USING COMPUTERS TO TEACH

WRITING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM

BY LORETTA KASPER

This page contains an annotated list of Web sites that may be used to teach writing across the curriculum (WAC) in the secondary school or college classroom.

• Here you will find links to sites that focus on building students' LITERACY SKILLS.
  

  These sites contain resources to help students develop spelling, vocabulary, and grammar skills necessary for clear and coherent writing.

• You will also find links to GENERAL INFORMATION that students may use in their writings on topics in mainstream disciplines like Psychology, Computer Science, Biology, and many others.
  

  This section contains links to web sites on the Internet that focus on some academic subject areas that may be studied in high school and college.

• You will find links to suggested WRITING PROJECTS in the disciplines that are appropriate for high school and college students.

  These projects have been designed to help students practice academic reading, writing, and research skills.

• Finally, you will find links to popular and useful SEARCH ENGINES.
  

  Teachers and students may use these search engines to locate and access information in the disciplines studied in the course.

1. The CUNY WriteSite

   The CUNY WriteSite is an Online Writing Lab maintained by the City University of New York. This site contains links to information and exercises that may be used to help students build and improve their academic writing skills.

2. The Hypertext Webster Gateway at UCSD

   The Hypertext Webster Gateway at UCSD is an online dictionary and thesaurus that students may access when writing.

3. Funbrain.com Spelling.

   Many students have problems spelling words in English and this often makes their writing difficult to understand. Funbrain.com Spelling provides them with spelling practice and immediate feedback on their answers.

4. English Structure for Academic Purposes

   This site authored by Ann Salzmann provides students with a variety of resources and exercises that they may use to help them improve academic grammar skills.

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This section contains links to informational resources in academic disciplines commonly studied in high school and college.

• Business--This link will take you to The Marketing Source, a web site which contains links to information on business and marketing, with a full section on Marketing on the Internet.

• Psychology--This link will take you to Psych Web, a web site which contains links to texts on a variety of topics that are studied in psychology courses.

• Computer Science--This link will take you to the web pages of the COG and Kismet Artificial Intelligence Research Projects at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

• Biology--This link will take you to the web page of the Human Genome Project. This site provides information on the project itself, as well as on the educational, medical, legal, and ethical issues related to the project.

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This section links to a web page of assignments for the academic disciplines listed above.

Writing Projects for Business, Psychology, Computer Science, and Biology

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AltaVista:

AltaVista is an example of a Coordinated Directory and Search Engine.
Coordinated means that the directory and search engine tools operate interactively.

Yahoo:

Yahoo is an example of a Non-coordinated Directory and Search Engine.
Non-coordinated means that the directory and search engine tools operate independently.

C4:

C4 is an example of a MultiSearch Engine.
C4 accesses a number of different search databases and searches them simultaneously.

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© 1999--Loretta Kasper
All Rights Reserved