About teach2write

Background
Faculty members and teaching assistants from virtually every department complain about student writing at UCLA. While the University has taken steps to improve undergraduate writing competency by introducing special writing courses across the disciplines, many students still need help with their writing. Instructors’ lack of attention to writing is understandable. Most professors, instructors, and teaching assistants are already overwhelmed with the task of teaching their own subjects, have not been trained in teaching writing, and do not have access to the kinds of resources that facilitate incorporation of writing instruction into their courses. This is especially true in the sciences where writing assignments are becoming much more common yet TAs are rarely trained in how to teach writing. This website was designed to help instructors, in particular TAs, prepare themselves to become more effective in teaching writing to UCLA students.

This website was designed to help instructors, in particular TAs, prepare themselves to become more effectve in teaching writing to UCLA students.

Contributors
The project is sponsored and managed by the Office of Instructional Development at UCLA. The material for the modules was written by Leigh Harris, UCLA Writing Programs Lecturer and Writing II Coordinator with contributions from Susan Griffin, UCLA Writing Programs Lecturer and Freshman Cluster Program Consultant; Kumiko Haas, Associate Director, Instructional Improvement Programs, UCLA Office of Educational Development; Howard Lee, UCLA Campuswide TA Training Program Coordinator (2003-2005); Sonia Maasik, UCLA Writing Programs Lecturer and TA Coordinator; Susan Phares, Instructional Designer, UCLA Office of Instructional Development; and Mike Takahashi, Web Designer/Developer, UCLA Office of Instructional Development.

Special thanks to: Chris Cao, UCLA Comparative Literature graduate student; Lisa Gerrard, UCLA Writing Programs Lecturer; Todd Honma, USC Program in American Studies and Ethnicity graduate student; Jeremy Smoak, UCLA Near Eastern Languages and Culture graduate student; and Clarie Whitner, Germanic Languages and Literatures graduate student.

The handouts used in the teach2write website were created by TAs for the WRITe Project. The WRITe Project, was created in Fall 2002 through the Office of Instructional Development by Mary Holland (UCLA English Teaching Assistant Consultant) and Laurie Schick (UCLA Campuswide TA Training Program Coordinator 2001-2003), to serve as a resource for all TAs that teach writing in any department across campus. The goal was to address the university-wide need to improve student writing by incorporating a series of simple academic writing lessons into the content of their courses. This goal and the spirit of the project is carried onto the teach2write website.