Brooklyn College Library LibGuides Home: Writing Across The Curriculum: Instructor Resources

Toolkits and Handbooks

Writing Benchmarks
The Writing Across the Curriculum program at Brooklyn College developed the Writing Benchmarks to provide a map of the development of a student's writing over the course of their college career.
English Adjunct Handbook
This handbook was created as a corollary to our English Adjunct workshops as an "insider's guide" to teaching English 1010 and 1012, the two introductory courses.
Philosophy Writing Resource Handbook
This handbook provides a variety of practical resources for faculty within the discipline of philosophy to use and adapt in constructing a course.
Writing to Read Difficult Texts
Successful reading at the college level involves an array of practices and skills, which vary across disciplines and which are not always made explicit to students. This page describes a number of difficulties students report facing with assigned readings. It also compiles suggestions for and samples of writing activities that can enhance the reading process.
Low-Stakes Writing
Writing to learn is a central tenet of the WAC philosophy. This page describes a variety of low-stakes writing assignments and activities you can incorporate into your course without adding to your grading load.
Group Work
From group presentations to peer review to informal discussions of course themes, there are many ways to use group work to enhance your course. This page provides helpful hints for organizing group activities as well as sample assignments and handouts.
English Language Learners (ELL) Handbook
This grammar handbook, developed by Professor Len Fox, contains a variety of grammar rules and exercises for English language learners.
Responding to Student Papers
How do you provide feedback that helps students to improve their writing without spending outrageous amounts of time? This page offers grading suggestions and guidelines based on core WAC principles.
Digital Writing Toolkit
WAC Bibliography
Browse a list of WAC-related books, articles, and resources.
Books Available at the WAC Office

Research Paper Resources

Writing a research paper requires a range of different skills and activities, from finding and incorporating sources, to using discipline-appropriate citations. The resources provided here are designed to to help you think through and break down large research paper assignments, including suggestions for scaffolded writing activities along the way. Below are a variety of sample assignments and handouts that faculty members have used for different components of the research paper process. You may adapt these templates for your own course.

WAC Workshop Materials

The packets below were prepared in association with previous Writing Across the Curriculum faculty workshops.

Mini Lessons

The Brooklyn College Writing Fellows have developed a number of mini-lessons on various aspects of the writing process. Each of these lessons lasts approximately 30 minutes and is easily integrated into courses in all disciplines. Each link below includes a lesson plan, hand-outs and suggestions, allowing you to adapt the lesson directly into your own course. If you would like to request a Fellow to present a mini-lesson to your class, please contact the WAC coordinators.

Avoiding Plagiarism

Students will learn the definition of plagiarism and how to avoid it. They will complete a short quiz on plagiarism to show mastery of the skill.

Summarizing Sources

Students will learn how to summarize an article and identify the best summary during a brief exercise.

Additional Lessons

Select below from a variety of topics.

Summary vs. Analysis
Students will learn to identify assignments that require analysis and receive guidelines for developing analysis of a text.
Academic Diction
Students will learn how to employ appropriate academic diction in their own writing.
Interview as Instrument for Peer Review
Students will learn how to use the interview as a technique to hone in on a topic and generate a thesis statement.
Thesis Statements
This lesson will provide students with a working definition of a thesis statement while also helping them to acquire techniques that will aid them in constructing their own thesis statements.
Thesis Statements and Essay Organization
This lesson, designed for a philosophy course, focuses on thesis statements and essay organization.
Thesis Statements and Textual Analysis
This lesson looks at thesis statements for an assignment that requires close reading or textual analysis.
Writing a Literature Review
This lesson shows students how to write a short literature review essay for disciplines in the social sciences and humanities.
Organizing Essays
Students will learn several strategies for organizing short, persuasive essays in response to a particular assignment. This lesson emphasizes the usefulness of developing strong arguments as part of the writing process.