What Makes A Good Writing Assignment? > Diane Martinez

What in the world would you do if you were to receive the following message in an email from your supervisor?

Write a paper on what your plans are for this year and how you’re going to accomplish those goals. It is important that this be well written as your promotion potential and salary depend on how well you do on this assignment.

Aside from panic, a million questions would swirl around your head. So much rests on this assignment…and yet…do you really know what is expected of you? After all, you are a professional. Shouldn’t you know what to do?

Expectations vary from one individual to the next. When students encounter generalized writing assignments like the one above, they have a similar reaction to it as you probably had. As instructors, we often fall back on the thought that our students are in college and they should know how to write a paper. But oftentimes, students fail at assignments because they simply are not given enough direction; it has nothing to do with the level of their education, but rather they may just not know what each individual instructor’s expectations may be or the directions of the assignment are vague, quite general, or they are highly interpretive. Maybe instructors understand the assignments, but our students do not have the same knowledge base or experience as instructors and so how can they be expected to have this same understanding? Furthermore, since courses at Kaplan University are standardized, spelling out expectations in writing assignments becomes even more important because it leaves less room for interpretation by individual instructors as well as each student.

So what does a good writing assignment include? A good writing assignment:

Defines the situation, subject, and purpose of the assignment. Students have to know why they are writing a certain assignment, what they are supposed to get from it, and its purpose. Purpose also lends itself to form, so it’s important that students are told what form to write in and that it matches the purpose. There is a definite difference between writing an essay, which is more demonstrative of what a student knows, and writing a business letter, which is based on what an audience needs to know.

Identifies an audience. It may seem obvious that students are writing to instructors because that is who ultimately grades the assignments, but if you want students to step outside of this traditional relationship and consider real-world applications, you have to give them enough information about the audience you want them to write to. Audience determines content, tone, diction, structure, form, and so much more. But to simply say, write this letter to a potential client is not enough. Set up a scenario so that students can understand the situation and the audience they are writing to. This is actually practical experience for them that they can use later on.

Tells students what to do. To say write a “paper” or “essay” is generic and really of no use to students. In fact, there are about eight different types of essays, such as expository, compare and contrast, persuasive, process, etc. Tell students exactly what you want: Write a compare and contrast essay where you are analyzing the similarities and differences in how each person’s case was handled between the Big and Little cases in units 7 and 8. Or if you want them to compose something that is geared toward a specific audience, tell them what form would be best to fit the purpose and audience, such as a proposal, letter, or memo. Letting them practice various forms also helps students understand that “writing” is not generic. It is a specialized task that requires constant practice and proficient skill in order to be effective.

Gives students help with structure and organization. When I tutor students in the Writing Center, one of the main issues they have is with organization. They are not sure how to begin an assignment or structure paragraphs. To help them with this, include wording like this: Your essay should have an opening paragraph that introduces the topic, provides brief background information, and includes a thesis. Body paragraphs should support your thesis statement and must include a), b), and c). Finally, write an overall conclusion to wrap up the paper.

Includes evaluation criteria. Every assignment should have a rubric and refer students to that rubric. A generic rubric oftentimes does not work because a rubric should actually reflect the individual criteria by which that particular assignment is going to be evaluated. Make mention of things we often take for granted like writing formally, not using second person, and using Standard American English with a short note of what this actually means.

Gives a process to follow. Most people have the mistaken idea that we write on demand. Well, we do, but that is often not our best writing. Advise students about when to begin the assignment and what steps they should take to make this assignment an example of their best work. For instance, all writing assignments should start with brainstorming or some type of exploratory writing. This can include brainstorming for topics to write about or brainstorming about what they know about a topic and what they need to know, such as writing out research questions. They can also brainstorm ideas for how to approach the assignment, especially if individual questions are already provided to them to answer. They should be told to draft their assignment and then revise. It’s not too elementary to mention the difference between revision and editing either. Reviewing the writing process with students and how it relates to a particular project is actually quite helpful to them and will set them up for success instead of leaving them floundering.

Provides additional resources. It’s always a good idea to remind students about your office hours and that if they have questions they should come to you. Let them also know where they can get additional assistance, such as through the Writing Center Live Tutoring sessions or by looking up items in the Writing Center Reference Library.

Our students are in college, but that doesn’t mean they don’t need specific, precise, and direct writing assignments. Nothing should be taken for granted because our students have such diverse backgrounds and experiences. It is also a good idea to remember that they also need a safe place to experiment with ideas, and if they are grappling with how to structure an essay then it takes their attention away from the content we really want them to explore.

Diane Martinez is a Writing Center Writing Specialist at Kaplan University.

[This article was originally published in our July, 2009 issue.]