Introduction to the writing process and forming writing assignments
What pedagogical and practical considerations typically inform your design of a writing assignment? How do the writing assignments in your courses function for your students? Are they meant to demonstrate mastery of form or material? Or are they a part of how your students learn course content? Or both? How much do your assignments change from semester to semester and course to course?
7 comments:
I only teach one undergraduate course that requires writing of any significant word count. It is a class on form and analysis in music. My assignments are typically of the generic format: here is a musical composition, listen to it, analyze it and find the elements that define its form, and write an essay that describes their findings. I provide 6 to 8 questions to guide them in writing their essay. As for do the assignments change from semester to semester, my answer is yes, since I have only taught this course twice with the writing component. The assignments have been refined and streamlined, with the guiding questions improved to help them discover the material and discuss it in the essay.
The written assignments I require are designed to provide an opportunity for students to learn and practice standard professional writing as well as demonstrate improving comprehension of the topics. Graduate students must also learn and practice forms of research writing. I review writing assignments every semester as each experience yields something new to be considered, or modified. Most writing assignments are incremental in nature, ie. select a topic for discussion and provide an annotated bibliography to support that discussion, after that is reviewed and commented upon students will be asked to create a research proposal, or use the annotated bibliography to produce a summation of the topic. Students are given guidance in topic selection, paraphrasing, summarizing, and annotation as well as referred to sites such as Purdue's Online Writing Lab, for examples and additional explanations. Class discussion of the writing projects covers expectations of length, style manual forms, presentation style such as formal or informal. Verbal and written instructions are given for the formats to be employed, the type of literature sources, professional or peer reviewed, any parameters of age, publication selection etc. are also covered in class and in formal directions.
The writing assignments I give to my undergraduate students are voluntary due to the number of students in my class. I give my students the opportunity to write a one page journal article summary or a 3-5 page literature review for extra credit. The assignments provide me the opportunity to give my students feedback on their professional writing and allow them to gain experience in literature searches and summaries. I score each assignment based on the student's adherence to formatting conventions, clarity of writing, appropriateness of sources, and proper use of citations. Thus, the assignments emphasize mastery of form over material; however, I do give them some feedback about their ideas related to the material. Because of the voluntary nature of the assignment I don't attempt to deliver any course content through them but I do make sure my students pick a topic related to the coursework even if it is something we won't cover. I also give my students the opportunity to revise completed assignments based on my feedback so that they can experience the editing process. The assignment has remained largely unchanged across semesters. I would like to move toward making a required assignment in my course that is similar to what I offer for extra credit but I struggle with feasibility issues.
My writing assignments range from short response papers to large research papers. In both cases the goal is to demonstrate their ability to analyze primary sources in support of an historical argument. When I grade, I'm mostly looking for those two things: a clear thesis statement and supporting evidence. These assignments therefore are about both form and material because the material will only come out clearly if its presented in a proper form. Doing this does contribute to course content because it allows students to process material presented in class, but also material outside of class on their own. Finally, my assignments change on the basis of the course level and the particular question I ask, but they generally remain the same semester to semester.
My design of writing assignments largely depend on the area of teaching. Even in my field, the nature of courses can vary a great deal. So far I have only taught two undergraduate courses but quite a few graduate ones. Some courses require more hands-on exercises and quick answers, and some need more theoretical interpretation in writing. For me, writing assignments should definitely reflect how students master materials/subjects as well as what they learn to apply to their future job. On a graduate level, I expect students to write clearly and expand thoughts, meaning more analytical, theory-based, and interpretative. For undergraduates, abilities to summarize, organize, and clarify ideas will meet my expectation.Citations and grammars are also important to my grading. I do review assignments semester by semester based on problems, difficulty, and new trends I have found. During the class, I ask students' progress with their writing assignments and tell them that I am willing to read their drafts in advance.
As an English professor, writing assignments are, of course, the center of all of my creative writing and literature courses. In my literature courses, writing primarily revolves around close reading assignments. I am always adapting assignments to the particular readings and goals of each course, which vary greatly between general education courses, courses for majors, and courses for graduate students. I generally integrate both informal and formal writing assignments, and, when possible, I build in drafting stages for essays. I try to provide students with assignments that will engage them in critical thinking, and I emphasize writing as process. I continually revise and adapt assignments and/or develop new ones.
I teach 2 courses that require writing assignments. My undergraduate course is a capstone and writing and speaking intensive. I have divided the word requirement into 4 small and 1 larger paper. The 4 smaller papers (500 - 750 words each) are reflection papers. I ask students to reflect on specific topics covered in class. For example, when we cover change and change management, I assign Who Moved My Cheese and ask students to reflect on their response to a change (which character do they relate to in the book), how they evaluate their comfort level with change and how they'd like to manage change. The larger paper (2500 words) asks students to synthesize management and leadership material we covered in the course.
The DNP students are asked to write sections of their final paper so that they can practice principles that they learned in the methods class. For these students I ask then to provide feedback to each other in the online component of the course aftr practicing techniques in a class meeting -they have 4 weeks to write their draft. At the end of the course they turn in their final paper.
I update my writing projects each semester based on the feedback from students and how the quality of the papers I receive.
Post a Comment