Student Survival Guide Writing

• 1). Place the course name, department and course number on the front page. Add your professional name, title and department. Below that, add your email address, office location, office hours and a telephone number. Leave out any form of contacting you that would not produce results for your students.
  
  
• 2). Write a descriptive paragraph about the course and how to it relates to the greater whole of the department and how it benefits life in general. Include creative and inspiring quotes or ideas to get students inspired and enthused about what they are about to study.
  
  
• 3). Create an objectives list that clearly communicates your expectations for what each student will be able to do at the end of the class that she cannot currently do without the class. Define what classifies as class participation, tardiness and how many absences are allowed.
  
  
• 4). Outline the entire semester in a timeline. Be as descriptive and specific as possible. Splitting the semester up into weeks is a great way to set expectations for the students. Include reading assignments, homework and tasks (e.g., experiments, projects) into the detail of the outline.
  
  
• 5). Make a list of quizzes, tests and projects under a separate section for the students to reference quickly. Give approximate dates for each, if possible. Pop quizzes obviously have no dates attached. Warn the students there will be pop quizzes.
  
  
• 6). Give the students help as to how to monitor their own success throughout the course. Provide helpful study tips that you have discovered work throughout your teaching career. Suggest memory techniques, reading styles, study groups or even fun things to do to help them study.