This document discusses myths and methods related to teaching writing in quantitative disciplines. It debunks myths that writing has no place in fields like mathematics, physics, and engineering. The document advocates that writing can be integrated into any course to help students communicate effectively in their discipline. It presents several low-stakes writing techniques, such as freewriting and microgenres, that can help students generate and develop ideas without pressure. The document also outlines a process for learning to write, including prewriting, organizing, drafting, and revising with feedback. It provides examples of writing assignments that integrate discipline-specific content. Overall, the document argues that writing instruction benefits critical thinking and learning, and that faculty are best equipped to integrate it

1. Myths and Methods
CxC Summer Institute, Louisiana State University
Patrick Bahls, UNC Asheville

2. Sound familiar?
“I got into mathematics [physics,
engineering, computer science,
etc.] so I don’t have to write!”

3. Myths
Writing has no place in content-heavy quantitative
disciplines.
Teaching writing takes too much time away from
disciplinary content.
Folks outside of English have no business teaching
writing in the first place!

4. Myths, debunked
Practitioners of every discipline must learn to
communicate effectively in a manner appropriate to
their discipline.
Writing can be made into an integral component of
any course, no matter how content-heavy.
No one is more well-qualified than disciplinary
practitioners to help novices learn how best to learn in
a particular field.

5. Outcomes for writing
Exercise. Take 2 minutes to write, nonstop, about the
kinds of ways in which you use writing in your work.
Now take 2 more minutes to write, nonstop, about the
learning goals your students may meet through
writing.

6. Writing and critical thinking
As you may notice in the writing you’ve just done,
writing helps to foster creative and critical thinking.
Various kinds of writing give us the means to inquire,
apply, reflect, and communicate…all of which are steps
in a critical thinking process.

7. Writing-to-learn
Much writing done for purposes other than
communication can be classified as “writing-to-learn.”
Such writing is done not in order to conduct a
“transaction” but rather to help the writer to
generate, discover, invent, organize, rearrange, develop
, elaborate, connect, interrogate, and otherwise
investigate ideas.

8. Reflective writing and
metacognition
Certain kinds of writing can serve metacognitive goals.
Reflective writing helps students address affective
learning goals (sense of agency, self-
authorship, membership in
community, confidence, etc.)
“Writing about writing” helps students develop
awareness of audience, purpose, tone, and other
rhetorical aspects of effective writing.

9. Methods
Much writing-to-learn can be termed “low-stakes”
writing; it is not beholden to extrinsic valuations and
is performed without external consequence.
Some writing is more elaborated and adheres to a
more well-developed process.
No writing process is universally applicable; there is no
“one-size-fits-all” approach to writing.

10. Low-stakes writing
Low-stakes writing is just that: writing done for its
own sake, with little consequence
(grades, assessment, or even feedback).
Freed from external pressures, writing becomes
ludic, playful, and fun, exploratory.

11. Example 1: freewriting
The purpose of freewriting (introduced in the 1970s by
Peter Elbow) is to shut down the writer’s “internal
editor.”
In writing quickly and without regard for
spelling, grammar, etc., ideas are made to flow more
freely.
Later the writer can return to ideas generated through
freewriting, in order to connect them and flesh them
out more fully.

12. Example 2: dialogues
In writing dialogues (or multilogues) the writer adopts
multiple voices, that of an expert and that of a novice.
As the purpose of a dialogue is to encourage intuitive
understanding, writers should be coaches away from
sounding too clinical or “textbookish.”
Writers should also be wary of writing monologues
rather than dialogues.

13. Example 3: microgenres
Effective writing often calls for clarity and conciseness,
properties exemplified by the writing done in many
social media spheres.
Asking students to write Twitter tweets, SMS texts,
Facebook status updates, and even internet memes
with disciplinary content encourages development of
these attributes.

14. Memes?

15. Learning to write
Writing is not a monolithic process, and it can often be
broken into identifiable stages whose recognition can
help both writers and instructors of writing:
 pre-writing
 outlining and organizing
 drafting, reviewing, and revising

16. Prewriting
This stage involves the generation, discovery, and
invention of ideas, and the development of initial
connections between them.
Here many of the low-stakes activities discussed above
can play a role.

17. Organizing and outlining
Once the writer’s gotten her ideas out in the open, the
time comes to put them in some sort of order.
Various tools and techniques (outlines, annotated
bibliographies, metacognitive organizational
strategies, etc.) can help create the needed
connections before “polished” writing takes place.

18. Drafting, reviewing and revising
“Real” writing can then begin, assisted by regular
opportunities for feedback and review.
The nature of feedback can vary, incorporating written
comments, comments in conference, peer review, etc.
The timing of feedback is important: the best feedback
is formative and not summative, occurring in-process
and not at the process’s end.

19. Responding to writing
Responding to writing need not be an arduous task.
Various methods makes giving feedback both effective
and efficient.
Happily, composition scholars suggest that feedback
need not (and often should not) attend to grammar,
spelling, etc.

20. Feedback methods
How might you respond to students’ writing?
 Put the pen down!
 Mark minimally.
 Respond as an honest reader.
 Use rubrics, as appropriate.
 Model good revision.
 Respond multimodally (in writing and in conferences).

21. Peer review
When well-organized, peer review can be more than
just a means of giving students more feedback on their
writing.
Peer review opportunities encourage student agency
and authority.
Peer review can also lighten the teacher’s
workload, freeing her from having to read every draft
of every assignment.

22. Revision versus editing
Care should be taken to distinguish between revision
and editing.
The latter involves more substantive modification and
the former involves more superficial adjustments.
Generally, editing should take place as late in the
process as possible.

23. No “one-size-fits-all”
As indicated before, everyone will have a different
writing process.
In fact, reflecting on one’s writing process is an
effective exercise.
Ask your students to “draw” their writing process: the
results might surprise and enlighten you!

24. A sample writing process

25. Example 1: Newton v. Leibniz
All students in a calculus course work together to stage
a civil trial between Isaac Newton and Gottfried
Leibniz, inventors of calculus.
The students’ written work includes
• legal briefs (from Newton’s and Leibniz’s attorneys)
• letters of support (from the mathematicians’
colleagues)
• newspaper articles (from reporters covering the trial)
• personal reflections on the project (from all students)

26. Example 2: Bad Science Fiction
Students watch several sci-fi films (Star Wars, Jurassic
Park, etc.) demonstrating flawed scientific principles.
Each student then “corrects” these flaws, roughly
rewriting the movie’s screenplay appropriately.
The student then writes a letter (in lay language) to the
film’s director, acting as scientific adviser.
This project and the previous one provide the students
with clear purpose, audience, and scaffolding to help
complete the project.

27. Example 3: Grant Proposals
Students are presented with some issue facing the
local community (e.g., insufficient math literacy)
They are then asked to write a grant proposal
suggesting an intervention program that can be put in
place for no more than a given cost.
The exercise can be made more authentic if actual
community partners are involved and if monies (e.g.,
from curricular development funds) are available to
finance grants deemed successful.

28. Wrap-up
These activities and assignments demonstrate writing’s
appropriateness, even in quantitative classrooms.
Writing should not be an afterthought to disciplinary
content; it should instead be an integral part.
Writing instruction need not be difficult or time-
consuming…it can even be fun!
No one better knows how to integrate writing effectively than
the instructor in a particular discipline.

29. Resources
 Bahls, P. (2012). Student writing in the quantitative disciplines: A
guide for college faculty. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
 Bean, J. (2012). Engaging ideas: The professor’s guide to
integrating writing, critical thinking, and active learning in the
classroom, 2nd Edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
 Elbow, P. (1973). Writing without teachers. New York: Oxford
University Press.
 Gottschalk, K. & and Hjortshoj, K. (2004). The elements of
teaching writing: A resource for instructors in all disciplines.
Boston: Befored/St. Martin’s.
 Peterson, A. (1996). The writer’s workout book: 113 stretches
toward better prose. Berkeley, CA: National Writing Project.