Some Thoughts on
Writing Assignments
The Writing Corner
Faculty Workshop
David Klooster
February 10, 2011
First,
congratulations to David Cunningham,
Director of the Center for Writing
and Research!
Our Plan for Today
• How writers write, and how assignments benefit from
a process-orientation
• How writing fits into courses
• Elements of good writing assignments
• Along the way, examples of micro-themes and other
short writing assignments
• Assignments that lead to thesis-driven essays
• Assignments and grade inflation
• Responding to student writing (short version)
• Responding to student writing—full version on
Thursday, March 3, 11 am-1 pm
Credits:
• John Bean, Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s
Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking,
and Active learning in the Classroom. Jossey
Bass, 1996.
• Susan Peck McDonald, Professional Academic
Writing in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
Southern Illinois Press, 1994
How writers write
• Some incentive, internal or external, starts the
process
• Alternating periods of conscious and subconscious
work
• Alternating modes of isolated and social work
• At different times, the writer’s attention goes to
different levels of the work, from deep contentbased concerns to superficial manuscript concerns.
• The desire to be heard is fundamental.
A Model of the Writing Process
8. Publishing
1. Incentive
to write
2.Gathering ideas
7. 7Editing
2. Gathering ideas
6. Revising
5. Getting
feedback
3. Planning
3. Planning
4. Drafting
Teacher as coach vs teacher as judge
• Our role as teachers is to coach students
through the early stages of the process—to
show them how successful writers do this
work.
• At the final stage, our role changes to judge as
we make decisions about what works and
what doesn’t.
• Coaching is more fun than judging.
Intervene Early and Often
• http://www.hope.edu/academic/english/inter
vene%20early%20and%20often.pdf
How writing assignments fit into
courses
•
•
•
•
•
Writing helps students learn content.
Writing increases study time.
Writing helps students acquire thinking skills.
Writing helps students grapple with complexity.
Writing can invite students to apply new
knowledge to problems and audiences beyond
the classroom.
• Writing clarifies values, knowledge of self, sense
of purpose.
Course Design and Stage-Three
Assignments
Content
Introduction to Questions and Methods
Guided Practice
Independent Inquiry
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
An assignment to introduce core questions
--Week One
• In this American Literature course, we will encounter
two opposed views of human nature. Our writers
disagreed on this fundamental question: Is the
human being inherently evil or innately good? Study
these two brief excerpts—from J. Edwards’ “Sinners
in the Hands of an Angry God” and from R.W.
Emerson’s “Self Reliance.” Write a page or two for
tomorrow’s class, first explaining the view of human
nature each passage supports and then providing
examples of the ways each view can still be found in
contemporary American thinking.
Respond by
•
•
•
•
Reading each one quickly—5 minutes max
Check, check-plus, check-minus
No comments
Bring one paper from each category to class the next
time (no names on copies), and explain the qualities in
the writing that lead you to your judgment on the
paper.
• Result: Students write for 1 or 2 hours, you spend
about that much time responding, and everyone gets
useful information about core questions and habits of
mind in the course, about your grading standards, and
you get an early indication of general class ability.
An assignment to apply disciplinary
methods to solve a problem
• See examples on handouts from Physics and
Psychology
• Respond by grading from 1 (low) to 6 (high),
bring a low, middle, and high paper to class,
and ask students to read and judge them.
Then explain why you graded as you did.
• Allow revisions for a higher grade—get
students to really learn the methods of the
course.
A “Guided Practice” Assignment
• Guided Practice assignments, usually offered
in the first half of the semester, help students
learn specific disciplinary skills in relatively
brief assignments, with frequent “coaching”
opportunities built in, and (sometimes)
invitations to revise for a better grade as an
incentive to really master the skills.
• Example on handout from Business.
Elements of Effective Assignments
1. The assignment itself should be well written!
2. Task—a clear, brief statement of what the
student is to write about. Often stated as a
problem to solve or a question to answer.
3. Choice of topics, within appropriate limits.
4. Role and Audience—try to avoid always asking
the writer to assume the role of student writing
to a professor—impossible! Instead, assign a
role of authority, and an audience of lesser
knowledge—or at least a peer audience.
Elements of effective assignments
5. Format—length, mss form, documentation
style, organization, etc
6. Expectations about process to be followed—
proposal, research dates, first draft, peer
review, conferences, revisions, etc.
7. Criteria for evaluation—tell students right
from the start how their paper will
eventually be judged. Refer to criteria
repeatedly during the writing process to
guide success.
Assignments for thesis-driven essays
• Present a proposition (thesis) to defend or
refute.
• Give students a problem or question that
demands a thesis answer
• Assign a structure that requires a problemthesis pattern
(examples on handout)
Writing Assignments and Grade
Inflation
• Focus writing assignments on the most
complex parts of the course—ask students to
grapple with the most difficult material
• Clear, systematic, public criteria makes giving
lower grades “easier” for us
• But, coaching the writing process usually leads
to higher grades.
Responding to Student Writing
—short version
• Criteria
• Rubric, adjusted for the specific assignment
• Decide how much time you can devote to each
student, and then figure out when that time can
most productively be spent.
• For example, instead of spending 30 minutes
reading the final draft and writing a paragraphlength comment, divide that time into 3 tenminute responses, spread over the course of the
writing process.
Responding to Student Writing
--long version
• Thursday, March 3, 11-1, lunch provided
•
•
•
•
Conferences
Commenting on student papers
Some thoughts on peer review
Student self-evaluation