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Creating Effective Writing Assignments |
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What do you wish the students to do? What do you want them to learn?
- Make your pedagogical goals explicit.
| Link the goals of the assignment with the course objectives. |
- Put your assignment in writing, along with the pedagogical goal.
| When you give oral instructions, students rarely remember them. They torment the librarians with vague comments like "I have to write something about skeletons." Often, they cannot recall the instructor's name, or they expect the RLC tutors to know their assignments. It is always best to author your writing assignments in your syllabus, so that students have them ahead of time and can bring the syllabus to the library or tutor. |
- Give students a
choice of questions but ensure that all the questions involve one focused
task (not the vague term "discuss…").
- Use the appropriate verb ("compare, classify, analyze…") in your assignment, directing students to the appropriate cognitive level.
| Bloom's cognitive levels can help you shape the writing-intensive course syllabus, by shaping readings and writings to gradually increase levels of complexity. |
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Department of English
| Rutgers University-Camden
| Rutgers University
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Rutgers University,Camden, NJ 08102
Tel: (856) 225-6121, Fax: (856) 225-6602
