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Aiming for Discipline Instead of Punishment

Brain-aligned discipline isn’t compliance-driven or punitive—it’s about supporting students in creating sustainable changes in behavior.

There are many perspectives on the topic of discipline in our classrooms and schools, and I’d like to explore the idea of using brain-aligned discipline with students who have adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).

Traditional punishment with these students only escalates power struggles and conflict cycles, breeding an increased stress response in the brain and body. Punishment is used to try to force compliance. The vast majority of school discipline procedures are forms of punishment that work best with the students who need them the least.

With our most difficult students, the current way schools try to discipline students does not change their behavior, and often it escalates the problems.

Discipline, unlike punishment, is proactive and begins before there are problems. It means seeing conflict as an opportunity to problem solve. Discipline provides guidance, focuses on prevention, enhances communication, models respect, and embraces natural consequences. It teaches fairness, responsibility, life skills, and problem solving.

There are times when students need to be removed from the classroom and school for aggressive, volatile actions, but upon re-entry we should make a plan of action that begins to address these actions in these brain-aligned ways.

The neurobiological changes caused by chronic negative experiences and a history of adversity can trigger a fear response in the brain. As Pam Leo says, “A hurtful child is a hurt-filled child. Trying to change her behavior with punishment is like trying to pull off only the top part of the weed. If we don’t get to the root, the hurtful behavior pops up elsewhere.” In children the fear response often looks aggressive, defiant, and oppositional.

Young people with ACEs have brains that are in a constant state of alarm. In this alarm state, consequences don’t register properly. Discipline can only be done when both the educator and the student are calm and self-regulated. If they aren’t, behavioral difficulties will escalate.

In a brain-aligned model of discipline, we must teach the behaviors we want to see, laying the groundwork for prevention systems and strategies.

Preventive Brain-Aligned Strategies

Preventive systems are taught as procedures and routines. They are collaborative and filled with choice. Their purpose is to create a sustainable behavioral change, not just compliance or obedience for a short period of time.

I teach students about their neuroanatomy, so they understand what happens in their brains when they become stressed, angry, or anxious. When we understand this, we feel relieved and empowered.

In morning meetings or whole class time, I discuss the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and neuroplasticity with students. We identify and make lists of our emotional triggers and coping strategies, and I teach students to use their breath and movement to calm their stress response systems.

Is there an adult in the school who connects with this student and has a space where the student can go if they need to regroup and calm their stress response systems? Are you teaching these procedures ahead of a time when a student needs to regulate away from the class?

Could your school create a area for both teachers and students to go to when they need to reset their emotional state? This area could be stocked with paper, markers, crayons, water, soft music and lighting, a jump rope, a stationary bike, lavender scented cotton balls, jars for affirmations or worries, or a rocking chair. Students will need to be taught ahead of time how to use this area, which they should need for just two to five minutes in order to feel refocused and ready to return to class.

Examples of Natural, Non-Punitive Consequences

Name-calling: Have the student create a book of positive affirmations for the class, or have them create a list of “kind words” and teach them to a younger class.

Low-level physical aggression (pushing, kicking, hitting): Some consequences could include giving the student a new learning space in the room or a new spot in line, or they could be tasked with performing an act of kindness or service for the hurt person.

If this occurs at recess, the student could be tasked with assisting a teacher on recess duty in monitoring the playground, noticing everything that is going well. They can roam around the playground, still getting the exercise they need. Or again they could perform an act of kindness toward the student who they hit.

Inappropriate language: This calls for a discussion when both student and teacher are in a calm brain state. Sometimes words that are inappropriate at school are used at home, so we need to understand the cultural context and have a discussion with the student.

An older student could research the words they used and report to you on why they’re not school words; younger students could try to write out what they were trying to convey using school-friendly language or drawings.

Incomplete assignments: Have a one-on-one discussion to convey what this behavior communicates to you. Ask if something has changed at home or school, or if the student doesn’t understand what is required. Make a plan with the student and possibly a parent for making up the work that has been missed. And consider assigning a student mentor to help the student.

The research is clear. Our brains learn best in a state of relaxed alertness. Our discipline systems must begin to shift toward creating this state in all the members of our school community.

Why Discipline Matters—and 5 Ways to Work On It

If you want to make changes that last, discipline is key. but how do you get it.

Posted January 9, 2023 | Reviewed by Devon Frye

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You can go a long way in making changes for your life, but they won't stick unless you have discipline.
Discipline is essential in the change process, because you'll need to keep new behaviors in place even after you've met your initial goals.
Many people never learned to be disciplined and would say they aren't very good at it; but it's a skill that can be taught and developed.
There are simple and practical tools you can put in place for becoming a more disciplined and consistent person.

If you’re looking for ways to become more successful, improve your relationships, or feel more satisfied with your life, you won’t have a hard time finding suggestions for how to go about it. Your search for such information will often lead you to tips for making healthier lifestyle choices, forming effective habits, building a better mindset, and sharpening your communication skills. Most of this advice, if you follow it, will probably lead to positive changes within yourself and your life. But how sustainable will those changes be?

The truth is, there’s one essential ingredient in the process of creating change that too often gets overlooked: discipline. Beyond the desire to do something and the motivation to get started, there is a need to put in the work—repeatedly, consistently, and enduringly.

Discipline is what kicks in long after motivation has faded. And if you’ve ever made a new year’s resolution that lasted until mid-January or set an intention on Monday that you strayed from by Friday, you know that motivation has a tendency to fade. Discipline carries you from the moment you start working on making a change, to the moment you celebrate the end result.

But here’s the kicker: Discipline is also what continues to happen well after that celebration.

How Change Happens

One of the most recognized theories behind behavior change, the Stages of Change Model, suggests that people move through 6 specific stages on their way to accomplishing a goal: precontemplation (not even thinking about changing), contemplation (starting to consider it), preparation (getting ready to do something different), action (putting in the work), maintenance (keeping it going), and termination (knowing there’s no going back).

Using this model as a reference point, we can say that discipline is directly involved in the last 3 stages. It takes discipline to commit to action and to do what it takes to make a change. This is the facet of discipline that requires making different choices, sometimes sacrificing the comfort of this moment for the promise of future achievement or fulfillment.

In the maintenance stage, discipline is critical. By this point in the process of change, the original motivation has probably dwindled. Your old familiar ways of thinking and behaving are threatening to override your new intentions. The efforts you made up to this point might be feeling too tiring or too tedious.

The temptation to take the path of least resistance creeps up a lot during the maintenance stage; it’s discipline that keeps you from giving in to it. And it’s discipline that takes you into the termination stage and gives you the confidence that your changes will last.

How You Can Become More Disciplined

For many of you reading this, the fact that discipline is essential to making lasting changes is no surprise. But the real question you might be pondering is: If I’m not good at being disciplined, how do I get better at it? While the answer is that there are many ways to go about it, let’s focus on 5 of them:

Identify the areas where you struggle most. For some people it’s following through on a task or commitment; for others, it’s finishing what they’ve started. Some people have the hardest time with implementing new behaviors on a consistent basis. Others struggle most with making excuses and talking themselves out of their efforts to change. Take an honest look at your own challenge areas, so you can see where the work is most needed.
Set yourself up for success. Sometimes, the things that get in the way of being disciplined are things people tend not to consider, like getting enough sleep and maintaining proper nutrition . Paying attention to these lifestyle basics will help you access the energy and mental focus you’ll need to stay disciplined.
Notice the thoughts and emotions that drain you of discipline . It’s one thing to work towards a goal when you’re motivated; it’s another to keep at it, even when you don’t feel like it. This is what discipline is all about. Your thoughts and feelings, which are constantly changing, can easily keep you from making good on the promises you make to yourself. To keep this from happening, pay attention to the emotions and feeling states that tend to derail you, and be mindful of the kinds of thoughts that keep you from sticking to your commitments.
Write things down and set reminders. Distraction is a big barrier to discipline. To keep it from taking you off course, organize yourself by writing down your goals/intentions/tasks and keeping them somewhere you’ll be sure to look at on a regular basis. Get a calendar or planner, if you don’t already have one, where you can write things down and keep yourself organized. Set reminders in your phone or use organizational apps and digital tools to keep yourself on track.
Practice delayed gratification. Our world is wiring us all for instant gratification, and it’s never been easier to take shortcuts and stay on the comfortable path of least resistance. But discipline requires delayed gratification—the ability to sustain effort in the absence of reward. This can be incredibly difficult, especially if you didn’t develop the ability early on in life, but you can train yourself to get better at it. Start with small practices, like not turning on the TV until you’ve completed all the essential tasks on your to-do list; not opening TikTok until you’ve sent those important work emails; or waiting to enjoy your morning coffee until after you’ve finished a 30-minute workout. Eventually, you can build up to setting bigger goals that require discipline and delayed gratification to complete.

If you aren’t a naturally disciplined person, there’s no reason to panic . Work on developing more of it, and you’ll be well on your way to making—and solidifying—the kinds of changes you want to see in yourself, your relationships, and your life.

Denise Fournier, Ph.D. , is a psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, coach, and adjunct professor at Nova Southeastern University.

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At any moment, someone’s aggravating behavior or our own bad luck can set us off on an emotional spiral that threatens to derail our entire day. Here’s how we can face our triggers with less reactivity so that we can get on with our lives.

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Essay On Importance Of Discipline for Students and Children

500+ words essay on importance of discipline.

Discipline refers to the practice of making people obey rules. Furthermore, it also means following certain acceptable standards of behavior. Discipline is certainly an essential thing in everyone’s life. A life without discipline is a life full of chaos and confusion. Most noteworthy, discipline makes a person into a better human being. Discipline is a trait of paramount importance.

Why is Discipline Important?

First of all, discipline helps an individual in becoming more focused. Furthermore, a person of discipline tends to have a much better focus on his work, activities or goals. Discipline, makes a person avoid distractions of various kinds. A feeling of sincerity and seriousness comes in due to discipline. Consequently, a high-quality focus is the result of discipline.

Discipline brings a lot of respect for an individual from others. A disciplined individual by his very nature would command respect from others. Bringing discipline in one’s life is a difficult task. Consequently, people admire such an individual who manages to fills his life with discipline.

Another notable impact of discipline is good health. A disciplined individual has a proper schedule of doing everything. Therefore, an individual of discipline has a fixed time for eating, sleeping, rising, exercising, working, etc. Furthermore, such an individual is very strict with regard to his diet as well. Consequently, all of these measures ensure good health and body fitness of the individual.

Self-control is a praiseworthy benefit of discipline. A person of discipline exercises better restraint and control over his actions. A disciplined person is very careful with the use of his words when talking with others. Furthermore, such an individual ensures that his behaviour is decent and appropriate at all times.

Having more time is a precious advantage of staying in the discipline. A disciplined individual will certainly have more time than an undisciplined individual. This is because a person of discipline will not waste time in useless or worthless activities. Furthermore, an individual of discipline will not donate excessive time on any one task. By following this approach, people would have a lot of free time with them. This free time would certainly not have been possible in case of indiscipline.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Techniques of Discipline

Time management is a very popular technique of discipline. Time management utilizes time as a regulator. Furthermore, time management utilizes the observer of time as the governor. Most noteworthy, time management ensures that the usage of time takes place in an efficient manner. Moreover, time management marks each activity within a boundary of time. Consequently, each activity and task must begin and end at a specific fixed time.

Responsibility based discipline is another technique. Furthermore, this technique co-opts members of an organization to understand remedies for a problem. Responsibility-based discipline involves laying out instructions for modifying future behavior. Also, this takes place by following good respectful role-models.

Another important technique of discipline is corporal punishment . This technique involves scolding, spanking, or hitting people. Most noteworthy, this technique is useful for school students. This is because; many school students are very rude and naughty. Hence, merely mild talking or instructions may not work with them.

In conclusion, discipline is a significantly important quality to have in every walk of life. Discipline is certainly the ladder towards success. Furthermore, discipline brings out the best in us. Most noteworthy, discipline keeps our body, mind, and soul under control.

FAQs on Importance Of Discipline

Q1 Give any one reason why discipline is important?

A1 One reason why discipline is important is that discipline helps an individual in becoming more focused.

Q2 Name any two techniques of Discipline?

A2 Two techniques of discipline are time management and responsibility based discipline.

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9 powerful ways to cultivate extreme self-discipline.

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“The first and best victory is to conquer self.” ~ PLATO

Learning to effectively lead yourself and others all comes down to discipline. Happiness, success, and fulfillment stem from focus and self-control. It may be hard to believe when you’re facing an all-you-can-eat buffet, the prospect of making a quick buck, or the lazy lure of sleeping in versus getting on the Peloton, but studies show that people with self-discipline are happier. Why? Because with discipline and self-control we actually accomplish more of the goals we truly care about. Self-discipline is the bridge between goals defined and goals accomplished .

Chapter Eight of my new book - Embrace the Suck: The Navy SEAL Way To An Extraordinary Life - is titled ‘Win More Through Discipline And Accountability.’ People with a higher degree of self-control spend less time debating whether to indulge in behaviors and activities that don’t align with their values or goals. They are more decisive. They don’t let impulses or feelings dictate their choices. They are the architects of their own beliefs and the actions they take to achieve a desired outcome. As a result, they aren’t as easily distracted by temptation and tend to feel more satisfied with their lives.

“You have power over your mind—not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” ~ MARCUS AURELIUS

There are specific strategies you can execute to learn self-discipline and gain the willpower to live a happier, more fulfilling life. If you are looking to take control of your habits and choices, here are the eight most powerful things you can do to master self-discipline—which is imperative for life beyond your comfort zone—and maybe even redefining “extraordinary.”

STEP ONE: Know your strengths and weaknesses.

We all have weaknesses. Whether they’re the desire for alcohol, tobacco, unhealthy food, obsession over social media, or the video game Fortnite (what the heck is with this game by the way?!), they have a similar effect on us. Weaknesses don’t just come in the form of areas where we lack self-control either. We all have our strong suits and the stuff we kind of stink at. For example, I don’t care for having difficult conversations, lengthy paperwork that involves digging up old documents I never saved in the first place, holding my temper when someone is shooting at me, or calling into automated phone systems. And therefore, I used to actively (or purposefully) avoid these activities. Now, I strive to tackle them head-on—or I delegate them to others. (Never forget about the subtle art of delegation!)

Self-awareness is a powerful tool for comfort zone expansion, but it requires constant focus and acknowledging your shortcomings, whatever they may be. I suffered from bad allergies and asthma growing up and had terrible eyesight. Those were some significant weaknesses when considering becoming a Navy SEAL. But so what? I trained hard to improve my lung function and used money I’d saved for LASIK eye surgery. Too often people either try to pretend their vulnerabilities don’t exist or they succumb to them with a fixed mindset, throwing their hands up in defeat and saying, “Oh well.” Know your strengths, but more importantly, own up to your flaws. You can’t overcome them until you do.

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STEP TWO: Remove temptations.

“I can resist anything except temptation.” ~ OSCAR WILDE

Like the saying goes, “out of sight, out of mind.” It may seem silly, but this phrase offers powerful advice. By simply removing the biggest temptations from your environment, you will greatly improve your self-discipline. When I decided I was going to pursue the lofty goal of becoming a SEAL, everything in my life had to change. If you want to eat healthier, toss the junk food in the trash. Want to drink less? Throw out the booze. If you want to enhance your productivity at work, improve the management of your To-Do’s, turn off social media notifications and silence your cell phone. Prioritize and execute.

The fewer distractions you have, the more focused you will be on accomplishing your goals. Set yourself up for success by ditching bad influences.

STEP THREE: Set clear goals and have an execution plan.

If you hope to achieve greater degrees of self-discipline, you must have a clear vision of what you hope to accomplish, just like any goal. You must also have an understanding of what success means to you. After all, if you don’t know where you are going, it’s easy to lose your way or get sidetracked. Remember to prioritize. At TakingPoint Leadership, when we work with our corporate clients on strategic planning, execution, and organizational transformation, we remind them that having ten priorities translates to no priorities.

A clear plan outlines each time-bound step you must take to reach your goals. Create a mantra to keep yourself focused. Successful people use this technique to stay on track, emotionally connect to their mission, and establish a clear finish line.

STEP FOUR: Practice daily diligence.

We aren’t born with self-discipline; it’s a learned behavior. And just like any other skill you want to master, it requires daily practice and repetition. It must become habitual. But the effort and focus that self-discipline requires can be draining. As time passes, it can become more and more difficult to keep your willpower in check. The bigger the temptation or decision, the more challenging it can feel to tackle other tasks that also require self-control.

So, work on building your self-discipline through daily diligence in a given area associated with a goal. This goes back to step three. In order to practice daily diligence, you must have a plan. Put it on your calendar, your to-do list, tattoo it on the back of your eyelids - whatever works best for you. With practice, anyone can push the boundaries of their comfort zone every day.

STEP FIVE: Create new habits and rituals.

Acquiring self-discipline and working to instill a new habit can feel daunting at first, especially if you focus on the entire task at hand. To avoid feeling intimidated, keep it simple. Break your goal into small, doable steps. Instead of trying to change everything at once, focus on doing one thing consistently and master self-discipline with that goal in mind.

As we say in the SEAL Teams, “ Eat the elephant one bite at a time.”

If you’re trying to get in shape but don’t exercise regularly (or ever), start by working out ten or fifteen minutes a day. If you’re trying to achieve better sleep habits, start by going to bed thirty minutes earlier each night. If you want to eat healthier, change your grocery shopping habits and prep meals ahead of time. Take baby steps. Eventually, when your mindset and behavior starts to shift, you can add more goals to your list.

STEP SIX: Change your perception about willpower.

If you believe you have a limited amount of willpower, you probably won’t surpass those limits. As I mentioned previously, studies show that willpower can deplete over time. But what about changing that perception? The SEAL candidate who believes they probably won’t make it through training won’t succeed. Why assume our will to win can only take us so far?

When we embrace the mindset of unlimited willpower, we continue to grow, achieve more, and develop mental toughness. It’s the same philosophy as setting “stretch” goals. In short, our internal conceptions about willpower and self-control can determine how disciplined we are. If you can remove these subconscious obstacles and truly believe you can do it, then you will give yourself an extra boost of motivation toward making those goals a reality.

STEP SEVEN: Give yourself a backup plan.

In the SEAL Teams, we always have contingency plans. Psychologists use a technique to boost willpower called “implementation intention.” That’s when you give yourself a plan to deal with a potentially difficult situation you know you will likely face. To be clear, I am not referring to a backup plan under the auspices that you’ll probably fail at Plan A.

Let’s say you aspire to become a trapeze expert, but tell yourself, “Well, I’m probably not going to excel at this, so chances are I’ll be sticking with miniature golf.” That’s a lame backup plan wrapped in mediocrity. We are talking about contingencies for intentional course correction, not planning for failure. So be bold and keep moving forward. Going in with a plan will help give you the mindset and self-control necessary for the situation. You will also save energy by not having to make a sudden decision based on your emotional state.

STEP EIGHT: Find trusted coaches or mentors.

The development of expertise requires coaches who are capable of giving constructive, even painful, feedback. Real experts are extremely motivated students who seek out such feedback. They’re also skilled at understanding when and if a coach or mentor’s advice doesn’t work for them.

The elite performers I’ve known and worked with always knew what they were doing right while concentrating on what they were doing wrong. They deliberately picked unsentimental coaches who would challenge them and drive them to higher levels of performance. The best coaches also identify aspects of your performance that will need to be improved at your next level of skill and aid you in preparation.

STEP NINE: Forgive yourself and move forward.

Even with all our best intentions and well laid plans, we sometimes fall short. It happens. You will have ups and downs, great successes and dismal failures. The key is to keep going. A very close SEAL buddy of mine has had a lifelong dream of not just serving in the SEAL Teams but also making it to our tier one special missions unit. He has every qualification this unit could possibly want, but for some reason they didn’t select him on his first application attempt. Did he wallow in sorrow? Not for one second. He immediately developed a plan to request even more “schools,” train even harder, and he transferred to a different SEAL Team for a better chance to get picked up next time. Easy day.

If you stumble, find the root cause by asking the five WHY’s and move on. Don’t let yourself get wrapped up in guilt, anger, or frustration, because these emotions will only drag you further down and impede future progress.

Learn from your missteps and forgive yourself. Then get your head back in the game and violently execute. Good luck!

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Writing Resources: Writing in the Disciplines

Writing Mechanics
Rhetoric and Writing Style
Literature Reviews
Locating Peer Reviewed Articles
Writing to Learn

Writing in the Disciplines

Writing in the Disciplines teaches students how to write acceptably in their respective disciplines. Writing in the discipline classes are commonly referred to as Writing Intensive courses. The goal of WID is to allow students to demonstrate writing skills within the genres expected in academic and professional discourse communities.

The resources on the right are arranged by type: general collection books, eBooks, journal articles, videos, and websites. They all relate to writing in the disciplines in some way, though individual resources may cover other aspects of writing.

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NoodleTools This link opens in a new window An online research management platform including a bibliography composer and note-taking features. more... less... What is it? NoodleTools is a resource that allows students to evaluate resources, build accurate citations, archive source material, take notes, outline topics, and prepare to write. it generates accurate MLA, APA, and Chicago/Turabian references with options to annotate and archive lists of documents. It offers a visual 'tabletop' to manipulate, tag and pile notecards, then connect them in outlines to prepare for writing. Why use it? Use this resource if you are looking for an all-in-one resource to assist with note-taking, citations, and pre-writing projects.
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The business of writing to learn in business: Examining writing practices through the lens of practice architectures by Hager, G., Kitson, L., & Grootenboer, P. Australian Journal of Language & Literacy, (2019, October 1), 42(3), 195-205.
Constructing an argument in academic writing across disciplines by Walková, M., & Bradford, J. Journal of English for Specific Purposes at Tertiary Level, (2022), 10(1), 22-42.
Contemplative writing across the disciplines by Miller, M., & Kinane, K. Across the Disciplines, (2019), 16(1), 1-5.
Instructor evaluation of business student writing: Does language play a role? by McDonough, K., Uludag, P., & Neumann, H. Business & Professional Communication Quarterly, (2021, June), 84(2), 116-134.
Internalizing writing in the STEM disciplines by Sharma, G. Across the Disciplines, (2018), 15(1), 26-46.
Promoting writing as a core competency for psychology majors: Challenges and opportunities by Chenneville, T., & Gay, K. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, (2021, June 22).
Reflecting on the past, reconstructing the future: Faculty members' threshold concepts for teaching writing in the disciplines by Basgier, C., & Simpson, A. Across the Disciplines, (2020), 17(1/2), 6-25.
Social media in practice: Assignments, perceptions, and possibilities by Kester, J., & Vie, S. Currents in Teaching & Learning, (2021, January), 12(2), 52-70.
Understanding the challenges and needs of international STEM graduate students: Implications for writing center writing groups by Hambrick, K. M., & Giaimo, G. N. Across the Disciplines, (2022), 19(1/2), 7-26.
Using shared inquiry to develop students' reading, reasoning, and writing in the disciplines by Egege, S., & Orr Vered, K. Across the Disciplines, (2019), 16(3), 66-79.
Writing in the discipline and reproducible methods: A process-oriented approach to teaching empirical undergraduate economics research by Marshall, E. C., & Underwood, A. Journal of Economic Education, (2019), 50(1), 17-32.

Brief guides to writing in the disciplines (Harvard University) The Writing Center's Brief Guides to Writing in the Disciplines provide concise introductions to the essential features of writing in several concentrations.
Discipline-specific infosheets (York College / CUNY) These writing handouts guide students through the writing process in specific courses and disciplines including Health Education Program Planning.
Overcoming obstacles: How WID benefits community college students and faculty (Colorado State University) While those teaching and learning at community colleges face challenges unique to their institutions, this article demonstrates how the theoretical concepts at the heart of WID programs—incorporating writing across all disciplines, writing-to-learn rather than learning-to-write exercises, low-and high-stakes writing assignments, and transparent rubrics—are particularly well suited to the needs of community college students and faculty members.
Programs that work(ed): Revisiting the University of Michigan, the University of Chicago, and George Mason University programs after 20 years (Colorado State University) The article explores three WAC/WID programs that were presented in 1990 inPrograms That Work: Models and Methods for Writing Across the Curriculumby Toby Fulwiler and Art Young.
What is writing in the disciplines? (Colorado State University) Because WID is used by a large number of WAC programs, this guide presents a great deal of information on WID, including a detailed rationale, examples, and logistical tips.
Writing in the disciplines (University of Tennessee, Knoxville) This guide aims to direct you to reputable resources that will help you to write in specific subjects rather than in particular courses, since writing expectations often vary according to the learning outcomes of specific courses.
Writing in the disciplines (Excelsior Online Writing Lab) The teaching of writing in colleges and universities tends to focus on academic essays and research papers. Writing in the disciplines, on the other hand, refers to writing assignments tailored to the genres of a specific discipline or field.
Writing in the disciplines, technology, and disciplinary grounding (Colorado State University) This essay examines the impact of WAC/WID methodology and technology in an Education Capstone Course for Childhood Education majors at LaGuardia Community College/CUNY.
Writing is discipline specific (Purdue University) Sometimes when we think about writing, we think about the aspects that seem the same, no matter what we are writing—grammatical sentences or the use of paragraph divisions, for instance. Many aspects of good writing do transfer between different genres and audiences; however, different academic disciplines define good writing according to the presence or use of specific writing conventions which often arise from what the discipline values.

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Part 1: Thinking Through the Disciplines

Exploring academic disciplines.

Most college writing has some basic features in common: a sense of ethical responsibility and the use of credible and credited sources, critical thinking, and sound argumentation. In addition to these common features, each academic discipline, over many generations, has developed its own specific methods of asking questions and sharing answers. This chapter will show you how to use the lenses of various academic disciplines to develop your writing, reading, and thinking.

3.1 Exploring Academic Disciplines

Learning objectives.

Survey the landscape of academic disciplines.
Appreciate how academic disciplines help shape how we understand the world.
Understand that academic disciplines are constantly in flux, negotiating the terms, conditions, and standards of inquiry, attribution, and evidence.

The following table shows one version of the main academic disciplines and some of their branches.

Since the makeup of the different branches is always in flux and since the history of any institution of higher education is complicated, you will likely find some overlapping and varying arrangements of disciplines at your college.

Part of your transition into higher education involves being aware that each discipline is a distinct discourse community with specific vocabularies, styles, and modes of communication. Later in your college career, you will begin your writing apprenticeship in a specific discipline by studying the formats of published articles within it. You will look for the following formal aspects of articles within that discipline and plan to emulate them in your work:

Title format
Introduction
Overall organization
Tone (especially level of formality)
Person (first, second, or third person)
Voice (active or passive)
Sections and subheads
Use of images (photos, tables, graphics, graphs, etc.)
Discipline-specific vocabulary
Types of sources cited
Use of source information
Documentation style (American Psychological Association, Modern Language Association, Chicago, Council of Science Editors, and so on; for more on this, see Chapter 22 “Appendix B: A Guide to Research and Documentation” )
Intended audience
Published format (print or online)

Different disciplines tend to recommend collecting different types of evidence from research sources. For example, biologists are typically required to do laboratory research; art historians often use details from a mix of primary and secondary sources (works of art and art criticism, respectively); social scientists are likely to gather data from a variety of research study reports and direct ethnographic observation, interviews, and fieldwork; and a political scientist uses demographic data from government surveys and opinion polls along with direct quotations from political candidates and party platforms.

Consider the following circle of professors. They are all asking their students to conduct research in a variety of ways using a variety of sources.

What’s required to complete a basic, introductory essay might essentially be the same across all disciplines, but some types of assignments require discipline-specific organizational features. For example, in business disciplines, documents such as résumés, memos, and product descriptions require a specialized organization. Science and engineering students follow specific conventions as they write lab reports and keep notebooks that include their drawings and results of their experiments. Students in the social sciences and the humanities often use specialized formatting to develop research papers, literature reviews, and book reviews.

Part of your apprenticeship will involve understanding the conventions of a discipline’s key genres. If you are reading or writing texts in the social sciences, for example, you will notice a meticulous emphasis on the specifics of methodology (especially key concepts surrounding the collection of data, such as reliability, validity, sample size, and variables) and a careful presentation of results and their significance. Laboratory reports in the natural and applied sciences emphasize a careful statement of the hypothesis and prediction of the experiment. They also take special care to account for the role of the observer and the nature of the measurements used in the investigation to ensure that it is replicable. An essay in the humanities on a piece of literature might spend more time setting a theoretical foundation for its interpretation, it might also more readily draw from a variety of other disciplines, and it might present its “findings” more as questions than as answers. As you are taking a variety of introductory college courses, try to familiarize yourself with the jargon of each discipline you encounter, paying attention to its specialized vocabulary and terminology. It might even help you make a list of terms in your notes.

Scholars also tend to ask discipline-related kinds of questions. For example, the question of “renewable energy” might be a research topic within different disciplines. The following list shows the types of questions that would accommodate the different disciplines:

Business (economics): Which renewable resources offer economically feasible solutions to energy issues?
Humanities (history): At what point did humans switch from the use of renewable resources to nonrenewable resources?
Natural and applied sciences (engineering): How can algae be developed at a pace and in the quantities needed to be a viable main renewable resource?
Social sciences (geography): Which US states are best suited to being key providers of renewable natural resources?

Key Takeaways

Most academic disciplines have developed over many generations. Even though these disciplines are constantly in flux, they observe certain standards for investigation, proof, and documentation of evidence.
To meet the demands of writing and thinking in a certain discipline, you need to learn its conventions.
An important aspect of being successful in college (and life) involves being aware of what academic disciplines (and professions and occupations) have in common and how they differ.

Think about your entire course load this semester as a collection of disciplines. For each course you are taking, answer the following questions, checking your textbooks and other course materials and consulting with your instructors, if necessary:

What kinds of questions does this discipline ask?
What kinds of controversies exist in this discipline?
How does this discipline share the knowledge it constructs?
How do writers in this discipline demonstrate their credibility?

After you’ve asked and answered these questions about each discipline in isolation, consider what underlying things your courses have in common, even if they approach the world very differently on the surface.

Based on the example at the end of this section, pick a topic that multiple disciplines study. Formulate four questions about the topic, one from each of any four different disciplines. Ideally choose a topic that might come up in four courses you are currently taking or have recently taken, or choose a topic of particular interest to you. Here are just a few examples to get you started:

Child abuse
Poverty in developing nations
Women in the workforce
Drawing from the synopses of current research on the Arts and Letters Daily website (see the Note 2.5 “Gallery of Web-Based Texts” in Chapter 2 “Becoming a Critical Reader” ), read the article referenced on a topic or theme of interest to you. Discuss how the author’s discipline affects the way the topic or theme is presented (specifically, the standards of inquiry and evidence).

3.2 Seeing and Making Connections across Disciplines

Learn how to look for connections between the courses you are taking in different disciplines.
Witness how topics and issues are connected across disciplines, even when they are expressed differently.
Understand how to use disciplines to apply past knowledge to new situations.

Section 3.1 “Exploring Academic Disciplines” focused on the formal differences among various academic disciplines and their discourse communities. This section will explore the intellectual processes and concepts disciplines share in common. Even though you will eventually enter a discipline as an academic specialization (major) and as a career path (profession), the first couple of years of college may well be the best opportunity you will ever have to discover how disciplines are connected.

That process may be a re discovery, given that in the early grades (K–5), you were probably educated by one primary teacher each year covering a set of subjects in a single room. Even though you likely covered each subject in turn, that elementary school classroom was much more conducive to making connections across disciplines than your middle school or high school environment. If you’ve been educated in public schools during the recent era of rigid standardization and multiple-choice testing conducted in the name of “accountability,” the disciplines may seem more separate from one another in your mind than they actually are. In some ways, the first two years of your college experience are a chance to recapture the connections across disciplines you probably made naturally in preschool and the elementary grades, if only at a basic level at the time.

In truth, all disciplines are strikingly similar. Together, they are the primary reason for the survival and evolution of our species. As humans, we have designed disciplines, over time, to help us understand our world better. New knowledge about the world is typically produced when a practitioner builds on a previous body of work in the discipline, most often by advancing it only slightly but significantly. We use academic and professional disciplines to conduct persistent, often unresolved conversations with one another.

Most colleges insist on a “core curriculum” to make sure you have the chance to be exposed to each major discipline at least once before you specialize and concentrate on one in particular. The signature “Aha!” moments of your intellectual journey in college will come every time you grasp a concept or a process in one course that reminds you of something you learned in another course entirely. Ironically the more of those “Aha!” moments you have in the first two years of college, the better you’ll be at your specialization because you’ll have that much more perspective about how the world around you fits together.

How can you learn to make those “Aha!” moments happen on purpose? In each course you take, instead of focusing merely on memorizing content for the purposes of passing an exam or writing an essay that regurgitates your professor’s lecture notes, learn to look for the key questions and controversies that animate the discipline and energize the professions in it. If you organize your understanding of a discipline around such questions and controversies, the details will make more sense to you, and you will find them easier to master.

Disciplines build on themselves, applying past knowledge to new situations and phenomena in a constant effort to improve understanding of the specific field of study.
Different disciplines often look at the same facts in different ways, leading to wholly different discoveries and insights.
Disciplines derive their energy from persistent and open debate about the key questions and controversies that animate them.
Arrange at least one interview with at least one of your instructors, a graduate student, or a working professional in a discipline in which you are interested in studying or pursuing as a career. Ask your interviewee(s) to list and describe three of the most persistent controversies, questions, and debates in the field. After absorbing the response(s), write up a report in your own words about the discipline’s great questions.
Using a textbook or materials from another course you are taking, describe a contemporary controversy surrounding the ways a discipline asks questions or shares evidence and a historical controversy that appears to have been resolved.
Using one of your library’s disciplinary databases or the Note 2.5 “Gallery of Web-Based Texts” in Chapter 2 “Becoming a Critical Reader” , find a document that is at least fifty years old operating in a certain discipline, perhaps a branch of science, history, international diplomacy, political science, law, or medicine. The Smithsonian Institution or Avalon Project websites are excellent places to start your search. Knowing what you know about the current conventions and characteristics of the discipline through which this document was produced, how does its use of the discipline differ from the present day? How did the standards of the discipline change in the interim to make the document you’ve found seem so different? Have those standards improved or declined, in your opinion?

3.3 Articulating Multiple Sides of an Issue

Explore how to recognize binary oppositions in various disciplines.
Learn the value of entertaining two contradictory but plausible positions as part of your thinking, reading, and writing processes.
Appreciate the productive, constructive benefits of using disciplinary lenses and borrowing from other disciplines.

Regardless of the discipline you choose to pursue, you will be arriving as an apprentice in the middle of an ongoing conversation. Disciplines have complicated histories you can’t be expected to master overnight. But learning to recognize the long-standing binary oppositions in individual disciplines can help you make sense of the specific issues, themes, topics, and controversies you will encounter as a student and as a professional. Here are some very broadly stated examples of those binary oppositions.

These binary oppositions move freely from one discipline to another, often becoming more complicated as they do so. Consider a couple of examples:

The binary opposition in the natural and applied sciences between empiricism (the so-called scientific method) and rationalism (using pure reason to speculate about one’s surroundings) originated as a debate in philosophy, a branch of the humanities . In the social sciences , in recent years, empirical data about brain functions in neuroscience have challenged rationalistic theories in psychology. Even disciplines in business are using increasingly empirical methods to study how markets work, as rationalist economic theories of human behavior increasingly come under question.
The binary opposition between text and context in the humanities is borrowed from the social sciences . Instead of viewing texts as self-contained creations, scholars and artists in the humanities began to appreciate and foreground the cultural influences that helped shape those texts. Borrowings from business disciplines, such as economics and marketing, furthered the notion of a literary and artistic “marketplace,” while borrowings from the natural and applied sciences helped humanists examine more closely the relationship between the observer (whether the critic or the artist) and the subject (the text).

Of course, these two brief summaries vastly oversimplify the evolution of multiple disciplines over generations of intellectual history. Like the chart of binary oppositions, they’re meant merely to inspire you at this point to begin to note the connections between disciplines. Learning to think, write, and function in interdisciplinary ways requires practice that begins at the level of close reading and gradually expands into the way you interact with your surroundings as a college student and working professional.

For a model of how to read and think through the disciplines, let’s draw on a short but very famous piece of writing (available through the Avalon Project in the Note 2.5 “Gallery of Web-Based Texts” ), Abraham Lincoln’s “Address at the Dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery,” composed and delivered in November of 1863, several months after one of the bloodiest battles in the American Civil War.

A military historian (red passages) might focus on Lincoln’s rhetorical technique of using the field of a previous battle in an ongoing war (in this case a victory that nonetheless cost a great deal of casualties on both sides) as inspiration for a renewed, redoubled effort.
A social psychologist (blue passages) might focus on how Lincoln uses this historical moment of unprecedented national trauma as an occasion for shared grief and shared sacrifice, largely through using the rhetorical technique of an extended metaphor of “conceiving and dedicating” a nation/child whose survival is at stake.
A political scientist (green passages) might focus on how Lincoln uses the occasion as a rhetorical opportunity to emphasize that the purpose of this grisly and grim war is to preserve the ideals of the founders of the American republic (and perhaps even move them forward through the new language of the final sentence: “of the people, by the people, for the people”).

Notice that each reader, regardless of academic background, needs a solid understanding of how rhetoric works (something we’ll cover in Chapter 4 “Joining the Conversation” in more detail). Each reader has been trained to use a specific disciplinary lens that causes certain passages to rise to prominence and certain insights to emerge.

But the real power of disciplines comes when these readers and their readings interact with each other. Imagine how a military historian could use social psychology to enrich an understanding of how a civilian population was motivated to support a war effort. Imagine how a political scientist could use military history to show how a peacetime, postwar governmental policy can trade on the outcome of a battle. Imagine how a social psychologist could use political science to uncover how a traumatized social structure can begin to heal itself through an embrace of shared governance.

As Lincoln would say, “It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.”

Disciplines have long-standing binary oppositions that help shape the terms of inquiry.
To think, read, and write in a given discipline, you must learn to uncover binary oppositions in the texts, objects, and phenomena you are examining.
Binary oppositions gain power and complexity when they are applied to multiple disciplines.
Following the Gettysburg Address example at the end of this section, use three disciplinary lenses to color-code a reading of your choice from the Note 2.5 “Gallery of Web-Based Texts” in Chapter 2 “Becoming a Critical Reader” .
Find a passage in one of the textbooks you’re using in another course (or look over your lecture notes from another course) where the main discipline appears to be borrowing theories, concepts, or binary oppositions from other disciplines in order to produce new insights and discoveries.
Individually or with a partner, set up an imaginary two-person dialogue of at least twenty lines (or two pages) that expresses two sides of a contemporary issue with equal force and weight. You may use real people if you want, either from your reading of specific columnists at Arts and Letters Daily or of the essayists at the Big Questions Essay Series (see the Note 2.5 “Gallery of Web-Based Texts” in Chapter 2 “Becoming a Critical Reader” ). In a separate memo, indicate which side you lean toward personally and discuss any difficulty you had with the role playing required by this exercise.
Show how one of the binary oppositions mentioned in this section is expressed by two writers in a discipline of your choosing. Alternatively, you can come up with a binary opposition of your own, backing it up with examples from the two extremes.
Briefly describe how an insight or discovery applied past disciplinary knowledge to a new situation or challenge. How might you begin to think about addressing one of the contemporary problems in your chosen discipline?
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What is Writing in the Disciplines?

Getting Started

Why include writing in my courses?

What is writing to learn?

WTL Activities

What is writing to engage?

What is writing in the disciplines?

WID Assignments

Useful Knowledge

What should I know about rhetorical situations?

Do I have to be an expert in grammar to assign writing?

What should I know about genre and design?

What should I know about second-language writing?

What teaching resources are available?

What should I know about WAC and graduate education?

Assigning Writing

What makes a good writing assignment?

How can I avoid getting lousy student writing?

What benefits might reflective writing have for my students?

Using Peer Review

Why consider collaborative writing assignments?

Do writing and peer review take up too much class time?

How can I get the most out of peer review?

Responding to Writing

How can I handle responding to student writing?

How can writing centers support writing in my courses?

What writing resources are available for my students?

Using Technology

How can computer technologies support writing in my classes?

Designing and Assessing WAC Programs

What is a WAC program?

What designs are typical for WAC programs?

How can WAC programs be assessed?

A Fuller Definition of WID

WID assignments are typically, but not exclusively, formal documents prepared over a few weeks or even months. The final documents adhere to format and style guidelines typical of the professional genres they help students learn about and practice. Teachers comment primarily on the substance of these assignments, but teachers also expect students to meet professional standards of layout and proofreading (format and mechanical correctness).

Without doubt, the single most important reason for assigning writing tasks in disciplinary courses is to introduce students to the thinking and writing of that discipline. Even though students read disciplinary texts and learn course material, until they practice the language of the discipline through writing, they are less likely to learn that language thoroughly. In addition, teachers cite other specific advantages of WID tasks, large and small. Such writing helps students to:

integrate and analyze course content
provide a field-wide context to course material
practice thinking skills relevant to analyses in the discipline
practice professional communication
prepare for a range of careers in the field

When to Choose WID, WTE, or WTL

Teachers need to decide which goals are most important for them and for the students they typically teach. For instance, if you ordinarily teach a freshman-level survey course that introduces students to the field, giving students practice in the conventions of writing for that field is generally inappropriate. Rather, you would probably want to give students opportunities to write about the new, foundational concepts they're being introduced to so that you can be sure they are learning the fundamental ideas they will need to take other courses in your discipline.

Teachers thinking about assigning writing in their courses also need to consider just how much time they'll have to review or respond to student writing. Assigning a 20-page term paper in a course with 200 students is unrealistic because teachers seldom have time to read and respond to such lengthy student writing.

Adjusting WID Tasks to Your Teaching Context

As teachers determine goals for writing and their time commitment, they discover an entire spectrum of writing they might assign in their classes. You will base your decisions on complex factors, but the simplified grid below can point you toward additional materials that might be most useful to you as you plan your writing component for each class.

Use this grid to suggest which kinds of writing might be most appropriate in your classes:

Alternate Forms/Formats that Mimic Professional Writing

Think of alternate forms/formats. Although the research essay is the most common kind of WID assignment, it's not the only format that students can use to learn about disciplinary writing conventions. If professionals in your field use any of these types of writing, consider using these formats to help students understand the thinking and writing of your discipline:

Project or lab notebook
Progress report
Management plan
Position paper
Interpretive essay
Review of literature
Journal or professional article
Project proposals
Grant proposals
Lab/field reports

Combining WTL and WTE with WID

In addition to discipline-specific formats, other kinds of writing assignments can help students learn the language and ways of thinking of a discipline, even though they may not mimic its professional writing. Any of these writing activities can provide the basis for a longer, more formal assignment, or can be used only to promote class discussion and/or thinking about course material:

Reading Journal

In a discipline-specific context, teachers using a reading journal ask students to write summaries, responses, and syntheses as appropriate for the field. "Readings" might include not only assigned textbook material, but also lectures and outside reading of professional or popular articles relevant to the course material. Teachers might want to assign specific questions to be answered in entries about each reading, or they might link readings in other ways.

Jargon Journal

When you introduce new terms in your lectures or when students see them in readings, ask students to jot the terms down in a notebook or electronic file. Periodically, students then return to the list of terms and fill in or revise working definitions of each term. (Some terms will be easy to define immediately after they are introduced in a course; other terms might take more familiarity with the complexity of a concept to define accurately.) Build in some incentive for keeping the jargon journal by pointing out that students can refer to the definitions as they prepare for—and perhaps write—exam responses.

Rhetorical Analysis

In addition to analyzing articles for content, as students might do in the reading journal, teachers can also ask students to look specifically at professional articles for rhetorical issues:

Scope and focus
Organization (conventional headings)
Arrangement
Level of detail
Kinds of evidence required
Uses of citations

Small-group or full-class discussion of these analyses will help students understand the critical approaches professionals in the field typically adopt as well as the writing conventions accepted by major journals in the field.

Analyze an Expert's Revisions

Bring in drafts of your own work or of someone else's professional work that you have permission to share with students. Show students:

how professionals shape and revise research questions
how professionals work from raw data to write sections outlining results and discussion
how professionals move from draft to draft as they work through the entire writing project

Sequencing Tasks

One reason that students report feeling overwhelmed by WID tasks is that they aren't sure where to start and then how to proceed to produce a good project of the sort required by the assignment. You can help students—and get better final drafts to read—by setting up a sequence of tasks that build toward the final project.

Two approaches work well when designing a sequence:

Break the large writing task into chunks so that students can tackle parts of the assignment and get feedback before moving to the next chunk. For an example, view the Ag Econ sample assignment.
An alternative is to devise tasks that build on each other, known as scaffolding. For instance, if you hope to assign a professional review of literature as the final project, first have students write abstracts or summaries of articles, then ask for annotations, and finally ask for synthesis. At the same time, have students analyze published articles to determine what a review of literature typically looks like in your field. By giving students scaffolded writing and analytic tasks, they become more confident and more able to meet your criteria for the final writing task.

Responding to Student Writing

You'll find more detailed advice about feedback in the sections under

How can I handle responding to drafts?

A few points bear repeating here:

Responding to students' writing involves far more than simply marking errors in punctuation and mechanics. Most grading time, by far, is devoted to commenting on focus, development and arrangement of ideas, the quality of arguments, and other larger issues.
Tell students in advance specifically what your expectations are for high-level writing skills. Then focus your commenting on how well students meet those specific criteria. Also consider developing a rubric or some other commenting guide to help you comment quickly but thoroughly on the points you decide are most important for a given assignment. (See the samples in "What makes a good writing assignment?" and "How can I handle responding to drafts?" )

Improving the Research Essay

When professors are reluctant to assign research essays, they often claim that students cannot write clearly and logically, synthesizing sources and evaluating data to draw closely argued conclusions. Most often, these weaknesses are not the result simply of poor writing skills, but also of poorly defined criteria that students don't grasp. Fortunately, teachers can improve the research essay by clarifying goals for the assignment and keeping students' resources in mind.

Excellent Goals for Assigning Research Essays

Most university professors agree that research-based writing in college classes can and should meet these goals:

foster critical thinking about raw data and other people's conclusions
give students an opportunity to work independently on a large project
mimic behaviors that students must know if they pursue advanced academic degrees
mimic behaviors that students will draw on in other aspects of their lives (examples range from buying cars to management decisions)
familiarize students with major journals, research methodologies, and writing conventions of their major fields

Questions to Ask about how Students will Perceive your Goals

Students often view the research-based paper as an exercise in cutting and pasting rather than in carefully sifting and synthesizing key ideas that support their own thinking. So teachers get the best results from research-based assignments that they have revised after considering these questions:

Have we, in teaching research rather than critical thinking about researched information, misled ourselves and our students into reducing this vital undertaking into a set of easily replicated steps?
And then by focusing on the steps, do we give students the wrong message about what is important in doing research?
When we give students 50 pages on documentation styles, are we telling them that format is more important than the critical synthesis of views and data?
How, then, might we reorient students' thinking about research-based writing?
Do students who see most of the grading criteria and weighting of the final grade devoted to the mechanics of finding and citing material believe in the goals we hope to foster with research-based writing?

Three Points to Consider

If you've decided that a traditional research essay best meets your teaching goals, please consider three ideas that might make this assignment more useful for students:

Find out what your students already know about using the library and the Internet for research

Most students in upper-level courses (and even most freshmen) know how to find general sources. But many upper-division students may not yet be familiar with specific sources in your discipline. Make sure they know how to find these, and even consider arranging a session in the library to go over search techniques for databases in your field.

Find out what your students already know about reading research-based articles in your discipline

Students are remarkably reluctant to admit they have a hard time reading research-based texts. But if they don't know how to read professional articles in your field, they certainly won't know how to evaluate the data and conclusions in those articles. You can tackle this problem with some sequenced "mini"-writing tasks (like those described in the Combining WTL and WID section ).

Give students a chance (or chances) to work on parts of the final assignment as separate tasks

The Ag Econ assignment is a good example of breaking down a larger writing task so that the teacher can see if students need help with key elements of the larger writing task. If students, for example, don't know how to frame an adequate research question, you can head off this problem if you give students a mini-task that asks for a research question long before students begin their source work.

Similarly, if your experience with this course in the past suggests that students often struggle to analyze or synthesize data, you might want to set up sequenced writing tasks that give them some practice—and feedback—on these key writing skills.

Beyond the Basics

The literature now available on writing in the disciplines or writing to communicate is deep and broad, encompassing far more than a brief bibliographic essay can accurately capture. Let me offer instead two pieces of advice—consult the general resources noted here and look at the journals in your discipline that take up teaching issues. Those journals are most likely to include articles that situate writing to communicate activities in the courses you might find yourself teaching. The articles themselves will glean from the robust resources to point you toward those titles that will best fill in background you might find helpful.

We collect below titles from across disciplines to offer some potential starting points. We have organized the resources in a table to cluster articles by discipline. Please note, however, that disciplinary titles here point to writing in the disciplines rather than writing to learn (or writing to engage) titles that are included in the WTL section of this resource. All titles refer to the list of Works Cited that follows the tables.

Titles sorted by broad disciplinary focus

Abbate-Vaughn, J. (2007). The graduate writing challenge: A perspective from an urban teacher education program. Action in Teacher Education, 29 (2), 51-60.

Addams, L.H., Woodbury, D., Allred, T., & Addams, J. (2010). Developing student communication skills while assisting nonprofit organizations. Business Communication Quarterly, 73 (3), 282-290.

Allwardt, D.E. (2011). Writing with wikis: A cautionary tale of technology in the classroom. Journal of Social Work Education, 47 (3), 597-605.

Bahls, P. (2012). Student writing in the quantitative disciplines: A guide for college faculty . Indianapolis, IN: Jossey Bass.

Bank, C. (2006). Reading and writing taught in a sophomore course on plate tectonics. Journal of Geoscience Education, 54 (1), 25-30.

Becker, S.F. (1995). Guest comment: Teaching writing to teach physics. American Journal of Physics, 63 (7), 587.

Beiersdorfer, R.E. (1991). An integrated approach to geologic writing for non-science majors based on study of a California river. Journal of Geological Education, 39 : 196-198.

Beins, B.C. (1993). Writing assignments in statistics classes encourage students to learn interpretation. Teaching of Psychology, 20 (3),161-164.

Blevins-Knabe, B. (1987). Writing to learn while learning to write. Teaching of Psychology, 14 (4), 239-241.

Bourelle, T. (2012). Bridging the gap between the technical communication classroom and the internship: Teaching social consciousness and real-world writing. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 42 (2), 183-197.

Bressette, A.R; & Breton, G.W. (2001). Using writing to enhance the undergraduate research experience. Journal of Chemical Education, 78 (12), 1626-1627.

Brumberger, E.R. (2004). The "corporate correspondence project": Fostering audience awareness and extended collaboration. Business Communication Quarterly, 67 (3), 349-358.

Buddington, A.M. (2006). A field-based, writing intensive undergraduate course on

Buzzi, O., Grimes, S., & Rolls, A. (2012). Writing for the discipline in the discipline? Teaching in Higher Education, 17 (4), 479-484.

Carlson, J.L., Chizmar, J.F., Seeborg, M.C., & Walbert, M.S. (1998). Using undergraduate journals and peer pressure to improve undergraduate writing in economics. The Journal of Economics, 24 (2), 77-86.

Carlson, P.A., & Berry, F. C. (2008). Using computer-mediated peer review in an engineering design course. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 51 (3), 264-279.

Carroll, F.A., & Seeman, J.I. (2001). Placing science into its human context: Using scientific autobiography to teach chemistry. Journal of Chemical Education, 78 (12), 1618-1622.

Carson, R.J. (1991). Land-use-planning writing assignment for an environment-geology course. Journal of Geological Education, 39 : 206-210.

Carter, M., Ferzli, M., & Wiebe, E.N. (2007). Writing to learn by learning to write in the disciplines. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 21 (3), 278-302.

Cass, A.G., & Fernandes, C.S.T. (2008). Simulated conference submissions: A technique to improve student attitudes about writing. 2008 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Vols. 1-3 ; pp. 1535-1540.

Centellas, M. (2010). Pop culture in the classroom: "American Idol," Karl Marx, and Alexis de Tocqueville. PS: Political Science and Politics, 43 (3), 561-565.

Chamely,Wiik, D.M., Kaky, J.E., & Galin, J. (2012). From Bhopal to cold fusion: A case-study approach to writing assignments in honors general chemistry. Journal of Chemical Education, 89 (4), 502-508.

Cheng, C.K., Pare, D.E., Collimore, L., & Joordens, S. (2011). Assessing the effectiveness of a voluntary online discussion forum on improving students' course performance. Computers & Education, 56 (1), 253-261.

Chiang, C. D., Lewis, C. L., Wright, M. D. E., Agapova, S., Akers, B., Azad, T. D., Banerjee, K., Carrera, P., Chen, A., Chen, J., Chi, X., Chiou, J., Cooper, J., Czurylo, M., Downs, C., Ebstein, S. Y., Fahey, P. G., Goldman, J. W., Grieff, A., Hsiung, S., Hu, R., Huang, Y., Kapuria, A., Li, K., Marcu, I., Moore, S. H., Moseley, A. C., Nauman, N., Ness, K. M., Ngai, D. M., Panzer, A., Peters, P., Qin, E. Y., Sadhu, S., Sariol, A., Schellhase, A., Schoer, M. B., Steinberg, M., Surick, G., Tsai, C. A., Underwood, K., Wang, A., Wang, M. H., Wang, V. M., Westrich, D., Yockey, L. J., Zhang, L., & Herzog, E. D. (2012). Learning Chronobiology by improving Wikipedia. Journal of Biological Rhythms, 27 (4), 333-336.

Colabroy, K.L. (2011). A writing-intensive, methods-based laboratory course for undergraduates. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education: A Bimonthly Publication of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 39 (3), 196-203.

Collins, J. (2010). Engineers learn to write: Coaching the art of noticing with writing samples. 2010 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference ; 80-86. New York: IEEE Press.

Conrad, S.H. (1991). Balancing teaching and learning geology on the writing fulcrum. Journal of Geological Education, 39 : 230-231.

Craig, J.L., Lerner, N., & Poe, M. (2008). Innovation across the curriculum: Three case studies in teaching science and engineering communication. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 51 (3), 280-301.

Crisp, K.M., Jensen, M.M., & Moore, R.R. (2007). Pros and cons of a group webpage design project in a freshman anatomy and physiology course. Advances in Physiology Education, 31 (4), 343-346.

Cunningham, K. (2007). Applications of reaction rate. Journal of Chemical Education, 84 (3), 430-433.

Davis, L.E. (1991). Student abstract writing as a tool for writing across the curriculum in large introductory-geology courses. Journal of Geological Education, 39 : 178-180.

Deese, W.C., Ramsey, L.L., Walczyk, J., & Eddy, D. (2000). Using demonstration assessments to improve writing. Journal of Chemical Education, 77 (11), 1511-1516.

DeWolf, J.T. (2002). Incorporation of writing into a steel design course. Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, 128 (2), 71-74.

Dickovick, J.T. (2009). Methods in the madness: Integrative approaches to methodology in introductory comparative politics. Journal of Political Science Education, 5 (2), 138-153.

Doty, L.L. (2012). A mathematician learns the basics of writing instruction: An immersion experience with long-term benefits. Primus, 22 (1), 14-29.

Elberty, W.T., & Romey, W.D. (1991). "What are you interested in" as a writing assignment theme. Journal of geological education, 39 : 237-239.

Elliot, L., Daily, N.L., Fredricks, L., & Graham, M.S. (2008). Transitioning from students to professionals: Using a writing across the curriculum model to scaffold portfolio development. Teacher Educator, 43 (1), 46-58.

Falk, H., & Yarden, A. (2011). Stepping into the unknown: Three models for the teaching and learning of the opening sections of scientific articles. Journal of Biological Education, 45 (2), 77-82.

Fencl, H.S. (2010). Development of students' critical-reasoning skills through content-focused activities in a general education course. Journal of College Science Teaching, 39 (5), 56-62.

Ford, J.D. (2004). Knowledge transfer across disciplines: Tracking rhetorical strategies from a technical communication classroom to an engineering classroom. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 47 (4), 301-315.

Ford, J.D., & Newmark, J. (2011). Emphasizing research (further) in undergraduate technical communication curricula: Involving undergraduate students with an academic journal's publication and management. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 41 (3), 311-324.

Fredrick, T. (2008). Practicing professional communication principles by creating public service announcements. Business Communication Quarterly, 71 (1), 58-63.

Froese, A.D., Gantz, B.S., & Henry, A.L. (1998). Teaching students to write literature reviews: A meta-analytic model. Teaching of Psychology, 25 (2), 102-105.

Galer-Unti, R.A. (2002). Student perceptions of a writing-intensive course in health education. Health Educator: Journal of Eta Sigma Gamma, 34 (2), 35-40.

Gallavan, N.P., Bowles, F.S., & Young, C.T. (2007). Learning to write and writing to learn: Insights from teacher candidates. Action in Teacher Education, 29 (2), 61-69.

Goma, O.D. (2001). Creative writing in economics. College teaching, 49 (4), 149-152.

Goodman, R.E. (2005). Using letter-writing to enhance a calculus course. PRIMUS, 15 (4), 298-302.

Guildford, W.H. (2001). Teaching peer review and the process of scientific writing. Advances in Physiology Education, 25 (3), 167-175.

Halsor, S.P., & Faul-Halsor, C.L. (1991). Enhanced student learning through writing in a physical-geology class. Journal of Geological Education, 39 : 181-184.

Harding, B.A. (2005). "A simple mechanism to teach a complex practitioner knowledge set." Innovations in Engineering Education 2005 ; pp. 479-486. ASME.

Hocks, M.E., Lopez, E.S., & Grabill, J.T. (2000,. Praxis and institutional architecture: Designing an interdisciplinary professional writing program. Academic Writing . Accessed at https://wac.colostate.edu/aw/articles/hocks2000.pdf

Hosten, C.M., Talanova, G., & Lipkowitz, K.B. (2011). Introducing undergraduates to the role of science in public policy and in the service of the community. Chemistry Education Research and Practice, 12 (3), 388-394.

Hotchkiss, K., & Hougen, M. (2012): Writing like a historian: What teacher candidates should know and be able to teach, The Social Studies, 103( 4), 149-157.

Howell, P.R. (2007). "Writing to specification: An approach to teaching scientific literacy, and a prelude to writing 'The World of Materials' essays." In J.E.E. Baglin (Ed.), Proceedings of the Symposium and Forum Education in Materials Science, Engineering and Technology ; pp. 247-289.

Irish, R. (1999). Engineering thinking: Using Benjamin Bloom and William Perry to design assignments. Language and Learning across the Disciplines, 3 (2), 83-102.

Jalali, H., Hanlan, L., & Canal, J.P. (2009). "The use of writing-intensive learning as a communication and learning tool in an inorganic chemistry laboratory course." In M. GuptaBhowon, S. JhaumeerLauloo, H.L.K. Wah, and P. Ramasami (Eds.), Chemistry Education in the ICT Age ; pp. 153-160.

Jebb, J.F. (2005). The crisis posting: Scenarios for class discussion and creation. Business Communication Quarterly, 68 (4), 457-478.

Kahn, J.M., & Holody, R. (2012). Supporting field instructors' efforts to help improve student writing. Journal of Social Work Education, 48 (1), 65-73.

Kasman, R. (2006). Critique that! Analytical writing assignments in advanced mathematics courses. PRIMUS, 16 (1), 1-15.

Kaufer, D., & Young, R. (1993). Writing in the content areas: Some theoretical complexities. In L. Odell (Ed.), Theory and practice in the teaching of writing: Rethinking the discipline . Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

Kebede, A. (2009). Practicing sociological imagination through writing sociological autobiography. Teaching Sociology, 37 (4), 353-368.

Killingbeck, K. (2006). Field botany and creative writing: Where the science of writing meets the writing of science. Journal of College Science Teaching, 35 (7), 26-28.

Klein, B., & Aller, B. M. (1998). Writing across the curriculum in college chemistry: A practical bibliography. Language and Learning Across the Discipilines, 2(3), 25-35.

Kokkala, I., & Gessell, D. A. (2003). Writing science effectively: biology and English students in an author-editor relationship. Journal of College Science Teaching, 32 (4), 252-257.

Kroen, W. (2004). Modeling the writing process: Using authentic data to teach students to write scientifically. Journal of College Science Teaching, 34 (3), 50-53.

Kreth, M.L. (2005). A small-scale client project for business writing students: Developing a guide for first-time home buyers. Business Communication Quarterly, 68 (1), 52-59.

Lavelle, E. (2006). Teachers' self-efficacy for writing. Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology, 4 (1), 73-84.

Lewis, M. (2004). Reflections: 'This class will write a book': An experiment in environmental history pedagogy. Environmental History, 9 (4), 604-619.

Libarkin, J., & Ording, G. (2012). The utility of writing assignments in undergraduate bioscience. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 11 (1), 39-46.

Lillig, J.W. (2008). Writing across the semester: A non-standard term paper that encourages critical data analysis in the upper-division chemistry classroom. Journal of Chemical Education, 85 (10), 1392-1394.

Linsdell, J., & Anagnos, T. (2011). Motivating technical writing through study of the environment. Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, 137 (1), 20-27.

Lord, S.M. (2009). Integrating effective "writing to communicate" experiences in engineering courses: Guidelines and examples. International Journal of Engineering Education, 25 (1), 196-204.

Luthy, K.E., Peterson, N.E., Lassetter, J.H., & Callister, L.C. (2009), Successfully incorporating writing across the curriculum with advanced writing in nursing. Journal of Nursing Education, 48 (1), 54-59.

Macdonald, R.H. (1991). Writing assignments challenge students in a physical-geology course. Journal of Geological Education, 39 : 199-201.

Martin, A.M. (2010). "Astronomy and writing: A first-year cosmology course for nonmajors." In J. Barnes, D.A. Smith, M.G. Gibbs, and J.G. Manning (Eds.), Science Education and Outreach: Forging a Path to the Future . Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series, Vol. 431; pp. 368-371. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

McDermott, M., & Kuhn, M. (2011). Using writing for alternative audiences in a college integrated science course. Journal of College Science Teaching, 41 (1), 40-45.

McGovern, T.V., & Hogshead, D.L. (1990). Learning about writing, thinking about teaching. Teaching of Psychology, 17 (1), 5-9.

McMillan, L.R., & Raines, K. (2010). Headed in the "write" direction: Nursing student publication and health promotion in the community. Journal of Nursing Education, 49 (7), 418-421.

Meyer, N.J., & Munson, B.H. (2005). Personalizing and empowering environmental education through expressive writing. Journal of Environmental Education, 36 (3), 6-15.

Mirsky, A. (1991). Writing assignments as a continuum in geosciences education. Journal of Geological Education, 39 : 232-236.

Mizrahi, J. (2003). Teaching technical writing to university students using the medical report. STC's 50 th Annual Conference Proceedings ; 190-193.

Moni, R.W., Hryciw, D.H., Poronnik, P., & Moni, K.B. (2007). Using explicit teaching to improve how bioscience students write to the lay public. Advances in Physiology Education, 31 (2), 167-75.

Motavalli, P.P., Patton, M.D., & Miles, R.J. (2007). Use of web-based student extension publications to improve undergraduate student writing skills. Journal of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Education, 36 : 95-102.

Mulnix, A.B. (2003). Investigations of protein structure and function using the scientific literature: An assignment for an undergraduate cell physiology course. Cell Biology Education, 2 (4), 248-255.

Nelson, S.J., & MacLeod, L. (1993). Development of cases for business report writing classes: The analytical report. Business Education Forum , 36-38.

Niemitz, J.W., & Potter, N. (1991). The scientific method and writing in introductory landscape-development laboratories. Journal of Geological Education, 39 : 190-195.

Paretti, M.C., & McNair, U.D. (2008). Introduction to the special issue on communication in engineering curricula: Mapping the landscape. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 51 (3), 238-241.

Patterson, R.T. (1997). Assignment of World Wide Web virtual museum projects in undergraduate geoscience courses. Computers & Geosciences, 23 (5), 581-585.

Patton, M.D. (2008). Beyond WI: Building an integrated communication curriculum in one department of civil engineering tutorial. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 51 (3), 313-327.

Pennock, A. (2011). The case for using policy writing in undergraduate political science courses. PS: Political Science and Politics, 44 (1), 141-146.

Planken, B., & Kreps, A.J. Raising Students' Awareness of the Implications of Multimodality for Content Design and Usability: The Web Site Project. Business Communication Quarterly, 69 (4), 421-425.

Polizzotto, K., & Ortiz, M.T. (2008). Design projects in human anatomy & physiology. American Biology Teacher, 70 (4), 230-234.

Pollard, E.A. (2008). Raising the stakes: Writing about witchcraft on Wikipedia. History Teacher, 42 (1), 9-24.

Powell, V. (2012). Revival of the position paper: Aligning curricula and professional competencies. Communication Teacher, 26 (2), 96-103.

Pressman, J. (2008). The Arab-Israeli conflict and the case of the lemon tree. International Studies Perspective, 9 (4), 430-441.

Prothero, W.A., & Kelly, G.J. (2008). Earth data, science writing, and peer review in a large general education oceanography class. Journal of Geoscience Education, 56 (1), 61-72.

Reynolds-Keefer, L. (2010). Rubric-referenced assessment in teacher preparation: An opportunity to learn by using. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 15 (8).

Roberts-Kirchoff, E.S., & Caspers, M.L. (2001). Dialogues as teaching tools in the biochemical sciences. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 29 (6), 225-228.

Robinson, M.S., Stoller, F.L., Horn, B., & Grabe, W. (2009). Teaching and applying chemistry-specific writing skills using a simple, adaptable exercise. Journal of Chemical Education, 86 (1), 45-49.

Russell, D.R. (2007). Rethinking the articulation between business and technical communication and writing in the disciplines: Useful avenues for teaching and research. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 21 (3), 248-277.

Russell, D. R. (1991 ). Writing in the Academic Disciplines, 1870-1990: A Curricular History . Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.

Ruswick, B.J. (2011). Teaching historical skills through JSTOR: An online research project for survey courses. History Teacher, 44 (2), 285-296.

Santi, P. (2000). Ethics exercises for civil, environmental, and geological engineers. Journal of Engineering Education, 89 (2), 151-159+253.

Santos, J., & Lavin, A.M. (2004). Do as I do, not as I say: Assessing outcomes when students think like economists. Journal of Economic Education, 35 (2), 148-161.

Shaver, L. (2007). Eliminating the shell game: Using writing assignment names to integrate disciplinary learning. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 21 (1), 74-90.

Shaver, L. (2011). Using key messages to explore rhetoric in professional writing. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 25 (2), 219-236.

Sin, S., Jones, A., & Petocz, P. (2007). Evaluating a method of integrating generic skills with accounting content based on a functional theory of meaning. Accounting and Finance, 47 (1), 143-163.

Sivey, J.D., & Lee, C.M. (2008). Using popular magazine articles to teach the art of writing for nontechnical audiences. Journal of Chemical Education, 85 (1), 55-58.

Smosna, R., & Bruner, K.R. (2007). Toward the improvement of reasoning and writing skills in sedimentary geology. Journal of Geoscience Education, 55 (1), 17-21.

Snow, R.S. (1991). Early writing in the research mode via digital modeling of rivers. Journal of Geological Education, 39 : 227-229.

Street, C., & Stang, K. (2008). Improving the teaching of writng across the curriculum: A model for teaching in-service secondary teachers to write. Action in Teacher Education, 30 (1), 37-49.

Sulewski, R. (2003). Integrating communication and technical material in the first-year engineering curriculum: The role of the laboratory. STC's 50 th Annual Conference Proceedings ; 176-178.

Tilstra, L. (2001). Using journal articles to teach writing skills for laboratory reports in general chemistry. Journal of Chemical Education, 78 (6). 762-764.

Tomaska, L. (2007). Teaching how to prepare a manuscript by means of rewriting published scientific papers. Genetics, 175 (1), 17-20.

Trepagnier, B. (2004). Teaching sociology through student portfolios. Teaching Sociology, 32 (2), 197-205.

Turner, T., & Broemmel, A. (2006). Fourteen writing strategies. Science Scope, 30 (4), 27-31.

Vega, G. (2010). The undergraduate case research study model. Journal of Management Education, 34 (4), 574-604.

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Ward, M., Sr. (2009). Squaring the learning circle: Cross-classroom collaborations and the impact of audience on student outcomes in professional writing. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 23 (1), 61-82.

West, V.L. (2006). Teaching written communication skills in professional selling: The cover letter. Journal of Marketing Education, 28 (3), 205-217.

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White, H.B. (2007). The eyes have it: A problem-based learning exercise in molecular evolution. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, 35 (3), 213-218.

Williams, J.A.S., & Reid, R.C. (2010). Developing problem solving and communication skills through memo assignments in a management science course. Journal of Education for Business, 85 (6), 323-329.

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collage of photos showing the center facilities

Writing in the Disciplines and Across the Curriculum

Each discipline has its own style, structure, and format when it comes to academic writing. This section provides resources on writing in specific disciplines, broken down into the following five general academic categories: Business and Communication, Humanities, Social Sciences, Sciences and Mathematics.

The Humanities category is further broken down by subject and common rhetorical writing tasks in that discipline: analysis, argument and persuasion, cause and effect, classification, comparison and contrast, definition, description and narrative.

Also see: Citing Sources for discipline-specific citation styles | Professional Writing for common non-academic writing resources such as writing for email, for the web and for the job search.

BUSINESS AND COMMUNICATION

Business Writing (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout will help you write business letters required in many different situations, from applying for a job to requesting or delivering information. While the examples that are discussed specifically are the application letter and cover letter, this handout also highlights strategies for effective business writing in general.”

Communication Studies (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout describes some steps for planning and writing papers in communication studies courses.”

Montclair State University Databases: Business, Economics & Management (Montclair State University, University Libraries)

Writing for a North American Business Audience (Purdue OWL) “This handout provides examples and information (written for non-North Americans) on how to write for a business audience. It includes information on getting to the point, keeping it simple, active and passive voice, nondiscriminatory language, and verb overgeneralizing.”

Writing for an Indian Business Audience (Purdue OWL) “This handout provides examples and information on writing for both domestic and international audiences doing business in India. It includes information on letters and memos, as well as important stylistic considerations. The handout concludes with comments on some important characteristics of English writing in India, and on the status of English in business writing compared with native Indian languages, such as Hindi and Bengali.”

Writing in Business (Writing@CSU) An online writing guide about writing for business. Sections address writing business letters , resumes , press releases and executive summaries .

Resources for writing in the Humanities are broken down into the following sections. See resources for each below.

Art and Art History
Rhetorical Tasks

HUMANITIES > GENERAL

Four Keys to Writing in the Humanities (Mark T. Unno, University of Oregon) “One of the challenges of writing papers in the humanities is that courses and instructors have different requirements and expectations. Nevertheless, there are certain things that tend to be consistent across the curriculum, such as focus and simplicity, basic forms of argument, documentation, and writing as a craft. When you begin to understand these basic elements, then the variety of requirements and expectations will actually become a source of inspiration and wisdom rather than confusion and frustration.”

Writing in the Humanities and Arts (UCLA Graduate Writing Center) “The books and articles below offer advice on writing dissertations, theses, articles, proposals, and abstracts in the humanities and arts (although some of these sources address a broader audience).”

HUMANITIES > ART AND ART HISTORY

Art History (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout discusses several common types of art history assignments, and talks about various strategies and resources that will help you write your art history papers.”

Montclair State University Databases: Art and Design (Montclair State University, University Libraries)

Writing Across the Curriculum: Writing About Art (Hunter College Writing Center) (PDF) This handout explains different types of art history papers and includes a series of rhetorical questions for analyzing paintings, portraits, figural scenes, landscapes, sculptures, and architecture.

Writing About Art (Marjorie Munsterberg) This page discusses the different ways to approach an art history paper and includes sample excerpts.

HUMANITIES > DANCE

Guidelines for Viewing Dance and Writing Critiques for Dance Performances (Myra Daleng, University of Richmond Writing Center) Ideas and suggestions for writing a critique of a dance performance. One of the most interesting sections of the handout is the “Dance Critique Pet Peeves” that lists words and phrases to avoid when writing a dance critique. There is also a checklist for writing a critique at the end. Also see: Research-Based Writing.

Montclair State University Databases: Theatre & Dance (Montclair State University, University Libraries)

Writing a Dance Critique (Utah Tech University) This handout presents five steps to critiquing a performance and includes questions for evaluation.

HUMANITIES > DRAMA

Drama – UNC Chapel Hill (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout identifies common questions about drama, describes the elements of drama that are most often discussed in theater classes, provides a few strategies for planning and writing an effective drama paper, and identifies various resources for research in theater history and dramatic criticism.”

Drama Terms: Brief Definitions (Washington State University) A dictionary of drama terms.

How to Review a Play (University of Wisconsin – Madison, The Writing Center) Here are some tips to help you before you begin writing a play review. This page offers advice on what you can do to prepare before the play and what types of questions you should be asking yourself during the play.

HUMANITIES > FILM

How to Write About Film: The Movie Review, The Theoretical Essay, and The Critical Essay (University of Colorado, The Writing Center) (PDF) A guide to thinking critically about film using Timothy Corrigan’s three major genres.

Lights, Camera, Brainstorming: Writing About Film (Agnes Scott College, Center for Writing and Speaking) (PDF) This handout provides suggestions for what to do before, during, and after watching the film.

Montclair State University Databases: Film Studies (Montclair State University, University Libraries)

The McGraw-Hill Film Viewer’s Guide (McGraw-Hill) (PDF) This PDF discusses the conventions of writing about film and includes sample student papers.

Writing About Film (Simon Fraser University Library) “This guide has been designed as a starting point for research into writing about films.”

Writing About Film (Duke University, Thompson Writing Program) (PDF) “This handout discusses ways to approach film as a visual medium. It offers suggestions for focus, prewriting tips, and guidance on how to think critically about a medium many of us think of as popular entertainment. It does not include a comprehensive list of technical film terminology, although it does provide links to several sources that do. This handout deals with decoding film as a viewer, considering how film appears rather than how it was made.”

HUMANITIES > JOURNALISM

Basics of News Writing ( Write Right: A Student Audio Podcast , Texas A&M University, University Writing Center) An interview with Dale Rice, Director of Journalism Studies, about how to write a news story.

Feature News vs. Hard News ( Write Right: A Student Audio Podcast, Texas A&M University, University Writing Center) An interview with “Dale Rice, Director of Journalism Studies here at Texas A&M, about the difference in hard news and feature news writing.”

Lives: Columns – The New York Times ( The New York Times ) “Since 1996, The Times Magazine has published the Lives column, a series of incisive, 800-word essays or as-told-to accounts that highlight small moments in real people’s lives. While a number of well-known writers have contributed to this column — including Nora Ephron, Michael Pollan, Karen Russell and others — some of the best submissions have been from nonprofessional writers, people who felt that they had a really good story to tell.”

How to Interview Sensitive Sources With Tips (Masterclass) “In the course of reporting, an investigative journalist may need to interview sensitive sources or anonymous sources to glean the most accurate information.”

Writing on Deadlines (Alaska Press Club) “Deadlines are the bane and lifeblood of reporting. New York Times reporter Sarah Mervosh has created several routines and checklists to help.”

HUMANITIES > LITERATURE

Book Reviews (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout will help you write a book review, a report or essay that offers a critical perspective on a text. It offers a process and suggests some strategies for writing book reviews.”

Fiction Terms: 35 Brief Definitions (Washington State University) A dictionary of poetry terms.

Guidelines for Writing a Literature Review (Helen Mongan-Rallis, University of Minnesota Duluth) Mongan-Rallis uses Galvin’s Writing Literature Reviews: A Guide for Students of the Behavioral Sciences , 3rd ed., to reiterate and expand upon a step-by-step approach to writing a literature review. She mentions technology that is useful in composing/organizing a literature review and includes links to additional resources.

Introduction to Modern Literary Theory (Kristi Siegel, Mount Mary College) Siegel explains 18 literary theories and includes suggestions for further reading.

Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism (Purdue OWL) “This resource will help you begin the process of understanding literary theory and schools of criticism and how they are used in the academy.” The sections on this handout include:

Critical Disability Studies
Critical Race Theory
Ecocriticism
Feminist Criticism
Gender Studies and Queer Theory
Marxist Criticism
Moral Criticism, Dramatic Construction
New Historicism, Cultural Studies
Post-Colonial Criticism
Postmodern Criticism
Psychoanalytic Criticism
Reader-Response Criticism
Structuralism and Semiotics

Literature (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout describes some steps for planning and writing papers about fiction texts.”

Literature Reviews (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout will explain what a literature review is and offer insights into the form and construction of a literature review in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.”

Montclair State University Databases: Literature (Montclair State University, University Libraries)

Writing About Fiction (Purdue OWL) “This handout covers major topics relating to writing about fiction. This covers prewriting, close reading, thesis development, drafting, and common pitfalls to avoid.”

Close Reading a Text and Avoiding Pitfalls
Developing a Thesis
Pre-writing Activities and Drafting Your Essay

Writing About Literature (Purdue OWL) “This handout provides examples and description about writing papers in literature. It discusses research topics, how to begin to research, how to use information, and formatting.”

Literature Topics and Research

Writing in Literature Overview (Purdue OWL) “These sections describe in detail the assignments students may complete when writing about literature.”

HUMANITIES > MUSIC

Montclair State University Databases: Music (Montclair State University, University Libraries)

Writing about Music – Calgary (The University of Calgary, Robert M. Seiler) Dr. Seiler offers “hints on how to help the reader appreciate the complexities of the performance you plan to write about” focusing on “(a) getting ready to write and (b) writing the piece.”

Writing about Music – UNC (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout features common types of music assignments and offers strategies and resources for writing them.”

HUMANITIES > PHILOSOPHY

A Brief Guide to Writing the Philosophy Paper (Harvard College Writing Center) An introduction to writing a philosophy paper, which includes useful examples.

How to Write a Philosophy Paper (David Clowney, Rowan University) Begins with general tips on writing a paper and then offers suggestions for writing interpretive, analytic, and exploratory papers.

Montclair State University Databases: Philosophy (Montclair State University, University Libraries)

Philosophy (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout discusses common types of philosophy assignments and strategies and resources that will help you write your philosophy papers.”

Tips on Writing a Philosophy Paper (Douglas W. Portmore, Arizona State University) (PDF) This thorough handout discusses thesis statements, structure, content, rhetorical considerations, documentation, and style for a philosophy paper.

HUMANITIES > POETRY

Glossary of Poetic Terms (Poetry Foundation) A complete glossary of poetry terms. You can search for terms alphabetically or filter them by “Forms & Types,” “Rhythm & Meter,” “Schools & Periods,” “Techniques & Figures of Speech,” and “Theory & Criticism.”

How to Read a Poem (University of Wisconsin – Madison, The Writing Center) This source provides questions to help you identify a poem’s subject, context, form and language.

Image in Poetry (Purdue OWL) “This section covers images as they appear in poetry and covers related terminology, definitions and origins of images, uses of images, and several exercises.”

Poetry Explications (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “A poetry explication is a relatively short analysis which describes the possible meanings and relationships of the words, images, and other small units that make up a poem. Writing an explication is an effective way for a reader to connect a poem’s plot and conflicts with its structural features. This handout reviews some of the important techniques of approaching and writing a poetry explication, and includes parts of two sample explications.”

Poetry Terms: Brief Definitions (Washington State University) A dictionary of poetry terms.

Writing About Poetry (Purdue OWL) “Writing about poetry can be one of the most demanding tasks that many students face in a literature class. Poetry, by its very nature, makes demands on a writer who attempts to analyze it that other forms of literature do not. So how can you write a clear, confident, well-supported essay about poetry? This handout offers answers to some common questions about writing about poetry.”

HUMANITIES > RELIGION

Montclair State University Databases: Jewish Studies (Montclair State University, University Libraries)

Montclair State University Databases: Religion (Montclair State University, University Libraries)

Religious Studies (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout will help you to write research papers in religious studies.”

HUMANITIES > RHETORICAL TASKS

In academic writing, one can be asked to do many different types of writing. Some papers have you conducting research, while others require you to formulate an argument or write a critique, and some often have you do a combination of research and argument. This section includes resources on the following specific types of academic writing: analysis, argument and persuasion, cause and effect, classification, comparison and contrast, definition, description, and narrative. See Conducting Research for resources on writing research papers.

How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay (Bucks County Community College) (PDF) Breaks down the “elements of a solid essay” to guide readers in their own literary analyses.

Literary Analysis Guide (Goshen College English Dept.) Includes strategies and principles for analyzing a text, along with sample analysis paragraphs.

Argument and Persuasion

Argument (Writing@CSU) An online writing guide to “help writers better understand how to plan, organize, develop, support and revise a written argument.” Sections of the guide address the parts of an argument , the Toulmin Method and adapting the argument to the audience .

Argumentative Essays (Purdue OWL) An introduction to writing an argumentative essay.

Developing an Argument Handouts (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) These handouts support writers in developing an argument.

Taking Inventory
Checklist for Analyzing Research Material
Evidence Analysis
Thesis Analysis
Focus Checklist
Audience Analysis
Revision Checklist

Developing Strong Thesis Statements (Purdue OWL) Tips for making your thesis statement debatable and narrow enough. It also includes definitions/examples of the four categories of thesis statements.

Montclair State University Databases: Research and Writing (Montclair State University, University Libraries)

Writing Tips: Thesis Statements (Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Center for Writing Studies) Definition of thesis statements including what questions to ask when formulating thesis statements and model examples of thesis statements.

Cause and Effect

Writing Cause and Effect Papers (Butte College, Center for Academic Success) This is a tip sheet on examining “the reasons for and the outcomes of situations.”

Classification

Writing a Classification Paper (Butte College, Center for Academic Success) This is a tip sheet on prewriting, developing a thesis, organizing and using effective language in a classification essay.

Comparison and Contrast

Compare and Contrast (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) (VIDEO) “Learn strategies for comparing and contrasting ideas—strategies that can also help you generate ideas for other types of writing.”

Comparing and Contrasting (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout will help you first to determine whether a particular assignment is asking for comparison/contrast and then to generate a list of similarities and differences, decide which similarities and differences to focus on, and organize your paper so that it will be clear and effective. It will also explain how you can (and why you should) develop a thesis that goes beyond ‘Thing A and Thing B are similar in many ways but different in others’.”

How to Write a Comparative Analysis (Harvard College Writing Center) “To write a good compare-and-contrast paper, you must take your raw data–the similarities and differences you’ve observed–and make them cohere into a meaningful argument. Here are the five elements required.”

Description

Things to Consider as You Write Your Descriptive Essay (Masterclass) Considerations and conventions for writing a descriptive essay.

Narrative Essays (Purdue OWL) Outlines the conventions of a narrative essay.

SOCIAL SCIENCES

A Brief Guide to Writing the History Paper (Harvard College Writing Center) “A concise introduction to some of the basic conventions of writing in history. Intended for an undergraduate audience.”

Anthropology (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout briefly situates anthropology as a discipline of study within the social sciences. It provides an introduction to the kinds of writing that you might encounter in your anthropology courses, describes some of the expectations that your instructors may have, and suggests some ways to approach your assignments. It also includes links to information on citation practices in anthropology and resources for writing anthropological research papers.”

History (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout was written with several goals in mind: to explain what historians do and how they approach the writing process; to encourage you to think about your history instructor’s expectations of you; and to offer some strategies to help you write effectively in history courses.”

Montclair State University Databases: Anthropology (Montclair State University, University Libraries)

Montclair State University Databases: Political Science (Montclair State University, University Libraries)

Montclair State University Databases: Sociology (Montclair State University, University Libraries)

Sociology (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout introduces you to the wonderful world of writing sociology. Before you can write a clear and coherent sociology paper, you need a firm understanding of the assumptions and expectations of the discipline. You need to know your audience, the way they view the world and how they order and evaluate information. So, without further ado, let’s figure out just what sociology is, and how one goes about writing it.”

Writing in Political Science (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “This handout will help you to recognize and to follow writing practices and standards in political science. The first step toward accomplishing this goal is to develop a basic understanding of political science and the kind of work political scientists do.”

Writing in Political Science: An Introduction (Dave Roberts, University of Richmond Writing Center) A guide that dissects what is involved in writing in the field of political science.

A Brief Guide to Writing in Chemistry (Kenyon College) “This document is a guide to assist students in chemistry courses with writing and formatting laboratory reports and research reports.”

Chemistry Lab Resources (Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies) “Here you can find tips about organizing your lab notebook, how to effectively create graphs and table for lab reports, places to locate protocols and property information, and how to properly cite resources.”

Laboratory Report Instructions (Reed College, Doyle Online Writing Lab) A manual to writing each section of a lab report. The site also includes examples of well-written and poorly written lab reports.

Montclair State University Databases: Biology (Montclair State University, University Libraries)

Montclair State University Databases: Chemistry (Montclair State University, University Libraries)

Montclair State University Databases: Physics and Astronomy (Montclair State University, University Libraries)

“Right your Writing: How to sharpen your writing and make your manuscripts more engaging” (Bob Grant with contributor Judith Swan, The Scientist Magazine) Free subscription required for access. Offers “ways to improve your writing practices and tips on how to align your writing to your readers’ expectations.”

Sciences (UNC Chapel Hill, The Writing Center) “Every element of style that is accepted and encouraged in general academic writing is also considered good practice in scientific writing. The major difference between science writing and writing in other academic fields is the relative importance placed on certain stylistic elements. This handout details the most critical aspects of scientific writing and provides some strategies for evaluating and improving your scientific prose.”

Scientific Writing Resource (Duke University) This resource covers lessons including: “Subjects and Actions”, “Cohesion, Coherence, and Emphasis”, and “Concision and Simplicity” with a focus on effective communication.

Writing Biology Lab Reports (University of Richmond Writing Center) A guide for writing biology lab reports with sections on writing the abstract , the introduction , materials and methods , results , discussion and citing sources .

Writing in the Sciences (Writing@CSU) An online writing guide that addresses the challenges and issues involved in scientific writing. Sections include Writing the Scientific-Format Paper and Achieving the Scientific-Voice.

Writing the Scientific Paper (Writing@CSU) A comprehensive guide to writing scientific papers. Be sure to click “Continue” on the bottom right of the screen to access all of the information.

MATHEMATICS

AMS Author Handbook (American Mathematical Society) This is the most widely recognized handbook for writing in mathematics.

AMS Author Resource Center (American Mathematical Society) Provides links and tools to assist in writing, editing, illustrating and publishing mathematical works.

Guide to AMS Editor’s Package (American Mathematical Society) This link from the AMS website covers formatting for papers/monographs using LaTeX software, a common program for setting math type used here at Montclair State. It also provides templates to create title pages, bibliographies, etc. for LaTeX users.

Montclair State University Databases: Math (Montclair State University, University Libraries)

MRef (American Mathematical Society) This is a citation generator for standard references that include links to the MathSciNet database.

Overview of AMS-LaTeX Software (American Mathematical Society) This is an overview of the AMS-LaTeX software.

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10 Tips to Build a Writing Practice Discipline to Finish Your Novel

Zara Altair

man writing on computer on sailing yacht

A Novel Doesn’t Write Itself

1. make time, 2. set up a space, 3. share your commitment, 4. don’t be available, 5. write the words, 6. it’s novel writing, 7. overcome the pride bump, 8. avoid the word count trap, 9. get into the story, 10. take breaks, your desire leads your commitment.

Writers write. Finishing your novel is not a one and done for the day game. It takes time.

Writing a novel requires the discipline of consistency to complete the manuscript. The challenge of finding time confronts every writer who is not a full-time author.

Building a personal writing discipline will help you complete your novel. The pages won’t languish waiting for your return. And you’ll have the confidence of knowing your work in progress is progressing.

If you are new to novel-writing, the best way to create a consistent practice is to manage your writing time. You need commitment and dedication to make it happen. But, if you build in writing as part of your life, your reward will be a finished novel.

Create a schedule for writing. And then stick to it. Add your writing time to your calendar and treat it the way you would any meeting. Keep the appointment. If you are serious about a writing career, you are booking a professional appointment.

Best practice is to write every day. If your work and family life keep you from a daily routine, save it as a goal. Then create a weekly schedule that gives you a minimum of three days a week with time committed to novel writing.

Some writers prefer to get up early to write. Others do their best writing in the evening or late at night. If you don’t know your best writing time yet, vary your schedule with some early sessions, some midday sessions, and some evening sessions. Some writers use commute time as writing time. (One writer I know takes the train to work instead of driving just so he has dedicated writing time.) You’ll soon have a feel for what time of day works best for your word flow.

If you avoid making time for writing, you will feel like a failure. Scheduling time is the best way to get the work done.

Find a space where you want to write. It could be a home office or a corner in the bedroom. Some writers like to get away from home and go to a local coffee house or the library. Wherever you choose, make it your writing place. When you go there, you write.

Creating a dedicated writing space reinforces your writing habit. You’ll build a mental connection to writing just by being in that dedicated space.

If you want snacks to nibble or something to drink, get them ready before you start your session. That way, you can concentrate on your words.

PRO TIP: Writers who write other things as part of their day job often create a separate space just for novel writing. They know when they are there the focus is on the novel, not writing about IT or business.

Once you’ve decided on your schedule, share it with the others in your household – your spouse, roommates, children. Let them know you will be unavailable. Announcing your commitment to your writing time reinforces your dedication in your mind and demonstrates your adherence to your schedule to those around you.

You may have friends who are in the habit of dropping by or calling unannounced. Let them know your schedule and warn them that you won’t be available.

Once you set your schedule and announce your new commitment to your writing time, don’t be available. A teenager may want to know where her red skirt is. Two kids want you to settle an argument. Your roommate wants to know your preference for dinner. Do not reply. There are no exceptions. Only life-and-death matters, like driving someone to the hospital, should interrupt your time.

You are training others in your life to respect your writing time. Once they understand you are not available, they will honor that time.

This goes for telephone calls, email, and social media. Just don’t do it. This is your writing time.

During your scheduled time, write. No cheating by staring at a blank page or heading off to do research. This is writing time. Your first draft won’t be perfect. Don’t worry about that. Write the words. You’ll clean up your writing when you edit.

If you need background material or more research, mark your manuscript in a bright color, like red, with your personal symbol. Make it simple, like three Xs or CBL for come back later. Our minds can trick us into thinking these little spots are important enough to stop writing. Don’t be tempted. Keep writing and come back later for the missing elements.

You’ll reach your goal faster and develop your novel-writing practice if you focus on writing your story. Avoid the trap, often suggested as a habit-building trick, of writing something every day. You’ll see suggestions like letters, blogs, articles, social media posts, and the like as writing practice. No. I could go all eighth grade here with exclamation marks. Those activities are not working on your novel.

Make an agreement with yourself that your writing time is for your novel. Perform those other writing tasks outside of your dedicated writing time.

man writing on computer surround by supplies on desk

You won’t be brilliant at every writing session. The aim of your writing session is to write. Get the words down. Keep going with your story.

If you are a planner, your outline will help you fill your writing time with the next scenes in the story. You have a guide, use it to get you through those days when the words don’t flow. If you are a discovery writer (pantser) writing without an outline, give your protagonist and problem and then work on getting them out of the situation.

Professional writers don’t wait for inspiration, they use their writing time to keep going with the story. You will discover that the more you write during your scheduled writing time in your writing space, the easier it is to get the words flowing.

Once you establish your writing habit, you will have a sense of how many words you write in a session, whether it is 30 minutes or four hours. Let your own workflow guide you in a reasonable expectation of what you can produce in a writing session. You will discover that as you consistently build your writing discipline, your word count will increase over time.

Beginning writers often set unreasonable word count goals for their writing sessions. They read about writers who write 5,000 words in a day, then try to meet that goal themselves. When they don't hit 5,000 words, they become discouraged and let go of their writing discipline, thinking they are a failure.

Trust your writing ability. Know your personal writing pace. Remember, Ernest Hemingway thought 500 words a day was a reasonable goal. He wrote until he reached 500 words and then stopped. Some days that goal took longer than others.

Learn to trust your writing pace.

To avoid staring at a blank page, not writing, use techniques professional writers use to get going quickly when they start the writing session.

Some writers stop a writing session in the middle of the sentence. That way, when they start, they need to finish the sentence which immediately gets them into the story.

Many professional writers start each session by reading what they wrote during their previous session. The reading gets them into the story. By the time they finish reading, they are well into the story and know what to write next.

Just as important as focus, is taking breaks during a long writing session. Unless you are right in the middle of a good flow, take a break every 50 minutes or so. Get up. Do something else for five minutes. Go outside. Do a chore. Do push-ups. Hold a yoga pose. When you return to your writing, you’ll feel fresh and ready for more.

Breaks are especially important if you schedule a long writing session, say on a weekend. To pace yourself for the entire scheduled time, like four hours, those short breaks will help you maintain your pace during your session. Otherwise, you may find that last hour is not productive.

Make sure you schedule relaxation time outside of your writing schedule. Relaxation and recreation regenerate your enthusiasm for life and for writing. Spend time with family and friends. Take a mini-adventure to a local spot. Go for a hike. Play with your children. Have fun with your spouse.

Discipline involves self-pacing and that includes how well you live life.

Your success with your novel-writing practice comes from your desire to write the book. If you want to write and finish your novel, commit to finding the time to write on a regular basis. Examine your daily and weekly schedule and look for pockets of time when you can write. Four 15-minute sessions equal an hour. Find those time spaces, be ready, and write.

Are you prepared to write your novel? Download this free book now:

The Novel-Writing Training Plan

So you are ready to write your novel. excellent. but are you prepared the last thing you want when you sit down to write your first draft is to lose momentum., this guide helps you work out your narrative arc, plan out your key plot points, flesh out your characters, and begin to build your world..

Be confident about grammar

Check every email, essay, or story for grammar mistakes. Fix them before you press send.

Zara Altair writes traditional mysteries set in ancient Italy under Ostrogoths rule in The Argolicus Mysteries. She teaches mystery screenwriters and novelists at Write A Killer Mystery. She creates semantic web content for a select clientele.

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Writing Discipline: Why Talent Isn’t Enough (And What You Need Instead)

by David Safford | 16 comments

Do you sometimes feel like you'll never succeed as a writer? Do you read other books and worry you're not talented enough? Or question if talent is enough?

Writing Discipline: Why Talent Isn't Enough (And What You Need Instead)

Comparison is almost never an effective strategy for finding writing success, and who gets to decide what defines talent?

The truth is talent alone won't make you a writer. You have to be able to finish a book. Multiple books.

And that takes hard work and discipline.

How I Learned to Become a Disciplined Writer

When I was twelve, I loved golf.

I had huge dreams for my golfing career and told everyone my goal: to win the Masters.

For those who don’t know, the Masters is a golf tournament featuring the game’s best players. At twelve, I decided that I was going to win someday. To fulfill that promise, I played competitive golf on my high school team and in summer tournaments. And for a while, I was good.

But I wasn’t getting better. In fact, as the years wore on, I seemed to get worse.

The breaking point came on the seventh hole during a tournament when I shanked a drive into the woods. I teed up another. And then another. Both shots disappeared into the trees.

I slammed my club into the ground until it splintered like a twig, and threw the pieces into the woods.

And I decided to quit. I drove home, threw my clubs in the garage, and never returned to that course.

When I began playing golf, I seemed to have talent. But I didn't truly have the discipline to develop it at the time. I gave up before discipline could build me into a remarkable golfer. I might not have won the Masters Tournament, but when I quit, I guaranteed I wouldn't.

Golfing and writing are very different activities—but one thing they have in common is that they rely on one person: You.

And when you have huge dreams, those dreams can crush you as you throw yourself at projects over and over again, and still fail.

Why does this happen? Why can’t our talent and dreams make us successful?

Are we doomed to smash our computers like a four-iron and quit?

Thankfully, there is a way to do things differently and live a joyful writing life that will lead to success.

The Problem With Talent Alone

“You don’t have enough talent to win on talent alone!” — Coach Herb Brooks, Miracle

Here’s the truth about why I failed at golf: I hated practicing.

I didn’t want to stand on the driving range for hours and hours. I wanted to be out on the course, constantly chasing a better score.

Yet the course did nothing to develop my discipline. Instead, it angered my sense of pride, and made me demand success from myself immediately . “Why am I not winning now ?” I would ask.

I should have been in the practice area honing my swing, zeroing in my chip shots, and learning to putt like Tiger Woods. But pride kept tempting me to skip the range and head out to the course, and before long, I imploded.

How does pride do the same thing with our writing?

Pride may tell you a number of things. One thing it is probably telling you is this: “You should write and publish a bestseller immediately. If you don’t succeed now , then you’re a failure.”

So you power through a draft, only to assume that your novel is ready for publication the moment it’s finished. When I finished the first draft of my first novel, I wanted the world to throw me a parade. I was exhausted, and the thought of more work made me sick.

This is pride’s lie : “Your talent needs to be enough now. If it isn't, then it will never be.”

That lie is going to do the same thing to you that it did to me: You’re going to break things until you break yourself.

If you do, then you’ll be further from your dreams, and more tempted to quit than ever before.

What Practicing Looks Like

So what does “practicing” look like for us as writers?

How do we obtain the discipline to produce great work on a regular basis?

As with anything worth doing, writing requires many forms of discipline. Some of them are obvious and visible:

Visible Writing Disciplines

Write every day or in regularly scheduled writing sessions
Read every day
Set daily goals (or writing session goals if you aren't writing daily)
Read coaching blogs and advice from professional writers (like The Write Practice!)
Enter writing contests
Participate in writing groups and build relationships with other writers

These are practical, visible ways to practice writing week after week, year after year, until you've accomplished your goal.

But you can also benefit from adjusting your writing mindset by defining your writing wins differently, and living a rewarding life separate from writing. These disciplines are just as important for your long-term success, even if they feel invisible and harder to track on a spreadsheet or daily writing goal sheet.

Invisible Writing Disciplines

Stop focusing solely on talent and comparison and let yourself enjoy the process
Spend time with family and friends while not writing
Forgive yourself for failure and frustration
Believe in the value of BOTH the final product and the journey
Journal, meditate, or pray
Take healthy breaks from writing (especially when it consumes you)
Accept that you have very limited control over some measures of success
Emphasize giving over selling

These aren’t just activities. They’re behaviors.

When mastered, they become deeply engrained in your character, and truly transform who you are. Meeting your long-term writing goals is going to take more than a day of writing, a focus on willpower, and creative desires. It's going to take practice on these disciplines.

The 3 Fundamental Writing Disciplines

I've shared a couple of long lists, but I want you to focus on a few of these to get started.

1. Write Every Day

Daily writing is a visible writing discipline, and it flexes the very muscle you want to grow. The best thing about writing every day is that this can take many forms.

You can write:

a chapter of a novel or a draft of a story.
a letter or handwritten note
notes, especially about your story ideas and revisions, in your phone.

The point is that you write, and you do it every day . If that's not possible, at least establish a writing schedule where you are as consistent with your writing as you are showing up for your job. Flex the muscle of regular storytelling, and it will inevitably grow.

Notice that this has nothing to do with talent. Talent cannot possibly prepare you for every context you will write in. It cannot anticipate your future readers’ wants and needs.

Set some small writing goals whether daily or on a weekly schedule that you can track and will get you in a writing habit. Prioritizing dedicated writing time with an emphasis on practice (not greatness) will slowly but surely make a difference.

2. Emphasize Giving Over Selling

A few years ago, I made a commitment: For the whole year, I wasn’t going to “sell” anything.

That doesn’t mean I shut down my CreateSpace or Amazon accounts. I just chose not to promote them.

The only things I promoted were free giveaways. I wrote an entire book, The 10 Reasons Readers Quit Your Book (and How to Win Them Back), in order to give it away.

Why do this?

The idea of a “free giveaway” is nothing new in the writing blog world, but what might be new is the mindset it provides. When you approach the craft and discipline of writing with a generous attitude, everything changes.

It’s no longer about you.

It’s about the reader.

Selling, while essential for an artist to survive, focuses on short-term goals. While some authors regularly accomplish their selling goals, most of us don’t. When I launched my first novel, I failed miserably at meeting any of my goals and was tempted to quit writing altogether, just like I did with golf.

But I was able to continue by remembering why I do any of this: to build relationships and give.

Generosity is wildly opposed to our everyday human desires. We want to be served, not the other way around. But when you are generous, you'll find a world of freedom and joy waiting for you.

But you have to practice. You have build the giving muscle. Begin by putting your readers’ needs first and trusting that this healthy relationship will build a platform that eventually puts food on your plate.

3. Journal, Meditate, and/or Pray

The successful writer is a reflective, self-aware writer.

Few masters of the craft suffer delusions about themselves. You will find that the most successful artists have some kind of daily practice of quieting themselves and spending time alone, away from their computer or website.

This practice has saved my life many times. It saved my life after the launch of my novel when I chose to rest from writing for a month. It saves my life daily when pause from work and communicate with God, and with myself.

After the failed launch, I took my family to the mountains for a much-needed retreat. My favorite activity every day was sitting on the porch with a journal and pot of coffee, and just being. It gave me space to keep going.

For me, I seek solace in a quiet room of the house, the solitude of my commute to and from work, or in my headphones at a coffee shop. Sometimes I just need to be, and for me that means journaling my thoughts.

That’s far better than smashing a golf club to smithereens.

So take a moment every day to journal, pray, meditate, or enjoy some time alone to reflect on your writing. Be honest about what is going well and what is not. Learn to forgive yourself for your mistakes.

This will transform your creative life. It might even affect your success in other areas of life, too. How might your marriage, parenting, friendships, or “day job” be positively impacted by this?

So make the commitment to spend time alone, even if it’s five minutes a day. You need it, and you deserve it.

And your readers will appreciate it when you begin producing your best work because you are truly your best, most disciplined self.

Writing Discipline Wins

There is no doubt in my mind that I had the talent to be good at golf. My coach told me all the time. So did my family.

But I never understood his phrasing. Yes, I had the talent, but talent is just a place to begin. It takes talent to be good at something. Talent is not goodness in and of itself.

Without discipline, talent is useless.

The only way to reveal your true talent, the talent you “think” you have, or “hope” you have, is to dig deep and live a disciplined writing life. And when you do, it will be a joyful life. It will be a fulfilling life.

Because discipline wins.

What daily writing discipline do you maintain? How has that helped you to grow as a writer? Let me know in the comments.

Today, we're going to practice the second writing discipline: emphasize giving. This comes to you in three steps.

Step 1: Think of your reader. Who are they? This might be someone who is already a fan of the book you published . They might be a friend who likes the same kinds of stories as you. They might be your mom, or your brother, or someone who just needs a note of encouragement.

What kind of writing would they would love to read today. Is it a story? A poem? A letter?

Step 2: Take fifteen minutes to write something just for them.

Step 3: Share your writing—Write Practice Pro members can share here in the practice workshop . Then, be bold and share your writing with the person you thought of in Step 1. You wrote it as a gift, so give it away!

Be sure to share thoughts and encouragement with at least three other writers!

Not a member yet? Join our terrific writing community here as a part of pursuing your own discipline.

David Safford

You deserve a great book. That's why David Safford writes adventure stories that you won't be able to put down. Read his latest story at his website. David is a Language Arts teacher, novelist, blogger, hiker, Legend of Zelda fanatic, puzzle-doer, husband, and father of two awesome children.

16 Comments

but I feel strongly about this. I found that article puritanical. It is not pride…it maybe fear and laziness..or it maybe chaotic time management .why does it have to be pride? I know so many people in different careers who have the same problem settling down to doing what they must.There is always an element of fear that nothing good will happen. To be inspired read Jim Denney. Read about all the famous authors who were in a state of absolute poverty with deadlines of horror. Read about Ray Bradbury! He put off writing the enlarged version of Farenheit.for months and he doesn’t strike me as a prideful sort of man. I am sorry but I feel passionately about this I was brought up first in a hell proclaiming roman catholic church then brought up in a protestant puritanical victorian girls boarding school and that sort of thinking destroyed so much fun in creativity. With my daughter it was the criticism not her pride that made her put her work away for years. Now I am glad to say she is painting and writing and speaking. I need to organize and write every day…yes but I need to play with my writing and feel safe.

I appreciate your honest and passionate feedback. When I wrote about pride, I was referring to arrogance or insecurity. I wasn’t speaking about the freedom and safety you seek – in fact, my goal with this piece was to promote EXACTLY what you’re talking about: Freedom.

Insecure pride is what causes artists to fall into depression or to get “blocked” – our pride tends to demand far too much of us than we can ever deliver. The details of your upbringing definitely sound like they weren’t friendly to creativity, and that should sadden anyone who reads your comment. I hope that you might see my true meaning – that through daily practice, generous giving, and self-reflection, we can find joy and success in our writing – should you be gracious enough to give this post a reread.

Best, David

Hi, David I write in french. I say that just to apolozige for the poorness of my English. Now as far as the topic is concerned I agree with you and with Angela as well. I agree with you because a friend of mine is writing his second novel without publishing of course and he is, let me say ill with pride. He gave me his manuscript not to have a feed back but an applause ( verb to applaud). He writes in french, like me, I told him all what I learned with writepractice and with late Dr John Yeoman in the writers’ village but he listens to none but himself. Now about, me. Yes it’s laziness which creates me problems; Yes I pracise every day for years, but as I find no one to submit my writing to that i feel gnawed by the will to quit and seek for a tranquil life in my home near the sea.

I love how you put this: “He gave me his manuscript not to have feedback but applause.” I think we are all tempted to do that. Thank you for your honesty!

Angela, I was held up for years but I did get a lot written as a way to escape tough times. Just never got them out into the real world until, I would say, I was in my sixties.

Deep in the darkness, a sound, metal on metal. It is tiny, yet evidence of the restless presence that sleeps there. Strain your ear and you can hear breathing – in and out, in and out, in and… out. Why the change?

On the outside, you maintain your calm, efficient expression, as someone with assumed authority babbles on about the latest meaningless task they want you to perform. But inside, fear knots your stomach as you hear the unmistakable rattle of chains. The beast is rising.

For a moment, you play with the idea of letting it loose, just to see the smug look wiped off that insufferable face. What would they think of you if they knew who you really are? They couldn’t help but admire you then, surely? Your power, your strength, so much more than theirs. But it would be admiration born of fear and where is the glory in that? So part of your mind hurries down into the darkness, beats on the firmly locked door, shouts threats – such threats! would you ever be capable of really carrying them out? – attempts to quiet the thing that is now bellowing its rage…

And eventually, as the babble winds down, ending with a, “Let’s get on with it then,” the chains are still, their prisoner sits down again, slumped against the wall, down… but not defeated.

Because the sounds have changed. The chains are no longer being rattled; they are being tested. You can hear the scraping of metal against stone where the chain is fixed to the wall.

And you realise that threats and fear are not going to be enough for very much longer. Sometime soon, you are going to have to either make friends with the beast, or destroy everything.

Hi Rose! I could “see” that monster and think, having been raised around a lot of violence,I might loose control. I love the Lord for giving me the strength to control this when I got saved. I use to dream of a lion trying to get in my room at night. The door was split down the middle and half of it was missing. It was terrifying!

My father’s monsters use to get out when he was drinking; causing all kinds of havoc. (Being a black man working for white families, he could never have the future he dreamed of) I never thought about it as a monster until I read your story! Thank you for the insight!

This is GREAT! Thank you for writing this post! I once heard, “How you do one thing is how you do everything.” It’s not just writing that I need to practice, but every element of my life where I want to grow.

I am in between jobs at the moment and putting myself out there requires a lot of patience, waiting and rejection. It’s easy to go back to what I did before, the familiar, but if I continue to practice and believe that something greater is in store for me with practice and perseverance, this next chapter of my life will be the best yet.

Thank you for the reminder!

You’re so welcome! I can’t emphasize the “Giving” aspect enough. Building ones Service muscle affects so many other aspects of life, and helps build relationships that can turn into a readership audience. Based on the story you shared, you’re already in the business of serving well! Thanks for the comments!

This year I created a non-profit to give soup and hot chocolate to the homeless around Lake Merritt on Mondays. This past week one of my regulars passed away. I have a FB page and will be posting the following message along with pictures to that page after the memorial on Sunday.

I hope you as the reader are inspired to let people know they matter as well as open your perspective to who homeless people are.

Rest in Peace Mike Garcia Davis/Davies Dec 1954 – Sept 22, 2017

It was a cold May night when I met Mike for the first time. He was bundled up on a park bench trying to stay warm. I could barely see his face hidden in the bulk of his hood.

“Hot soup and cocoa?” I asked.

He graciously accepted. His voice bubbled with friendliness.

Merritt Monday was the time I went around Lake Merritt giving out hot soup and cocoa to the homeless in the hope that they stayed warmer a little while longer that night. It was a time I could meet the neighbors around the lake and let them know they mattered. I got to hear many of their stories. What I hadn’t expected is that they would end up feeling more like friends than anyone else I met in the one year I lived in Oakland, CA.

Mike was last living in Malaysia where his son and granddaughter lived. Back in May he was already planning to head to Denver, CO to take care of some business since he had family there. He planned to leave there in October when it would begin to get too cold and he would head back to Malaysia. He wanted to see his granddaughter. Talking about her made his eyes sparkle.

In Malaysia, Mike said he was a musician. He was treated different over there. People appreciated his musical skills, but he was tired now. Tired of the hustle. But not too tired to smile and share the joy that was still very much inside of him.

He always said the nicest things, never saying anything bad about anyone or even his situation. There was a time or two when I knew I had burned the soup or forgot to add salt and he would always claim it was the best he ever had.

I had promised myself that I wouldn’t miss a single Merritt Monday that first year, but after losing my job I felt the need to get out of town for a few weeks. I let the folks know that I would be back in 3 weeks, Mike repeated back to me when I would be back and said he would be waiting.

Three weeks later I returned as promised. Just before I got to Mike’s bench, I stopped to talk and give some soup and cocoa to one of my regulars by the bathrooms.

“Do you talk to Mike?” Tadje asked.

“Sure I do! I’m going to see him next.” I replied.

“He passed away last week. They found him in the church doorway where he sleeps last Friday.”

My heart broke. That couldn’t be. Mike?! “What happened?!”

He had hurt himself, asking around, no one knew how. He lifted his pant leg up and showed some of his friends who would later say they saw maggots in his wound. His friends encouraged him to go to the hospital but he refused. Nino at one point had to leave his friends side because the stench was so bad. Reflecting back on it he realized he was smelling his friend’s body decaying.

On Sunday Mike made the comment to Nino, “I’m kinda tired being out here 24/7 like this.” Nino didn’t take it too seriously, everyone gets tired.

Tuesday Mike said he would go to the hospital and Nino didn’t see him for a few days after that. Mike didn’t show up at Jack London Square like he usually did mid-week. No one knows where he went.

Friday afternoon, Mike crawled up the steps to Lake Merritt Methodist Church with his small backpack holding all of his worldly possessions. He curled up like he did every night. And that is where he was found, about 4pm.

Nino was walking by the church when he saw the police carrying down the bodybag. Thinking of Mike he asked the police and identified Mike through a picture. That image will be forever burned into Nino’s mind. The transformation that took place on Mike’s face in the 3 days he was gone turned Nino’s stomach. Perhaps it was a situation like this that inspired someone to come up with the term “zombie.”

The pastor of that church said, “Something has to be done. We can’t have people dying around this lake like this.”

“Why didn’t we scoop him up and make him go to the hospital?” a homeless guy asked. He wasn’t one of my regulars, but came to pay his respects. “People did that for me and saved my life. Why didn’t anyone do that for Mike? He was GOLD!”

Flowers, candles and notes rest on the bench where Mike sat. Nino is camping out to let people know about the Memorial service on Sunday. Mike didn’t have a lucrative job or many possessions, but he had gratitude, a smile and a heart of gold. He had friends that he saw regularly each day and week, so Nino is camping out to make sure he reaches all of them.

I think about Mike’s family in Colorado and Malaysia. How will they find out? Do they care? Will his granddaughter know how much she meant to him?

No one is sure if his last name is Davis or Davies. When the police asked his middle name some recalled a conversation on the park bench when someone mentioned their last name being Garcia and Mike said, “That’s my middle name.” Perhaps it was, but no name on the internet pops up. Hopefully the police are having better luck finding his family than I did.

Had Nino not been walking by the church when he did, Mike would have been cremated and forgotten by many, while his friends would have assumed he finally made it back to Colorado.

Homelessness increased 25% in Oakland over the last 2 years. People die every day on the streets. If they aren’t claimed and identified in 3 days, they are swept away as ashes. Everyone is one choice away from being homeless. Each homeless person you pass is someone’s child and more often than you think, someone’s parent. Too often I hear people say homeless people deserve what they get and don’t deserve handouts.

My belief is that it’s a human right to be seen and told that you matter. One will go much further in life when they believe they matter, but it starts with first telling them.

“My favorite activity every day was sitting on the porch with a journal and pot of coffee, and just being. I would breathe, think, feel, wonder, and converse with God about this journey I was on.”

Thank you for reminding me of the special moments I’ve had where I was able to be in the moment, in nature, and simply feel and enjoy the gift of being. It’s funny that your article appeared in front to me today. Just this morning I was searching my mind for some memories that might remind me of who I was pre children, marriage, degrees, mortgages, career, and the balancing act that seems to be my life today. The single idea I had settled on was that there was a time when I simply enjoyed “being”. Your article reminded me that getting back to that place of simplicity, awareness, and appreciation of the gift of life, is a place I want to be often in the days ahead. Great article!

Ouch…I’m violating my “Sabbath” just by being here today! I try to stay home and offline on Saturdays. Since I didn’t get things done, and let work spill over into today, I needed this. Thanks.

I sorta knew that some of these already, I just have a very hard time sticking with them. I need to practice every bit of my writing technique. From the discipline part to the actual writing. I love this article it makes me want to push a bit more to get my writing routine in check.

Gale, I’m with you in that. This Write Practice really got me up and going. Digging out my stories started years ago.

“Help! Help! “Is That Del? Delmond was my youngest little brother who was born with “Down-syndrome. He was an adventurer who often got himself into situations where help was always needed.

“I think the sound is coming from the backyard!” said Annie. I bet he’s finally figured out a way to get that screen door open.” It was one of those muggy, hot summer days in St.Louis when everybody, and I mean everybody had screen doors so you could leave your doors, front and back, open just in case a breeze came by to give relief from the often 100 degree weather.

“Help! Help!” there it is again and it is coming from the backyard! I said. Coming down from the top, taking the steps two and three at a time.

“Betty! You take your time comin’ down those stairs! You know better than to be runnin’ in this house!” Why is that dog barkin out there?”

” Yes, M’am,” Sorry!” I yelled over my shoulder as I reached the screen door before anybody else.. Hahahahah!” I laughed, You’ll never believe This!

There, laying on his back, was little 2year old Del, smiling, with Whitey, our huge white German Shepherd, sitting on his legs, apparently to prevent his going any further than the back yard!

When I am writing (or not wanting to write) I think about the “giving”. Someone, just one person perhaps needs to hear my story so that they can feel a little better, know that someone else has been there, that they can survive too – when I don’t want to write, I remember it’s not for me, its for that other person waiting for me to finish my story for them

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Writing discipline: 7 strategies to keep writing your novel

Writing discipline isn’t mythical or something you simply either have or don’t. Organization, writing structure and a sound plan keep you focused. Here are 7 quick tips and strategies for how to keep writing a book and not give up:

Post author By Bridget McNulty
2 Comments on Writing discipline: 7 strategies to keep writing your novel

Writing discipline: 7 strategies to become a productive author

1: Understand where your lack of writing discipline comes from

If you feel undisciplined about writing, ask yourself some crucial questions:

Do you often think ‘this is terrible’, judging your writing harshly?
Do you find you have great ideas but get lost somewhere in the process of putting them down and give up?
Do you tend to start a project and then start another mid-way through, without finishing the first?

These are three of many ways you can self-sabotage while writing a novel. If you are in the first group, you need to learn to switch off your internal censor or editor . Decide to write a terrible first draft consciously and just write.

If you are in the second group, and find that once you get to the middle your story starts to unravel, it may be that you lack either technique or a plan.

To improve your technique and structure stories better, take some time to analyse a favourite book. Outline each chapter in a few lines, and then note how the author links scenes and chapters together. Note character arcs, pivotal tensions and conflicts and how the setting changes over the course of the story. Creating a map of someone else’s story, a document that clarifies its mechanics, is a great way to find inspiration for how to structure your own.

If you struggle to maintain writing discipline and start stories but don’t finish them, it’s vital to delve deeper and understand the precise point where you scrap an idea and start a new book. It could be that writing story middles baffles you. If that’s the case, take time to analyse the middles of successful novels and note how the author continues or departs from opening chapters and how scenes at the centre of a novel set up the rest of the book.

2: Start writing small passages and build up

If you launch into writing a book attempting to write multiple chapters in each writing session, it’s easy to fall short. Discipline grows out of taking small steps repeatedly. Write 50 words today, then 100 tomorrow. Divide scenes into segments labelled ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’ and so forth, and resolve to just tackle part ‘a’ today.

We intentionally made the maximum length of a critique submission on Now Novel concise to make it easier for members to write their novels in small, purposeful steps.

3: Get external accountability from a writing group or mentor

If you are only accoutable to yourself, it’s easy to get side-tracked and let yourself off the hook. Instead, join a writing group or get a writing coach who will check in regularly and give encouraging, constructive feedback and support. It’s important to find a coach or group that can give you the kind of accountability to require. If you need your coach to set hand-in deadlines to spur you into action, don’t hesitate to be clear about what you need.

4: Increase writing’s sense of reward

Because writing is fun, we sometimes forget that it’s also hard work,. Even if you love storytelling, your motivation can and will wane at times. Remember to reward yourself for reaching milestones such as finishing your novel’s outline or an individual chapter.

Whenever you reach a target word count or unit milestone, do something you love as a break from writing. Recognising the progress you’re making and actively reinforcing positive feelings about your achievement will keep you focused and motivated to keep writing.

5: Create the flow you need to keep writing

The truth of writing discipline is that you have to find your own individual approach that maximizes your flow. The Nobel Laureate J.M. Coetzee has been described as spending at least an hour at his writing desk every morning. Stephen King, in Lisa Rogak’s book Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King , describes his writing routine thus:

‘There are certain things I do if I sit down to write […] I have a glass of water or a cup of tea. There’s a certain time I sit down, from 8:00 to 8:30, somewhere within that half hour every morning […]. I have my vitamin pill and my music, sit in the same seat, and the papers are all arranged in the same places. The cumulative purpose of doing these things the same way every day seems to be a way of saying to the mind, ‘you’re going to be dreaming soon’.’

Building a ritual around your writing similarly will help you to turn your process into a non-negotiable, essential part of your day.

6: Document your writing progress in a journal

Infographic on daily habits of famous authors

Keeping an ordinary journal helps you remember experiences both strange and wonderful. Writing it all down also helps you process and get through tougher times. A separate journal devoted solely to your fiction writing yields similar benefits. Take notes on how each writing session went at the end and note what you’ve achieved. In the process, note any specific story-building challenges and jot down ideas for solutions.

Keeping a journal will help you start to notice patterns in your writing process. Note the time of day and day of the week when you create an entry. You might find that certain days and times are far more productive and foster better discipline. Everything you learn about your own writing process will help you show up for your story on your best days, when the effort counts most.

7: Get enough exercise and rest

It’s difficult to stay disciplined and write if you are stressed and exhausted. Exercising before your writing sessions will improve your circulation and mental alertness, ensuring you’re fit for the task.

It’s also crucial to rest, and that includes taking breaks from writing. If you are having to force yourself to write, take a break instead. Leave your story for a few days or even a week and do something that inspires you. The mistake is to see breaks as signs of your lack of writing discipline. Building healthy breaks into your writing process is part of developing discipline and a balanced, constructive writing process.

Writing a book and close to giving up? Join Now Novel and enjoy a supportive community of aspiring authors.

How to make a plot captivating: 7 strategies
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Tags writing discipline , writing motivation , writing process

By Bridget McNulty

Bridget McNulty is a published author, content strategist, writer, editor and speaker. She is the co-founder of two non-profits: Sweet Life Diabetes Community, South Africa's largest online diabetes community, and the Diabetes Alliance, a coalition of all the organisations working in diabetes in South Africa. She is also the co-founder of Now Novel: an online novel-writing course where she coaches aspiring writers to start - and finish! - their novels. Bridget believes in the power of storytelling to create meaningful change.

2 replies on “Writing discipline: 7 strategies to keep writing your novel”

Thank you for another excellent article.

There needs to be a “Write Watchers” for novelist. A place to log your “dailies” with a set minimum word count, that can be tracked. Like ‘NaNoWriMo,’ but without the pressure to write junk. Plus a community like Connect, where writers can post their accomplishments and concerns, with a private writer’s community that provides positive feedback and positive critiques.

Thanks Dee, and thanks for sharing your idea of the ideal writers’ platform. Pressure is a double-edged sword, as you do need some to keep up momentum and finish writing. We do have some of those things on Now Novel (you can track your progress as you create your story’s blueprint and get constructive feedback on brief extracts from other members).

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Guest Essay

Jamie Raskin: How to Force Justices Alito and Thomas to Recuse Themselves in the Jan. 6 Cases

A white chain in the foreground, with the pillars of the Supreme Court Building in the background.

By Jamie Raskin

Mr. Raskin represents Maryland’s Eighth Congressional District in the House of Representatives. He taught constitutional law for more than 25 years and was the lead prosecutor in the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

Many people have gloomily accepted the conventional wisdom that because there is no binding Supreme Court ethics code, there is no way to force Associate Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas to recuse themselves from the Jan. 6 cases that are before the court.

Justices Alito and Thomas are probably making the same assumption.

But all of them are wrong.

It seems unfathomable that the two justices could get away with deciding for themselves whether they can be impartial in ruling on cases affecting Donald Trump’s liability for crimes he is accused of committing on Jan. 6. Justice Thomas’s wife, Ginni Thomas, was deeply involved in the Jan. 6 “stop the steal” movement. Above the Virginia home of Justice Alito and his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, flew an upside-down American flag — a strong political statement among the people who stormed the Capitol. Above the Alitos’ beach home in New Jersey flew another flag that has been adopted by groups opposed to President Biden.

Justices Alito and Thomas face a groundswell of appeals beseeching them not to participate in Trump v. United States , the case that will decide whether Mr. Trump enjoys absolute immunity from criminal prosecution, and Fischer v. United States , which will decide whether Jan. 6 insurrectionists — and Mr. Trump — can be charged under a statute that criminalizes “corruptly” obstructing an official proceeding. (Justice Alito said on Wednesday that he would not recuse himself from Jan. 6-related cases.)

Everyone assumes that nothing can be done about the recusal situation because the highest court in the land has the lowest ethical standards — no binding ethics code or process outside of personal reflection. Each justice decides for him- or herself whether he or she can be impartial.

Of course, Justices Alito and Thomas could choose to recuse themselves — wouldn’t that be nice? But begging them to do the right thing misses a far more effective course of action.

The U.S. Department of Justice — including the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, an appointed U.S. special counsel and the solicitor general, all of whom were involved in different ways in the criminal prosecutions underlying these cases and are opposing Mr. Trump’s constitutional and statutory claims — can petition the other seven justices to require Justices Alito and Thomas to recuse themselves not as a matter of grace but as a matter of law.

The Justice Department and Attorney General Merrick Garland can invoke two powerful textual authorities for this motion: the Constitution of the United States, specifically the due process clause, and the federal statute mandating judicial disqualification for questionable impartiality, 28 U.S.C. Section 455. The Constitution has come into play in several recent Supreme Court decisions striking down rulings by stubborn judges in lower courts whose political impartiality has been reasonably questioned but who threw caution to the wind to hear a case anyway. This statute requires potentially biased judges throughout the federal system to recuse themselves at the start of the process to avoid judicial unfairness and embarrassing controversies and reversals.

The constitutional and statutory standards apply to Supreme Court justices. The Constitution, and the federal laws under it, is the “ supreme law of the land ,” and the recusal statute explicitly treats Supreme Court justices as it does other judges: “Any justice, judge or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” The only justices in the federal judiciary are the ones on the Supreme Court.

This recusal statute, if triggered, is not a friendly suggestion. It is Congress’s command, binding on the justices, just as the due process clause is. The Supreme Court cannot disregard this law just because it directly affects one or two of its justices. Ignoring it would trespass on the constitutional separation of powers because the justices would essentially be saying that they have the power to override a congressional command.

When the arguments are properly before the court, Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh and Sonia Sotomayor will have both a constitutional obligation and a statutory obligation to enforce recusal standards.

Indeed, there is even a compelling argument based on case law that Chief Justice Roberts and the other unaffected justices should raise the matter of recusal on their own, or sua sponte. Numerous circuit courts have agreed with the Eighth Circuit that this is the right course of action when members of an appellate court are aware of “ overt acts ” of a judge reflecting personal bias. Cases like this stand for the idea that appellate jurists who see something should say something instead of placing all the burden on parties in a case who would have to risk angering a judge by bringing up the awkward matter of potential bias and favoritism on the bench.

But even if no member of the court raises the issue of recusal, the urgent need to deal with it persists. Once it is raised, the court would almost surely have to find that the due process clause and Section 455 compel Justices Alito and Thomas to recuse themselves. To arrive at that substantive conclusion, the justices need only read their court’s own recusal decisions.

In one key 5-to-3 Supreme Court case from 2016, Williams v. Pennsylvania, Justice Anthony Kennedy explained why judicial bias is a defect of constitutional magnitude and offered specific objective standards for identifying it. Significantly, Justices Alito and Thomas dissented from the majority’s ruling.

The case concerned the bias of the chief justice of Pennsylvania, who had been involved as a prosecutor on the state’s side in an appellate death penalty case that was before him. Justice Kennedy found that the judge’s refusal to recuse himself when asked to do so violated due process. Justice Kennedy’s authoritative opinion on recusal illuminates three critical aspects of the current controversy.

First, Justice Kennedy found that the standard for recusal must be objective because it is impossible to rely on the affected judge’s introspection and subjective interpretations. The court’s objective standard requires recusal when the likelihood of bias on the part of the judge “is too high to be constitutionally tolerable,” citing an earlier case. “This objective risk of bias,” according to Justice Kennedy, “is reflected in the due process maxim that ‘no man can be a judge in his own case.’” A judge or justice can be convinced of his or her own impartiality but also completely missing what other people are seeing.

Second, the Williams majority endorsed the American Bar Association’s Model Code of Judicial Conduct as an appropriate articulation of the Madisonian standard that “no man can be a judge in his own cause.” Model Code Rule 2.11 on judicial disqualification says that a judge “shall disqualify himself or herself in any proceeding in which the judge’s impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” This includes, illustratively, cases in which the judge “has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party,” a married judge knows that “the judge’s spouse” is “a person who has more than a de minimis interest that could be substantially affected by the proceeding” or the judge “has made a public statement, other than in a court proceeding, judicial decision or opinion, that commits or appears to commit the judge to reach a particular result.” These model code illustrations ring a lot of bells at this moment.

Third and most important, Justice Kennedy found for the court that the failure of an objectively biased judge to recuse him- or herself is not “harmless error” just because the biased judge’s vote is not apparently determinative in the vote of a panel of judges. A biased judge contaminates the proceeding not just by the casting and tabulation of his or her own vote but by participating in the body’s collective deliberations and affecting, even subtly, other judges’ perceptions of the case.

Justice Kennedy was emphatic on this point : “It does not matter whether the disqualified judge’s vote was necessary to the disposition of the case. The fact that the interested judge’s vote was not dispositive may mean only that the judge was successful in persuading most members of the court to accept his or her position — an outcome that does not lessen the unfairness to the affected party.”

Courts generally have found that any reasonable doubts about a judge’s partiality must be resolved in favor of recusal. A judge “shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.” While recognizing that the “challenged judge enjoys a margin of discretion,” the courts have repeatedly held that “doubts ordinarily ought to be resolved in favor of recusal.” After all, the reputation of the whole tribunal and public confidence in the judiciary are both on the line.

Judge David Tatel of the D.C. Circuit emphasized this fundamental principle in 2019 when his court issued a writ of mandamus to force recusal of a military judge who blithely ignored at least the appearance of a glaring conflict of interest. He stated : “Impartial adjudicators are the cornerstone of any system of justice worthy of the label. And because ‘deference to the judgments and rulings of courts depends upon public confidence in the integrity and independence of judges,’ jurists must avoid even the appearance of partiality.” He reminded us that to perform its high function in the best way, as Justice Felix Frankfurter stated, “justice must satisfy the appearance of justice.”

The Supreme Court has been especially disposed to favor recusal when partisan politics appear to be a prejudicial factor even when the judge’s impartiality has not been questioned. In Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co. , from 2009, the court held that a state supreme court justice was constitutionally disqualified from a case in which the president of a corporation appearing before him had helped to get him elected by spending $3 million promoting his campaign. The court, through Justice Kennedy, asked whether, quoting a 1975 decision, “under a realistic appraisal of psychological tendencies and human weakness,” the judge’s obvious political alignment with a party in a case “poses such a risk of actual bias or prejudgment that the practice must be forbidden if the guarantee of due process is to be adequately implemented.”

The federal statute on disqualification, Section 455(b) , also makes recusal analysis directly applicable to bias imputed to a spouse’s interest in the case. Ms. Thomas and Mrs. Alito (who, according to Justice Alito, is the one who put up the inverted flag outside their home) meet this standard. A judge must recuse him- or herself when a spouse “is known by the judge to have an interest in a case that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding.”

At his Senate confirmation hearing, Chief Justice Roberts assured America that “judges are like umpires.”

But professional baseball would never allow an umpire to continue to officiate the World Series after learning that the pennant of one of the two teams competing was flying in the front yard of the umpire’s home. Nor would an umpire be allowed to call balls and strikes in a World Series game after the umpire’s wife tried to get the official score of a prior game in the series overthrown and canceled out to benefit the losing team. If judges are like umpires, then they should be treated like umpires, not team owners, fans or players.

Justice Barrett has said she wants to convince people “that this court is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks.” Justice Alito himself declared the importance of judicial objectivity in his opinion for the majority in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overruling Roe v. Wade — a bit of self-praise that now rings especially hollow.

But the Constitution and Congress’s recusal statute provide the objective framework of analysis and remedy for cases of judicial bias that are apparent to the world, even if they may be invisible to the judges involved. This is not really optional for the justices.

I look forward to seeing seven members of the court act to defend the reputation and integrity of the institution.

Jamie Raskin, a Democrat, represents Maryland’s Eighth Congressional District in the House of Representatives. He taught constitutional law for more than 25 years and was the lead prosecutor in the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp , X and Threads .

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500+ Words Essay on Discipline. Essay on Discipline - Discipline is something that keeps each person in control. It motivates a person to progress in life and achieve success. Everyone follow discipline in his/her life in a different form. Besides, everyone has his own prospect of discipline. Some people consider it a part of their life and ...
Aiming for Discipline Instead of Punishment
Discipline, unlike punishment, is proactive and begins before there are problems. It means seeing conflict as an opportunity to problem solve. Discipline provides guidance, focuses on prevention, enhances communication, models respect, and embraces natural consequences. It teaches fairness, responsibility, life skills, and problem solving.
Writing is Discipline Specific
Discipline-specific writing conventions can occur at the document, paragraph, or sentence level, and they may apply to global or rhetorical issues, such as indicating a research gap, or to local or sentence issues, such as using direct quotations versus parenthetical citation. Because disciplinary conventions can change over time, writers can ...
Why Discipline Matters—and 5 Ways to Work On It
Paying attention to these lifestyle basics will help you access the energy and mental focus you'll need to stay disciplined. Notice the thoughts and emotions that drain you of discipline. It's ...
Essay On Importance Of Discipline for Students
Discipline refers to the practice of making people obey rules. Furthermore, it also means following certain acceptable standards of behavior. Discipline is certainly an essential thing in everyone's life. A life without discipline is a life full of chaos and confusion. Most noteworthy, discipline makes a person into a better human being.
Full article: Discipline in the higher education classroom: A study of
1.1. Literature review. Discipline originates from the Latin word disciplina meaning "instruction given, teaching, learning, knowledge" and from the Latin discipulus meaning "pupil" (Online Etymology Dictionary, Citation 2020, p. 1).Although its definition varies depending on the context, in the abstract form discipline is often described as "the practice of making people obey rules ...
9 Powerful Ways To Cultivate Extreme Self-Discipline
STEP TWO: Remove temptations. "I can resist anything except temptation." ~ OSCAR WILDE. Like the saying goes, "out of sight, out of mind.". It may seem silly, but this phrase offers ...
Writing in the Disciplines
Harvard's Psychology writing booklet provides valuable tips for reading, writing, and handling evidence in Psychology, including a list of "dos" and "don'ts" and a step-by-step guide for writing in Psychology. There are a lot of different kinds of writing in Psychology, like reaction papers or research papers.
Why Discipline is Important for Article Writing
Discipline serves as a guide. Having discipline enables anyone to think in a lucid manner. It also helps in coming up with ways to present the details and facts of an article. A disciplined mind ...
What's the point of being a discipline? Four disciplinary strategies
The subject matters of disciplines are written, practised and reified into being through knowledge-practices, institutionalisation and identity-work, nested within wider knowledge-complexes, which help constitute the societal entities and their inter-relations - which then form the basis of more writing and reification. Responding to the ...
Writing Resources: Writing in the Disciplines
Writing in the discipline classes are commonly referred to as Writing Intensive courses. The goal of WID is to allow students to demonstrate writing skills within the genres expected in academic and professional discourse communities. The resources on the right are arranged by type: general collection books, eBooks, journal articles, videos ...
PDF Writing is Discipline Specific Transcript
generally. Most disciplines value clear writing, and the things that make writing clear tend to be similar across fields. Gopen & Swan's The Science of Scientific Writing is an excellent place to start, even if you are not writing in the sciences. The article provides a crash course in things like reader expectation
Value of Discipline Article
Value of Discipline Article. Discipline is necessary for all walks of life. Any place without discipline will surely be like a hell. A teacher can't teach if his students don't keep discipline in class. The head of a family won't be able to run his family if its members don't maintain discipline. The members of an assembly must observe ...
Exploring Academic Disciplines
Exploring Academic Disciplines. Most college writing has some basic features in common: a sense of ethical responsibility and the use of credible and credited sources, critical thinking, and sound argumentation. In addition to these common features, each academic discipline, over many generations, has developed its own specific methods of ...
What is Writing in the Disciplines?
Writing assignments are often used to support the goals of Writing in the Disciplines (WID), also called writing to communicate. Writing assignments of this sort are designed to introduce or give students practice with the writing conventions of a discipline and to help them game familiarity and fluency with specific genres and formats typical of a given discipline.
Writing in the Disciplines and Across the Curriculum
OVERVIEW Each discipline has its own style, structure, and format when it comes to academic writing. This section provides resources on writing in specific disciplines, broken down into the following five general academic categories: Business and Communication, Humanities, Social Sciences, Sciences and Mathematics. The Humanities category is further broken down by subject and common rhetorical
PDF An Introduction to Writing in the Disciplines
use the formal language of a particular discipline to communicate. When we write in disciplinary communities, we use the different practices of those communities, and these practices vary across disciplines (e.g. technical writing in the Sciences vs. persuasive writing in Business vs. policy writing in the Social Sciences or argumentative writing
Decoding the writing styles of disciplines: A large-scale quantitative
Abstract. Disciplinary writing style stems from the practice of science, reflecting the scientific culture. This study aims to explore the differences and evolution of scientific writing styles from the perspective of disciplines. A large-scale quantitative analysis was conducted over 14 million abstracts from the Microsoft Academic Graph (MAG ...
How to Build Discipline in your Writing Practice
But, if you build in writing as part of your life, your reward will be a finished novel. 1. Make Time. Create a schedule for writing. And then stick to it. Add your writing time to your calendar and treat it the way you would any meeting. Keep the appointment. If you are serious about a writing career, you are booking a professional appointment.
Writing for the discipline in the discipline?: Teaching in Higher
Abstract. This article explores the issue of students' writing skills in the discipline of Engineering and beyond. It is the result of a discussion between three academics from different discipline backgrounds: Teaching and Learning, the Humanities and Engineering. We start with a review of the strategies commonly used to address problems in ...
Revisiting the role of 'discipline' in writing for publication in two
1. Introduction. Writing for publication is widely understood as a social endeavour in which academics join a debate framed by their discipline (e.g. Hyland, 2015, Lillis and Curry, 2010).Within this context, disciplinary discourse - the notion that the writing of disciplines is conventionalised, specific, and can be characterised and differentiated - is now well established (e.g. Dressen ...
Writing Discipline: Why Talent Isn't Enough to Be a Writer
Talent is not goodness in and of itself. Without discipline, talent is useless. The only way to reveal your true talent, the talent you "think" you have, or "hope" you have, is to dig deep and live a disciplined writing life. And when you do, it will be a joyful life. It will be a fulfilling life.
Writing Discipline: 7 Ways to Build It
If you launch into writing a book attempting to write multiple chapters in each writing session, it's easy to fall short. Discipline grows out of taking small steps repeatedly. Write 50 words today, then 100 tomorrow. Divide scenes into segments labelled 'a', 'b', 'c' and so forth, and resolve to just tackle part 'a' today.
Welcome to the Purdue Online Writing Lab
The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and we provide these as a free service of the Writing Lab at Purdue. Students, members of the community, and users worldwide will find information to assist with many writing projects. Teachers and trainers may use this material for in-class and out ...
Opinion
Judge David Tatel of the D.C. Circuit emphasized this fundamental principle in 2019 when his court issued a writ of mandamus to force recusal of a military judge who blithely ignored at least the ...
"Protean Mechanism": Robert Willis and the Technics of Architectural
Abstract. Robert Willis's writing in the nineteenth century was foundational to the development of the discipline of architectural history. Closely related to other Cambridge scientists, including William Farish and William Whewell, Willis deployed similar methods and forms of conceptualization in his writings about medieval architecture. He focused on five areas in particular: the isometric ...