Formal Writing Assignments
Purposes of Formal Writing Assignments
- to give students opportunities to give form to and demonstrate
the knowledge and the intellectual skills they have acquired
- to acquaint students with the discourse conventions of a particular
discipline or intellectual community
- to allow students guided
opportunities to practice those conventions
Types
of Formal Writing Assignments
- academic papers: term papers, seminar papers, essay
exams
- scholarly papers: research reports, review articles,
critical essays
- professional writing:
reports; proposals; memos; essays, articles, and instructions for
a lay audience; letters to the editor; editorials; brochures; critiques
& reviews
Techniques
for Helping Students to Succeed
- establish context for the student's text: why is the student
writing the text?; who is going to read the text?; why is the reader
reading the text?
- reveal and explain your evaluation criteria
- break down the assignment into intellectual tasks that the students
must perform according to an established timetable
- monitor the students' progress
- show them models
- define the conventions you want the students to use (e.g., documentation
forms, textual format, levels of diction, organizational patterns)
- create opportunities for students to receive feedback on proposals
and drafts (feedback from peer groups? from you? from the Writing
Center? from departmental tutors?)
- distinguish and separate feedback from evaluation
