Writing on Demand: Best Practices and Strategies for Success

Research and experience show that writers need three things: ownership of the form and subject of their writing; feedback from other writers; and time to draft and revise. Yet the harsh and confusing reality of today's college-entrance and state-mandated examinations-or any test with an essay component-is that students, trained in writing workshops, go on the clock to compose a paper on an assigned topic, in a prescribed form, for which they will receive no feedback.

...And their future depends on it.

In Writing on Demand, you'll discover how to help your students gain the valuable skills they need to succeed on the essay portions of the SAT, ACT, Advanced Placement, and other exams and to help them develop as writers. Anne Ruggles Gere, Leila Christenbury, and Kelly Sassi take you through the entire testing process, offering insights on several key strategies for on-demand writing, including how to:

• quickly decode writing prompts to uncover the goals and expectations of the assignment
• organize thoughts swiftly and use the allotted time efficiently
• understand how tests are scored
• approach the scorers as an audience

Most importantly, they show you how integrate these strategies into a program of best practices instead of mere test prep.

In addition, a companion website offers more than 50 downloadable prompts, sample student essays, grading rubrics, and minilessons that give you a chance to aid your students in understanding this specialized genre and to use their composing skills in this artificially compressed version of the writing process.

Give your students the opportunity to develop the proficiency and confidence they need to succeed in on-demand writing situations without abandoning the principles behind your writing workshop. Read Writing on Demand and find out how students can not only beat the clock, but write well-even in the most trying conditions for writers.

Anne Ruggles Gere is Gertrude Buck Collegiate Professor at the University of Michigan, where she directs the Sweetland Center for Writing and serves as co-chair of the Ph.D. in English and Education. An associate director of the Oakland Writing Project, she has a long history with the NWP. Her most recent book for teachers is Textual Complexity: Supporting Student Readers, an e-book from NCTE.

Leila Christenbury is Commonwealth Professor of English Education at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, and a 40-year veteran teacher both in secondary English and higher education. She is a former editor of English Journal and past president of the National Council of Teachers of English. In recognition of her account of returning to teach in the English classroom, she is the recipient of both the David H. Russell Award for Distinguished Research in Teaching and the James N. Britton Award for Educational Research. Leila has recently served as NCTE's Council Historian for the organization's centennial and, at VCU, she has been professor, department chair, and interim dean.

Kelly Sassi is an assistant professor of English and Education at North Dakota State University in Fargo. She taught high school English in Fairbanks, Alaska for six years before pursuing her doctorate at the University of Michigan. Currently, she co-directs the Red River Valley Writing Project and works closely with teachers in transitioning to the Common Core State Standards. She teaches methods courses in English, Young Adult Literature, and graduate courses in composition. Her areas of research include writing on demand, pedagogical approaches to Native American literature(s), and teaching for social justice.