Home Teaching Guides Teaching Writing in First-Year Seminars Descriptive Statement

Writing in First-Year Seminars

Integrating Writing

Rhetorical Context

Make it Matter

Course Connections

Academic vs. Real-World Writing

Assigning Writing

Working from Goals

Writing Center Support

Instructor Resources

Assigning Research

Framing Assignments

Helping Students Focus

Library Research

Web Research

Documentation

Plagiarism

Peer Review

Specifying Tasks

Sequencing Tasks

Modeling Criteria

Modeling Commenting

Divergent Advice

Logistics

Time

Building in Incentives

Handout

Responding to Writing

Emphasizing Drafting

Becoming a Coach

Focusing Comments

Determining Grades

Writing Center Support

Sample Materials

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Authors & Contributors

Descriptive Statement

Back to End Comments

A descriptive statement is a non-evaluative observation that reinforces students’ awareness of what they’ve done in a particular piece of writing. Young writers seldom look back over a piece of writing with a clear sense of what they’ve produced. Opening with a descriptive statement like “You’ve written a detailed summary of Steele’s essay� reacquaints students with the writing they’ve accomplished and prepares them for an evaluation of that writing.

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