Responding to Writing Assignments

What goes into a really thorough writing assignment?
A really thorough writing assignment may have all or some of these components:

• A title
• A description of the intended audience
• Clear due dates
• A clear, specific statement of the tasks the teacher expects the student to perform
• The criteria for evaluating student writing for this assignment
• A range of pages that would be appropriate for a written response to the assignment
• A number of minimum sources, or some other direction on supporting material
• A topic or list of topics
• Educational objectives for the assignment
• An example of a possible topic for the assignment
• A recommended structure or organization for the paper

Of course, many instructors don't want to restrict their students this much. Some will give only very general assignments, and expect the details to be filled in through class discussion or student queries.

Have the student paraphrase the assignment
First, ask the student to put the assignment into his or her own words. Listen for key phrases: "It's a summary of an article we read," or "He wants us to compare two things we read in class." Test the student's version of the assignment against the written version.

Stripping down an assignment
The best way to get at the essential tasks of any assignment is to isolate two elements of any assignment: imperative verbs (what the teacher wants the student TO DO), and key noun phrases (what the teacher wants the student to WRITE ABOUT). I usually draw circles around the imperatives, and draw a box around important noun phrases.

Examples:

1. (from Wes Chapman's Gateway class)Choose a particular technology which has an effect on your life and explain one of its effects, using evidence from your own life.
   You should assume that you are writing for a technology-literate audience and should therefore focus on an effect which is not obvious. Think about the secondary effects of the technology as well as the primary effects, and consider centering your argument on an important secondary effect. You should choose an effect that is important and relevant (i.e. it should be an effect that is likely to be experienced by many people who use the technology and it should have a significant impact on the lives of those people). If you wish, you may use your discussion of the technology's effect to make a recommendation about how the technology should be used. 
   
   
2. Write an esay about a personal experience in which memory--failed, guilty, happy, sad, any knd--played a role.
   
   
3. Compare and contrast the benefits and disadvantages of attending a liberal arts college and a vocational college.
   
   
4. Write an essay on significant economic developments in an industry or business that is important to an area in which you live.

Assignments framed as questions

A lot of instructors will ask a series of questions as part of their writing assignments. Here are some suggestions for dealing with questions:

• First, list all the questions in the assignment with plenty of space between each question
• Second, see if you can break each question down into simpler, shorter questions
• Third, if needed, apply the journalistic questions (how? who? where? when? why? what?) to create simpler questions
• Fourth, rearrange the questions into a more logical or readable order
• Fifth, make lists of related ideas or topics for each question. Draw heavily from the student's recollection of class discussion or readings. 

Examples:

1. Why did the National Collegate Athletic Association adopt the rule that makes college freshmen eligible to play varsity sports? What are the effects of the rule? How successful has it been?
   
   
2. How can a major symphony orchestra fulfill its responsibility to encourage avant garde compositions and yet satisfy its subscribers' desire to hear the old favorites?
   
   
3. Should the federal government provide flood insurance to homeowners who build houses on flood plains?
   
   
4. What is the effect of real-time (synchronous) computer communication (e.g., chat rooms, IM) on interpersonal relations? Is it positive or negative? What action, if any, should be taken to address this phenomenon?