Informal Writing Assignments

Informal Writing Assignments
Questions and Responses to Readings Model Critical Inquiry
and Provide Warm-ups to Formal Paper Writing

Guided Response Papers

In advance, distribute discussion questions on the day's reading and ask the students to write a one-page response to their choice of question.
Students appreciate the ability to choose from a selection of 3-4 questions.
The most effective discussion question will present a major issue of the reading and ask one focused question about it.

For Monday, you will read Marilyn Yalom's The History of the Wife, chapter one. She begins with a contemporary question, "Is wife an endangered species?" Only then does she begin her historical study of "the wife." How does this question announce the significance of the project?

Refrain from questions with a zillion sub-questions, which overwhelm students.
Students think they have to answer each one, which results in a fractured response.

Student Written Discussion Questions

After you have modeled the discussion question, ask students to turn in a discussion question on the reading.
You can select a few to pose to the class during the next meeting.
This exercise gives the students practice in writing queries, and makes them feel like contributors to the discussion.
This also saves you time and allows you to reflect their interests in your discussion points.

Journals

Each student keeps a reading and response log that records his or her journey through the course.
Journal writing gives them practice with freely getting their thoughts down on paper.
Periodically collect the reading logs to check that they are completed.
You do not need to comment upon all the entries.
Students can answer your questions in their journals or use their journals for speculation. They can divide journals into categories of responses.
You can have them write in their journals during class-for example, the first five minutes of every class.

Guidelines for Using Journals & Suggested Writing Assignments

Microthemes

A microtheme is a writing assignment so short that it can be, and is, written on a five-by-eight index card.
Just about any subject matter in a course can be used as the basis for a microtheme.
It is essential to design topics which require students to do a lot of thinking, planning, and writing before they write.
The microtheme thus becomes the end product of a process of thinking and writing.

Sample Microthemes

Analysis of Arguments

Students are asked to write a short analysis of an author's argument.

Synthesis Papers

Students are asked to synthesize the literature on a particular topic.
Have the class read three articles on how gender roles are reinforced by the educational system; students are then asked to synthesize the authors' points of view.

Summaries

Students are asked to summarize the reading first in 500 words, then revise it to 300 words, then to 150 (the abstract ).
This gives them practice in sharpening prose and identifying the most important ideas of a reading.
Finally, students write the 25-word precis of the reading and compare one another's work.

Collaborative Writings

Students are asked to write to one another about a topic in the reading.

They might debate an issue or exchange their points of view.

They might do this in the form of letters or a collaboratively written dialogue between key thinkers or texts.

Students can create a class document.

You assign students to groups of 2-4 and they collaboratively write a paragraph on an issue you assign.

Students then assemble their writings and work with other groups to create transitions between points.

This exercise gives them practice in real-world writing, which typically requires collaboration and group decision-making.

They should also gain practice collaboratively presenting research, authoring visual aids, and creating appealing, organized handouts for the class.

Using Peers Groups

WebCT

Students are asked to respond to the readings or discussion questions on WebCT, dialoguing with one another.
Be sure that students understand the difference between formal written and oral communication, because students tend to use the conventions of email when using electronic communication.
Students should develop technology skills.

Computer Composition Exercises

Department of English
Armitage Hall, Fourth Floor
Rutgers University,Camden, NJ 08102
Tel: (856) 225-6121, Fax: (856) 225-6602