Implementing Writing in Your Course

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Welcome! 

The guides in these pages (linked in the right sidebar) were designed by writing specialists to provide instructors across departments and disciplines with strategies for teaching writing in their courses. Teaching with writing does involve an investment, but after an initial outlay of time, you will be repaid with: 

  • Meaningful assignments that you can adapt for different courses 
  • Greater efficiency and fairness in assessing student writing 
  • Improved student learning and autonomy, and fewer incentives for students to cheat with AI (or other) tools 
  • More equitable and accessible courses, particularly as they relate to language and writing 

In short, teaching writing to improve learning and equity is not a zero-sum game for instructors. Believe it or not, better writing instruction can lead to less effort in the long run. 

These guides suggest starting points for improving equity, effectiveness, and efficiency  in teaching writing. If you would like to go even further in depth, you can also check out Teaching@UW’s teaching resources, or go meet with folks at the Odegaard Writing and Research Center (they can help workshop your writing assignments!).  

The Guides

We invite you to work through the guides linked in the sidebar. The guides are divided into four topics that address many instructors’ main concerns with teaching writing: 

Within each module, which will take 20-40 minutes to read and digest depending on your energy, you will encounter questions instructors often have about this topic, followed by suggestions for practice, and occasional further reading and resources. 

Questions or Feedback?

These guides were first built in 2020 by a group of writing specialists from the Center for Teaching and Learning, Odegaard Writing and Research Center, and Department of English. A significant revision and overall of this guide was completed in Winter and Spring 2026. Please feel free to get in touch directly with any questions or feedback on these guides. We also encourage you to submit your own teaching materials (such as writing assignments, activities, or grading approaches) to our repository—you can do that here ...

Megan Callow, Director of Writing@UW: mcallow@uw.edu