Making Writing Assignments:  Ten Suggestions

1. Prepare a context for each assignment through reading, discussion, journal writing, etc.
2. Allow time for process:  thinking, incubating, revising, editing and response.
3. Ask students to develop authority, to write about what they know, not what you already know.
4. Put assignment directions in writing: explain your expectations clearly
5. Show models of student writing which successfully address the assignment
6. Encourage peer group collaborations: research, revising, editing, publishing
7. Ask students to write for a variety of audiences: self, friend, classmate, teacher, public.
8. Assign several short papers in place of one long one.
9. Write the assignments yourself; watch how you do it; show students your writing as you revise and refine it.
10. Integrate writing into the daily activity in your classroom.

A Brief Word about Grading

Don’t grade informal writing assignments (free writes, journals, in-class activities) beyond a check plus or minus level.
Postpone grading of longer assignments as long as possible to allow time for feedback and revision.  Grading tends to cut this process short.
Consider moving to a portfolio system of evaluation.