Design assignments
Design assignments that promote student learning and build in opportunities for reflection and feedback.
There is no doubt that designing effective writing assignments takes time, but even short assignments can be a powerful way to help students develop thinking and writing skills. The key is to plan assignments carefully and devote some in-class time to making sure students understand your expectations.
Here are some strategies to improve student writing:
1. Frame your assignment around a meaningful task, a question, or a problem
Engage students in a meaningful task by asking them to address a question or investigate a problem. This type of assignment provides structure while introducing students to the type of issues common in your discipline.
Ideas:
Pose a research question instead of presenting a topic. For example, instead of “Write about climate change and variability in weather,” ask students to argue why the cold winter of 2014 in North America is not a sign that climate change is a myth.
Assign students a specific task rather than leaving the assignment open-ended. While giving students the freedom to choose their own research question promotes their autonomy, it also has drawbacks: 1) you may need to do extra background reading to assess their papers fairly; 2) the challenges students select can vary greatly, which makes consistent grading challenging; 3) students may be too junior to choose a question that is appropriate in scope (an extremely challenging task, even for experts!).
Ask students to consider alternative points of view and reach a conclusion of their own.
Assign students a role and ask them to defend a particular position. Sometimes students are too unfamiliar with a discipline to take a well-reasoned position. Assigning a role may alleviate anxiety and allow them to focus on their argumentation skills instead.
2. Select from a variety of types of writing
Type of writing | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
Academic | Writing by scholars for scholars. Reflects the skills most valued in higher education: citation, documentation, reasoning, and evidence. | Summaries, critiques, research papers, research posters |
Civic or Popular | Writing for the public. This type of writing seeks to inform opinions and decisions of the public. | Newspaper editorials, letters-to-the-editor, open letters, speech at a city council meeting |
Personal and Interpersonal | Writing that reflects psychological or interpersonal interests. It can build connections with other people or satisfy an individual’s need for expression. | Reflection journals, blog entries, interviews |
Professional or Vocational | Writing that you would find in the world of work. Students use the forms of writing they are likely to encounter during their careers (this varies according to discipline). | Case reports, two-page summaries, fact sheets, policy papers |
3. Tell the writers who their readers are
Knowing their audience helps writers make decisions about language, tone, format, and information to include.
Ideas:
Make it clear if you are the only audience (but don’t be disappointed if students are not that enthused).
Give students a real audience by having them prepare something for peers or for an online audience.
Give students a fictional audience by experimenting with the non-academic types of writing described in #2. Select from a variety of types of writing.
4. Clarify expectations to students
Students’ previous writing experience often does not prepare them for work in your class (especially if they are never given explicit writing instruction in your discipline). Therefore, taking the time to provide clear instructions is an investment that usually results in better writing from students.
Ideas:
Explain why this assignment is important and why writing is important (if you’re unsure of how to explain this, talk to someone at your writing center!).
Share assessment criteria and standards with students (e.g., through rubrics and checklists).
Provide models of published work and lead a discussion about their features.
Provide examples of work from former students (with permission) and lead a discussion about their features.
Have students generate their own criteria for an assignment and discuss how they reflect or differ from your own expectations.
See examples under Collaborating on assessment criteria.
5. Use class time to engage students in conversations about the assignment
By taking time in class to address writing assignments, you help students see how important they are. It can also be an opportunity for peer learning and for students to test out ideas in a low-risk environment before committing them to paper.
Ideas:
Ask students to share what they are currently reading for their assignment and how it relates to the topic of the day.
Explain how expert writers construct any part of an assignment (e.g., the introduction) and invite students to ask questions.
Have students brainstorm questions to research for a paper, first individually, then in groups.
6. Structure in opportunities for revision
The only way for students to improve their writing is for them to keep writing. You can help this process along by giving students several opportunities to write, receive feedback, and apply that feedback to their next assignments.
Ideas:
Students submit multiple drafts of the same assignment and you provide feedback that pinpoints how they can improve.
Encourage self-assessment by providing a short checklist of criteria that students must fill in and submit with their assignment.
Encourage peer-assessment by: coaching students on what you are looking for; focusing on a small set of criteria; and promoting peers giving each other comments, not grades.
To see a great example that implements many of these strategies, take a look at this assignment by Prof. Rosalie Jukier. The comments in this document add background information and link parts of the assignment to the strategies above.
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