Board Member Patrick Bahls Publishes Book on Writing in the Quantitative Disciplines

New Board Member, Patrick Bahls, recently published a book of interest to Carolinas WPAs. Here’s more information directly from Patrick:

It gives me pleasure to announce the recent release of my new book, Student Writing in the Quantitative Disciplines: A Guide for College Faculty, now available from Jossey-Bass.

As we all know, designing engaging and effective writing assignments is one of the chief challenges facing teachers in any discipline. This challenge can be especially daunting to instructors in fields (like mathematics, engineering, and other quantitative disciplines) outside of the traditionally “writing-intensive” disciplines. Drawing on my long experience with writing in the disciplines, my text offers instructors in math-based disciplines meaningful approaches to making their coursework richer and more relevant for their students (as well as satisfying institutional imperatives for writing curricula!). Moreover, by contextualizing the writing done in quantitative courses, the text should prove useful to instructors of first-year writing, writing center staff, and all others engaged in the scholarship of composition and its teaching.

The book provides an overview of the ideas behind writing across the curriculum, writing in the disciplines, and writing-to-learn, as well as an introduction to writing process, assessing and responding to student writing, and developing meaningful writing activities…all tailored to teachers in quantitative-intensive areas. Included too are dozens of examples of writing exercises, from low-stakes two-minute activities to robust and richly structured projects.

I would be delighted to answer any questions you have about the book.

All the best,
Patrick Bahls

Leave a Reply