Works
CM213: Writing & Communications
Semesters taught: Fall 2010, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2015Catalogue Description: CM213 is an intermediate-level writing course, emphasizing skills necessary in communications and bridging the gap between freshmen composition and professional writing. The course prepares students to do extensive research in the field, collaborate on group projects and presentations, and hone skills in analysis and argument, not to mention effective use of language and style.
COURSE MATERIALS, PDF:
- Syllabus
- Annotated Bibliography Assignment Sheet
- Wikipedia Entry Assignment Sheet
- Group Project Assignment Sheet
- Final Essay Assignment Sheet
I have done more work on CM213 as a course than any other course I’ve taught in my career. When I arrived at Arcadia it was a required course for the major but had no AUC designation. As a result, many students resented the course (having already taken several writing courses) and felt confused about its purpose. During my first semester I struggled to define the course, understand what kind of work I could expect from Arcadia students, and intuit what sort of training they had already received from their W and RW courses. I presume first semesters are always difficult, and indeed the Fall 2010 section of this course was the most difficult one I’ve ever experienced as a teacher. The students’ frustration is visible in their comments on their evaluations, even as as the seeds of the course that CM213 would eventually become are visible, as well.
As the semesters went on I began to shape the course to better fit our curriculum and the needs of our majors. I applied for and secured an “RW” designation in Spring 2011. I organized the course around utilizing new media tools of research and writing to give students practical skills (with online services like Zotero, WordPress, Ahead, CreativeCommons and Google nGrams, among others). I assigned the Clay Shirky book Here Comes Everybody to emphasize a course theme of new media and the possibility of collaboration. I also designed the course to serve as a prelude to Senior Seminar, and cooperated with John Noakes and Larissa Gordon on an Information Literacy assessment. I added a Wikipedia assignment in Fall 2011 to expand the course’s range of writing genres, and to strengthen the course’s focus on new forms of collaborative research and writing. The assignment had the added benefit of providing support and direction for the annotated bibliography assignment that directly precedes it. The goal of all these changes wasn’t to radically alter what I had started in Fall 2010, but rather to make students more aware of the relevance and the purpose of the work we were doing. These changes also helped to fit the course into the broader Media & Communication curriculum. Another explicit goal was to challenge students to do more and better work than they have before—because other students at other universities certainly aren’t taking it easy. The improvement in the course is visible in students’ comments and ratings, but it’s even more evident in the work coming out of the capstone projects. I’m very proud of this course, and I think students benefit from it tremendously.
| CM213 | FALL 2010 | SPRING 2011 | FALL 2011 | SPRING 2012 | FALL 2012 | SPRING 2013 | FALL 2013 | SPRING 2014 | FALL 2014 | CAREER AVG | ARCADIA AVG | NATL AVG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | 10 | 15 | 14 | 12 | 14 | 13 | 11 | 14 | 14 | |||
| Organization/Planning | 3.88 | 4.55 | 4.54 | 4.53 | 4.86 | 4.66 | 4.75 | 4.53 | 4.33 | 4.50 | 4.38 | 4.31 |
| Communication | 4.3 | 4.67 | 4.63 | 4.63 | 4.8 | 4.72 | 4.78 | 4.7 | 4.59 | 4.63 | 4.48 | 4.37 |
| Faculty/Student Interaction | 4.06 | 4.65 | 4.54 | 4.57 | 4.83 | 4.58 | 4.86 | 4.7 | 4.34 | 4.54 | 4.49 | 4.37 |
| Assignments, Exams, Grading | 3.7 | 4.36 | 4.37 | 4.3 | 4.79 | 4.58 | 4.54 | 4.25 | 4.02 | 4.35 | 4.23 | 4.17 |
| Supplementary Instruction | 3.73 | 4.31 | 4.36 | 4.36 | 4.66 | 4.32 | 4.14 | 4.28 | 4.14 | 4.29 | N/A | N/A |
| Course Outcomes | 3.4 | 4.33 | 4.06 | 4.12 | 4.83 | 4.05 | 3.95 | 4.04 | 3.97 | 4.13 | 3.83 | 3.81 |
| Student Effort | 3.5 | 4.16 | 3.9 | 4.22 | 4.6 | 3.92 | 3.58 | 3.79 | 3.62 | 4.05 | 3.76 | 3.88 |
| Overall Evaluation | 3.4 | 4.43 | 4.54 | 4.41 | 5 | 4.54 | 4.55 | 4.43 | 4.14 | 4.39 | 4.12 | 4.08 |
FULL QUANTITATIVE DATA FROM EVALS, PDF FORMAT: CM213
RAW COURSE EVALS IN PDF: CM213
CM213: Selected Student Comments:
“It was hard to tell what our homework was most of the time. It makes me nervous because I don’t know what he counts for grades, whether its just the projects and papers or more”
— Student in CM213, Fall 2010
“It was much more challenging than I had expected, but I feel as though it made me both a better writer/researcher and a better student.”
— Student in CM213, Fall 2010“The use of many different online resources is a skill I think I can use for the rest of my college career as well as when I graduate.”
— Student in CM213, Spring 2011“The class discussions were very interesting and made me think and view things in a different way. All the assignments helped me become a better writer and develop skills needed in the communications field.”
— Student in CM213, Spring 2011“It required a lot of work and group work which pushed me to focus more on academics.”
— Student in CM213, Fall 2011“Initially I thought this class was going to be a re-hash of things I already knew, but I was very interested by some of the new forms of technology that were introduced (Prezi/Etherpad/etc). There were also some helpful writing tips.”
— Student in CM213, Fall 2011“The in-class readings, discussions, videos and tutorials were very beneficial. Everything was hands-on and you never really get that from a research writing class [….] I always hated research writing as opposed to regular writing because I thought it was stiff and boring. This class showed me that research writing can be just as exciting.[….] I felt that I learned a lot that I can apply to other classes and real life.”
— Student in CM213, Fall 2011“This was the best class that I took this semester. It not only greatly improved my ability to write research papers, but helped me to think about research writing in a new way.”
— Student in CM213, Fall 2013“Our projects all felt like an opportunity to contribute, or learn to contribute, to the world”
— Student in CM213, Fall 2014“This course completely transformed the way I write and introduced me to several extremely helpful tools. It was my favorite class from this year”
— Student in CM213, Spring 2014
