I. ENGLISH WRITING REQUIREMENT | II. ENGLISH WRITING REQUIREMENT MARKING AND GRADES | III. ASSIGNMENT CHECKLISTS | IV. SECOND DRAFT REFLECTIONS | V. ENGLISH WRITING REQUIREMENT REPORTS | VI. CONSULTATIONS | VII. WRITING REQUIREMENT EVALUATION | VIII. CONTACTING THE ENGLISH WRITING REQUIREMENT TEAM | IX. USE OF DATA | X. EWR WORKSHOPS | XI. EWR DROP-IN CONSULTATIONS
All PolyU students are required to complete one subject that includes a requirement for a substantial piece of writing in English among those taken within their CAR programme.
In order to be eligible for "W" credit for the subject, students will be required to:
1. view online a short lecture series focusing on writing strategies, provided by the ELC, and
2. submit online two drafts of the same piece of extensive writing in order for ELC teachers to 1) provide feedback and 2) assess the progress made by the student in the writing process as well as the quality of their work. The grade assigned for these writing activities will account for 10% of the subject's final grade. The final paper will be graded by the subject teacher and will count for a substantial proportion of the subject grade (i.e., no less than 30% of the subject grade).
The purpose of the CAR (and also of the Writing Requirement ¡V see 'Literacy' in bold face below) is to expand your intellectual capacity beyond your disciplinary domain, so that you will be enabled to tackle professional and global issues from a multidisciplinary perspective. This is done through pursuing a broader range of academic subjects that are significantly different from your major in terms of their paradigms, theoretical perspectives and methods of enquiry.
CAR subjects are designed to have characteristics and learning approaches that emphasize:
With the support provided by the ELC for the English Writing Requirement in terms of feedback on two drafts, students can enhance their ability to
As part of the Writing Requirement, ELC teachers provide support for the language aspects of the genre students are working on during the semester. The second draft receives a 10% mark based on the extent and quality of revision as well as the overall quality of the second draft.
Writing is a recursive process that cultivates deeper thinking and learning. There is no good writing. There is good re-writing. Writing two drafts and revising twice a semester helps students develop into better writers through revising texts to suit the audience and genre in response to the feedback comments they receive from ELC teachers.
If only one draft is submitted, you will lose a score out of 10% allotted for the EWR component. You will also miss the precious opportunity of getting your ELC writing teacher's feedback on the draft that you fail to submit.
In order to pass the subject, students must pass the writing component assessment, i.e., attain a minimum grade D in the writing component.
To pass the Writing Requirement component, students are required to:
No, you won't fail the subject, but you will lose a score out of the 10% allotted for the writing component. Be aware that if you fail to get a passing mark for your final essay, you fail the course. And that is serious. For this reason, you should submit both draft one and draft 2, and you get a score!
Yes
In order to get a good grade both from the ELC and your subject teacher, do the following:
Only the second draft will be assigned a mark (i.e., will be graded) by the ELC, though both drafts submitted to the ELC will receive feedback. The final draft will be assessed by your subject teacher.
You will receive no marks if you submit only one draft. This is because the aim of this requirement is to help you develop as writers through a process of writing multiple drafts. We will be unable to assess your development based on one draft only.
When assigning a mark for your second draft, we will be using these criteria: task fulfillment, organization, language, and revision.
Your marks are released online once they are confirmed with your subject teacher (i.e., after the semester is over). You can check these on Learn@PolyU on your English Writing Requirement site where you submitted your drafts.
A checklist guides you in two ways. You can
The checklist will become available under "Writing Assignment" on the Writing Requirement blackboard site at least one week before the first draft is due.
You need to submit a reflection piece together with the second draft.
We encourage you to reflect on your own learning process, your strengths as well as weaknesses, questions that still remain unanswered, or anything else that has to do with the writing assignment. This will help you clarify the teacher's feedback, understand your own learning, and improve your writing. These reflections help us understand your abilities better, and, consequently, help us prepare more specific, more useful feedback.
Reflections are not compulsory and are not graded but ELC teachers do read these and use them to assess the revised drafts and prepare further feedback.
Please reflect on the process of revision by thinking about the following questions:
You may add any other point in your reflection.
Here is a sample reflection:
Revising my own work helps clarify my thoughts. Sometimes, I may miss something important that should be elaborated more. This lends a fresh perspective to the work for me so I can write more thoroughly and clearly. I was quite confused when I have to explain why I would like to choose this topic but spending more time to organize my thoughts is better for completing the rest of my work. And I've learn a lesson to think before I act.
The length is not important but anything shorter than 50 words may not be useful.
You will receive detailed reports on each draft you submit to the ELC. These are known as "Writing Requirement reports" or "feedback reports".
Reports may vary as teachers have different styles and assignments/drafts differ from each other, but a typical report includes an overall evaluation of your draft and, most importantly, specific action points that you need to complete in order to improve your draft.
The ELC teacher assigned to read your drafts will prepare the reports. In general, the same teacher will read both drafts and write both reports.
In general, your report will be released online 14 days after your draft submission deadline. For example, if the draft submission deadline is 1 Nov 23:59, the corresponding report will be released online on 15 Nov 23:59.
Once the report is released online, you will see a link "First Draft Report" or "Second Draft Report" in the English Writing and Reading Requirements section in Learn@PolyU. For more details, you may refer to the Blackboard User Guide for EWT Submission.
You are strongly encouraged to read each report because in it the ELC teacher will offer advice on what you can do to improve the draft further. This advice will be presented as specific action points, with concrete examples from your drafts.
The objectives of the English Writing Consultation Sessions are
No. Consultation sessions are voluntary and first come first served. However, you need to attend if you book as you have the quota of only two sessions per semester.
In general, consultation sessions take place about two weeks after the draft submission deadline and around the time when the feedback reports are released.
The consultation sessions are normally open for booking after each draft submission deadline. For the detailed session timetable, visit:
https://elc.polyu.edu.hk/booking/ew_availablelist.php
You will be notified via email when the booking system for consultations is open.
You will receive an email with the subject "English Writing Consultation Session Registration" from ELC EWR (elc.ewr@polyu.edu.hk) about your successful consultation session registration.
You are advised to
Each consultation is about 30 minutes long.
For face-to-face session, up to two students can attend the same session, with each student booking the session separately. In other words, if you want to bring a friend, he or she will have to formally book the same session as you.
While for online session (if provided), only one student can attend in each session.
You can cancel your registered session at least one day prior to the consultation session before 6.00 pm via email. If a student is absent without cancellation, he/she will be counted as absent. Special reasons, such as medical or emergency will be dealt with on a case by case basis.
Send your cancellation email to elc.ewr@polyu.edu.hk.
You will be counted as absent and lose one of the two allocated sessions.
You can book a WAP session if available at https://elc.polyu.edu.hk/booking/main.php.
We use this online evaluation survey to gather your feedback on how the English Writing Requirement is structured and implemented. We then use this feedback to continuously improve the programme.
You will have a chance to tell us what works well when it comes to the Writing Requirement. You will also have a say in how the Writing Requirement could be done better.
We encourage you to do this at the end of the semester. The survey will become available only in the last weeks of the semester.
It should take around 5-10 minutes of your time.
We suggest that you contact your subject teacher when you have questions or concerns about your writing assignment.
If you have questions about the Writing Requirement, its aims, deadlines and implementation model, please contact the English Writing Requirement Team. Click "Contact Us" on the Writing Requirement site on Learn@PolyU for contact details.
Please, feel free to e-mail your ELC teacher directly or contact the liaison of the English Writing Requirement Team working on your subject if you have questions about your feedback report.
For any questions/concerns about the consultation sessions, please email to elc.ewr@polyu.edu.hk.
Your writing may help us understand how students approach writing across various subjects at the university level, what challenges they may face and how we may be able to help them overcome these challenges. Your scripts, therefore, may be used for research and teaching purposes. To maintain your privacy, all the scripts, if used, will be anonymised prior to their use. If you do not wish your scripts to be used for research and teaching purposes, please, e-mail elc.ewr@polyu.edu.hk.
Just like your scripts, your reflections and survey answers help us (1) understand students' writing practices and challenges and (2) improve our support tools. All the information, if used, will be anonymised, but if you do not wish your data to be used for research and teaching purposes, please, e-mail elc.ewr@polyu.edu.hk.
EWR workshops are 90-minute-long sessions during which you will be offered support in analysing your EWR assignment task, understanding its specific expectations and language requirements, preparing a detailed outline of your drafts, understanding your language teacher's feedback, and incorporating feedback into your revisions. These sessions are based on hands-on activities after completing which you should have a clear understanding of your assignment and a good plan for completing it.
Yes, these workshops are based on hands-on activities, which means you will need to bring your texts with you or have an online access to them. These texts are: assignment instructions and checklist for EWR Workshop 1 and ELC teacher's feedback report and your first draft for EWR Workshop 2.
No, you do not need to sign up for an EWR workshop but these workshops are popular, so you will need to be punctual. We use the principle of "First come, first served".
EWR Drop-in Consultations are one-hour sessions during which you can get answers to your very specific questions from a writing teacher. So bring your drafts, prepare your questions and attend a EWR Drop-in Consultation.
EWR Drop-in Consultations are for anyone taking a CAR subject with the English Writing Requirement. If you have questions about your assignment, if you don’t know where to start and what to do next, EWR Drop-in Consultations are a perfect place for you. Just check the schedule, choose the session that fits your personal schedule and get answers to your questions during the session.
Yes, these sessions are aimed to be very practical, so bring your assignment instructions, your checklist/s, and/or your draft/s. Make sure you have an access to soft copies of your drafts as you may do some work on your drafts during the session. Do not forget to prepare your questions as well.
Yes. One main aim of these sessions is to help you with your writing by engaging you in some actual writing.
No, you do not need to sign up for a EWR Drop-in Consultation session.
No, you can come at any time during the hour and leave any time.
EWR Drop-in Consultation sessions start in Week 2.
EWRite is an open access online literacy platform for PolyU community that has two major objectives:
This platform provides access to generic genre guides representing typical university assignments as well as links to subjects offered by faculties with specific disciplinary genres and relevant support materials.
The materials can be retrieved by students by choosing the genres that interest them on the landing page. Each set of materials includes a genre guide, genre video, and a genre checklist. The genre guide and video are to summarize the genres in two different ways (i.e. textual and dynamic) to fit different learning styles. The genre checklist is for students to self-regulate their writing process. The genre guide and checklist include links to various ELC resources that can provide further explanation to language items (e.g. hedging and academic vocabulary).
The platform also acts as a one-stop-shop for writing resources for students, language teachers and subject leaders. Information about the English Writing Requirement policy can also be found on this platform. There are training materials for new colleagues joining the EWR Liaison Team.