Expectations for Written Work
Bernice L. Hausman
English Department
Virginia Tech

Contact Info:
206 Shanks Hall, 231-5076
homepage
Email: bhausman@vt.edu

What this page is for:

This page includes information about expectations for written work handed in to Prof. Bernice Hausman. Information presented here is meant to explain basic expectations and a general approach to grading criteria. This information does not override specific instruction on any given assignment. Grading guidelines are available on the website. This page discusses in a more general way both how to approach writing assignments in Prof. Hausman's classes and how these assignments are evaluated.

There are basically two kinds of writing that you will hand in during the course of a semester: informal writing, usually in response to readings or class discussion, and formal writing, in the form of papers. Formatting guidelines for papers are available on the website. In addition, specific tips for writing papers are available on the website; these include instructions for devising a thesis statement, writing the introductory paragraph, and creating a conclusion.

Informal Writing:

There are a number of purposes for informal writing assignments. One is to keep students writing throughout the semester. (The more one practices writing, the better one gets: writing is a skill that is developed, not a capacity one is born with or without.) Another purpose is to accustom the professor to each student's writing style, strengths and weaknesses in critical thinking, and academic interests. Informal writing can also serve as an assessment of student reading; in this sense, it can be substituted for quizzes and other assessment tools. Most of all, informal writing assignments help the professor to get to know you as a student and as a thinker. Informal writing assignments thus help the professor give you specific and targeted instruction for formal writing assignments.

Most informal writing assignments for Prof. Hausman's classes are not graded. Usually, these assignments receive points if they are handed in on time and meet minimum requirements for length. Thus, these assignments are more for you as a student than for her as a teacher--they represent an opportunity for you to explore your responses to the readings and class discussion, and to get feedback from the professor, without concern about grades.

Formal writing assignments in Prof. Hausman's classes are generally interpretive essays. Here, interpretive means analytic, critical, and thoughtful. Prof. Hausman rarely assigns research papers. The difference between an interpretive paper and a research paper is subtle--a research paper gathers other people's ideas and written comments about a topic and organizes these according to the student's perspective and analysis of this research. The bulk of a research paper is taken up with the collation and discussion of other people's ideas. An interpretive paper focuses on the student's own perspective, developed through readings and discussion in class, in direct contact with the text or cultural practice being analysed. Thus, it is clear that research papers involve interpretation, and that interpretive papers involve research, but that in large part each kind of paper emphasizes a different kind of academic skill.

Pay attention to the assignment and how it defines what kind of writing is expected. You've probably noticed that Prof. Hausman's classes tend to load on the readings. She will want you to develop your own perspective through your contact with course materials, and convey that perspective through your written papers for class. This is not simply conveying your "opinion" in papers; rather, this means developing a theoretical or interpretive slant that is uniquely your own as a result of what you have read about and learned in the class, and then using that perspective to interpret materials on your own.

Prof. Hausman's has high expectations for your formal writing. Both graduate and undergraduate papers should be free of mechanical errors and grammatical mistakes. Papers that cite other authors should use a consistent form for documentation (MLA style preferred for English classes, documentationi style consistent with your discipline in Women's Studies classes). Most importantly, formal writing for Prof. Hausman should be challenging. You should not write only what you already know, but challenge yourself through the writing to learn something that you did not already know. In your conclusions, you should be able to come up with some ideas that were not available to you when you were writing the paper in the beginning. The process of writing is one of discovery, and the element of discovery is often what distinguishes an excellent paper from a merely good one.

Grading criteria for formal writing assignments follow those on Prof. Hausman's grading guidelines web page. Pay attention to the criteria listed on the assignment page for any specific assignment. In general, Prof. Hausman is interested in the quality of your thinking as it is conveyed through your writing; clarity of presentation is also very important, especially when your paper deals with complex ideas and interpretations. Finally, remember that sincerity is an important academic value and interpretive stance--choose topics that interest you, that you care about. This will make your papers more meaningful to you and to Prof. Hausman, although it can also, at times, make them more difficult to figure out and write.

All written assignments must comply with the provisions of the Virginia Tech Honor Code. Plagiarism is a violation of the Honor Code.