Tips for Writing Assignments

1.  Put the purpose of the assignment somewhere on the assignment sheet.  Students need to know why the assignment is important to their learning and important to the class. This may be as simple as referring back to the class objectives listed in your syllabus.

2.  Use key words in the assignment, but make sure they are words that the students understand.  Consider using Bloom's Taxonomy to help you diversify your assignments while taking into consideration the level of thought that you are asking your students to accomplish.

3.  Organize the assignment in a way that would help students understand what they are supposed to do.  Try numbering the tasks and using bold to highlight important information.

4.  Attach or refer to a rubric.  Students usually are better able to understand an assignment when they know the criteria on which they will be graded.  The Rubric for Freshman Composition can be used as a starting point or as the rubric itself.

5. Try to keep the assignment information as brief as possible.  If the assignment sheet is longer than the actual assignment should be, then there is probably too much information on the assignment sheet or the assignment is too long or complicated for the prescribed length.

6.  Ask yourself, "When I was a student in college, would I have been able to understand this assignment and create a good product?"

7.  Make a hard copy of the assignment available to the students, even if you email them the assignment for them to print.

8.  Send a copy of the writing assignment to the Writing Center so that the tutors can familiarize themselves with the assignment before the students come in.

9. Helpful Guides

AFRICA - The assignment should address the:

(Lindemann 217-218)

A Heuristic for Designing Assignments

(Lindemann 220-221)

Lindemann, Erika.  A Rhetoric for Writing Teachers.  New York: Oxford UP, 2001.

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