Writing Assignments
Students may need help with writing basics, and even good writers don’t know how to write for your particular discipline. Professors can create writing assignments to help students engage in different types of learning, and can use different media to encourage sensitivity to audience and purpose. Feedback on writing assignments is also a critical teaching skill. These resources will provide helpful ideas for how to use writing assignments in teaching without becoming overwhelmed.
Creating Assignments
MIT’s guidelines for
What should you think about in designing a writing assignment? Auburn’s Office of University Writing provides this helpful .
(links to multiple resources from Colorado State)
For teachers and students – Duke’s writing center lists 37 types of writing in , and provides specific tips for each one.
(video)
(video) (when your purpose is content rather than communication)
Writing doesn’t have to be an individual assignment. This article discusses one history professor’s transformation of his research seminar into a .
Want to craft a writing assignment that also requires research? CTE's page on has suggestions.
New Media
Here’s some information about and even a .
These articles consider different ways to use class wikis to teach writing – one emphasizes , and the other the .
Or teachers can use Wikipedia itself to teach the rules of writing for a mass audience, as one professor narrates in (a little dated as Wikipedia itself has changed, but the basic idea still works).
Providing Feedback
is also a skill that can be honed. These are some suggestions from Carnegie-Mellon’s Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence.
The Idea Center suggests some .
Miami University's Howe Writing Center offers suggestions for .
SMU's "W" Requirement for the University Curriculum
Want your course to satisfy the Writing proficiency requirement for SMU’s University Curriculum? Check out the explanation (log-in required).