How To Design Writing Intensive Assignments

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How To Design Writing Intensive Assignments
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Workshop Purpose

• The purpose of this workshop is to introduce
  faculty members to some of the foundation issues
  associated with designing assignments for writing
  intensive courses.
• With participants assistance, we will try to
  identify course specific assignments during the
  workshop and ensuing discussion.

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Identify the Assignment Purpose

• What is the purpose of the assignment? Do you
  want students to
• define and apply a word or term?
• understand and describe a procedure?
• evaluate the effectiveness of an approach?
• take a position about a controversy and provide
  evidence to support that position?

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Identify the Intended Audience

• The instructor can share information to help
  students identify and learn who are typical
  audience groups in the discipline. The
  instructor can also help students learn about the
  various needs and expectations of these different
  audience groups.
• Doing so can help students better understand what
  forms of writing are appropriate and why.

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Identify the Assignment Goal(s)

• Do you want students to achieve practice and
  improved information literacy because they have
  to incorporate information from multiple credible
  sources and correctly cite information?
• Do you want students to be able to identify
  relevant information and correctly quote,
  summarize, or paraphrase this information?
• Do you want students to know the difference
  between a peer reviewed article and a general
  periodical article?

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Attach Value to the Assignment

• If students perceive or attach value to an
  assignment, they are more likely to be engaged.
• Can the assignment be designed to reflect real
  life in terms or context students can relate to?
• Example Having students discuss and write about
  the textbook market, helps them to understand (if
  not appreciate) why their textbook costs as much
  as it does.

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Consider Enlisting Assistance From Others

• The instructor does not have to know everything.
  Call upon others with specialized knowledge who
  can complement your skill or content knowledge.
• Example UHH Librarians routinely visit classes
  and tailor research presentations to students.
  They can demonstrate library tools that students
  can use to organize and manage research material
  necessary to complete the assignment.

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Typical Writing Intensive Assignments

• There is no such thing.
• It is true that there are typical assignment
  forms, but some assignments are more appropriate
  in one discipline than others.
• What follows are some suggestions. Consider
  adopting these assignments if these are
  appropriate to the discipline you teach in.

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The Term Paper Is Not the Only Assignment

• While the term paper (aka research paper) is a
  common assignment, it does not have to be the
  only writing assignment students work on.
• If it is the typical assignment for the
  course/discipline, then consider doing the
  following
• provide students with a clear purpose
• help them identify the intended audience
• break the assignment into several shorter tasks
  with clearly stated (and reasonable) deadlines
• provide opportunities for instructor feedback and
  revision throughout the assignment

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General Suggestions

• Provide students with a range of assignments and
  activities which are informal and formal
• Provide students with a range of assignments that
  vary in length
• You do not have to grade (or score) every piece
  of writing. Even on informal writing like
  journal entries, however, consider writing at
  least one comment about a statement or idea so
  students see you are paying attention to what
  they write
• Students must learn to accept their
  responsibility for achieving error-free writing.
  You do not have to accept writing which is full
  of errors.
• If you are going to identify errors for students,
  focus on one paragraph or section only. Use that
  as an example of the type and amount of errors
  the student now has to examine the rest of his or
  her paper for.

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Other Resources

• As I work to build a UH-Hilo inventory of
  examples of Writing Intensive assignments,
  faculty are welcome to view the resources
  provided to members of the UH system on the Manoa
  Writing Program website
• http//www.mwp.hawaii.edu/
• Additionally, here are some Teacher Resource
  links to other detailed handouts and examples
• http//www.mwp.hawaii.edu/resources/wm1.htm
• http//www.mwp.hawaii.edu/resources/wm2.htm
• http//www.mwp.hawaii.edu/resources/wm4.htm
• http//www.mwp.hawaii.edu/resources/wm8.htm