discipline specific features of creative writing

What Is Creative Writing? (Ultimate Guide + 20 Examples)

Creative writing begins with a blank page and the courage to fill it with the stories only you can tell.

I face this intimidating blank page daily–and I have for the better part of 20+ years.

In this guide, you’ll learn all the ins and outs of creative writing with tons of examples.

What Is Creative Writing (Long Description)?

Creative Writing is the art of using words to express ideas and emotions in imaginative ways. It encompasses various forms including novels, poetry, and plays, focusing on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary tropes.

Table of Contents

Let’s expand on that definition a bit.

Creative writing is an art form that transcends traditional literature boundaries.

It includes professional, journalistic, academic, and technical writing. This type of writing emphasizes narrative craft, character development, and literary tropes. It also explores poetry and poetics traditions.

In essence, creative writing lets you express ideas and emotions uniquely and imaginatively.

It’s about the freedom to invent worlds, characters, and stories. These creations evoke a spectrum of emotions in readers.

Creative writing covers fiction, poetry, and everything in between.

It allows writers to express inner thoughts and feelings. Often, it reflects human experiences through a fabricated lens.

Types of Creative Writing

There are many types of creative writing that we need to explain.

Some of the most common types:

• Short stories
• Screenplays
• Flash fiction
• Creative Nonfiction

Short Stories (The Brief Escape)

Short stories are like narrative treasures.

They are compact but impactful, telling a full story within a limited word count. These tales often focus on a single character or a crucial moment.

Short stories are known for their brevity.

They deliver emotion and insight in a concise yet powerful package. This format is ideal for exploring diverse genres, themes, and characters. It leaves a lasting impression on readers.

Example: Emma discovers an old photo of her smiling grandmother. It’s a rarity. Through flashbacks, Emma learns about her grandmother’s wartime love story. She comes to understand her grandmother’s resilience and the value of joy.

Novels (The Long Journey)

Novels are extensive explorations of character, plot, and setting.

They span thousands of words, giving writers the space to create entire worlds. Novels can weave complex stories across various themes and timelines.

The length of a novel allows for deep narrative and character development.

Readers get an immersive experience.

Example: Across the Divide tells of two siblings separated in childhood. They grow up in different cultures. Their reunion highlights the strength of family bonds, despite distance and differences.

Poetry (The Soul’s Language)

Poetry expresses ideas and emotions through rhythm, sound, and word beauty.

It distills emotions and thoughts into verses. Poetry often uses metaphors, similes, and figurative language to reach the reader’s heart and mind.

Poetry ranges from structured forms, like sonnets, to free verse.

The latter breaks away from traditional formats for more expressive thought.

Example: Whispers of Dawn is a poem collection capturing morning’s quiet moments. “First Light” personifies dawn as a painter. It brings colors of hope and renewal to the world.

Plays (The Dramatic Dialogue)

Plays are meant for performance. They bring characters and conflicts to life through dialogue and action.

This format uniquely explores human relationships and societal issues.

Playwrights face the challenge of conveying setting, emotion, and plot through dialogue and directions.

Example: Echoes of Tomorrow is set in a dystopian future. Memories can be bought and sold. It follows siblings on a quest to retrieve their stolen memories. They learn the cost of living in a world where the past has a price.

Screenplays (Cinema’s Blueprint)

Screenplays outline narratives for films and TV shows.

They require an understanding of visual storytelling, pacing, and dialogue. Screenplays must fit film production constraints.

Example: The Last Light is a screenplay for a sci-fi film. Humanity’s survivors on a dying Earth seek a new planet. The story focuses on spacecraft Argo’s crew as they face mission challenges and internal dynamics.

Memoirs (The Personal Journey)

Memoirs provide insight into an author’s life, focusing on personal experiences and emotional journeys.

They differ from autobiographies by concentrating on specific themes or events.

Memoirs invite readers into the author’s world.

They share lessons learned and hardships overcome.

Example: Under the Mango Tree is a memoir by Maria Gomez. It shares her childhood memories in rural Colombia. The mango tree in their yard symbolizes home, growth, and nostalgia. Maria reflects on her journey to a new life in America.

Flash Fiction (The Quick Twist)

Flash fiction tells stories in under 1,000 words.

It’s about crafting compelling narratives concisely. Each word in flash fiction must count, often leading to a twist.

This format captures life’s vivid moments, delivering quick, impactful insights.

Example: The Last Message features an astronaut’s final Earth message as her spacecraft drifts away. In 500 words, it explores isolation, hope, and the desire to connect against all odds.

Creative Nonfiction (The Factual Tale)

Creative nonfiction combines factual accuracy with creative storytelling.

This genre covers real events, people, and places with a twist. It uses descriptive language and narrative arcs to make true stories engaging.

Creative nonfiction includes biographies, essays, and travelogues.

Example: Echoes of Everest follows the author’s Mount Everest climb. It mixes factual details with personal reflections and the history of past climbers. The narrative captures the climb’s beauty and challenges, offering an immersive experience.

Fantasy (The World Beyond)

Fantasy transports readers to magical and mythical worlds.

It explores themes like good vs. evil and heroism in unreal settings. Fantasy requires careful world-building to create believable yet fantastic realms.

Example: The Crystal of Azmar tells of a young girl destined to save her world from darkness. She learns she’s the last sorceress in a forgotten lineage. Her journey involves mastering powers, forming alliances, and uncovering ancient kingdom myths.

Science Fiction (The Future Imagined)

Science fiction delves into futuristic and scientific themes.

It questions the impact of advancements on society and individuals.

Science fiction ranges from speculative to hard sci-fi, focusing on plausible futures.

Example: When the Stars Whisper is set in a future where humanity communicates with distant galaxies. It centers on a scientist who finds an alien message. This discovery prompts a deep look at humanity’s universe role and interstellar communication.

Watch this great video that explores the question, “What is creative writing?” and “How to get started?”:

What Are the 5 Cs of Creative Writing?

The 5 Cs of creative writing are fundamental pillars.

They guide writers to produce compelling and impactful work. These principles—Clarity, Coherence, Conciseness, Creativity, and Consistency—help craft stories that engage and entertain.

They also resonate deeply with readers. Let’s explore each of these critical components.

Clarity makes your writing understandable and accessible.

It involves choosing the right words and constructing clear sentences. Your narrative should be easy to follow.

In creative writing, clarity means conveying complex ideas in a digestible and enjoyable way.

Coherence ensures your writing flows logically.

It’s crucial for maintaining the reader’s interest. Characters should develop believably, and plots should progress logically. This makes the narrative feel cohesive.

Conciseness

Conciseness is about expressing ideas succinctly.

It’s being economical with words and avoiding redundancy. This principle helps maintain pace and tension, engaging readers throughout the story.

Creativity is the heart of creative writing.

It allows writers to invent new worlds and create memorable characters. Creativity involves originality and imagination. It’s seeing the world in unique ways and sharing that vision.

Consistency

Consistency maintains a uniform tone, style, and voice.

It means being faithful to the world you’ve created. Characters should act true to their development. This builds trust with readers, making your story immersive and believable.

Is Creative Writing Easy?

Creative writing is both rewarding and challenging.

Crafting stories from your imagination involves more than just words on a page. It requires discipline and a deep understanding of language and narrative structure.

Exploring complex characters and themes is also key.

Refining and revising your work is crucial for developing your voice.

The ease of creative writing varies. Some find the freedom of expression liberating.

Others struggle with writer’s block or plot development challenges. However, practice and feedback make creative writing more fulfilling.

What Does a Creative Writer Do?

A creative writer weaves narratives that entertain, enlighten, and inspire.

Writers explore both the world they create and the emotions they wish to evoke. Their tasks are diverse, involving more than just writing.

Creative writers develop ideas, research, and plan their stories.

They create characters and outline plots with attention to detail. Drafting and revising their work is a significant part of their process. They strive for the 5 Cs of compelling writing.

Writers engage with the literary community, seeking feedback and participating in workshops.

They may navigate the publishing world with agents and editors.

Creative writers are storytellers, craftsmen, and artists. They bring narratives to life, enriching our lives and expanding our imaginations.

How to Get Started With Creative Writing?

Embarking on a creative writing journey can feel like standing at the edge of a vast and mysterious forest.

The path is not always clear, but the adventure is calling.

Here’s how to take your first steps into the world of creative writing:

• Find a time of day when your mind is most alert and creative.
• Create a comfortable writing space free from distractions.
• Use prompts to spark your imagination. They can be as simple as a word, a phrase, or an image.
• Try writing for 15-20 minutes on a prompt without editing yourself. Let the ideas flow freely.
• Reading is fuel for your writing. Explore various genres and styles.
• Pay attention to how your favorite authors construct their sentences, develop characters, and build their worlds.
• Don’t pressure yourself to write a novel right away. Begin with short stories or poems.
• Small projects can help you hone your skills and boost your confidence.
• Look for writing groups in your area or online. These communities offer support, feedback, and motivation.
• Participating in workshops or classes can also provide valuable insights into your writing.
• Understand that your first draft is just the beginning. Revising your work is where the real magic happens.
• Be open to feedback and willing to rework your pieces.
• Carry a notebook or digital recorder to jot down ideas, observations, and snippets of conversations.
• These notes can be gold mines for future writing projects.

Final Thoughts: What Is Creative Writing?

Creative writing is an invitation to explore the unknown, to give voice to the silenced, and to celebrate the human spirit in all its forms.

Check out these creative writing tools (that I highly recommend):

Read This Next:

• What Is a Prompt in Writing? (Ultimate Guide + 200 Examples)
• What Is A Personal Account In Writing? (47 Examples)
• How To Write A Fantasy Short Story (Ultimate Guide + Examples)
• How To Write A Fantasy Romance Novel [21 Tips + Examples)

Understanding Reading and Writing Differences Across Disciplines

LESSON Critical reading A thorough examination of a text to understand and evaluate not just what it says but also its purpose, meaning, and effectiveness. In this context, critical means careful and thoughtful, not negative. requires more than understanding new vocabulary words and identifying the main idea The most important or central thought of a reading selection. It also includes what the author wants the reader to understand about the topic he or she has chosen to write about. and supporting details Statements within a reading that tie directly to major details that support the main idea. These can be provided in examples, statistics, anecdotes, definitions, descriptions, or comparisons within the work. . Effective readers know that they must use different strategies when they approach different types of writing. Depending upon which academic field you find yourself in, you will find that each discipline An area of study, like history, science, or psychology. has its own way of communicating. Even when writing on the same topic The subject of a reading. , historians, scientists, artists, and psychologists will tackle the topic differently. In this lesson, you will learn how to approach three particular disciplines—science, history, and pop culture.

Whenever you approach a piece of writing in a particular discipline, consider these six aspects:

• Writer's purpose
• Writing tone and style
• Reader's goal
• Specific language
• Organization
• Discipline-specific features

The writer's purpose for writing. Writers change their purpose The reason the writer is writing about a topic. It is what the writer wants the reader to know, feel, or do after reading the work. for writing depending on the discipline they are writing for, the topic they will cover, and the goals of that particular writing task.

The writing tone and style . When you speak with someone, you listen for what is said, but you also listen for how it is said. People's tones The feeling or attitude that a writer expresses toward a topic. The words the writer chooses express this tone. Examples of tones can include: objective, biased, humorous, optimistic, and cynical, among many others. often reveal more than their words, and the same holds true in writing. Different disciplines will have different tones depending on the material they need to present and their audience. For example, when a writer creates an article A non-fiction, often informative writing that forms a part of a publication, such as a magazine or newspaper. for a science journal that updates a new finding, the tone will reflect the information or educational goal by presenting the information in a straightforward, possibly formal manner. This would differ from a writer who wants to create enthusiasm for a topic or persuade To convince someone of a claim or idea. the reader to take an action. The same is true for style. An article in a science journal would be written in a formal academic style with distinct sections including an abstract A summary of an article often written by the author and reviewed by the editor of the article. The abstract provides an overview of the contents of the reading, including its main arguments, results, and evidence, allowing you to compare it to other sources without requiring an in-depth review. , research and methods, findings, and conclusions. An article in a popular magazine or website, on the other hand, would follow a more entertaining and approachable style.

The reader's goal for reading the text. Your goal as a reader will change depending upon what you are reading. When you understand your goal in picking up a biology text or historical journal, you will save time because you can more quickly find what you should be looking for.

The specific language that the writer uses . Just as Italian is spoken in Italy and Spanish in Spain, all academic disciplines have their own jargon Technical language pertaining to a specific activity and used by a particular group of people. and language particulars. When you understand these specifics, you will be one step closer to understanding the text.

The organization of the reading A piece of writing to be read. A reading can either be a full work (i.e., a book) or partial (i.e., a passage). . Just as poetry and short stories are structured differently, readings across all disciplines are also organized and structured in specific ways. Becoming familiar with these differences will help you find the essential information while using pre-reading strategies as well during active reading.

The discipline-specific features of the text. Lastly, each discipline has traits The specific parts of a person, place, or thing that distinguish it from another. that are specific to that particular field. For example, scientific writing often includes charts and figures that you will not see in a pop culture piece.

Giving the "ok" symbol (formed by creating a circle with your thumb and index finger) is a very positive sign in the United States. It lets others know that you and/or they are doing well. However, if you make that same exact sign in Brazil, you will not make friends because Brazilians understand that sign in the same way Americans would if someone raised a middle finger at them! Reading discipline-specific texts can be equally confusing if you don’t understand how to read them. You risk spending time and effort focusing on the wrong details. As a result, you will not understand the author's purpose or main ideas.

In your career, you may have to read different sources A person, book, article, or other thing that supplies information. to gather information for projects or plans. It is important to recognize what type of discipline you are reading for your research. For example, reading a pop culture magazine article on the economy when compiling a report on the financial outlook of your company is probably not the right choice. Instead, you should look for information in peer-reviewed Writings that have been evaluated by experts in a subject before they are published. economic journals or other more fact-based sources.

Below are two introductory paragraphs to two readings that both approach the same topic with two different discipline-specific tactics. Read each passage A short portion of a writing taken from a larger source, such as a book, article, speech, or poem. , and consider the following questions about the intended audience, purpose, and differences in the readings.

A. In the early days of World War I, German submarines devastated the British and American fleets. Submariners would sneak up on a moving ship, watch it just long enough to figure out its speed and direction, and then fire torpedoes into the ship's path. There was little that surface boats could do to hide from submarines. Although the military was very good at camouflaging troops and tanks on land, ships couldn't be painted to blend into the background because the colors of the sea and the sky are always changing. But then the British had a startling idea—if they can’t hide them, why not make the ships stand out instead? They decided to paint them in contrasting colors and random patterns, like zebras and giraffes, animals that are easy to spot but hard to track because the patterns they wear break up their outline. The Navy called this disruptive camouflage razzle dazzle : odd, irregular patterns and colors that would confuse enemy gunners and throw off their aim by disguising the shape and motion of their ships.

B. Looking for a red carpet transformation? It's tempting to reach for the go-to tools. After all, a dangerously high heel can make a short frame statuesque, and industrial shapewear can turn a pear into an hourglass. But combine stilettos with a cincher and a swanky affair could end in a visit to the emergency room. Thankfully, this season's hot trend offers an alternative for literal fashion victims in the form of high-contrast stripes and strategic color-blocking all perfectly placed to minimize, enhance, elongate, and taper.

• Who is the intended audience for passage A and B?

Passage A is beneficial for the reader who has a basic understanding of WW I. It introduces an idea that may have given the British an advantage in the war.

Passage B is written for the reader who is concerned with looking good, especially in regards to her figure. With its discussion of stilettos, it seems to be intended more for women.

• What is the intended purpose of passage A and B?

Passage A provides needed context to introduce the idea of razzle dazzle .

Passage B uses a question to draw the reader in to the article. It is also trying to convince the reader to abandon high heels and corsets in favor of outfits with stripes and color-blocking.

• What are the major differences in passage A and B?

Passage A tells a story. While overall, much of the language is objective, the author also inserts subjective language, such as startling and devastated .

Passage B uses more informal and friendly writing. Overall, its language is heavily subjective.

Below are two body paragraphs The part of an essay that comes after the introduction and before the conclusion. Body paragraphs lay out the main ideas of an argument and provide the support for the thesis. All body paragraphs should include these elements: a topic sentence, major and minor details, and a concluding statement. Each body paragraph should stand on its own but also fit into the context of the entire essay, as well as support the thesis and work with the other supporting paragraphs. to two readings that both approach the same topic with two different discipline-specific tactics. Read each passage, and answer the following questions about the intended audience, purpose, and differences in the readings.

A. There are many different methods of camouflage. Octopi and lizards match the color and texture of their skins with nearby rocks and vegetation to blend into the background, and manmade hunting gear is painted or woven to do the same thing. Zebras have wild stripes that disrupt their outlines, especially when they move in groups, and so did dazzle-painted warships in World War I. Moths and caterpillars are shaped like leaves and twigs to fool predators, while cell phone towers are built like trees to hide their industrial clutter from neighbors. Gazelles and whales have counter-shaded sides that flatten and minimize rounded shapes, as do color-blocked dresses.

B. Applying the razzle dazzle idea took a lot more than handing sailors buckets of paint and letting them have it. First, a wooden model of each ship was built to scale and then handed off to artists who designed and painted individualized patterns. Next, the dazzled model was placed next to a matching one painted plain gray and then the two were placed in front of various simulated backgrounds of water and sky. Designers studied the pair through periscopes to judge how well the camouflage worked and made adjustments as needed. After the pattern was approved, precise plans of the color scheme were drafted and sent to where the actual ship was docked.

Sample Answer

Passage A is meant for the reader who wants to understand the full scope of camouflage in nature.

Passage B is intended for the reader who wants to know about the process of razzle dazzle from conception to execution.

The purpose of passage A is to explain the different ways that camouflage is used in the natural world.

The purpose of passage B is to inform the reader about the process the Navy used to design and paint razzle dazzle ships.

Passage A uses classification to organize its ideas. The entire paragraph breaks camouflage into a number of different categories, including that of octopi and lizards; zebras; moths and caterpillars; and gazelles and whales.

Passage B, on the other hand, is organized according to time order. It outlines the process of painting the ships. It also uses a number of signal words to identify when the supporting details happened i.e. first , next, and after .

Since psychology is a type of science, I will rely on Greek and Latin roots to help me understand unfamiliar vocabulary. I will also look for charts and figures that may summarize the results. To judge its validity, I will pay close attention to the methodology used to come to particular conclusions.

Reading literature is not like most of my other academic reading. In order to get the big picture, it is necessary to read an entire book from front to back. It is not possible to skip from one chapter to the next. To understand an author or idea, it may be necessary to read more than one text by the same author or along the same theme.

Copyright ©2022 The NROC Project

8.8 Spotlight on … Discipline-Specific and Technical Language

Learning outcomes.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Explain the role of discipline-specific and technical language in various situations and contexts.
• Implement purposeful shifts in voice, tone, level of formality, and word choice.
• Pursue options for publishing your report.

Proficient report writers in all academic disciplines and professions use language that is clear, direct, economical, and conventional. Moreover, they often use a specialized vocabulary to convey information to others in their field. These technical words allow specialists to communicate precisely and efficiently with other experts, but such terms can be confusing to nonspecialists. The following guidelines can help you shape the language of a report in a social science, natural science, or technical field:

student sample text Computer storage space is measured in units called kilobytes (KB). Each KB equals 1,024 “bytes,” or approximately 1000 single typewriter characters. Therefore, one KB equals about 180 English words, or a little less than half of a single-spaced typed page, or maybe three minutes of fast typing. One terabyte (TB) is 1024 gigabytes (GB), one GB is 1024 megabytes (MB), and one MB is 1024 KB. end student sample text

student sample text After the first U.S. coronavirus case was confirmed in 2020, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was named to lead a task force on a response, but after several months he was replaced when then vice president Mike Pence was officially charged with leading the White House Coronavirus Task Force (Ballhaus & Armour, 2020). end student sample text

student sample text The causes of obesity are complex and involve multiple factors, including genetics, underlying health conditions, cultural attitudes toward food and exercise, access to healthy food and health care, safe outdoor spaces, income, and leisure time. end student sample text student sample text The survey respondents self-identified as cisgender female (153), cisgender male (131), gender nonbinary (12), and transgender (4). end student sample text

• Consider occasional use of the passive voice. Traditionally, writers in the sciences and technical fields have used the passive voice for objectivity and neutrality. In the passive voice , the subject of the sentence is acted upon; in the active voice , the subject acts. Increasingly, scientific and technical writers use the active voice in the introduction and conclusion sections of reports, which are more interpretative. They use the passive voice in the method and results sections, which are more straight-up reporting.

Notice that by using the passive voice, the writer is able to avoid naming the person or group who conducted the survey. The passive voice is a technique that writers often use when they don’t want to make the name of an individual or group public. See Clear and Effective Sentences for more on passive and active voice.

Passive voice: A survey of 300 students underline was conducted end underline at a large state university in the southern United States. Active voice: underline We conducted end underline a survey of 300 students at a large state university in the southern United States.

• Pay attention to the details of meaning, grammar, punctuation, and mechanics. Each discipline values precision and correctness, and each has its own specialized vocabulary for talking about knowledge. Writers are expected to use terms precisely and to spell them correctly. Your writing will gain greater respect when it reflects standard grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.

Publish Your Report

Now that you have completed all stages of your report, you may want to think about sharing it with students at your school or other colleges. Your college may have a journal that publishes undergraduate research work. If so, find out about submitting your work. Also, listed here are some of the many publications that feature undergraduate student research. Check them out.

• Papers & Publications: Interdisciplinary Journal of Undergraduate Research (accepts work from students in the southeastern United States)
• Journal of Undergraduate Research (peer-reviewed undergraduate journal; accepts research work in all subjects)
• Journal of Student Research (accepts student work from high school through graduate school)
• Crossing Borders: A Multidisciplinary Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship (published at Kansas State University; accepts student research in all disciplines from undergraduates throughout the country)
• 1890: A Journal of Undergraduate Research (accepts undergraduate works of research, creative writing, poetry, reviews, and art)

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• Nov 12, 2021
• 10 min read

Creative Writing 101: Theorizing Creative Writing as a Discipline

Vanderbilt University. (2012, September 11). [Kate Daniels (center, near window) addresses students in a creative writing master’s class. (Vanderbilt University)]. Vanderbilt.Edu. https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2012/09/11/creative-writing-top-10/

Creative Writing 101 articles serve as one of the academic courses in the field of Literary Theory and Literature. The course, which is a fundamental guide within the scope of general knowledge compared to the technical knowledge of Literary Theory and Literature, also addresses students and the general readership alike. With this goal in mind, the author has opted to write the article in very plain and basic English to convey just the necessary understanding of Creative Writing by making the article merely an introduction.

Creative Writing 101 is mainly divided into five chapters including:

- Creative Writing 101: Into the Writer’s Creative Mind: Overview & Dynamics

- Creative Writing 101: Theorizing Creative Writing as a Discipline

- Creative Writing 101: Insights on Writing Poetry

- Creative Writing 101: Insights on Writing Short Stories

- Creative Writing 101: Insights on Writing Novels

In the previous article of Creative Writing 101 series entitled “Into the Writer’s Creative Mind: Overview & Dynamics”, the focus was on the dynamics of the author’s creative mind along with an overview of the core of creative writing, exemplified in Tolkien’s short story Leaf by Niggle and Aristotle’s Poetics. In the second article of Creative Writing 101, the historical background of the subject will be further discussed and elaborated, paving the way to question and comprehend the means by which scholars, professors, and teacher-writers, for example, succeeded in structuring and framing Creative Writing in a discipline taught at American and English universities.

Dianne J. Donnelly (2009) explains that “Creative Writing and Creative Writing studies are two distinct enterprises” (p.2), for the success of teaching the subject was initially included in workshops, before being set in an undergraduate curriculum program and taught by many specialized instructors in the U.K, the U.S.A and other countries around the world. The institutionalization of Creative Writing has become popular in many universities worldwide, training international writers to enhance their creative writing skills in order to become better writers, whose writing potential can be much more appealing for future employers, editors, and publishing houses. To better understand the establishment of Creative Writing as a discipline, if ever applicable to be called so or agreed to be fully institutionalized as such, there has to be a mapping of the prominent historical events that led to its emergence in institutions.

Towards a Historical Background

The traces of teaching Creative Writing at universities were claimed to have appeared in the 1880s in the U.S.A at Harvard College, initiated by the Professor of English Barrett Wendell (1855-1921) as the writer and Professor of Literature, Lauri Ramey (2007) asserts. Wendell’s teaching of “English composition and literature from 1880 until his retirement in 1917” ( newnetherlandinstitute ) was a method of composing literary narratives like poetry. Correspondingly, Lauri Ramey (2007) further explains that “the class stressed ‘practice, aesthetics, personal observation, and creativity’ as opposed to the ‘theory, history, tradition and literary conservation’ taken as the concerns of newly developing departments of English” (pp.43). In other words, the appearance of Creative Writing has emerged initially in American universities.

Harvard Faculty of Arts and Science. (2021). [1915 portrait of Barrett Wendell is part of the Bernard and Mary Berenson Papers at Biblioteca Berenson at Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies.]. Harvard.Edu.

https://histlit.fas.harvard.edu/since-1906

During the 1920s, the University of Iowa included a newly subject, described as “imaginative writing” (Swander et al., 2007, p.12) to its artistic list of disciplines already part of the university program, such as Painting, Sculpture, Theatre, and Dance. In 1931, “Paisley Shawl”, a collection of poetry written by Mary Hoover Roberts was the first master thesis to have been accepted by the University of Iowa, before other theses, written by former students Wallace Stegner and Paul Engle, were submitted and approved by the university. The instance of “Worn Earth” written by Paul Engle was “the 1932 winner of the Yale Younger Poets Award,” and also, “became the first poetry thesis at the University of Iowa to be published.” (Swander et al., 2007, p.12).

Years before Paul Engle (1908-1991) became a prominent literary figure, fostering other students to enhance their writing skills through workshops, Norman Foerster, the former director of the school of Letters, explains Swander et al. (2007), engaged further much with the writing program at university during the 1930s. Once Paul Engle became a member of the University of Iowa in 1937, he organized the Iowa Writers Workshop and in 1943, he became its director as he is “ best remembered as the long-time director of the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop and founder of the UI’s International Writing Program ”, aside from the fact that he “also was a well-regarded poet, playwright, essayist, editor and critic. ” (iowacityofliterature.org, 2020) .

Poetry Foundation. (2021). [A Photograph of Paul Engle (1908–1991)]. Poetryfoundation.Org. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/paul-engle

Engle, a hard-driving, egocentric genius, possessed the early vision of both the Writers Workshop and the International Writing Program. He foresaw first-rate programmes where young writers could come to receive criticism of their work. A native Iowan who had studied in England on a Rhodes Scholarship and travelled widely throughout Europe, Engle was dissatisfied with merely a regional approach. He defined his ambition in a 1963 letter to his university president as a desire ‘to run the future of American literature, and a great deal of European and Asian, through Iowa City’ (Wilbers 1980: 85–6).

As a matter of fact, Engel’s academic contribution in institutionalizing Creative Writing within workshops and programs by training American and international writers, giving them constructive criticism on their elaborated literary works to enhance their writing skills and help them succeed in their endeavors and literary achievements, and also frame more adequate and effective creative writing programs in the American institutions. For instance, Engel divided and categorized creative writing workshops into various genres as Poetry and Fiction to be fully devoted and in charge of the training of the writers. Connoisseurs of Literature such as Robert Frost, Dylan Thomas, and W.H Auden were invited to attend and run workshops organized by Engel on campus to contribute to the betterment of future writers’ creative writing skills.

[Robert Frost (left) and Paul Engle (right) addressing Workshop students in 1959]. (n.d.). https://Writersworkshop.Uiowa.Edu/about/about-Workshop/history.

Frederick W. Kent Collection of Photographs. [Paul Engle with Iowa Writers’ Workshop students, ca. 1960]. The University of Iowa Libraries. https://www.lib.uiowa.edu/sc/archives/faq/faqphotocollections/

In the 1940s, the discipline of Creative Writing became more established through postgraduate degrees delivered by American universities like Johns Hopkins University, University of Denver, University of Iowa, and Stanford University explains Lauri Ramey (2007). The debate over framing Creative Writing in a discipline that could be taught at American universities was controversial to some extent until approved by scholars and members of the academia to design Creative Writing programs for students that are willing to major in such discipline. Presumably, the period between the late 1960s and early 1970s witnessed more attendance of many American students, willing to graduate in Creative Writing, in American universities.

Jeffcutt, P. (2013, September 7). [A group of writers attending a Writing Workshop organized by the poet Philip Hobsbaum in 1962. Belfast, Northern Ireland.]. Writing2survive.Blogspot. http://writing2survive.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-writers-group-and-seamus-heaney.html

In parallel, the discipline of Creative Writing, originally called as Imaginative Writing, was introduced in the U.K starting from the 1950s and 1960s through several initiatives made by academics like the British writer Angus Wilson through organizing workshops for the Undergraduates at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and also thanks to the poet Philip Hobsbaum’s writing group events organized in 1952 at Cambridge, London, Belfast and Glasgow, explains Andrew Cowan (2016), Professor of Creative Writing at the UEA. Moreover, the discipline of Creative Writing was institutionalized in the U.K in 1969 when the University of Lancaster offered a Master of Arts in Creative Writing, assert Swander et al. (2007), followed by the UEA a year later as it launched its own MA in Creative Writing states Andrew Cowan (2016). Writers-teachers such Angus Wilson and Malcolm Bradbury, who had similar university teaching experiences in American universities, were invited to teach Literature at UEA, by adopting the American method.

Shutterstock. (2000, December 1). [Sir Malcolm Bradbury Writer, with Angus Wilson at University of East Anglia in the Eighties]. Shutterstock.

https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/image-editorial/sir-malcolm-bradbury-writer-at-uea-in-the-eighties-329502i

The Observer. [Malcolm Bradbury with students on the University of East Anglia’s creative writing course, 1983]. Theguardian.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jan/22/body-of-work-review-foden

The Imaginative Writing classes in high education, before it turned to be known as Creative Writing, started to soar from “ 2,745 in 2003 to 6,945 in 2012” ( Andrew Cowan, 2016). The learning of the new discipline was much appreciated by undergraduate students in the U.K that it was combined with other art classes such as Film, Literature, and Language studies to engage a larger number of students in the specialty. Andrew Cowan (2016) claims that Higher Education Institutions “ offering BA courses (in a variety of combinations) rose from 24 to 83, while the number of MA courses rose from 21 to 200, and the number of PhD programs from 19 to more than 50.”

MA in Creative Writing in the U.K

Jenny Newman (2007) explains that MA in Creative Writing in the U.K can be studied for over a year in case it is a full-time study program or done over two consecutive years as in a part-time study program. The students are given the possibility to choose one course out of three: Poetry, fiction or screenwriting. When it comes to the method of assessment, the numerous tasks elaborated by the student are done through, for example, an analytical essay, an oral presentation, the creation of a website of his or her own, workshops to attend, an exercise of editing and proofreading, and an analytical essay of another student’s work. Still, a divergence of opinions on the curriculum to teach Creative Writing studies is palpable as it is similar yet slightly distinct from Literary studies.

“With certain exceptions, and many variations, the “typical” MA course continues to emphasise the acquisition of technical skills and the completion of a publishable manuscript over the concerns of critical scholarship. And while Creative Writing and Literary Studies frequently reside in a relationship of departmental proximity, they continue to take divergent approaches to the conception and study of literature.” ( Andrew Cowan, 2016)

Creative Writing Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in the U.S.A

The MFA is the American version of the English MA in Creative Writing, which was initiated at the University of Iowa in the 1930s . It is longer than the MA, for it is characterized by “expanded credit hour requirements, such as a thesis, or substantial body of creative work and special coursework.” (Vanderslice, 2007, p.37). Conceived differently from the English version of the Master's degree, it is the combination of the studio arts tradition and the English literature tradition at American high institutions.

“Some programs include traditional literature courses in the degree, taught by literature faculty and assessed by traditional means – analytical papers, essay exams and so forth (also read by one reader – the professor – unlike in the UK).” (Vanderslice, 2007, p.39).

PhD in Creative Writing

Paul Dawson (2007) states that for any person willing to teach at American universities, there has to be an additional doctoral degree to the MFA. Taking into account the importance of the PhD, some researchers in the field, such as Kelly Ritter advocates the idea that the MFA is considered insufficient for teaching Creative Writing at universities and that a PhD along with the publication of several books are required for such vocation; also, Patrick Bizarro and Kelly Ritter, both think that a PhD in Creative Writing should be framed otherwise. In other words, the MFA and PhD programs are two distinct areas of studies that have to be reshaped for a better acquisition of the teaching skills of the discipline, as further explains Paul Dawson (2007).

“The debates over the PhD in Australia and the UK have differed from those in America because the degree structure itself is different. Whereas in America doctoral students must complete substantial coursework and language requirements as well as sitting for comprehensive examinations before submitting their dissertation, in these countries there is no formal coursework and the degree is assessable by thesis only. The thesis consists of a creative dissertation and a substantial critical essay, often referred to as the ‘exegesis’, of up to 50 per cent of the word limit.” (Paul Dawson, 2007, pp.88).

All things considered, in spite of the controversies over the establishment of Creative Writing as an institutionalized discipline in high education as in the instance of the American and the Anglophone academy, the specialty was officially approved by scholars and academics, for it has been revised and reconfigured over the years for better acquisition of the mechanisms of creative writing in various genres like poetry, fiction, and scriptwriting. The discipline has been expanded and taught by other foreign academic institutions worldwide, in parallel leading to an increase of “the membership listings on the website of the Asia-Pacific Writers & Translators Association (APWT 2018) or by the growth in membership of the European Association of Creative Writing Programmes (EACWP).” ( Andrew Cowan, 2016).

Image Sources

Harvard Faculty of Arts and Science. (2021). [1915 portrait of Barrett Wendell is part of the Bernard and Mary Berenson Papers at Biblioteca Berenson at Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies.]. Harvard.Edu. https://histlit.fas.harvard.edu/since-1906

[Robert Frost (left) and Paul Engle (right) addressing Workshop students in 1959]. (n.d.). Https://Writersworkshop.Uiowa.Edu/about/about-Workshop/History.

Shutterstock. (2000, December 1). [Sir Malcolm Bradbury Writer, with Angus Wilson at University of East Anglia in the Eighties]. Shutterstock. https://www.shutterstock.com/editorial/image-editorial/sir-malcolm-bradbury-writer-at-uea-in-the-eighties-329502i

The Observer. [Malcolm Bradbury with students on the University of East Anglia’s creative writing course, 1983]. Theguardian. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jan/22/body-of-work-review-foden

Barrett Wendell [1855-1921] . (n.d.). Newnetherlandinstitute.Org. Retrieved November 9, 2021,

From https://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/history-and-heritage/dutch_americans/barrett-wendell/

City of Literature Paul Engle Prize . (2020). Iowacityofliterature.Org. Retrieved November 8, 2021,

from https://www.iowacityofliterature.org/paul-engle-prize/

Cowan, A. (2016). The Rise of Creative Writing. Writing in Education , 4 (Previous Issues). https://www.nawe.co.uk/DB/wip-editions/articles/the-rise-of-creative-writing.html

Creative Writing Studies as an Academic Discipline (No. 3809). Scholar Commons. https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5005&context=etd

Dawson, P. (2007). The Future of Creative Writing. In S. Earnshaw (Ed.), The Handbook of Creative Writing (pp. 78–90). Edinburgh University Press.

Donnelly, D. J. & University of South Florida. (2009, July). Establishing Creative Writing Studies as an Academic Discipline (No. 3809). Scholar Commons.https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5005&context=etd

Newman, J. (2007). The Evaluation of Creative Writing at MA Level (UK). In S. Earnshaw (Ed.), The Handbook of Creative Writing (pp. 24–36). Edinburgh University Press.

Ramey, L. (2007). Creative Writing and Critical Theory. In S. Earnshaw (Ed.), The Handbook of Creative Writing (pp. 42–53). Edinburgh University Press.

Swander, M., Leahy, A., & Cantrell, M. (2007). Theories of Creativity and Creative Writing Pedagogy. In S. Earnshaw (Ed.), The Handbook of Creative Writing (pp. 11–23). Edinburgh University Press.

Vanderslice, S. (2007). The Creative Writing MFA. In S. Earnshaw (Ed.), The Handbook of Creative Writing (pp. 37–41). Edinburgh University Press.

Wilbers, Stephen (1980), The Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa Press.

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Designing Discipline-Specific Writing Assignments

Learn to write (ltw) activities.

Writing can help students learn and think critically about course content. When students are asked to write discipline-specific genres, they learn to think and write like professionals in those disciplines. Two approaches to integrating writing in courses include write to learn (WTL) and learn to write (LTW) activities; for more about WTL activities, see our Principles page . LTW activities are high-stakes writing in which students learn to think like and communicate as professionals in discipline-specific genres. 

Objectives for Learn to Write Activities

• Learn course content
• Practice disciplinary ways of thinking
• Learn about discipline-specific genres
• Practice writing discipline-specific genres
• Adapt one’s writing to a variety of audiences 

Which Genres Matter Most in Your Discipline?

Genres often vary by discipline and reflect what, how, and to whom the discipline communicates. Here are just some of the genres that we’ve seen in JYW courses at UMass: personal narratives about students’ disciplinary interests; critical responses to scholarship; analyses of images, texts, or other cultural artifacts; literature reviews; research proposals; research articles; lab reports; op-eds; oral presentations; informational videos on YouTube or other media; blog posts for public audiences; and more.

When thinking about the select disciplinary genres that you assign, consider the form, habits of mind, or audiences that professionals in your discipline recognize. By form, how is this particular genre often structured? When considering the habits of mind, ask what ways of thinking, kind of evidence and logic, and skills students might need to write successfully in disciplinary genres. Lastly, you’ll want to consider the intended audiences for the genre and assignment. 

It’s worth noting that some assignments may require similar content skills, but in terms of writing, they require different audiences and habits of mind. A lab notebook might be more about the detail and process, including some personal observations of the process, for an audience of the writer and perhaps few others. On the other hand, a lab report is more contained, focused on the findings, and the audience might be just the professor or possibly a lab group. Lastly, an article is a polished, finalized product of this research. The emphasis is on persuasive and strong evidence, with a much far-reaching audience. 

Sequence the Assignments

It’s important to consider in what order students should work through assignments. How can you require multiple occasions for writing? What might students need to practice in order to be successful on future writing assignments?  For example, the curriculum may sequence assignments along one or more of the following tracks:

• first, specialists; then, non-specialist scientists (e.g.: NSF); last, popular audience
• literature review, methodology, analysis of teacher-provided or new data; conclusions; new research proposal based on findings 
• literature review; lab report with teacher-provided methodology and data; research proposal to specialist audience; research proposal to funding agency

Designing Effective Assignments 

• Identify and communicate 3-4 learning goals for the assignment. 
• Make the prompt meaningful by helping students identify their purpose and intended readers.
• Create scaffolded activities to help students meet those learning goals. 
• Set a plan with clear expectations and deadlines.
• Be sure to include multiple opportunities for drafting, feedback (both  peer  and  instructor ), and revision throughout. 

Questions to Ask Yourself when Designing Assignments

• What are the main units (and associated assignments) in your course?
• What are the main learning objectives for each unit?
• What are the chief concepts or principles you want students to learn?
• What thinking skills or habits of mind are you trying to develop in your students?
• How should you write the assignment to convey the learning goals to students?
• Does the assignment clearly articulate the desired learning outcomes? 

Further Reading

• Bean, John C. “Designing and Sequencing Assignments to Teach Undergraduate Research.” Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom , 2nd Edition , Jossey-Bass, 2011, pp. 224-63. 
• –. “Part Two: Designing Problem-Based Assignments.” Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom , 2nd Edition , Jossey-Bass, 2011, pp. 89-145.
• Glenn, Cheryl and Melissa A. Goldthwaite. “Successful Writing Assignments.” The St. Martin’s Guide to Teaching Writing , 7th Edition , Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014, pp. 95-124. 
• UMass Amherst University Writing Program. “ Sourcebook for Junior Year Writing Courses .” 2007-2008. 

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Students lack discipline-specific writing skills

Good writing in one discipline is not necessarily good writing in another. Indeed, effective writing for one task (e.g., a grant proposal) is not necessarily effective for another task (e.g., a journal article or article in the popular press) even within the same discipline.

Students may have reasonably good writing skills yet not be conversant with the writing conventions in your discipline. Moreover, even though students may have read papers or books exemplifying the writing style of your discipline, this does not guarantee that they can reproduce it in their own writing. Research has shown this phenomenon holds fairly generally: it is easier to comprehend new information or a new style of presentation than it is to generate it.

Students may bring with them habits from other disciplines that are not appropriate in yours. For example, students familiar with expressive styles of writing (from English or creative writing) may bring these habits into scientific or engineering contexts where writing concisely is more appropriate. A subtler example arises in a discipline such as anthropology where many pieces of writing do not follow the argument/evidence format used in history writing or the persuasive style of a political piece of writing, but rather a description/interpretation framework.

Strategies:

Identify the key features of writing in your discipline., make your expectations explicit., model how you approach writing tasks..

Point out to students the characteristic features of writing in your discipline. For example, in an introductory anthropology class, you might point out that authors often identify a cultural assumption that they then challenge using cross-cultural evidence. Having identified this trope, you might ask students questions (in homework or in discussion) that require students to identify these characteristics in their readings (e.g., What assumption was the author challenging? What cross-cultural evidence did she employ to do it?).

Also point out variations in writing conventions within your discipline, and give students practice recognizing the features of different kinds of writing. For example, in a dramaturgy class, you might ask students to analyze the characteristics of an effective drama review vs. a persuasive academic article. This kind of exercise makes students more conscious of different conventions within the same discipline and better able to apply them in their own writing.

There is tremendous variation among disciplines in writing styles, citation conventions, etc. Thus, it is only fair to clarify to students what styles and conventions are appropriate for your discipline and course. For example, you might specify that you want students to use MLA style for citations and direct them to appropriate examples or references. In an engineering class, you might choose to emphasize clarity and parsimony by explaining their value in engineering writing, giving examples of clear, concise writing, and designing your grading criteria to give weight to this expectation. Performance rubrics can help to make explicit what aspects of writing are particularly valued in your discipline.

Help students see how experts in your discipline approach writing by modeling how you do it:

• What questions do you ask yourself before you begin? (You might, for example, ask: Who is my audience? What am I trying to convince them of? What do I want to say, and what evidence can I use to back it up?)
• How do you go about writing? (Do you sketch out ideas on scrap paper? write an outline? hold off on writing your introductory paragraph until you have written the body of the paper?)
• How do you go about diagnosing problems and making revisions in your writing? (Do you ask a friend to read and comment on your work? Do you step away from the paper for a day and return to it with fresh eyes?)

This is not always easy: the instructor must become aware of and then make explicit the processes she engages in unconsciously and automatically. However, it is a useful exercise, illuminating to both you and your students the complex steps involved in writing and revising.

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Understanding Disciplinary Expectations for Writing

Dawn Atkinson

Chapter Overview

As a college student, you will likely be exposed to various disciplines , or fields of study, as you take a range of courses to complete your academic qualification. This situation presents an opportunity to diversify your knowledge and skill sets as you engage with ideas, theories, texts, genres, writing conventions, and even referencing and formatting styles that may differ from what you are already familiar with. Furthermore, as your courses become more specialized, your instructors will probably insist that your writing reflect the disciplinary expectations of your field. The ability to produce texts in line with disciplinary requirements is a mark of professionalism that will serve you well as you enter the workplace.

Although this chapter cannot outline the disciplinary expectations for writing in every field, it can encourage you to explore what texts are written in your field of interest and how they are composed. The understanding that different disciplines have different expectations for writing is a crucial first step in this discovery process.

Making Disciplinary Connections between Academic and Professional Work

To initiate your exploration of disciplinary expectations for writing, read the following text, adapted from Stanford and Jory’s (2016) chapter entitled “So You Wanna Be an Engineer, a Welder, a Teacher? Academic Disciplines and Professional Literacies.”  The authors are faculty in the Department of English, Linguistics and Writing Studies at Salt Lake Community College. Think about your responses to the text as you read.

Many people today arrive at college because they feel it’s necessary. Some arrive immediately after high school, thinking that college seems like the obvious next step. Others arrive after years in the workforce, knowing college provides the credentials needed to advance their careers. And still others show up because college is a change, providing a way out of less than desirable life conditions.

We understand this tendency to view college as a necessary part of contemporary life. We did too as students. And now that we’re teachers, we still believe it’s necessary because we know it opens doors and grants access to new places, people, and ideas. And these things present opportunities for personal and professional growth. We hear about these opportunities every day when talking with our students.

But viewing college simply as a necessity can lead to a troublesome way of thinking about what it means to be a student. Because so many students today may feel like they must go to college, their time at school may feel like part of the daily grind. They may feel like they have to go to school to take classes; they may feel like they are only taking classes to get credit; and they may feel like the credit only matters because it earns the degree that leads to more opportunity. When students carry the added pressure of feeling like they must earn high grades to be successful learners and eventually professionals (we don’t think this is necessarily true, by the way), the college experience can be downright stressful. All of these things can lead students to feel like they should get through school as quickly as possible so they can get a job and begin their lives.

Regardless of why you find yourself enrolled in college courses, we want to let you know that there are productive ways to approach your work as a student in college, and we argue they will pay off in the long run.

Students who see formal schooling as more than a means to an end will likely have a more positive academic experience. The savviest students will see the connections between disciplines, literacy development, professionalism, and their chosen career path. These students will have the opportunity to use their time in school to transform themselves into professionals in their chosen fields. They will know how to make this transformation happen and where to go to do it. They’ll understand that disciplinary and professional language matters and will view school as a time to acquire new language and participate in new communities that will help them meet their goals beyond the classroom. This transformation begins with an understanding of how the language and literacy practices within your field of study, your discipline, will transfer to your life as a professional.

Even students who are unsure about what to study or which professions they may find interesting can use their time spent in school to discover possibilities. While taking classes, for instance, they might pay attention to the practices, ideas, and general ways of thinking about the world represented in their class lectures, readings, and other materials, and they can consider the ways that these disciplinary values intersect with their own life goals and interests.

UNDERSTANDING DISCIPLINARITY IN THE PROFESSIONS

When you come to college, you are not just coming to a place that grants degrees. When you go to class, you’re not only learning skills and subject matter; you are also learning about an academic discipline and acquiring disciplinary knowledge. In fact, you’re entering into a network of disciplines (e.g., engineering, English, and computer science), and in this network, knowledge is produced that filters into the world, and in particular, into professional industries. An academic discipline is defined as a field of knowledge within the university system with distinct problems and assumptions, methodologies, and ways of communicating information.1 (Think, for instance, about how scientists view the world and conduct their studies of things in the world in ways different than historians do.)

Entering into a discipline requires us to become literate in the discipline’s language and practice. If membership in a disciplinary community is what we’re after, we must learn to both “talk the talk” and “walk the walk.” At its foundation, disciplinarity is developed and supported through language—through what we say to those within a disciplinary community and to those outside of the community. Students begin to develop as members of a disciplinary community when they learn to communicate with the discipline’s common symbols and genres, when they learn to “talk the talk.” In addition, students must also learn the common practices and ways of thinking of the disciplinary community in order to “walk the walk.”

The great part of being a student is that you have an opportunity to learn about many disciplinary communities, languages, and practices, and savvy students can leverage the knowledge and relationships they develop in school into professional contexts. When we leave our degree programs, we hope to go on the job with a disciplined mind—a disposition toward the world and our work that is informed by the knowledge, language, and practices of a discipline.

Do you ever wonder why nearly every job calls for people who are critical thinkers and have good written communication skills? Underlying this call is an interest in disciplined ways of thinking and communicating. Therefore, using schooling to acquire the knowledge and language of a discipline will afford an individual with ways of thinking, reading, writing, and speaking that will be useful in the professional world.2 The professions extend from disciplines and in turn, disciplines become informed by the professionals working out in the world. In nursing, for example, academic instructors of nursing teach nursing students the knowledge, language, and practices of nursing. Trained nurses then go out to work in the world with their disciplined minds to guide them. At the same time, nurses working out in the world will meet new challenges that they must work through, which will eventually circle back to inform the discipline of nursing and what academic instructors of nursing teach in their classrooms.

It is important to realize that not all college professors and courses will “frame” teaching and learning in terms of disciplinarity or professionalism, even though it informs almost everything that happens in any classroom. As a result, it may be difficult to see the forest for the trees. Courses can become nothing more than a series of lectures, quizzes, assignments, activities, readings, and homework, and there may be few identifiable connections among these things. Therefore, students who are using school to mindfully transform into professionals will build into their academic lives periodic reflections in which they consider their disciplines and the ways they’re being trained in disciplinary thinking. They might stop to ask themselves: What have I just learned about being a nurse? About thinking like a nurse? About the language of nursing? This reflection may happen at various times throughout individual courses, after you complete a course, or at the end of completing a series of courses in a particular discipline. And don’t ever underestimate the value of forming relationships with your professors. They’re insiders in the discipline and profession and can provide great mentorship.

Okay, okay. Be more mindful of your education so that you acquire disciplinary and professional literacies. You get it. But what can you do—where can you look specifically—to start developing these literacies? There are many possible responses, but as writing teachers we will say this: Follow your discipline’s and profession’s texts. In these texts—and around them—is where literacy happens. It’s where you’re expected to demonstrate you can read and write (and think and act) like a professional.

PROFESSIONAL LITERACY: READING AND WRITING LIKE A PROFESSIONAL

So you wanna be a teacher, a welder, an engineer? Something else? It doesn’t matter what profession you’re interested in. One thing that holds true across all professions is that, although the types of reading and writing will differ, you’ll spend a great deal of time reading and writing. Your ability to apply, demonstrate, and develop your reading and writing practices in school and then on the job will contribute greatly to your success as a professional.

You may be thinking, “I’m going to be a culinary artist and want to open a bakery. Culinary artists and bakers don’t have to know how to read and write, or at least not in the ways we’re learning to read and write in school.” While you may not write many academic essays after college, we can confidently say that you will be reading and writing no matter your job because modern businesses and organizations—whether large corporations or mom-and-pop startups—are built and sustained through reading and writing. When we say reading and writing builds and sustains organizations we mean that they produce all the things necessary to run organizations—every day. Reading and writing reflect and produce the ideas that drive business; they record and document productivity and work to be completed; they enable the production and delivery of an organization’s products and services; they create policies and procedures that dictate acceptable behaviors and actions; and perhaps most importantly, they bring individuals into relationships with one another and shape the way these people perceive themselves and others as members of an organization.

As a professional, you will encounter a variety of texts; you will be expected to read and respond appropriately to texts and to follow best practices when producing your own. This holds true whether you aspire to be a mechanic, welder, teacher, nurse, occupational health and safety specialist, computer programmer, or engineer. If you bring your disciplined mind to these reading and writing tasks, you will likely have more success navigating the tasks and challenges you meet on a daily basis.

We hope this reading can transform the way you understand the discipline-specific ways of reading, writing, thinking, and using language that you encounter in all your college courses—even if these ways are not always brought to the forefront by your instructors. We might think of college courses as opportunities to begin acquiring disciplinary literacy and professional reading and writing practices that facilitate our transformation into the professionals we want to become. Said another way, if language is a demonstration of how we think and who we are, then we want to be sure we’re using it to the best of our ability to pursue our professional goals and interests in the 21st Century.

• The term “discipline” refers to both a system of knowledge and a practice. The word “discipline” stems from the Greek word  didasko  (teach) and the Latin word  disco  (learn). In Middle English, the word “discipline” referred to the branches of knowledge, especially medicine, law, and theology. Shumway and Messer-Davidow, historians of disciplinarity, explain that during this time “discipline” also referred to “the ‘rule’ of monasteries and later to the methods of training used in armies and schools.” So the conceptualization of “discipline” as both a system of knowledge and as a kind of self-mastery or practice has been around for quite some time. In the 19th century, our modern definition of “discipline” emerged out of the many scientific societies, divisions, and specializations that occurred over time during the 17th and 18th centuries. Our modern conception of disciplinarity frames it not only as a collection of knowledge but also as the social practices that operate within a disciplinary community.
• The basic relationship between disciplines and professions is that disciplines create knowledge and professions apply it. Each discipline comes with a particular way of thinking about the world and particular ways of communicating ideas. An experienced mathematician, for example, will have ways of thinking and using language that are distinct from those of an experienced historian. The professions outside of institutions of higher education also come with particular ways of thinking and communicating, which are often informed by related academic disciplines. So an experienced electrician will have ways of thinking and using language that are different from those of an experienced social worker. Both the electrician and the social worker could have learned these ways of thinking and using language within a discipline in a formal school setting, although formal schooling is not the only place to learn these ways of thinking and communicating.

Mansilla, V.B., and Gardner, H. (2008). Disciplining the Mind.  Educational Leadership,  65(5), 14-19.

Russell, D.R., and Yanez, A. (2003). Big Picture People Rarely Become Historians’: Genre Systems and the Contradictions of General Education. In C. Bazerman and D.R. Russell (Eds), Writing Selves/

Writing Societies: Research From Activity Perspectives (331-362). Fort Collins, Colorado: The    WAC Clearinghouse.

Shumway, D.R., and Messer-Davidow, E. (1991). Disciplinarity: An Introduction. Poetics Today,  12(2),      201-225.

Having read Stanford and Jory’s text, now work in small groups to answer the following questions about it. Be prepared to discuss your answers in class.

What are your reactions to the text?

How does the text compare with your own ideas about college and professional work?

What differences do you notice between the text and the writing advice given in this textbook? How might the differences be attributable to varying disciplinary conventions?

Using a Writing Sample to Explore Disciplinary Expectations

Journal articles , peer-reviewed reports of research studies, are expected to follow the conventions for writing in specific fields. Thus, they are useful artifacts for study when trying to identify disciplinary expectations.

To gain insight into disciplinary expectations for writing in your field, locate a journal article that focuses on your area of study. If you have not yet decided upon a major, find a journal article about a topic that interests you. Ask a librarian or your instructor for assistance if you need help finding an article.

Next, use the following handout, produced by Student Academic Success Services, Joseph S. Stauffer Library at Queen’s University (2018), to work with the article.

Analyzing disciplinary expectations tool

Now compare what you found out about disciplinary expectations for writing in your field with what your classmates discovered. Your instructor may ask you to work in a group with peers who are studying similar or different subjects. Present your group’s findings in a brief, informal presentation to the class.

Continuing Exploration of Disciplinary Expectations for Writing

The sources below provide further information about disciplinary expectations for writing. Consult these resources to learn more about writing in your field of interest.

Centre for Writing and Scholarly Communication. (n.d.). Academic and professional writing resources . The University of British Columbia. https://learningcommons.ubc.ca/improve-your-writing/writing-resources/

Debby Ellis Writing Center. (n.d.). Writing for different disciplines . Southwestern University.   https://www.southwestern.edu/offices/writing/writing-for-different-disciplines/

Excelsior Online Writing Lab. (2020). Writing in the disciplines .   https://owl.excelsior.edu/writing-in-the-disciplines/

Fred Meijer Center for Writing & Michigan Authors. (2019). Writing in your major . Grand Valley State University.  https://www.gvsu.edu/wc/writing-in-your-major-49.htm

Harvard Writing Project. (2020). Writing guides . Harvard University.  https://writingproject.fas.harvard.edu/pages/writing-guides

Purdue Online Writing Lab. (2020). Welcome to the Purdue OWL . Purdue University.  https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/purdue_owl.html

            → Look in the “Subject-Specific Writing” section

Writing Across the Curriculum. (2020). Guidelines for writing in the disciplines . Appalachian State University.  https://wac.appstate.edu/resources-teaching-writing/writing-about-guidelines-wags

Writing@CSU. (2020). Writing in specific disciplines . Colorado State University. https://writing.colostate.edu/guides/

The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (2020). Tips and tools .  https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/

            → Look in the “Writing for Specific Fields” section

Homework: Email Your Instructor about Your Findings

Compose a memo to your instructor in which you address the following questions.

• What did you find out about disciplinary expectations for writing in your field of interest?
• As a professional in training, what can you take away from this chapter’s activities?

Consult the “Writing Print Correspondence” chapter of this textbook for guidance when writing and formatting your memo, and remember to cite and reference outside sources of information that you use.

After you have drafted your memo, use the handouts “Compound Adjectives” (McKeever, n.d.) and “Using Which, That, and Who” (William & Mary Writing Resources Center, 2018), provided below, to refine your text.

Using Which, That, and Who

Compound adjectives

McKeever, R. (n.d.). Compound adjectives . Yuba College Writing and Language Development Center. License: CC-BY 4.0 . https://yc.yccd.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/CompoundAdjectivesAccessibleMarch2019.pdf

Stanford, M., & Jory, J. (2016). So you wanna be an engineer, a welder, a teacher? Academic disciplines and professional literacies. In SLCC English Department, Open English @ SLCC . License: CC-BY-NC .  https://openenglishatslcc.pressbooks.com/

Student Academic Success Services, Joseph S. Stauffer Library, Queen’s University. (2018).  Analyzing disciplinary expectations tool . License: CC-BY-SA 2.5 . https://sass.queensu.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Analyzing-Disciplinary-Expectations-Method.pdf

William & Mary Writing Resources Center. (2018). Using which, that, and who . License: CC-BY-SA 4.0 . https://www.wm.edu/as/wrc/newresources/handouts/using-that-which-who.pdf

Mindful Technical Writing Copyright © 2020 by Dawn Atkinson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Writing Resources: Writing in the Disciplines

• Writing Mechanics
• Rhetoric and Writing Style
• Literature Reviews
• Locating Peer Reviewed Articles
• Writing to Learn

Writing in the Disciplines

Writing in the Disciplines teaches students how to write acceptably in their respective disciplines.   Writing in the discipline classes are commonly referred to as Writing Intensive courses.  The goal of WID is to allow students to demonstrate writing skills within the genres expected in academic and professional discourse communities.

The resources on the right are arranged by type: general collection books, eBooks, journal articles, videos, and websites. They all relate to writing in the disciplines in some way, though individual resources may cover other aspects of writing.

Quick Links

• Bellevue University Library
• Copyright Center
• Cyberactive Online Classroom
• Interlibrary Loan
• Library Databases
• Library Hours/Contacts
• NoodleTools This link opens in a new window An online research management platform including a bibliography composer and note-taking features. more... less... What is it? NoodleTools is a resource that allows students to evaluate resources, build accurate citations, archive source material, take notes, outline topics, and prepare to write. it generates accurate MLA, APA, and Chicago/Turabian references with options to annotate and archive lists of documents. It offers a visual 'tabletop' to manipulate, tag and pile notecards, then connect them in outlines to prepare for writing. Why use it? Use this resource if you are looking for an all-in-one resource to assist with note-taking, citations, and pre-writing projects.
• Writing Center
• General Collection Books
• Journal Articles

• The business of writing to learn in business: Examining writing practices through the lens of practice architectures by Hager, G., Kitson, L., & Grootenboer, P. Australian Journal of Language & Literacy, (2019, October 1), 42(3), 195-205.
• Constructing an argument in academic writing across disciplines by Walková, M., & Bradford, J. Journal of English for Specific Purposes at Tertiary Level, (2022), 10(1), 22-42.
• Contemplative writing across the disciplines by Miller, M., & Kinane, K. Across the Disciplines, (2019), 16(1), 1-5.
• Instructor evaluation of business student writing: Does language play a role? by McDonough, K., Uludag, P., & Neumann, H. Business & Professional Communication Quarterly, (2021, June), 84(2), 116-134.
• Internalizing writing in the STEM disciplines by Sharma, G. Across the Disciplines, (2018), 15(1), 26-46.
• Promoting writing as a core competency for psychology majors: Challenges and opportunities by Chenneville, T., & Gay, K. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, (2021, June 22).
• Reflecting on the past, reconstructing the future: Faculty members' threshold concepts for teaching writing in the disciplines by Basgier, C., & Simpson, A. Across the Disciplines, (2020), 17(1/2), 6-25.
• Social media in practice: Assignments, perceptions, and possibilities by Kester, J., & Vie, S. Currents in Teaching & Learning, (2021, January), 12(2), 52-70.
• Understanding the challenges and needs of international STEM graduate students: Implications for writing center writing groups by Hambrick, K. M., & Giaimo, G. N. Across the Disciplines, (2022), 19(1/2), 7-26.
• Using shared inquiry to develop students' reading, reasoning, and writing in the disciplines by Egege, S., & Orr Vered, K. Across the Disciplines, (2019), 16(3), 66-79.
• Writing in the discipline and reproducible methods: A process-oriented approach to teaching empirical undergraduate economics research by Marshall, E. C., & Underwood, A. Journal of Economic Education, (2019), 50(1), 17-32.

• Brief guides to writing in the disciplines (Harvard University) The Writing Center's Brief Guides to Writing in the Disciplines provide concise introductions to the essential features of writing in several concentrations.
• Discipline-specific infosheets (York College / CUNY) These writing handouts guide students through the writing process in specific courses and disciplines including Health Education Program Planning.
• Overcoming obstacles: How WID benefits community college students and faculty (Colorado State University) While those teaching and learning at community colleges face challenges unique to their institutions, this article demonstrates how the theoretical concepts at the heart of WID programs—incorporating writing across all disciplines, writing-to-learn rather than learning-to-write exercises, low-and high-stakes writing assignments, and transparent rubrics—are particularly well suited to the needs of community college students and faculty members.
• Programs that work(ed): Revisiting the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago, and George Mason University programs after 20 years (Colorado State University) The article explores three WAC/WID programs that were presented in 1990 inPrograms That Work: Models and Methods for Writing Across the Curriculumby Toby Fulwiler and Art Young.
• What is writing in the disciplines? (Colorado State University) Because WID is used by a large number of WAC programs, this guide presents a great deal of information on WID, including a detailed rationale, examples, and logistical tips.
• Writing in the disciplines (University of Tennessee, Knoxville) This guide aims to direct you to reputable resources that will help you to write in specific subjects rather than in particular courses, since writing expectations often vary according to the learning outcomes of specific courses.
• Writing in the disciplines (Excelsior Online Writing Lab) The teaching of writing in colleges and universities tends to focus on academic essays and research papers. Writing in the disciplines, on the other hand, refers to writing assignments tailored to the genres of a specific discipline or field.
• Writing in the disciplines, technology, and disciplinary grounding (Colorado State University) This essay examines the impact of WAC/WID methodology and technology in an Education Capstone Course for Childhood Education majors at LaGuardia Community College/CUNY.
• Writing is discipline specific (Purdue University) Sometimes when we think about writing, we think about the aspects that seem the same, no matter what we are writing—grammatical sentences or the use of paragraph divisions, for instance. Many aspects of good writing do transfer between different genres and audiences; however, different academic disciplines define good writing according to the presence or use of specific writing conventions which often arise from what the discipline values.

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Writing Across the Curriculum

Supporting writing in and across the disciplines at City Tech

Tag: discipline-specific writing

Guiding students toward successful discipline-specific writing.

One of the fundamental tenets of WAC pedagogy is that learning in every discipline is enhanced by writing. This is one reason you will often see WAC linked with another acronym, WID. Writing in the Disciplines, or WID, is a category of WAC practice that seeks to “ introduce or give students practice with the language conventions of a discipline as well as with specific formats typical of a given discipline. ”

As has been noted in the Fellows’ Corner before, it can be difficult for instructors to introduce discipline-specific writing in the classroom. The academic, technical, or professional writing in your field may be obscure and full of jargon , rigidly formatted, or otherwise intimidating to novice learners. As instructors, one of the most important things that we can do is to acknowledge the complexities of writing in our respective fields and help students take the first steps toward mastering it.

Providing a variety of examples of professional writing from your field for students is a good way to get started. Even better is guiding them through the first one or two readings. This may mean sharing insights into how you read writing of this kind as an expert in the field, or perhaps assigning simple, informal writing assignments to help students articulate their understanding of content or structure (see this post for more suggestions on assisting with difficult readings).

While professional writing provides good models and can be inspiring for students to see, it can also be daunting. Students may find themselves wondering how on earth they are going to produce writing that looks like the samples they have read, leading to unnecessary anxiety and discouragement. Providing examples of successful student writing can be a counterweight to these negative feelings.

Samples of non-professional writing are concrete evidence that good discipline-specific writing is within reach for students. You may choose to pull samples from the internet (this journal of student writing from Middlesex Community College contains some good examples from a variety of fields) or gather your own. The more unique the assignment is to your course the more you may want to collect one or two exemplary assignments per semester to serve as models to future classes (be sure to get permission from the student to use their work in this way, and always remove the name from the sample).

Supporting discipline-specific writing is a major goal of the WAC program at City Tech. Follow the links in this post for more helpful tips, or contact the WAC fellows through the OpenLab.

Using WAC Techniques to Introduce Discipline-Specific Writing

Through recent discussions with other WAC fellows and CUNY faculty, it has becoming increasing clear that as instructors, we often forget to take a step back and make sure our students have an understanding of what is expected of them for writing in the discipline of which our class is a part (whatever discipline that may be). Early to mid-way into a semester (earlier the better), as simple as it may seem, it is immensely useful to gauge student writing in order to ensure they do in fact understand what is meant by a thesis, for example in whatever field we are in (and what course they are taking). This is just one writing-related term that truly can mean varying things in different fields or at minimum may look different depending upon the discipline.

Take the students’ perspective for a minute. Imagine going from an Introduction to Psychology class, to an English class, followed by a course in Mathematics all in the same day. Each of these disciplines requires different formats and structures in regards to writing. You can see how easy it would be to as a student, assume that writing in the manner that earned you an ‘A’ on an English assignment may surprisingly earn you a ‘B’ or less on a Psychology research proposal (or vice versa) if you were never giving explicit instructions for what qualifies as a ‘good’ paper for a particular type of class. Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) techniques offer some great tools towards improving our students’ writing, even for assisting them on the way of learning the specific writing style we expect in our own courses.

In order to see where our students are in the writing process for our discipline, as instructors we can initially do one of several specific things:

1)      Provide a discipline-specific piece of writing in class, give students time to read it, and then discuss as a class how this writing may be different than that of other types of courses students have taken.

2)      Assign several discipline-specific professional readings (one at the beginning and several others throughout) and provide a template that asks directed questions about the texts, hereby pointing out the important structural aspects of the writing piece.

3)      Give time during class for small groups of students to pick out seemingly important parts of a provided reading, have them define separate sections, and finally openly explaining to students (during class time if at all possible) how your field defines and structures a thesis, evidence, supporting arguments, etc.

4)      Give a take-away handout that clearly and succinctly lists the requirements you have for the content and structure of writing assignments in your course (for which you take a few minutes to explain in person if the class is not online).

Two more helpful tips from evidence-based WAC practices:

• Of course students mostly learn from doing and redoing or writing and rewriting! Therefore, multiple drafts of the same assignment are always essential to the writing process regardless of discipline.
• Scaffolding (creating smaller assignments that build up to a larger more complete final paper, lab report, project, or proposal) is incredibly helpful for students to understand complex ideas or information that is new to them (this has been extremely beneficial for my students’ research proposals as many of them never write in this manner before entering my class). This allows them to master important specific aspects of a bigger assignment before the final result which is often worth many more points.

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Establishing Creative Writing Studies as an Academic Discipline

• Dianne Donnelly
• X / Twitter

Please login or register with De Gruyter to order this product.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Multilingual Matters
• Copyright year: 2011
• Main content: 168
• Published: November 23, 2011
• ISBN: 9781847695918

Part 1: Thinking Through the Disciplines

Exploring academic disciplines.

Most college writing has some basic features in common: a sense of ethical responsibility and the use of credible and credited sources, critical thinking, and sound argumentation. In addition to these common features, each academic discipline, over many generations, has developed its own specific methods of asking questions and sharing answers. This chapter will show you how to use the lenses of various academic disciplines to develop your writing, reading, and thinking.

3.1 Exploring Academic Disciplines

Learning objectives.

• Survey the landscape of academic disciplines.
• Appreciate how academic disciplines help shape how we understand the world.
• Understand that academic disciplines are constantly in flux, negotiating the terms, conditions, and standards of inquiry, attribution, and evidence.

The following table shows one version of the main academic disciplines and some of their branches.

Since the makeup of the different branches is always in flux and since the history of any institution of higher education is complicated, you will likely find some overlapping and varying arrangements of disciplines at your college.

Part of your transition into higher education involves being aware that each discipline is a distinct discourse community with specific vocabularies, styles, and modes of communication. Later in your college career, you will begin your writing apprenticeship in a specific discipline by studying the formats of published articles within it. You will look for the following formal aspects of articles within that discipline and plan to emulate them in your work:

• Title format
• Introduction
• Overall organization
• Tone (especially level of formality)
• Person (first, second, or third person)
• Voice (active or passive)
• Sections and subheads
• Use of images (photos, tables, graphics, graphs, etc.)
• Discipline-specific vocabulary
• Types of sources cited
• Use of source information
• Documentation style (American Psychological Association, Modern Language Association, Chicago, Council of Science Editors, and so on; for more on this, see Chapter 22 “Appendix B: A Guide to Research and Documentation” )
• Intended audience
• Published format (print or online)

Different disciplines tend to recommend collecting different types of evidence from research sources. For example, biologists are typically required to do laboratory research; art historians often use details from a mix of primary and secondary sources (works of art and art criticism, respectively); social scientists are likely to gather data from a variety of research study reports and direct ethnographic observation, interviews, and fieldwork; and a political scientist uses demographic data from government surveys and opinion polls along with direct quotations from political candidates and party platforms.

Consider the following circle of professors. They are all asking their students to conduct research in a variety of ways using a variety of sources.

What’s required to complete a basic, introductory essay might essentially be the same across all disciplines, but some types of assignments require discipline-specific organizational features. For example, in business disciplines, documents such as résumés, memos, and product descriptions require a specialized organization. Science and engineering students follow specific conventions as they write lab reports and keep notebooks that include their drawings and results of their experiments. Students in the social sciences and the humanities often use specialized formatting to develop research papers, literature reviews, and book reviews.

Part of your apprenticeship will involve understanding the conventions of a discipline’s key genres. If you are reading or writing texts in the social sciences, for example, you will notice a meticulous emphasis on the specifics of methodology (especially key concepts surrounding the collection of data, such as reliability, validity, sample size, and variables) and a careful presentation of results and their significance. Laboratory reports in the natural and applied sciences emphasize a careful statement of the hypothesis and prediction of the experiment. They also take special care to account for the role of the observer and the nature of the measurements used in the investigation to ensure that it is replicable. An essay in the humanities on a piece of literature might spend more time setting a theoretical foundation for its interpretation, it might also more readily draw from a variety of other disciplines, and it might present its “findings” more as questions than as answers. As you are taking a variety of introductory college courses, try to familiarize yourself with the jargon of each discipline you encounter, paying attention to its specialized vocabulary and terminology. It might even help you make a list of terms in your notes.

Scholars also tend to ask discipline-related kinds of questions. For example, the question of “renewable energy” might be a research topic within different disciplines. The following list shows the types of questions that would accommodate the different disciplines:

• Business (economics): Which renewable resources offer economically feasible solutions to energy issues?
• Humanities (history): At what point did humans switch from the use of renewable resources to nonrenewable resources?
• Natural and applied sciences (engineering): How can algae be developed at a pace and in the quantities needed to be a viable main renewable resource?
• Social sciences (geography): Which US states are best suited to being key providers of renewable natural resources?

Key Takeaways

• Most academic disciplines have developed over many generations. Even though these disciplines are constantly in flux, they observe certain standards for investigation, proof, and documentation of evidence.
• To meet the demands of writing and thinking in a certain discipline, you need to learn its conventions.
• An important aspect of being successful in college (and life) involves being aware of what academic disciplines (and professions and occupations) have in common and how they differ.

Think about your entire course load this semester as a collection of disciplines. For each course you are taking, answer the following questions, checking your textbooks and other course materials and consulting with your instructors, if necessary:

• What kinds of questions does this discipline ask?
• What kinds of controversies exist in this discipline?
• How does this discipline share the knowledge it constructs?
• How do writers in this discipline demonstrate their credibility?

After you’ve asked and answered these questions about each discipline in isolation, consider what underlying things your courses have in common, even if they approach the world very differently on the surface.

Based on the example at the end of this section, pick a topic that multiple disciplines study. Formulate four questions about the topic, one from each of any four different disciplines. Ideally choose a topic that might come up in four courses you are currently taking or have recently taken, or choose a topic of particular interest to you. Here are just a few examples to get you started:

• Child abuse
• Poverty in developing nations
• Women in the workforce
• Drawing from the synopses of current research on the Arts and Letters Daily website (see the Note 2.5 “Gallery of Web-Based Texts” in Chapter 2 “Becoming a Critical Reader” ), read the article referenced on a topic or theme of interest to you. Discuss how the author’s discipline affects the way the topic or theme is presented (specifically, the standards of inquiry and evidence).

3.2 Seeing and Making Connections across Disciplines

• Learn how to look for connections between the courses you are taking in different disciplines.
• Witness how topics and issues are connected across disciplines, even when they are expressed differently.
• Understand how to use disciplines to apply past knowledge to new situations.

Section 3.1 “Exploring Academic Disciplines” focused on the formal differences among various academic disciplines and their discourse communities. This section will explore the intellectual processes and concepts disciplines share in common. Even though you will eventually enter a discipline as an academic specialization (major) and as a career path (profession), the first couple of years of college may well be the best opportunity you will ever have to discover how disciplines are connected.

That process may be a re discovery, given that in the early grades (K–5), you were probably educated by one primary teacher each year covering a set of subjects in a single room. Even though you likely covered each subject in turn, that elementary school classroom was much more conducive to making connections across disciplines than your middle school or high school environment. If you’ve been educated in public schools during the recent era of rigid standardization and multiple-choice testing conducted in the name of “accountability,” the disciplines may seem more separate from one another in your mind than they actually are. In some ways, the first two years of your college experience are a chance to recapture the connections across disciplines you probably made naturally in preschool and the elementary grades, if only at a basic level at the time.

In truth, all disciplines are strikingly similar. Together, they are the primary reason for the survival and evolution of our species. As humans, we have designed disciplines, over time, to help us understand our world better. New knowledge about the world is typically produced when a practitioner builds on a previous body of work in the discipline, most often by advancing it only slightly but significantly. We use academic and professional disciplines to conduct persistent, often unresolved conversations with one another.

Most colleges insist on a “core curriculum” to make sure you have the chance to be exposed to each major discipline at least once before you specialize and concentrate on one in particular. The signature “Aha!” moments of your intellectual journey in college will come every time you grasp a concept or a process in one course that reminds you of something you learned in another course entirely. Ironically the more of those “Aha!” moments you have in the first two years of college, the better you’ll be at your specialization because you’ll have that much more perspective about how the world around you fits together.

How can you learn to make those “Aha!” moments happen on purpose? In each course you take, instead of focusing merely on memorizing content for the purposes of passing an exam or writing an essay that regurgitates your professor’s lecture notes, learn to look for the key questions and controversies that animate the discipline and energize the professions in it. If you organize your understanding of a discipline around such questions and controversies, the details will make more sense to you, and you will find them easier to master.

• Disciplines build on themselves, applying past knowledge to new situations and phenomena in a constant effort to improve understanding of the specific field of study.
• Different disciplines often look at the same facts in different ways, leading to wholly different discoveries and insights.
• Disciplines derive their energy from persistent and open debate about the key questions and controversies that animate them.
• Arrange at least one interview with at least one of your instructors, a graduate student, or a working professional in a discipline in which you are interested in studying or pursuing as a career. Ask your interviewee(s) to list and describe three of the most persistent controversies, questions, and debates in the field. After absorbing the response(s), write up a report in your own words about the discipline’s great questions.
• Using a textbook or materials from another course you are taking, describe a contemporary controversy surrounding the ways a discipline asks questions or shares evidence and a historical controversy that appears to have been resolved.
• Using one of your library’s disciplinary databases or the Note 2.5 “Gallery of Web-Based Texts” in Chapter 2 “Becoming a Critical Reader” , find a document that is at least fifty years old operating in a certain discipline, perhaps a branch of science, history, international diplomacy, political science, law, or medicine. The Smithsonian Institution or Avalon Project websites are excellent places to start your search. Knowing what you know about the current conventions and characteristics of the discipline through which this document was produced, how does its use of the discipline differ from the present day? How did the standards of the discipline change in the interim to make the document you’ve found seem so different? Have those standards improved or declined, in your opinion?

3.3 Articulating Multiple Sides of an Issue

• Explore how to recognize binary oppositions in various disciplines.
• Learn the value of entertaining two contradictory but plausible positions as part of your thinking, reading, and writing processes.
• Appreciate the productive, constructive benefits of using disciplinary lenses and borrowing from other disciplines.

Regardless of the discipline you choose to pursue, you will be arriving as an apprentice in the middle of an ongoing conversation. Disciplines have complicated histories you can’t be expected to master overnight. But learning to recognize the long-standing binary oppositions in individual disciplines can help you make sense of the specific issues, themes, topics, and controversies you will encounter as a student and as a professional. Here are some very broadly stated examples of those binary oppositions.

These binary oppositions move freely from one discipline to another, often becoming more complicated as they do so. Consider a couple of examples:

• The binary opposition in the natural and applied sciences between empiricism (the so-called scientific method) and rationalism (using pure reason to speculate about one’s surroundings) originated as a debate in philosophy, a branch of the humanities . In the social sciences , in recent years, empirical data about brain functions in neuroscience have challenged rationalistic theories in psychology. Even disciplines in business are using increasingly empirical methods to study how markets work, as rationalist economic theories of human behavior increasingly come under question.
• The binary opposition between text and context in the humanities is borrowed from the social sciences . Instead of viewing texts as self-contained creations, scholars and artists in the humanities began to appreciate and foreground the cultural influences that helped shape those texts. Borrowings from business disciplines, such as economics and marketing, furthered the notion of a literary and artistic “marketplace,” while borrowings from the natural and applied sciences helped humanists examine more closely the relationship between the observer (whether the critic or the artist) and the subject (the text).

Of course, these two brief summaries vastly oversimplify the evolution of multiple disciplines over generations of intellectual history. Like the chart of binary oppositions, they’re meant merely to inspire you at this point to begin to note the connections between disciplines. Learning to think, write, and function in interdisciplinary ways requires practice that begins at the level of close reading and gradually expands into the way you interact with your surroundings as a college student and working professional.

For a model of how to read and think through the disciplines, let’s draw on a short but very famous piece of writing (available through the Avalon Project in the Note 2.5 “Gallery of Web-Based Texts” ), Abraham Lincoln’s “Address at the Dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery,” composed and delivered in November of 1863, several months after one of the bloodiest battles in the American Civil War.

• A military historian (red passages) might focus on Lincoln’s rhetorical technique of using the field of a previous battle in an ongoing war (in this case a victory that nonetheless cost a great deal of casualties on both sides) as inspiration for a renewed, redoubled effort.
• A social psychologist (blue passages) might focus on how Lincoln uses this historical moment of unprecedented national trauma as an occasion for shared grief and shared sacrifice, largely through using the rhetorical technique of an extended metaphor of “conceiving and dedicating” a nation/child whose survival is at stake.
• A political scientist (green passages) might focus on how Lincoln uses the occasion as a rhetorical opportunity to emphasize that the purpose of this grisly and grim war is to preserve the ideals of the founders of the American republic (and perhaps even move them forward through the new language of the final sentence: “of the people, by the people, for the people”).

Notice that each reader, regardless of academic background, needs a solid understanding of how rhetoric works (something we’ll cover in Chapter 4 “Joining the Conversation” in more detail). Each reader has been trained to use a specific disciplinary lens that causes certain passages to rise to prominence and certain insights to emerge.

But the real power of disciplines comes when these readers and their readings interact with each other. Imagine how a military historian could use social psychology to enrich an understanding of how a civilian population was motivated to support a war effort. Imagine how a political scientist could use military history to show how a peacetime, postwar governmental policy can trade on the outcome of a battle. Imagine how a social psychologist could use political science to uncover how a traumatized social structure can begin to heal itself through an embrace of shared governance.

As Lincoln would say, “It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.”

• Disciplines have long-standing binary oppositions that help shape the terms of inquiry.
• To think, read, and write in a given discipline, you must learn to uncover binary oppositions in the texts, objects, and phenomena you are examining.
• Binary oppositions gain power and complexity when they are applied to multiple disciplines.
• Following the Gettysburg Address example at the end of this section, use three disciplinary lenses to color-code a reading of your choice from the Note 2.5 “Gallery of Web-Based Texts” in Chapter 2 “Becoming a Critical Reader” .
• Find a passage in one of the textbooks you’re using in another course (or look over your lecture notes from another course) where the main discipline appears to be borrowing theories, concepts, or binary oppositions from other disciplines in order to produce new insights and discoveries.
• Individually or with a partner, set up an imaginary two-person dialogue of at least twenty lines (or two pages) that expresses two sides of a contemporary issue with equal force and weight. You may use real people if you want, either from your reading of specific columnists at Arts and Letters Daily or of the essayists at the Big Questions Essay Series (see the Note 2.5 “Gallery of Web-Based Texts” in Chapter 2 “Becoming a Critical Reader” ). In a separate memo, indicate which side you lean toward personally and discuss any difficulty you had with the role playing required by this exercise.
• Show how one of the binary oppositions mentioned in this section is expressed by two writers in a discipline of your choosing. Alternatively, you can come up with a binary opposition of your own, backing it up with examples from the two extremes.
• Briefly describe how an insight or discovery applied past disciplinary knowledge to a new situation or challenge. How might you begin to think about addressing one of the contemporary problems in your chosen discipline?
• License : Public Domain: No Known Copyright

Writing in the Disciplines and Across the Curriculum

Each discipline has its own style, structure, and format when it comes to academic writing. This section provides resources on writing in specific disciplines, broken down into the following five general academic categories: Business and Communication, Humanities, Social Sciences, Sciences and Mathematics.

The Humanities category is further broken down by subject and common rhetorical writing tasks in that discipline: analysis, argument and persuasion, cause and effect, classification, comparison and contrast, definition, description and narrative.

Also see: Citing Sources for discipline-specific citation styles | Professional Writing for common non-academic writing resources such as writing for email, for the web and for the job search.

BUSINESS AND COMMUNICATION

Business Writing (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout will help you write business letters required in many different situations, from applying for a job to requesting or delivering information. While the examples that are discussed specifically are the application letter and cover letter, this handout also highlights strategies for effective business writing in general.”

Communication Studies (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout describes some steps for planning and writing papers in communication studies courses.”

Montclair State University Databases: Business, Economics & Management (Montclair State University, Sprague Library) Montclair State students and faculty can access business related databases through Sprague Library. You will need to enter your NetID and password.

Writing for a North American Business Audience (Purdue OWL) “This handout provides examples and information (written for non-North Americans) on how to write for a business audience. It includes information on getting to the point, keeping it simple, active and passive voice, nondiscriminatory language, and verb overgeneralizing.”

Writing for an Indian Business Audience (Purdue OWL) “This handout provides examples and information on writing for both domestic and international audiences doing business in India. It includes information on letters and memos, as well as important stylistic considerations. The handout concludes with comments on some important characteristics of English writing in India, and on the status of English in business writing compared with native Indian languages, such as Hindi and Bengali.”

Writing in Business (Writing@CSU) An online writing guide about writing for business. Sections address writing business letters , resumes , press releases and executive summaries .

Resources for writing in the Humanities are broken down into the following sections. See resources for each below.

• Art and Art History
• Rhetorical Tasks

HUMANITIES > GENERAL

Four Keys to Writing in the Humanities (Mark T. Unno, University of Oregon) “One of the challenges of writing papers in the humanities is that courses and instructors have different requirements and expectations. Nevertheless, there are certain things that tend to be consistent across the curriculum, such as focus and simplicity, basic forms of argument, documentation, and writing as a craft. When you begin to understand these basic elements, then the variety of requirements and expectations will actually become a source of inspiration and wisdom rather than confusion and frustration.”

Writing in the Humanities and Arts (UCLA Graduate Writing Center) “The books and articles below offer advice on writing dissertations, theses, articles, proposals, and abstracts in the humanities and arts (although some of these sources address a broader audience).”

HUMANITIES > ART AND ART HISTORY

Art History (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout discusses several common types of art history assignments, and talks about various strategies and resources that will help you write your art history papers.”

Montclair State University Databases: Art and Design (Montclair State University, Sprague Library) Montclair State students and faculty can access art-specific databases through Sprague Library. You will need to enter your NetID and password.

Writing Across the Curriculum: Writing About Art (Hunter College Writing Center) (PDF) This handout explains different types of art history papers and includes a series of rhetorical questions for analyzing paintings, portraits, figural scenes, landscapes, sculptures, and architecture.

Writing About Art (Marjorie Munsterberg) This page discusses the different ways to approach an art history paper and includes sample excerpts.

HUMANITIES > DANCE

Guidelines for Viewing Dance and Writing Critiques for Dance Performances (Myra Daleng, University of Richmond Writing Center) Ideas and suggestions for writing a critique of a dance performance. One of the most interesting sections of the handout is the “Dance Critique Pet Peeves” that lists words and phrases to avoid when writing a dance critique. There is also a checklist for writing a critique at the end. Also see: Research-Based Writing.

Montclair State University Databases: Theatre & Dance (Montclair State University, Sprague Library) Montclair State students and faculty can access theatre and dance specific databases through Sprague Library. You will need to enter your NetID and password.

Writing a Dance Critique (Utah Tech University) This handout presents five steps to critiquing a performance and includes questions for evaluation.

HUMANITIES > DRAMA

Drama – UNC Chapel Hill (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout identifies common questions about drama, describes the elements of drama that are most often discussed in theater classes, provides a few strategies for planning and writing an effective drama paper, and identifies various resources for research in theater history and dramatic criticism.”

Drama Terms: Brief Definitions (Washington State University) A dictionary of drama terms.

How to Review a Play (University of Wisconsin – Madison, The Writing Center) Here are some tips to help you before you begin writing a play review. This page offers advice on what you can do to prepare before the play and what types of questions you should be asking yourself during the play.

HUMANITIES > FILM

How to Write About Film: The Movie Review, The Theoretical Essay, and The Critical Essay (University of Colorado, The Writing Center) (PDF) A guide to thinking critically about film using Timothy Corrigan’s three major genres.

Lights, Camera, Brainstorming: Writing About Film (Agnes Scott College, Center for Writing and Speaking) (PDF) This handout provides suggestions for what to do before, during, and after watching the film.

Montclair State University Databases: Film Studies (Montclair State University, Sprague Library) Montclair State students and faculty can access film-specific databases through Sprague Library. You will need to enter your NetID and password.

The McGraw-Hill Film Viewer’s Guide (McGraw-Hill) (PDF) This PDF discusses the conventions of writing about film and includes sample student papers.

Writing About Film (Simon Fraser University Library) “This guide has been designed as a starting point for research into writing about films.”

Writing About Film (Duke University, Thompson Writing Program) (PDF) “This handout discusses ways to approach film as a visual medium. It offers suggestions for focus, prewriting tips, and guidance on how to think critically about a medium many of us think of as popular entertainment. It does not include a comprehensive list of technical film terminology, although it does provide links to several sources that do. This handout deals with decoding film as a viewer, considering how film appears rather than how it was made.”

HUMANITIES > JOURNALISM

Basics of News Writing ( Write Right: A Student Audio Podcast , Texas A&M University, University Writing Center) An interview with Dale Rice, Director of Journalism Studies, about how to write a news story.

Feature News vs. Hard News ( Write Right: A Student Audio Podcast, Texas A&M University, University Writing Center) An interview with “Dale Rice, Director of Journalism Studies here at Texas A&M, about the difference in hard news and feature news writing.”

Lives: Columns – The New York Times ( The New York Times ) “Since 1996, The Times Magazine has published the Lives column, a series of incisive, 800-word essays or as-told-to accounts that highlight small moments in real people’s lives. While a number of well-known writers have contributed to this column — including Nora Ephron, Michael Pollan, Karen Russell and others — some of the best submissions have been from nonprofessional writers, people who felt that they had a really good story to tell.”

How to Interview Sensitive Sources With Tips (Masterclass) “In the course of reporting, an investigative journalist may need to interview sensitive sources or anonymous sources to glean the most accurate information.”

Writing on Deadlines (Alaska Press Club) “Deadlines are the bane and lifeblood of reporting. New York Times reporter Sarah Mervosh has created several routines and checklists to help.”

HUMANITIES > LITERATURE

Book Reviews (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout will help you write a book review, a report or essay that offers a critical perspective on a text. It offers a process and suggests some strategies for writing book reviews.”

Fiction Terms: 35 Brief Definitions (Washington State University) A dictionary of poetry terms.

Guidelines for Writing a Literature Review (Helen Mongan-Rallis, University of Minnesota Duluth) Mongan-Rallis uses Galvin’s Writing Literature Reviews: A Guide for Students of the Behavioral Sciences , 3rd ed., to reiterate and expand upon a step-by-step approach to writing a literature review. She mentions technology that is useful in composing/organizing a literature review and includes links to additional resources.

Introduction to Modern Literary Theory (Kristi Siegel, Mount Mary College) Siegel explains 18 literary theories and includes suggestions for further reading.

Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism (Purdue OWL) “This resource will help you begin the process of understanding literary theory and schools of criticism and how they are used in the academy.” The sections on this handout include:

• Critical Disability Studies
• Critical Race Theory
• Ecocriticism
• Feminist Criticism
• Gender Studies and Queer Theory
• Marxist Criticism
• Moral Criticism, Dramatic Construction
• New Historicism, Cultural Studies
• Post-Colonial Criticism
• Postmodern Criticism
• Psychoanalytic Criticism
• Reader-Response Criticism
• Structuralism and Semiotics

Literature (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout describes some steps for planning and writing papers about fiction texts.”

Literature Reviews (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout will explain what a literature review is and offer insights into the form and construction of a literature review in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.”

Montclair State University Databases: Literature (Montclair State University, Sprague Library) Montclair State students and faculty can access literature-specific databases through Sprague Library. You will need to enter your NetID and password.

Writing About Fiction (Purdue OWL) “This handout covers major topics relating to writing about fiction. This covers prewriting, close reading, thesis development, drafting, and common pitfalls to avoid.”

• Close Reading a Text and Avoiding Pitfalls
• Developing a Thesis
• Pre-writing Activities and Drafting Your Essay

Writing About Literature (Purdue OWL) “This handout provides examples and description about writing papers in literature. It discusses research topics, how to begin to research, how to use information, and formatting.”

• Literature Topics and Research

Writing in Literature Overview (Purdue OWL) “These sections describe in detail the assignments students may complete when writing about literature.”

HUMANITIES > MUSIC

Montclair State University Databases: Music (Montclair State University, Sprague Library) Montclair State students and faculty can access music-specific databases through Sprague Library. You will need to enter your NetID and password.

Writing about Music – Calgary (The University of Calgary, Robert M. Seiler) Dr. Seiler offers “hints on how to help the reader appreciate the complexities of the performance you plan to write about” focusing on “(a) getting ready to write and (b) writing the piece.”

Writing about Music – UNC (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout features common types of music assignments and offers strategies and resources for writing them.”

HUMANITIES > PHILOSOPHY

A Brief Guide to Writing the Philosophy Paper (Harvard College Writing Center) An introduction to writing a philosophy paper, which includes useful examples.

How to Write a Philosophy Paper (David Clowney, Rowan University) Begins with general tips on writing a paper and then offers suggestions for writing interpretive, analytic, and exploratory papers.

Montclair State University Databases: Philosophy (Montclair State University, Sprague Library) Montclair State students and faculty can access philosophy-specific databases through Sprague Library. You will need to enter your NetID and password.

Philosophy (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout discusses common types of philosophy assignments and strategies and resources that will help you write your philosophy papers.”

Tips on Writing a Philosophy Paper (Douglas W. Portmore, Arizona State University) (PDF) This thorough handout discusses thesis statements, structure, content, rhetorical considerations, documentation, and style for a philosophy paper.

HUMANITIES > POETRY

Glossary of Poetic Terms (Poetry Foundation) A complete glossary of poetry terms. You can search for terms alphabetically or filter them by “Forms & Types,” “Rhythm & Meter,” “Schools & Periods,” “Techniques & Figures of Speech,” and “Theory & Criticism.”

How to Read a Poem (University of Wisconsin – Madison, The Writing Center) This source provides questions to help you identify a poem’s subject, context, form and language.

Image in Poetry (Purdue OWL) “This section covers images as they appear in poetry and covers related terminology, definitions and origins of images, uses of images, and several exercises.”

Poetry Explications (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “A poetry explication is a relatively short analysis which describes the possible meanings and relationships of the words, images, and other small units that make up a poem. Writing an explication is an effective way for a reader to connect a poem’s plot and conflicts with its structural features. This handout reviews some of the important techniques of approaching and writing a poetry explication, and includes parts of two sample explications.”

Poetry Terms: Brief Definitions (Washington State University) A dictionary of poetry terms.

Writing About Poetry (Purdue OWL) “Writing about poetry can be one of the most demanding tasks that many students face in a literature class. Poetry, by its very nature, makes demands on a writer who attempts to analyze it that other forms of literature do not. So how can you write a clear, confident, well-supported essay about poetry? This handout offers answers to some common questions about writing about poetry.”

HUMANITIES > RELIGION

Montclair State University Databases: Jewish Studies (Montclair State University, Sprague Library) Montclair State students and faculty can access Jewish Studies-specific databases through Sprague Library. You will need to enter your NetID and password.

Montclair State University Databases: Religion (Montclair State University, Sprague Library) Montclair State students and faculty can access religion-specific databases through Sprague Library. You will need to enter your NetID and password.

Religious Studies (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout will help you to write research papers in religious studies.”

HUMANITIES > RHETORICAL TASKS

In academic writing, one can be asked to do many different types of writing. Some papers have you conducting research, while others require you to formulate an argument or write a critique, and some often have you do a combination of research and argument. This section includes resources on the following specific types of academic writing: analysis, argument and persuasion, cause and effect, classification, comparison and contrast, definition, description, and narrative. See Conducting Research for resources on writing research papers.

How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay (Bucks County Community College) (PDF) Breaks down the “elements of a solid essay” to guide readers in their own literary analyses.

Literary Analysis Guide (Goshen College English Dept.) Includes strategies and principles for analyzing a text, along with sample analysis paragraphs.

Argument and Persuasion

Argument (Writing@CSU) An online writing guide to “help writers better understand how to plan, organize, develop, support and revise a written argument.” Sections of the guide address the parts of an argument , the Toulmin Method and adapting the argument to the audience .

Argumentative Essays (Purdue OWL) An introduction to writing an argumentative essay.

Developing an Argument Handouts (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) These handouts support writers in developing an argument.

• Taking Inventory
• Checklist for Analyzing Research Material
• Evidence Analysis
• Thesis Analysis
• Focus Checklist
• Audience Analysis
• Revision Checklist

Developing Strong Thesis Statements (Purdue OWL) Tips for making your thesis statement debatable and narrow enough. It also includes definitions/examples of the four categories of thesis statements.

Montclair State University Databases: Research and Writing (Montclair State University, Sprague Library) Montclair State students and faculty can access research and writing-specific databases through Sprague Library. You will need to enter your NetID and password.

Writing Tips: Thesis Statements (Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Center for Writing Studies) Definition of thesis statements including what questions to ask when formulating thesis statements and model examples of thesis statements.

Cause and Effect

Writing Cause and Effect Papers (Butte College, Center for Academic Success) This is a tip sheet on examining “the reasons for and the outcomes of situations.”

Classification

Writing a Classification Paper (Butte College, Center for Academic Success) This is a tip sheet on prewriting, developing a thesis, organizing and using effective language in a classification essay.

Comparison and Contrast

Compare and Contrast (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) (VIDEO) “Learn strategies for comparing and contrasting ideas—strategies that can also help you generate ideas for other types of writing.”

Comparing and Contrasting (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout will help you first to determine whether a particular assignment is asking for comparison/contrast and then to generate a list of similarities and differences, decide which similarities and differences to focus on, and organize your paper so that it will be clear and effective. It will also explain how you can (and why you should) develop a thesis that goes beyond ‘Thing A and Thing B are similar in many ways but different in others’.”

How to Write a Comparative Analysis (Harvard College Writing Center) “To write a good compare-and-contrast paper, you must take your raw data–the similarities and differences you’ve observed–and make them cohere into a meaningful argument. Here are the five elements required.”

Description

Things to Consider as You Write Your Descriptive Essay (Masterclass) Considerations and conventions for writing a descriptive essay.

Narrative Essays (Purdue OWL) Outlines the conventions of a narrative essay.

SOCIAL SCIENCES

A Brief Guide to Writing the History Paper (Harvard College Writing Center) “A concise introduction to some of the basic conventions of writing in history. Intended for an undergraduate audience.”

Anthropology (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout briefly situates anthropology as a discipline of study within the social sciences. It provides an introduction to the kinds of writing that you might encounter in your anthropology courses, describes some of the expectations that your instructors may have, and suggests some ways to approach your assignments. It also includes links to information on citation practices in anthropology and resources for writing anthropological research papers.”

History (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout was written with several goals in mind: to explain what historians do and how they approach the writing process; to encourage you to think about your history instructor’s expectations of you; and to offer some strategies to help you write effectively in history courses.”

Montclair State University Databases: Anthropology (Montclair State University, Sprague Library) Montclair State students and faculty can access anthropology-specific databases through Sprague Library. You will need to enter your NetID and password.

Montclair State University Databases: Political Science (Montclair State University, Sprague Library) Montclair State students and faculty can access political science-specific databases through Sprague Library. You will need to enter your NetID and password.

Montclair State University Databases: Sociology (Montclair State University, Sprague Library) Montclair State students and faculty can access sociology-specific databases through Sprague Library. You will need to enter your NetID and password.

Sociology (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout introduces you to the wonderful world of writing sociology. Before you can write a clear and coherent sociology paper, you need a firm understanding of the assumptions and expectations of the discipline. You need to know your audience, the way they view the world and how they order and evaluate information. So, without further ado, let’s figure out just what sociology is, and how one goes about writing it.”

Writing in Political Science (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout will help you to recognize and to follow writing practices and standards in political science. The first step toward accomplishing this goal is to develop a basic understanding of political science and the kind of work political scientists do.”

Writing in Political Science: An Introduction (Dave Roberts, University of Richmond Writing Center) A guide that dissects what is involved in writing in the field of political science.

A Brief Guide to Writing in Chemistry (Kenyon College) “This document is a guide to assist students in chemistry courses with writing and formatting laboratory reports and research reports.”

Chemistry Lab Resources (Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies) “Here you can find tips about organizing your lab notebook, how to effectively create graphs and table for lab reports, places to locate protocols and property information, and how to properly cite resources.”

Laboratory Report Instructions (Reed College, Doyle Online Writing Lab) A manual to writing each section of a lab report. The site also includes examples of well-written and poorly written lab reports.

Montclair State University Databases: Biology (Montclair State University, Sprague Library) Montclair State students and faculty can access biology-specific databases through Sprague Library. You will need to enter your NetID and password.

Montclair State University Databases: Chemistry (Montclair State University, Sprague Library) Montclair State students and faculty can access chemistry-specific databases through Sprague Library. You will need to enter your NetID and password.

Montclair State University Databases: Physics and Astronomy (Montclair State University, Sprague Library) Montclair State students and faculty can access physics and astronomy-specific databases through Sprague Library. You will need to enter your NetID and password.

“Right your Writing: How to sharpen your writing and make your manuscripts more engaging” (Bob Grant with contributor Judith Swan, The Scientist Magazine) Free subscription required for access. Offers “ways to improve your writing practices and tips on how to align your writing to your readers’ expectations.”

Sciences (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “Every element of style that is accepted and encouraged in general academic writing is also considered good practice in scientific writing. The major difference between science writing and writing in other academic fields is the relative importance placed on certain stylistic elements. This handout details the most critical aspects of scientific writing and provides some strategies for evaluating and improving your scientific prose.”

Scientific Writing Resource (Duke University) This resource covers lessons including: “Subjects and Actions”, “Cohesion, Coherence, and Emphasis”, and “Concision and Simplicity” with a focus on effective communication.

Writing Biology Lab Reports (University of Richmond Writing Center) A guide for writing biology lab reports with sections on writing the abstract , the introduction , materials and methods , results , discussion and citing sources .

Writing in the Sciences (Writing@CSU) An online writing guide that addresses the challenges and issues involved in scientific writing. Sections include Writing the Scientific-Format Paper and Achieving the Scientific-Voice.

Writing the Scientific Paper (Writing@CSU) A comprehensive guide to writing scientific papers. Be sure to click “Continue” on the bottom right of the screen to access all of the information.

MATHEMATICS

AMS Author Handbook (American Mathematical Society) This is the most widely recognized handbook for writing in mathematics.

AMS Author Resource Center (American Mathematical Society) Provides links and tools to assist in writing, editing, illustrating and publishing mathematical works.

Guide to AMS Editor’s Package (American Mathematical Society) This link from the AMS website covers formatting for papers/monographs using LaTeX software, a common program for setting math type used here at Montclair State. It also provides templates to create title pages, bibliographies, etc. for LaTeX users.

Montclair State University Databases: Math (Montclair State University, Sprague Library) Montclair State students and faculty can access math-specific databases through Sprague Library. You will need to enter your NetID and password.

MRef (American Mathematical Society) This is a citation generator for standard references that include links to the MathSciNet database.

Overview of AMS-LaTeX Software (American Mathematical Society) This is an overview of the AMS-LaTeX software.