1	Designing Effective Writing Assignments Dr. Beth Rapp Young Associate Professor, English Director, University Writing Center byoung@mail.ucf.edu
2	Which assignment would you choose? Option 1: Write a two- to three-page critical review of the assigned article. Here is your chance to write an essay illustrating what professors really want when they ask students to do an article or book review.
3	Which assignment would you choose? Option 2: Write a two- to three-page critical review of the assigned article, but structure it in the following way: part one should be a two-hundred-word abstract that simply summarizes the author’s essay without injecting any of your own ideas or opinions. Part two should answer the following question: “What do you consider to be the strengths and weaknesses of the author’s views?”
4	Which assignment would you choose? Option 3: One day you receive the following letter . . . . Dear Professor X: I am in the process of collecting and reprinting major articles. . . . . Write a letter responding to these questions.
5	Which assignment would you choose? Option 4: Write a mini-play in which 2 or more faculty members argue over the assigned article. Choose any setting you would like, such as a faculty lounge or a local tavern. If you want, you can have the author himself make a cameo appearance in your play. Your goal is to have at least one person who enthusiastically supports the author’s view get in an argument with at least one person who thinks the author is wrong. You can have as many other persons as you wish in the play.
6	% Faculty Choosing Each Option
7	The point Assignment design influences students’ thinking and writing processes. When planning assignments, consider not only the course learning goals but also the processes you want to invoke.
8	Unnecessary Challenges Incomplete assignments (don’t specify deadlines, format, etc.; not written down) Complex assignments (give too many questions to consider; hard to find “the” question; overly detailed structure) Vague assignments (provide general imperatives such as discuss, analyze instead of focused questions)
9	Focus the Question CONFUSING: In the graveyard scene of Hamlet, Shakespeare alters his sources by adding the clownish gravediggers. How does the presence of the gravediggers influence your interpretation of the scene? Do you think they are funny? Absurd? Blasphemous? How does Hamlet’s attitude toward the gravediggers affect the scene? Do you think it is appropriate to sing while digging a grave? What about the jokes they tell? Do you think that Yorick was more like the gravediggers or more like Hamlet? Do you think it is appropriate to have a lighthearted moment like this in the middle of a tragedy? Is the scene really lighthearted?
10	Focus the Question BETTER: In the graveyard scene of Hamlet, Shakespeare alters his sources by adding the clownish gravediggers. How does the presence of the gravediggers influence your interpretation of the scene?
11	Focus the Question LESS EFFECTIVE: Pick one of the following and write an essay about it: (a) Gothic cathedrals; (b) Charlemagne; (c) the Black Death. MORE EFFECTIVE: “There is a connection between the worldview of a culture and the kind of architecture it produces.” To what extent does this quotation explain the differences between Romanesque and Gothic churches?
12	Focus the Question LESS EFFECTIVE: Discuss the use of pesticides in controlling mosquitoes. MORE EFFECTIVE: What are the pros and cons of using pesticides to control mosquitoes? Or Which pesticides (if any) would you recommend using to control pesticides in the attached case, and why?
13	Focus the Question LESS EFFECTIVE: Analyze the influence of Platonic thought on Christianity. MORE EFFECTIVE: “The otherworldly focus of twentieth-century fundamentalist Christianity owes more to Plato than to Jesus.” Agree or disagree with this proposition.
14	Helpful Strategies Know what you want students to learn AND do Require students to support a proposition Break assignment into steps Play to your strengths
15	Suggest a Proposition This proposed bridge design does / does not meet the criteria set forth by the city in its request for proposal. [civil engineering] “The path to holiness lies through questioning everything.” Agree or disagree. [religious studies] Based on the attached case, the nurse supervisor should/should not honor the husband’s request that his wife (a stroke victim) be assigned a new nurse. [nursing] Global warming is / is not a significant environmental threat at this time. [environmental biology] When the tablecloth was pulled from underneath the dishes, the dishes stayed on the table. Why? [physics exam]
16	Guide Them to a Proposition Write an essay of no more than two double-spaced pages answering the following question: Is a skilled trout fisher on a variable interval or a variable ratio schedule or reinforcement? Imagine that you are writing to a classmate who has missed the last week of lectures and finds the textbook explanations of “variable interval” and “variable ratio” confusing. [Psychology] Gauss’s law relates the field at the surface to the charge inside the surface. But surely the field at the surface is affected by the charges outside the surface. How do you resolve this difficulty? [Physics] Choose a question that Plato answers in one way and Aristotle answers in a different way (for example, “How do things change?”) Then, in the first part of your paper, explain to your reader the differences in these two theories. In the second part of your paper, evaluate the two positions, arguing that one position is stronger than the other. In this section, specifically answer the following question: What situation or thing does one theory explain well that the other cannot explain adequately? [Philosophy]
17	They Choose a Proposition Write an essay of X pages on any topic related to this course. Use the introduction of your essay to engage your reader’s interest in a problem or question that you would like to address in your essay. Show your reader what makes the question both significant and problematic. The body of your essay should be your own response to this question made as persuasive as possible through appropriate analysis and argumentation, including effective use of evidence. Midway through the course, you will submit to the instructor a prospectus that describes the problem or question that you plan to address and shows why the question is (1) problematic and (2) significant.
18	In groups, please identify: Goals of planned writing assignment Concerns that you would like to “design out” of student papers Student writing or study habits that you would like to encourage
19	Ideas – Questions - Discussion
20	A GREAT Resource! Bean, John C. Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996. 0-7879-0203-9 (today’s onscreen examples come from this book)
21	Thank you! For more information, visit the University Writing Center website: www.uwc.ucf.edu Choose “Faculty Resources”
22	Designing Effective Writing Assignments Dr. Beth Rapp Young Associate Professor, English Director, University Writing Center byoung@mail.ucf.edu