Developing Meaningful Writing Assignments

This teaching guide looks at some of the strategies and tips faculty can use to develop meaningful writing projects for our students, and offers materials for both general classroom writing as well as for writing intensive (W) courses. Developing meaningful writing assignments can be a challenge, but putting the time into developing well designed writing assignments with a clear structure and connections to the overall class learning objectives can be more time consuming than many faculty realize, but also more rewarding for students in the long run.

The latest university research on student writing suggests there are three key elements that can help make for successful and meaningful student writings assignments, which include giving students a say in what they write about, creating engaging and iterative writing processes (e.g., using peer review, multiple revision), and creating writing assignments that allow students to bring in prior skills while also developing new skills they can use in the future, or what scholars refer to as "transfer out" skills, such as developing deeper research, writing, and editing skills that can be used post-graduation. This teaching guide touches on these issues and more.

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• RESEARCH

  Examine selected research on meaningful writing assignments:

  Designing Writing Assignments(opens in new window) from the DePaul Teaching Commons, and linked Assignment Template (PDF) to help faculty sketch out possible writing assignments. 

  Boye, A. (2010). How do I create meaningful and effective assignments. Texas Tech University. 
  https://www.depts.ttu.edu/tlpdc/Resources/Teaching_resources/TLPDC_teaching_resources/CreatingEffectiveAssignments.php(opens in new window)

  Eodice, M., Geller, A. E., & Lerner, N. (2017). What meaningful writing means for students. Peer Review, 19(1).

  Anderson, P., Anson, C. M., Fish, T., Gonyea, R. M., Marshall, M., Menefee-Libey, W., ... & Weaver, S. (2017). How writing contributes to learning: new findings from a national study and their local application. Peer Review, 19(1), 4-9.

  Resources for Faculty Teaching a WRIT Course. Brown University. https://www.brown.edu/sheridan/teaching-learning-resources/teaching-resources/teaching-writing(opens in new window)

  Harvey, G. (2009). A brief guide to designing essay assignments. Harvard College Writing Program. https://writingproject.fas.harvard.edu/files/hwp/files/hwp_brief_guide_assignments.pdf (PDF)

  Writing Guides. Colorado State University. https://wac.colostate.edu/repository/resources/writing/guides/(opens in new window)

  Designing Effective Writing Assignments. Teaching with Writing | University of Minnesota. https://wac.umn.edu/tww-program/teaching-resources/designing-effective-writing-assignments(opens in new window)

  Guide to Teaching First-Year Writing Requirement Courses. Sweetland Center for Writing | University of Michigan. https://teachingfywr.sweetland.lsa.umich.edu/5-creating-good-assignment-prompts/(opens in new window)

  Lang, J. M. (2017, November 5). Will They Remember Writing It? The Chronicle of Higher Education. https://www.chronicle.com/article/will-they-remember-writing-it/(opens in new window)

• APPLICATION

  Ready to use writing assignments in your teaching? Here are some ideas and strategies to get you started:

  One excellent writing resource that many faculty include on their syllabus or in writing instruction materials is a link to the Purdue Online Writing Lab(opens in new window), which offers students detailed help with using different citation formats and styles, as well as more resources and links on everything from research to avoiding plagiarism.

  One consideration when developing writing assignments is to have a focus that connects to a timely social issue that students can wrestle with. In this context, Edutopia has 11 meaningful writing assignments(opens in new window) linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.

  Another excellent writing practice is asking students to slow down and reflect on their current life and experiences by drawing inspiration from mindfulness meditation practices and applying them to writing exercises. Here are 7 prompts to help do that.(opens in new window)

  Do your students need some more creative writing prompts? Take a look at these creative writing activities and prompts(opens in new window) to get your student's writing juices flowing.

  For faculty looking to help their students better understand the toxic effects of fake news and media literacy, this syllabus outline on fake news(opens in new window) has many good ideas.

  If you're looking for open-access textbooks to help expand or supplement your existing resources on writing, check out these WAC Clearinghouse books(opens in new window) online.