1. Criminal Justice and Writing Literacy: Value and Challenges for “Our” Student Populations
Dr. Sanjay Marwah
California State University East Bay, Department of Criminal Justice Administration
October 10, 2016
Presented to the Academic Senate, Los Medanos College
Pittsburg, CA

2. Writing is thinking on paper, or talking to someone on paper
Writing is thinking on paper, or talking to someone on paper. If you can think clearly, or if you can talk to someone about the things you know and care about, you can write - with confidence and enjoyment.
William Zinsser in Writing Well (1976)

3. Diversity: Content to Cognition
Why start here?
Student needs not being served
Not only learning styles but purpose of learning
Students see little connections & value
We work for their learning
Faculty view content of learning as separate from communication of learning (cognition)
21st century – cognition much greater than content
Life-long learning
Consequences
Career
High-Stakes

4. Educators’ Roles & Healthy Practices
Facilitators vs. Lecturers
Develop and practice skills in low-stakes environments
Provide opportunities & quality feedback
Use for your instruction
Assessors vs. Evaluators
Improvements with less focus on grades
Learning from mistakes
Integrate to assignments
Motivators vs. Judges
Humanize learning – content & skills
Articulate situations connected to “real-world” & professional communication
Judge less, Reinforce more

5. Writing – Universal Content to Transferable Skill
Today
Students See Writing for Factual Purposes
Students Struggle with Comprehension
Not Know Audience/Readership
Students Perceive One Size Fits All
Not Confident in Their Abilities
Tomorrow
Students Organize & Craft
Students Appreciate Challenges in Comprehension
Audience Allow for Clarity and Organization of Writing
Adjust & Be Flexible
Growing Confidence with Diligence to Process & Improvement

6. William Zinsser in Writing to Learn (1993)
One day in 1987 I received a letter from Joan Countyman, head of the mathematics department at Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia. She had heard about my interest in the educational movement called “writing across the curriculum.”
“For many years,” she said, “I’ve been asking my students to write about mathematics as they learned it, with predictably wonderful results. Writing frees them of the idea that math is a collection of right answers owned by the teacher —a body of knowledge that she will dispense in chunks and that they have to swallow and digest. That's how most non-mathematicians perceive it. But what makes mathematics really interesting is not the right answer but where it came from and where it leads.”
William Zinsser in Writing to Learn (1993)