Written Rhetoric
Writing Assignments
Why we should assign writing and how to decrease the opportunities for student plagiarism and student dissatisfaction with the work and their grade.
Sources: McKeachie’s Teaching Tips: Strategies, Research, and Theory for College and University Teachers; Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom
- Learning Advantages of Writing Assignments
- To provide an opportunity for students to go beyond conventional course coverage and gain a feeling of expertise in some area. This is an important way in which students learn to value knowledge and learning.
- To give students an opportunity to explore problems of special significance to them. In this way professors can hope to capture increased motiviation.
- Therefore, when you plan your course, consider what knowledge and skills you hope your students will gain. For example, in CAS 141, I wish my students to become critics and producers, so I then structure assignments to meet those goals.
- Students dislike “busy work” so professors should communicate the purpose of each assignment and how that assignment will help students in this class and in the future.
- To provide an opportunity for students to go beyond conventional course coverage and gain a feeling of expertise in some area. This is an important way in which students learn to value knowledge and learning.
- Once you have decided upon the course learning objective and the purpose of the assignment, then decide upon the type of writing assignment and timeline.
- Various types of writing assignments, but two common forms: “journals” and essays.
- The journal is more informal, often requiring little or no outside research. Often this writing assignment encourages students to critically reflect on the reading or classroom discussion.
- This is often very course specific and therefore difficulty to plagarize.
- However, you need to carefully communicate how informal or formal you want the writing style to be. Some students see “journal” and think of a stream of consciousness writing style.
- How often to turn in?
- The essay—either short or long—allows your student to research a particular topic in more depth.
- Consider length and what is appropriate for the course level.
- If too general a topic, then students more likely to plagarize, but can’t be too specific that is discourages student involvement.
- The journal is more informal, often requiring little or no outside research. Often this writing assignment encourages students to critically reflect on the reading or classroom discussion.
- Stages of a term paper
- Finding a topic and submitting a topic proposal
- Gathering sources, data, or references
What is appropriate for your level of student?
Annotated bibliography? - Developing an outline.
- First draft
- Rewriting/ final draft
- Strategies for communicating feedback at each step.
- Various types of writing assignments, but two common forms: “journals” and essays.
- Grading criteria and grading rubric
- As you compose the writing assignment description, also prepare a grading rubric that reflects the course learning objective, clarity, quality of research, quality of argument, and style.
