Communication & Writing Resources

Durham Technical Community College strives to provide the resources that our instructors need to be successful. In keeping with that goal we have compiled several pieces of information that instructors may find useful in their courses.

I found the following website at the University of Minnesota very informative. They have generously given the Teaching Learning Center permission to reprint articles from their website for use with our New Faculty Orientations and Faculty Training Sessions.

Teaching with Writing
Designing Effective Writing Assignments, a checklist developed by Hidy Miller, Associate Professor, Portland State University, published on the University of Minnesota’s website (The Center for Writing). Reprinted with permission.

Creating Grading Rubrics
Pamela Flash, Associate Director, Center for Writing, University of Minnesota.
Establishing and discussing specific characteristics of success when an assignment is first distributed benefits both students and instructors. Creating grading rubrics, or grids, is a typical way to do this. This article provides a guide to assist instructors in creating a successful grading rubric.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT Online Writing and Communication Center) has graciously granted us permission to reprint this article titled; Creating Writing Assignments, which provides information on Creating Effective Assignments, Checking the Assignment, Sequencing Writing Assignments, and Selecting an Effective Writing Assignment Format.

The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University provides a great deal of information that is available for instructors to assist their students with writing assignments. Avoiding Plagiarism is an excellent handout for students who may seem unsure of what is and what is not plagiarism.

Traci Gardner offers Ten Tips for Designing Writing Assignments, Traci is the Online Content Developer for ReadWriteThink for National Council of Teachers of English(NCTE).

Rick Lewis from Sandhills Community College has prepared and excellent guide on Locating and Documenting Sources in MLA Style which explains how to use the Internet sources and how to properly document those sources using the Modern Language Association guidelines.

The North Carolina Conference of English Instructors website provides a wealth of information on writing styles, research, documentation (APA and MLA). This site can be a great resource to all of our instructors (in all disciplines) as we work to improve our students ability to communicate in writing.

The Manoa Writing Program at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa has granted us permission to reproduce some of their material on their website. They have several courses that are designated as “Writing Intensive” and they offer excellent resources for instructors and students to effective and successful in these courses. We have included a number of their publications titled “Writing Matters” for your use.

Writing Matters #1 Designing Writing Assignments
Writing Matters #2 Responding to Student Writing
Writing Matters #3 Writing & Research – What Students Like About Research Projects
Writing Matters #4 Overcoming Writing Errors
Writing Matters #8 Teaching Your Field's Forms of Writing
Writing Matters #9 On-line Interaction
Writing Matters #10 Using Writing to Improve Reading

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