Writing Across the CS Curriculum

Brian C. Ladd

Department of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Statistics
St. Lawrence University
http://it.stlawu.edu/~blad/

St. Lawrence University

• Small liberal arts institution
• Strong mathematics department
• More than a decade of the First Year Program
• Teaching the teaching of writing
• Student familiarity with terminology of writing across the curriculum
• All students are now required to complete a Senior Year Experience: CS fulfills this with a senior project

It's All Writing

• Writing across the curriculum:
  active engagement with words leads to
  active engagement with ideas
• Assignments across the full spectrum of
  • Subject
  • Levels of subject
  • Levels of length and formality
    • Writing to learn
    • Writing to communicate
  • Media (written/oral)
• Applicability to computer science?

Writing Across the CS Curriculum

• Using guided rewrites on formal assignments
• Using oral presentations of primary literature
• Using "one-minute designs"

Guided Rewrites

Description

• CS1-CS2 (whenever time is available)
• Design document due early
• Graded design returned before program is finished
• Graded program is expected to be rewritten
• Writing to communicate

Guided Rewrites

Evaluation

• Benefits
  • Student's feel they control their grade
  • Reengaging with the material
  • More difficult to copy and paste
• Costs
  • Multiple grading cycles
  • Good students don't always benefit

Oral Presentations

Description

• Standard seminar setup
• Instructor presents some papers
• Each student selects (with guidance) and presents at least two papers
• Approximately 30 minute presentations
• Students and professor grade presentations
• Oral communication (writing to communicate)

Oral Presentations

Evaluation

• Benefits
  • Learn to prepare and give presentation
  • Engage primary literature
• Costs
  • Classroom time
  • Prep time

One-Minute Design

Description

• Present problem specification
• Give student's exactly one minute to design solution
• Discuss solution (as class or small groups)
• Sometimes collect the written designs (grading on completion)
• Writing to learn

One-Minute Design

Evaluation

• Benefits
  • Active engagement with idea/problem
  • Identifying important features
  • Better design documents
• Costs
  • Classroom time
  • Poor students don't always benefit

Writing Across the CS Curriculum

• It's all writing
• Writing across the curriculum has useful ideas on teaching writing
  • Multiple drafts on formal writing
  • Oral presentations
  • Informal writing assignments
  • Writing portfolios
• These ideas have fruitful application in the computer science curriculum
• http://it.stlawu.edu/~blad/