Before constructing the assignment
1. Identify goals and purposes. What do you want students to learn? What content are you stressing? What skill are you highlighting? Is there a particular skill required to master the content?
2. What tasks are appropriate for the course and for the time in the semester? What assignments will follow? What should students be able to accomplish after completing the assignment?
3. How much time will students have to work on the assignment? A one-page response paper may only require a day to write. A five-page analytical essay will require more time to develop (1 - 2 weeks).
Writing is a process
Writing is a process: we do not write simply to demonstrate our knowledge, but more often we write to discover that knowledge and we make that discovery by returning to and reconsidering our ideas.
Remind students of this, both explicitly and implicitly. Build the message of writing-as-process into the assignments themselves. Encourage prewriting and drafts. Very often through the process of writing an initial draft the student will discover his or her thesis, so that the thesis emerges in the final paragraphs. Remind students again and again that writing is itself a method of learning.
Composing the assignment
1. Consider the scope and specificity of your assignment. Do you want to encourage textual analysis and close reading? Do you want students to synthesize large concepts? What kind of writing is necessary to produce a paper that successfully accomplishes these goals? Textual analysis may be more narrow and specific; the synthesis may be more global and abstract.
2. Consider the task words you use in your instructions. Terms like “discuss” and “respond” produce very open-ended writing. Other task works help students establish goals and may more easily lead them to a position or argument. Tags such as “how” and “why” encourage explanation and engagement with the source text. “Define,” “compare,” “contrast,” and “analyze” invite specific rhetorical modes. “Summarize,” “describe,” and “identify” encourage paraphrase and recall.
3. Does the assignment build on class discussions? If so, specify this in the instructions. Students too often forget what goes on in class, or do not easily see links between the classroom experience and the act of writing a paper. Most importantly, if a student will be working the Writing Center, this small written reminder will serve as a helpful prompt to his or her tutor.
4. Consider how your students imagine an audience for their written work. Thinking of you as the reader may be daunting. This may explain why in some assignments students fall into a “plot summary mode” in order to demonstrate their understanding to you as ultimate authority and judge. One possible strategy is to have students imagine their audience as a classmate, one who is familiar with the basics of the text but not with their position, argument or interpretation. Other strategies might play with the notion of audience: have students compose a letter to a historical figure, character or author.
5. Troubleshoot the assignment. Test it out for yourself. Try writing a paper following your own instructions. Review the assignment with IH writing support staff (Lydia Pottle, Jason Esters, or myself).
6. Identify resources for students. Remind them of your office hours and email address. Introduce them (formally or informally) them to the IH tutors and the Writing Center. Both the IH and Writing Center websites have material to assist students in their writing.
Presenting the assignment to students:
1. Be sure that the instructions for your assignments are in writing.
2. Allow for sufficient class-time to explain the assignment.
3. Revisit the assignment in subsequent class discussions.
4. Monitor students as they work on the assignment. Consider building a take-home paper from an initial in-class exercise. Have students submit thesis statements or drafts before completing the paper.
1. Articulate what you value in their writing.
2. Provide examples of how they should cite text.
3. Explain how you evaluate their written work and what your grading standards are.