in Your Words
Chapter 4: Summarizing: The Author's Main Ideas
Chapter 5: Developing Responses to Readings: Essays
Chapter 6: Recognizing the Many Voices in a Text
Chapter 7: Analyzing the Author's Purpose and Technique
Chapter 8: Evaluating the Book as a Whole: The Book Review
Chapter 9: Comparing and Synthesizing Sources
Chapter 10: Writing the Research Paper
Chapter 11: A guide to Reference and Documentation
Chapter 12: Creating Knowledge
Chapter 13: Reading and Writing about Past Events: The Humanities and Historical Sciences
Chapter 15: Reading and Writing about Designed Events: The Experimental Sciences
Chapter 16: Reading and Writing about Generalizations: Theoretical Disciplines