exploring longman writer’s...

©2005 Pearson Education, Inc. 50

EXPLORING Longman Writer’s Warehouse

This section of Chapter 2 includes the following information:

• Connections between the “WPA Outcomes Statement” and Longman Writer’s

Warehouse.

• Overview of Longman Writer’s Warehouse.

• Tips for Instructors and Suggestions for Use

CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE “WPA OUTCOMES STATEMENT” AND Longman

Writer’s Warehouse

The Writing Program Administrators (WPA) Outcomes Statement for First-Year Composition

<(www.wpacouncil.org>), adopted by the Council of Writing Program Administrators in 2000,

“describes the common knowledge, skills, and attitudes sought by first-year composition

programs in American postsecondary education.” It is one of the first benchmarks upon which

composition teachers and administrators across the United States have agreed. Not to be

confused with a national standard or assessment, the WPA Outcomes Statement provides a

framework to ground and study the many things students and teachers do to improve their

writing and teaching skills, respectively. At best, the outcomes expressed here are descriptive in

nature and local conditions of instruction must be factored in before developing any assessment

outcome or rubric for specific institutional use.

The WPA Outcomes Statement focuses on the following four areas:

• Rhetorical Knowledge.

• Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing.

• Processes.


• Knowledge of Conventions.

As a comprehensive Web site, MyCompLab helps teachers and student writers achieve many of

the outcomes stated by the WPA. In the Longman Writer’s Warehouse, connections to the WPA

outcome statement include the following:

Rhetorical Knowledge

• Facing a variety of writing tasks ranging from executive summaries to essays to lists.

• Composing for different audiences that have varied needs and concerns.

• Becoming aware of certain writing conventions that signal discourse shifts or needs.

• Understanding how context and situations shapes the amount and integrity of written

discourse.

Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing

• Using writing to learn about a variety of perspectives in different media.

• Working through a series of sequenced (or nested) writing assignments to create a

product greater than any one part.

• Thinking creatively (or “out of the box”) about topic selection, revision and responding to

the work of others.

• Understanding how language creates meaning in the personal, professional, and academic

worlds.

Processes

• Constructing and analyzing different composing processes for different writing situations.

• Revising work previously done in the Web site for different purposes and effects.

• Reflecting and critiquing one’s own work (and the work of others) with stated criteria and

criteria created by the writer.

• Encouraging students to write with others in partnerships and small groups and

understanding the dynamics of collaborative authorship.

Knowledge of Conventions

• Practicing citing and paraphrasing primary and secondary sources in MLA Style.

• Composing a Works Cited page

• Adjusting tone and style to fit a particular writing mode (such as Cause/Effect,

Comparison/Contrast, and Evaluation).

• Working in a variety of writing genres such as journal writing, descriptive writing,

summarizing and persuading.

• Reviewing fundamental concepts of editing, spelling, and grammar.

OVERVIEW OF Longman Writer’s Warehouse

The Longman Writer’s Warehouse is an online teaching tool designed to help student writers

develop their composing and revising skills while word processing. Moving writing instruction

out of the traditional classroom and into cyberspace, the Longman Writer’s Warehouse looks

toward the innovative power of technology to recast and remind instructors and students that


computer literacy and online composing skills are highly prized and rewarded not only in the

academy, but also in the “real” world of work and careers.

The Writer’s Warehouse moves students to work with multimedia content as well as electronic

copies of text and to compose entirely online. Students are asked to compose a variety of writing

assignments that span the typical first year sequence of composition at the post-secondary level;

additionally, they are given the opportunity to improve their critical thinking skills through

reading and critiquing both (traditional) linear text and electronic images and hypertext.

Finally, students are encouraged to save and submit the writing they do online in a personal

account they create. This way, students can save, send, and retrieve their writing entirely on the

web and avoid hauling around traditional pens, paper, textbooks, research texts and other items.

Students may choose to simply save their material on the Web site and/or they may submit their

writing via an e-mail link to their instructors who have access to an Instructional Management

System that displays the work their students have done.

Longman Writer’s Warehouse is more that a Web site with traditional drills and textbook

activities copied to the Internet. It offers a comprehensive set of tools for students to compose,

edit, revise, journal, research and, most importantly, study writing. Instructors will find that

Longman Writer’s Warehouse offers many entry points ranging from simple in-class writing

activity to writing assignment sequences that may take several weeks to complete. The Web site

and this Instructor’s Manual for MyCompLab offer clear, jargon-free language designed to assist

instructors in better navigating the sites of composition for their students and themselves.

Here is a brief overview of the main areas of interest to those using Longman Writer’s

Warehouse:

1. Activities: A centerpiece of the Web site, the Activities area contains a variety of writing

assignments that uses video and images to stimulate composing. The topics and exercises

here resemble actual classroom assignments in a college composition course.

2. Process: This area emphasizes studying the writing process cognitively or step by step.

Students compose different kinds of essays to strengthen their understanding of this process

as well as the aims and modes of composition. They may also work through a series of linked

exercises that will help them compose an entire essay from scratch.

3. Using Sources: In the Using Sources area, students work through a variety of linked and

stand-alone exercises that deal with using outside sources in essay writing. The topics

covered here range from avoiding plagiarism and paraphrasing to drafting and revising

research proposals and critiques. More than others, this part of the Web site emphasizes

“academic” writing.

4. Journal: In this area, students have the opportunity to keep an electronic journal. Besides

creating original entries, students may also view, edit, or delete previous entries they have

saved on the Web site. A list of journal topics is also provided to help start this important and

popular form of writing.

5. Web Links: This area contains nearly 150 links to other Web sites that deal with writing-

related issues. These links are arranged thematically and include mainly educational Web

sites.


6. Communities: Want to collaborate with others online? In the Communities area, students

can link up with a virtual community of other writers interested in improving their writing

skills.

7. Diagnostics: This area offers a traditional approach to improving writing through the study

of grammar and mechanics. Students are asked to take short online tests to help determine

their strengths and weaknesses in grammar, punctuation, usage and diction. After taking

these tests, students may use the test results as a jumping-off point for study in the Handbook

section.

8. Handbook: Much like a traditional grammar handbook, this area offers students an

opportunity to read and study specific rules and conventions of standard written English.

More than 2,000 questions help them study and master the rules of grammar, punctuation,

usage and sentence-level errors.

9. Help: This area offers a demo (or walk-through) of each area of the Writer's Warehouse for

Composition. You may want to view this demo to help you navigate the Web site.

10. My Work: Here in the My Work area, students can export, or send, any of their saved work

via e-mail.

11. Glossary: This area includes over 150 key terms related to composing in an academic

setting. Besides offering a brief definition of the term and an example, students may follow a

link to a writing exercise in the Web site that deals with that specific issue.

12. Instructional Management System (IMS): This area allows instructors to view student

progress and scores at a glance, by item type and individual student record.

1. Activities comprises a collection of writing prompts and assignments in various media

forms—images and video clips. These activities present informative and entertaining lessons

in working with revision, editing, and other aspects of the writing process. You can use an

Activity assignment to:

• Prompt students to write from a variety of perspectives.

• Tailor the writing process to fit different needs.

• Ask students to write entire essays.

• Practice narration and exposition.

Teaching Tip: Encourage

students to navigate the

Web site using the left-side

bar menu. Each of the

eleven areas listed above are

located on this side bar

menu. Simply position the

cursor over the desired area

(it will change color) and

click to enter that area.


Teaching Tip: The Activities offer exercises an instructor could use as daily work in a writing

class or extended assignments that constitute major course papers or projects.

2. Process offers step-by-step instruction that guides the writer through the writing process.

Users may select either linked exercises that build on one another, or stand-alone exercises

that concentrate on one stage of the writing process.

Each Process exercise is built around two central ideas:

• Students must understand the writing process as a whole. Students must become

conscious of the different phases of the writing process and how they relate to one

another and, ultimately, collapse into one another.

• Students must learn how to write by actually writing. Each of the exercises in the

Process section guides students through a detailed and purposeful writing assignment that

helps them practice their writing skills while studying various aspects of the writing

process

These two fundamental ideas reflect the change in writing process theory over the past three

decades. As the diagram below illustrates, each Process exercise contains an overview,

instructional text, writing area, and, in some cases, sample text:

Media selection

links are located

near the top.

Media box displays

video or image.

Instructional text for

activity follows image.

Student input

screen includes

Save and E-mail

buttons.


3. Using Sources offers students many different ways to practice using primary and secondary

sources in academic writing. This area also brings to light other important issues surrounding

research and writing, such as using MLA style, summarizing, synthesizing, and avoiding

plagiarism.

Using Sources focuses on five key elements in academic writing:

• Summarizing and Paraphrasing.

• Quoting.

• Avoiding Problems in Using Sources.

• Developing a Research Project.

• Using MLA Style.

The following screen shot shows the main areas students need to work through and understand:

Teaching Tip: The Process

exercises can be assigned

together or separately. Have

students start out with a

“linked” exercise that moves

them through each step of the

writing process sequentially.

Teaching Tip: The overview and

instruction text explains how the

exercise relates to the writing

process and highlights certain

writing skills.


4. Journal is an electronic place for students to write down and save their thoughts. In addition

to accessing and modifying previous journal entries, students may also choose from a list of

journal topics for writing practice.

Many writing instructors use and require journal writing—informed by expressive theories of

composing—in their courses. The Journal area is intended to help students with the following:

• Understanding the wide-ranging use of writing in personal and professional situations.

• Allowing a space for students to write about themselves and their experiences.

• Learning to prewrite regularly through techniques like brainstorming, listing, and asking

questions.

• Growing to enjoy the personal side of writing outside of academics.

The Journal works much like a word processor in layout and feel. Students can save their work

or e-mail it to themselves or their instructor.

Instructions and

overview

discussion area.

Sample text (or in

this case sources) for

student work.

Student input

screen with Save

and E-mail

buttons.


5. Web Links collects useful writing-related Web sites into one place. In this area, users find a

wealth of resources to improve their writing, research, vocabulary, and reading skills. This

area allows students room to breathe and grow in terms of finding their own favorite places

on the Web to practice and improve their writing skills.

The Web sites collected in Web Links contain annotated entries for following areas:

• The Writing Process

• Prewriting

• Planning

• Drafting

• Revising

• Finalizing

• Narration and Description

• Other Writing Modes

• Argumentation

• Essay Exams

• The Research Paper and Working With Sources

• Critical Reading and Responding to Literature

• Resources for Grammar and Mechanics

Journals are

dated

automatically.

Student input area.

Save, Delete, or Return

to Main Journal Page

button.

Teaching Tip: Many instructors see journal writing as a place for students to write

“penalty free” and without fear of assessment

Teaching Tip: This section provides excellent material for students to critique the look

and effectiveness of web design and hypertext writing. You may want to combine the

Web site offerings in this section with some of the Process or Using Sources activities.

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