You can find a downloadable pdf version of this prompt here: Handout Creation Prompt PDF
Why?
As we’ll discuss this quarter, writing centers provide countless resources to students across campuses. Part of this work includes the development and distribution of handouts designed to help students with specific aspects of the writing process. This extra work option gives you the experience of thinking through and developing your own writing-related handout that can contribute to and help the UCSB community.
- Deadline: Monday, December 7th (Finals Week) (can be completed at any point prior to then)
- This is an additional work option; it is not required to pass the course.
The Assignment
For this additional work option, using the CLAS website as a reference, you will either create a new writing-related handout or heavily revise an already existing writing-related handout. While the topic of your writing-related handout is up to you, ideally, your handout could be included as one of CLAS’s resources for future students. In addition to the final version of the handout, you will also write an 800-1000 word reflection about the process – explaining the choices you made and why you made them.
This extra assignment is pretty open in terms of what you decide to create a handout about and/or which handout you decide to revise. Ultimately, though, you should use the “Writing Handouts & Worksheets” found on the CLAS website here to help guide your decisions.
Things to keep in mind:
- You can choose what aspect of writing your handout will address.
- This can be a more concrete part of the writing process – from brainstorming, to revision, to structure, to format, etc. Or it can be something a bit more abstract, like audience, purpose, tone, etc.
- You can also choose to focus on a specific type of assignment for your handout.
- These can be thought of as genres for a discipline, types of writing assignments that occur frequently in your specific discipline, major, or field of study. Or they can be a class specific assignment that you think other students would appreciate having handouts about to help explain intricacies or expectations of that particular writing assignment.
- The formatting and approach is up to you. Again, take a look at the handouts on CLAS’s website to get a sense of the different options and ways you could approach it.
- You are welcome to pick a handout that already exists and revise it, but this needs to consist of deep revision that is for a specific purpose.
- While you can explain this in the reflection component of your assignment, feel free to email me if you have any questions about this. We can talk about the expectations further.
The Reflection
In addition to your writing-related handout creation and/or revision, you will be composing an 800-1000 word reflection about the process. While this can be written conversationally, your reflection should:
- be in traditional essay format – using complete sentences and paragraphs for clarity and structure and to ensure your points come across to your reader,
- establish the purpose of your handout and why you decided to focus on the topic that you did
- explain any choices you made throughout the process
- get specific about what you included and why
- discuss the formatting and structure you used for your handout and why
- explain how you took into account the audience, context, tone, style, etc. and how you feel it helps you achieve your purpose
- consider how you used the already existing writing-related handouts to guide your process
- make connections to the course material and readings to help think through and/or ground your ideas.