[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-598152-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-598152-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","teaching-english-literature-survey-as-a-writing-course-online","Teaching English Literature Survey as a Writing Course - Online","","A writing-centered approach for online literature survey instruction focuses on motivating reluctant students in English Literature Before 1800. It argues that writing-to-learn strategies should complement reading quizzes, exams, and out-of-class essays, helping students move from grudging study to engaged cultural understanding. The piece details grading systems for discussion boards and journals, unit modules with scaffolded prompts, and concrete examples tied to authors and themes. It also outlines lecture-driven context and peer-responsive writing practices.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/teaching-english-literature-survey-as-a-writing-course-online/598152/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/teaching-english-literature-survey-as-a-writing-course-online/598152.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Mafia Boss","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-01","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",6,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"Why does the author emphasize writing-to-learn strategies in literature survey courses?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"Because required courses often face student resistance, writing-to-learn helps move students beyond grudging study toward passionate engagement and deeper learning.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How does the grading system for journals and discussion boards work?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"The online journal accounts for 20% of the course grade, discussion boarding for another 10%, based on completeness and thoughtfulness supported by textual evidence or personal examples.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What role do unit modules play in the online journaling and discussion prompts?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"The author embeds prompts within unit modules that provide background information and introduce key themes, helping students contextualize their responses.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},598152,1792192135,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,101,105,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":97,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":98,"show_sort_weight":99,"slug":100},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":97,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":112,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144,"preview_page_count":4},962090760730,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_9964176cb1d06d4a9deccf72a44ae3dc","Teaching English Literature Survey as a Writing Course—Online  \nRich Raymond  \nMississippi State University  \nOver four decades, countless colleagues and I have tried varied strategies to increase the odds that students in sophomore-level literature survey classes might learn and retain their readings in English, American, or world literatures.1  \nClearly, all faculty share this learning objective in all courses they teach, but fulfilling this objective becomes most challenging when the students ‘have to’ take the course and lack other motivations to work hard and learn. Precisely this situation faces instructors of literature surveys, typically populated by 20-plus students fulfilling a humanities requirement and by 5-10 English majors fulfilling prerequisites for upper-level literature courses. To challenge this resistance to required courses, instructors quiz students regularly on the readings; they also require examinations that ask students to define key terms, to answer background questions focused on authors and dates, to identify key passages by author/title/speaker, and to explain the thematic significance of each quotation. Additionally, most instructors require at least one outof-class essay and/or a research paper to engage students in critical thinking on the readings. Such strategies hardly guarantee that students will become enthusiastic about the material, but they do encourage students to complete the readings and to retain the information—at least until the essays and examinations end.  \nBut we must complement the practices listed above with writing-to-learn strategies if we want to move our students beyond grudging study to passionate engagement with the material, readings that can foster cultural understanding and help students to reflect on their own lives. In other words, literature professors should not settle for just requiring students to write essays; instead, they should prepare their students to write those essays by helping them to internalize the literature via prewriting strategies and by coaching their efforts at revision. In short, all literature courses should be writing courses. My claim rests on my work with the National Writing Project and with Mississippi State University’s Maroon Institute for Writing Excellence.2  \nIn the pages below, I will describe my efforts to use writing-centered strategies to engage initially reluctant students in my survey course in English Literature Before 1800. Though I have taught this course countless times in traditional classrooms, using the same strategies I will describe below—Discussion boards, journaling, multi-drafting—my descriptions here will focus exclusively on an online section of this course. I do so to support my secondary claim that, if writing-to-learn strategies motivate students and deepen their learning in the classroom, then we must employ the same pedagogies, duly adapted to cyberspace, in all online courses. Finally, to stress the significance of my claims in a broader context, I will close with a brief historical sketch of the long debate on the place of literature in the writing classroom and, more to my point, on the place of writing in the literature classroom.  \nOnline Discussion via Discussion Boards and Journals  \nI provide the first motivator for my students to take journaling and the Discussion Board seriously by stressing in the syllabus and within unit modules that the online journal will determine 20% of their grade in the course, Discussion Boarding another 10%, and that their journal and Discussion Board grades will rest on just two criteria: completeness—responding to all prompts—and thoughtfulness—supporting their comments with textual evidence or with personal examples, depending on the nature of the prompt. I have found that in both traditional and online classes, grade-conscious students jump at the chance to compile journals and to discuss readings online, just to earn the points; I have also found that students’ part","cbCaieDkF6FQvb80","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaieDkF6FQvb80","pdf",374343,"English","# Online Discussion via Discussion Boards and Journals\n## Using grading criteria to motivate participation\n## Embedding prompts within unit modules\n## Lecture context on authors and themes","[{\"question\":\"Why does the author emphasize writing-to-learn strategies in literature survey courses?\",\"answer\":\"Because required courses often face student resistance, writing-to-learn helps move students beyond grudging study toward passionate engagement and deeper learning.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the grading system for journals and discussion boards work?\",\"answer\":\"The online journal accounts for 20% of the course grade, discussion boarding for another 10%, based on completeness and thoughtfulness supported by textual evidence or personal examples.\"},{\"question\":\"What role do unit modules play in the online journaling and discussion prompts?\",\"answer\":\"The author embeds prompts within unit modules that provide background information and introduce key themes, helping students contextualize their responses.\"}]","Teaching English Literature Survey as a Writing Course - Online | PDF",1792086384,76]