Incorporate answers to the following in the assignment sheet and during class discussions. By contextualizing the assignment and clarifying the criteria, you will give students a better opportunity to succeed.
- What is the assignment’s purpose? Specifically, what will students learn as they work on this project, and what skills will they rely on or develop?
- How much choice will students have in terms of the topic?
- Will students need to keep a specific audience in mind? If so, who is that audience?
- Does the writing (in terms of format, source usage, citations, style, etc.) display the conventions of a particular discipline/field? How will you clarify those conventions and expectations for your students?
- How do you expect students to use their sources? Consider this not just in terms of citation styles but also in terms of what you want students to do with those sources as that can also help you to teach students about disciplinary conventions and expectations.
- How will the assignment be broken into stages? Multiple due dates for different parts of the writing process (e.g., due dates for topics, annotated bibliographies/literature reviews, first drafts, final drafts) will require students to plan accordingly and tend to lead to better outcomes, especially if you provide feedback along the way.
- How and when can students expect to get feedback on their writing?
- What resources (i.e., office hours, appointments with librarians, visits to the writing center) will you encourage students to use?
- Will you provide samples for students? What should students consider when evaluating those samples?
- What will the grading criteria be? And how do these connect to student learning outcomes?
Since this entails a lot of information, also consider the readability of your assignments. Bullet points and short sentences can be more effective than long paragraphs.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.
Contact: Denise K. Krane (dkrane@scu.edu)
