writing to learn assignments

Writing-to-Learn Activities

Getting Started

Why include writing in my courses?

What is writing to learn?

WTL Activities

What is writing to engage?

What is writing in the disciplines?

WID Assignments

Useful Knowledge

What should I know about rhetorical situations?

Do I have to be an expert in grammar to assign writing?

What should I know about genre and design?

What should I know about second-language writing?

What teaching resources are available?

What should I know about WAC and graduate education?

Assigning Writing

What makes a good writing assignment?

How can I avoid getting lousy student writing?

What benefits might reflective writing have for my students?

Using Peer Review

Why consider collaborative writing assignments?

Do writing and peer review take up too much class time?

How can I get the most out of peer review?

Responding to Writing

How can I handle responding to student writing?

How can writing centers support writing in my courses?

What writing resources are available for my students?

Using Technology

How can computer technologies support writing in my classes?

Designing and Assessing WAC Programs

What is a WAC program?

What designs are typical for WAC programs?

How can WAC programs be assessed?

More on WAC

Where can I learn more about WAC?

Writing-to-learn activities can happen frequently or infrequently in your class; some can extend over the entire semester; some can be extended to include a wide variety of writing tasks in different formats and to different audiences. Use the list below to read more about writing-to-learn activities.

• The reading journal
• Generic and focused summaries

Annotations

• Response papers
• Synthesis papers
• The discussion starter
• Focusing a discussion
• The learning log
• Analyzing the process
• Problem statement
• Solving real problems
• Pre-test warm-ups

Using Cases

• What counts as a fact?
• Believing and doubting game
• Analysis of events
• Project notebooks
• The writing journal

The Reading Journal

Some teachers combine the learning log and the reading journal, but others prefer to keep them separate, particularly when the daily outside reading is crucial to a class. The reading journal provides students with at least two kinds of critical thinking activities that promote learning.

How Do Reading Journals Promote Learning?

In general, students use the left half of the page or the left sheet of an opened notebook for recording what the reading is about. Teachers can ask for quite a lot of detail in this half of the reading journal so that students get practice in summarizing entire articles or summarizing particular arguments, identifying main ideas, noting key details, and choosing pertinent quotations, among other crucial reading skills.

On the right half of the page (or right page of the notebook), students jot down any questions they have or any connections they can make between readings or between readings and class discussions. At the beginning of the semester, the right half of the journal is dotted with questions, most of which can be answered quickly at the beginning of a discussion session in class. By the end of the semester, students will sometimes fill two right-hand columns for every reading. At this point, the questions are far richer (rarely about content) and the connections point out that students are integrating the readings and class work on their own.

In addition, reading journals have the following benefits:

• Writing about reading makes students more conscious of making meaning as readers (and gives them insight into reading and writing processes).
• Writing about reading gives them their own texts to re-read and reflect on, which sparks fuller learning.
• Writing about reading, writing, and discussing forces students to take charge of their learning and to make active connections between different learning activities.
• Seeing teachers write in their own reading journals and share their writing reinforces for students the vital importance of writing for life-long learning and emphasizes the public nature of these journals.
• Students often discover their own paper topics in the connections that keep appearing in the right-hand section of these notebooks.
• As students get more used to writing about their understanding of the literal level of meaning, they also become better at generating higher-level questions and connections--especially connections between and inferences from text materials or discussions.
• Even less prepared students who don't get to higher order questioning will at least know what they don't know so that you can work with them on their basic understanding of text. (In other words, when you ask for questions at the beginning of your work on a piece of reading, students know what to ask.)

What Kinds of Course Readings Will Work in a Reading Journal?

Teachers can use the same format for any kind of reading, even asking for more formal summaries if that is appropriate for the sequence of assignments or the course goals. Possible readings include professional or student essays, news articles, materials turned up during research for a longer assignment, textbook readings.

And the same format will work for any other kind of observation that you want students to reflect on:

• TV programs
• Class discussions
• Prior writing assignments

Content Questions: More Detail

The structure of the daily writing depends on the students'

• Lower-level students will need more structure and will move more slowly into analytic and reflective writing on the right-hand side.
• Higher-level students can sometimes whisk right into reflection with much less attention and structure imposed for literal information.

The structure also depends on the particular reading/writing tasks, especially if you are building a sequence of tasks leading to a substantial writing assignment at the end of a unit, for example.

Obviously, teachers can assign specific questions to be addressed in the left-hand section, or assign more general prompts:

• What do you remember?
• What did you hear?
• What was the "talk" about?
• Who is the focus of the reading?
• What was the most important idea in the reading? What are the next important ideas?
• What particularly striking example do you recall?
• Who is the target audience for the selection?
• What is the author's intention in this passage?

These prompts will focus on what because they are getting at the basic content (though we must remember that content is constructed and so even literal information may not appear the same to each reader/writer/speaker).

Interpretive Questions: More Detail

Students often need more focused questions to begin working on the right-hand side--the evaluative, reflective, or metacognitive side:

• Why are certain details more memorable?
• What connections can you make between X and Y?
• How did you arrive at this conclusion?
• Why is this conclusion significant?
• How does this assignment touch you personally?
• How does this assignment change your thinking on the idea?
• How could you write about your new insight?
• What other information might you need to pursue this topic?
• How does this reading/writing/discussion/group work build on our earlier discussion of the larger concept of X?

Generic and Focused Summaries

Depending on the level of detail that might be useful for each assignment, have students write out a paragraph or a page of summary for each assigned reading. When collected in a reading journal or learning log, these summaries help students understand readings more fully when they are first assigned and remember them clearly for later tests or synthesis assignments.

You might also consider asking students to do more focused summaries. By providing key questions about the reading, you can help students narrow in on the main ideas you want them to emphasize and remember from a reading.

Or if abstracts are significant in your discipline, you might ask students to analyze the abstracts in a major professional journal and write similar abstracts of the readings they are assigned in the course.

Unlike the summary that attempts an objective rendering of the key points in a reading, an annotation typically asks students to note key ideas and briefly evaluate strengths and weaknesses in an article. In particular, annotations often ask students to note the purpose and scope of a reading and to relate the reading to a particular course project.

You can have students annotate (and eventually compare) readings assigned for the class, or you can ask students to compile annotations to supplement the course readings. Each student's annotations can be distributed to the class in one handout or through electronic media (Web forum, e mail).

Response Assignments

Still another type of writing to learn that builds on assigned readings is the response paper. Unlike the summary, the response paper specifically asks students to react to assigned readings. Students might write responses that analyze specified features of a reading (the quality of data, the focus of research reported, the validity of research design, the effectiveness of logical argument). Or they might write counter-arguments.

To extend these response papers (which can be any length the instructor sets), consider combining them into another assignment—a position paper or a research-based writing assignment.

Synthesis Assignments

A more complex response to assigned readings is the synthesis paper. Rather than summarizing or responding to a single reading assignment, the synthesis paper asks students to work with several readings and to draw commonalities out of those readings. Particularly when individual readings over-simplify a topic or perspectives on a question in your course, the synthesis paper guarantees that students grapple with the complexity of issues and ideas.

Like other writing-to-learn tasks, the synthesis paper can be shorter and less formal, or you can assign it at or near the end of a sequence leading to a more formal assignment.

The Discussion Starter

Sometimes students feel baffled by a reading assignment and express that frustration in class, but they often understand more about the reading than they believe they do. When this situation arises, having students write about the reading can be especially valuable, both for clarifying what students do and don't understand and for focusing students' attention on key points in the reading.

If you know a particular reading assignment is likely to give students trouble, you might plan questions in advance. But even if students' frustration catches you by surprise, you can easily ask questions about the key issues or points in the article. Moreover, asking students to answer the same questions again at the end of the class, after you've had a chance to discuss the reading, will help you see what students still don't understand.

Focusing a Discussion

When a discussion seems to be taking off in several directions, dominated by just a few students, or emotionally charged, stop the discussion and ask students to write either what they saw as the main threads of the discussion or where the discussion might most profitably go. After writing for a few minutes, students will often be better able to identify and stay on productive tracks of discussion. Or, after asking a few students to read their writing aloud, the teacher can decide how best to redirect the discussion.

The Learning Log

The learning log serves many of the functions of an ongoing laboratory notebook. During most class sessions, students write for about five minutes, often summarizing the class lecture material, noting the key points of a lab session, raising unanswered questions from a preceding class. Sometimes, students write for just one or two minutes both at the beginning and end of a class session. At the beginning, they might summarize the key points from the preceding class (so that the teacher doesn't have to remind them about the previous day's class). At the end of class students might write briefly about a question such as:

• What one idea that we talked about today most interested you and why?
• What was the clearest point we made today? What was the foggiest point?
• What do you still not understand about the concept we've been discussing?
• If you had to restate the concept in your own terms, how would you do that?
• How does today's discussion build on yesterday's?

Such questions can provide continuity from class to class, but they can also give teachers a quick glimpse into how well the class materials are getting across. Some teachers pick up the complete learning logs every other week to skim through them, and others pick up a single response, particularly after introducing a key concept. These occasional snapshots of students comprehension help teachers quickly gauge just how well students understand the material. Teachers can then tailor the following class to clarify and elaborate most helpfully for students.

Analyzing the Process

Sometimes students are baffled by the explanations teachers give of how things happen because teachers move too quickly or easily through the process analysis. A quick run-through of an equation is often just not enough for students struggling to learn new material.

A more useful approach to process analysis—from the learners' point of view—is to trace in writing the steps required to complete the process or to capture the thinking that leads from one step to the next. Students can either write while or after they complete each problem. Particularly when students get stuck in the middle of a problem, writing down why they completed the steps they did will usually help someone else (a classmate, tutor, or teacher) see why the student experienced a glitch in problem-solving. Similarly, teachers can look over the process analyses to see if students have misapplied fundamental principles or if they are making simple mistakes. In effect, students can concentrate on problem-solving rather than on minor details, and they can move from simple procedures followed by rote into a deeper understanding of why they are solving problems appropriately.

The Problem Statement

Teachers usually set up the problems and ask students to provide solutions. Two alternatives to this standard procedure will give students practice with both framing and solving problems:

• After you introduce a new concept in your course, ask students to write out a theoretical or practical problem that the concept might help to solve. Students can exchange these problems and write out solutions, thus ensuring that they understand the concept clearly and fully.
• Ask students to write out problem statements before they come to your office hours for conference. (Or you might suggest that they use e mail to send you these problem statements in lieu of a face-to-face conference.) Students are likely to frame such a problem more concretely than they might otherwise do in preparing for a conference, and the resulting conference (or e-mail exchange) is likely to be more productive for both student and teacher.

Another version of this exercise is to have students write a problem statement that is passed on to another student whose job it is to answer it. Such peer answers are especially useful in large classes.

Solving Real Problems

Ask individuals or groups to analyze a real problem—gleaned from industry reports, scientific journals, personal experience, management practices, law, etc. Students must write about the problem and a solution they could implement.

Pre-Test Warm-ups

Another extension of the problem statement WTL activity is to ask students to generate problems for an upcoming test. Students might work collaboratively either to generate problems or to draft solutions. By asking each student or group of students to generate problems, students will cover the course material more fully than they might otherwise do in studying. Moreover, if you assure students that at least some of the test material will draw on the problems students generate, they are more likely to take both the problems and solutions more seriously. Furthermore, if students don't understand the material, they will surely find out as they write questions for the exams!

Another alternative for pre-test warm up writing is to give out sample test questions in advance of the exam. Students can work individually or in groups to write out responses. Again, because they know some of the test material will come from the WTL activity, students are likely to prepare more carefully.

Because cases provide students with a complete writing context, they can be exceptionally useful for student writers.

A simple use of the case is to set up a single scenario which notes the audience, purpose, and focus of a brief writing task. For example, a business student might encounter this scenario:

Assume that you've just been hired in a local office of a large asset management firm. Your first client has traded stocks conservatively for several years and now wants to try options trading. What basic principles of options trading do you need to be sure your client understands?

A teacher could assign this scenario and ask for a variety of writing tasks in response to it:

• Outline the principles in three minutes at the start of class to review the reading from last night.
• Write an e-mail message to your manager to brief her on your plans for educating your client.
• As a final exam response, explain both the principles of options trading and your ethical obligations to your client.
• Generate a working list of principles in a group
• of four students and then find a dozen sources from the library to annotate for their usefulness to the new employee. Compile the most useful annotations from your group to distribute to the entire class.

A more elaborate case can include both more details for the student writer, as well as a wider range of roles to write from. A full case can call for multiple kinds of writing, drawing on the full range of informal and formal writing outlined in this guide. It can also emphasize the kinds of questions (and writing) most common in the discipline, and full-scale cases work well with both individual and collaborative writing assignments.

Finally, case histories are useful in many disciplines and writing contexts. This use of a case generally focuses on a post hoc analysis, either of what happened in the case or what could have happened with different interventions. Again, case histories can lead to a range of writing assignments, though they tend to restrict the roles students might play as writers within the case context.

Students can write to explain professional concepts, positions, or policies in letters of application or letters to politicians.

Students can also write business letters of introduction and research gathering, introducing their projects and plans for approval. Another version of an introductory letter could have students try to persuade an interested party (e.g. a foundation, the NSA, etc.) to provide funding or approval for their research. Or have them write a letter after completing a project which tries to persuade someone interested in the project to accept their recommendations.

What Counts as a Fact?

Select two or more treatments of the same issue, problem, or research. For example, you might bring in an article on a new diet drug from USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and the Journal of Dietetics . Ask students to write about what constitutes proof or facts in each article and explain why the articles draw on different kinds of evidence, as well as the amount of evidence that supports stated conclusions.

Alternatively, ask students to look at a range of publications within a discipline—trade journals, press releases, scientific reports, first-person narratives, and so on. Have them ask the same kinds of questions about evidence and the range of choices writers make as they develop and support arguments in your field.

The Believing Game and the Doubting Game

First espoused by Peter Elbow, this writing activity simply calls for students to write briefly

• first, in support of an idea, concept, methodology, thesis;
• second, in opposition to it.

As students complete this writing activity based on a course reading or controversy in the field, they become more adept at understanding the complexity of issues and arguments.

Analysis of Events

Although this heading may suggest that only historians can assign this WTL task, in fact an analysis of events can be useful in most fields. This task can take two shapes:

Post hoc analysis: After an event is reported in the general news media or in your disciplinary media, ask students to reflect on

• what happened
• why it happened
• what it means to your field

Various engineering disciplines, for instance, could analyze the Pathfinder mission to Mars by focusing on appropriate elements of the actual event.

What-if analysis: Take an actual event and ask students to write about how the outcome might differ if one crucial condition were changed. For example, what if Dolly, the famous cloned sheep, had been successfully produced on the first try? Students in science disciplines can speculate about scientific elements of this event; students in agriculture courses can focus on the immediate impacts in food production; students in ethics courses could examine the balance of world-wide patterns of food production v. individual identity; students in political science could focus on government funding issues; and so on.

Project Notebooks

Project notebooks have proven to be invaluable in many courses because they capture write-to-learn activities, false starts, and drafts of chunks of a final report on work-in-progress, among other things. Unlike the learning log, which is less likely to include many Writing in the Disciplines (WID) activities, the project notebook can easily combine WTL and WID writing tasks.

Project Notebooks for WTL Activities

In a senior-level engineering design course, students make the following kinds of general write-to-learn entries:

• Process Analysis - As students collect information, build models, and test hypotheses, they record the process they go through in as much detail as possible.
• Problem-solving - When students encounter problems, they write about the problem, possible solutions, and attempted solutions.
• Descriptions - Students record key points from class sessions or conversations with advisors, peers, teachers. Any questions that come up can be recorded in these entries.
• Literature review - When students read printed material on their project topic, they summarize the material fully.
• Pre-conference - Before students meet with advisors or teachers, they organize the questions and issues they plan to discuss in the conference.
• Writing problems or questions

Project Notebooks that Combine WTL and WID Activities

In addition, the project notebook can be used to collect specific writing-to-learn tasks that lead to a final senior project:

First semester

• Audience exercise - describe senior project to freshman in engineering, project advisor, liberal arts graduate.
• Audience exercise - describe target audience for project and explain how audience will affect the project report.
• Draft research question.
• Draft literature review.
• Draft work plan for remainder of semester.
• Draft intro for final draft.

Second semester

• Set writing goals for semester.
• Set research goals for semester.
• Draft methods/results section.
• Paraphrasing exercise.
• Revise intro and lit review.
• Graphics exercise.
• Draft oral presentation.

Project Notebooks: An Instructor Perspective

Among those tasks that have been most valuable is the entry asking students to define a research question and outline research design. Students discovered that they sometimes had less information than they needed about a problem to see how to approach it. Other students found that they needed to do some background reading to ascertain alternative approaches to a research question. Still other students uncovered problems with focus. One instructor told us that his students "had selected a large question that simply could not be answered with the resources and time available to them in a year. This writing activity proved to be one of the most effective in helping students see the role of writing in the planning stages of research design."

View a Writing@CSU Guide

The Writing@CSU Web site provides a writing guide on project notebooks .

The Writing Journal

This variation of the journal or daybook is unlike the learning log or reading journal because it is much more self-directed (although teachers can assign specific journal tasks). Click on the items below to read about more about the writing journal:

Why Keep a Writing Journal?

• Writing more frequently helps students capture ideas--images, sensory details, connections between ideas, comparisons/analogies, etc.
• Writing, reading, and critical thinking are intimately related: we tend to know best the material we write about.
• Writing more frequently helps students think like writers. (Think about the last time you tried to learn a new physical skill--skating, skiing, swimming--and how much more comfortable you got as you simply put yourself repeatedly into the physical environment for that activity.)

What Can Go into a Writing Journal?

Anything can go into a writing journal because it is, quite simply, a collection of everything someone wants to write down. Especially pertinent for students, though, are responses to and questions about readings. Also, encourage students to think of a broad range of questions about what they read--questions about content, style, structure, audience, and so on.

Also students can use journals for other kinds of writing:

• jump starters - snatches of conversation, radio/TV bits, billboards, songs, pictures--jot down anything that strikes you as an interesting image or idea
• experiments--try writing about the same idea to several different audiences ( Ranger Rick, National Wildlife ) or in different genres; try out different analogies to explain a concept
• record of observations--physical or mental
• problem statement and problem solving
• process analysis
• interviews (including conferences with teachers and discussions with peers)
• scenarios or cases (especially good for audience analysis)
• reflections on writing process--questions/problems/successes

Pedagogical Approaches With Canvas

Writing-To-Learn (WTL)

How to Use Writing-To-Learn Impact on Learning Assessment Strategies Writing-To-Learn in Canvas Relevant Technologies Things to Consider Bibliography

Writing-to-learn (WTL) activities are typically short, informal writing assignments that are informational and often assigned at the spur of the moment as an impromptu task. Generally, these are intended to assist students to critically think about important concepts or ideas that are a part of the course content. These writing tasks are frequently limited to less than five minutes of class time or assigned as brief homework assignments. They can be implemented as occasional one-off activities or as regular activities that occur throughout the course.

Depending on your students and discipline, WTL activities might work best as individual-focused: Learners write primarily for themselves to recall, reflect on, and reinforce learning of new information (Boser, 2020). But WTL activities can also be extended by prompting learners to complete a variety of writing tasks in different formats and for different audiences (WAC Clearinghouse, n.d.).

AI writing tools present an interesting gray area for the future of WTL. While tools like automatic spelling and grammar checkers have been accepted as commonplace features of most software that involves any kind of writing, generative AI tools, like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot , continue to be used in classroom settings in various and controversial ways (D’Agostino, 2022). Some educators advocate for embracing AI tools as writing aids—particularly if the technology will be part of professional life in students’ chosen disciplines (Stapleton-Corcoran & Horton, 2023).

How to Use Writing-To-Learn

Some of the ways this teaching approach is used to engage students include:

• free writes
• one-minute paper
• one-sentence summaries
• learning logs
• dialectical notes
• directed paraphrasing
• letters, memos, notes
• drafts for peer feedback
• reading journal
• annotations
• response papers
• synthesis papers
• discussion starter
• analyzing the process
• problem statement
• solving real problems
• pretest warm-ups
• using cases
• analysis of events
• project notebooks

Impact on Learning

WTL can impact learning through:

• helping students learn better and retain information longer
• having students think actively about the material they are learning
• prompting students to think at the appropriate cognitive level for the level of learning that is to be accomplished through the course
• encouraging students to define an audience other than the instructor
• developing students’ sensitivity to the interests, backgrounds, and vocabularies of different readers
• giving students the chance to learn about themselves including their emotions, values, cognitive processes, and learning strengths and weaknesses
• showing students what they already know about a topic
• giving students a chance to organize, consolidate, and develop their ideas about a topic
• making clearer to students what they don’t know about a topic, or where they can further improve

Assessment Strategies

WTL activities usually are not graded. Instead, they are quickly read by the instructor or by peers and reviewed for basic understanding of the content being covered.

Suggestions for reviewing WTL activities:

• Use an occasional WTL warm-up at the beginning of class as a “quiz.” Share the correct response and allow students to self-assess their writing.
• Collect completed WTL activities from half a dozen to a dozen students every class or every other class. Briefly review to determine concepts students might need help with.
• In online tools, use stars, “likes,” “praise,” and other positive reinforcement tools to encourage correct responses.
• Ask students to select their best WTL writing for you to review.
• Ask students to share WTL activities with one or two classmates.
• Ask students to post provocative questions or summary/analysis of readings on an electronic bulletin board or web forum for class comment.

Writing-To-Learn in Canvas

In Canvas, the following tools can be used for writing-to-learn activities:

Discussions : Canvas provides an integrated system for asynchronous online class discussions. Instructors and students can start and contribute to discussions. You can learn more about using Discussions in Canvas from the Canvas Community.

Wiki pages : In Canvas, students can complete WTL assignments by creating a page as a wiki and allowing it to be edited by anyone. Students could work on pages individually or in groups, but only one student can edit a page at a time. Instructions for creating a page are available from Canvas.

Relevant Technologies

The following technologies can be used for writing assignments.

Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace : Both sets of online applications include document creation tools that can work offline or online and that allow for collaborative writing and editing as well as sharing with others.

Sites at Penn State : Penn State provides website building and management services to all members of the University community through CampusPress . A site could be created as a shared class blog, or students could create their own sites to use as blogs, journals, galleries, or portfolios.

Viva Engage : A social networking service similar to Facebook but made available as a private tool for Penn State users, Viva Engage can be used for discussions where students can also share files, take polls, give praise, and comment on each other’s posts.

AI writing tools : The Center for the Advancement of Teaching Excellence at the University of Illinois Chicago describes these tools as “…one type of generative AI that can support writing tasks by creating human-like text. These systems work by continually predicting the word most likely to come next in each sentence” (Stapleton-Corcoran & Horton, 2023). Examples include ChatGPT , Microsoft Copilot , and Google Bard as well as many others. Some AI writing tools are trained on specific sets of data to perform specialized tasks: For example, scite was created to assist researchers in discovering and evaluating scientific articles. Penn State has collected a list of AI authoring tools and descriptions .

Things to Consider

For successful implementation of WTL, you should consider the following strategies:

• WTL activities can easily provide a brief classroom assessment to quickly determine what your class is learning while still focusing on the topic. Through this informal formative assessment, instructors can easily diagnose and clarify points of confusion before giving students the next exam and moving on to other topics.
• Reading short, informal writing assignments is no more time-consuming than any other type of class preparation.

While AI writing tools can be incorporated into most WTL activities, for best results, students will need some guidance on how to use AI effectively and ethically. The SPACE framework for writing with AI tools, developed by Glenn Kleiman (2023), and copied below, is one example of how you might approach designing a writing assignment with AI in mind.

Set directions for the goals, content and audience that can be communicated to the AI system. This may, for example, involve writing introductory materials for the overall text and for each section. It could also involve writing much of the text and leaving some sections for AI to complete. Prompt the AI to produce the specific outputs needed. A prompt gives the AI its specific task, and often there will be separate prompts for each section of text. An AI tool can also be prompted to suggest sentences or paragraphs to be embedded in text that is mostly written by the human author. Assess the AI output to validate the information for accuracy, completeness, bias, and writing quality. The results of assessing the generated text will often lead to revising the directions and prompts and having the AI tool generate alternative versions of the text to be used in the next step. Curate the AI-generated text to select what to use and organize it coherently, often working from multiple alternative versions generated by AI along with human written materials. Edit the combined human and AI contributions to the text to produce a well-written document. (Kleiman, 2023)

Bibliography

Boser, U. (2020, June 25). Writing to learn and why it matters. The Learning Curve . https://the-learning-agency-lab.com/the-learning-curve/learn-better-through-writing

Center for Teaching Excellence. (n.d.). Writing to learn . Duquesne University. https://www.duq.edu/about/centers-and-institutes/teaching-and-learning/writing-to-learn

D’Agostino, S. (2022, October 25). Machines can craft essays. How should writing be taught now? Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/10/26/machines-can-craft-essays-how-should-writing-be-taught-now

East Carolina University. (n.d.). Writing to learn activities . https://www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/writing/wac/upload/Writing-to-Learn-Activities.pdf

Kleiman, G. (2023, January 5). Teaching students to write with AI: The SPACE framework. Medium . https://medium.com/the-generator/teaching-students-to-write-with-ai-the-space-framework-f10003ec48bc

Kopp, B. (n.d.). Informal writing assignments (writing to learn) . University of Wisconsin–La Crosse. http://www.uwlax.edu/catl/writing/assignments/writingtolearn.htm

McKenna, C. (2019, June 28). Writing for learning. LSE Higher Education Blog . https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/highereducation/2019/06/28/writing-for-learning/

Nilson, L. B. (2010). Writing-to-learn activities and assignments. In Teaching at its best: A research­-based resource for college instructors (3rd ed., pp. 167–172). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. https://wp.stolaf.edu/cila/files/2020/09/Teaching-at-Its-Best.pdf

Stapleton-Corcoran, E., & Horton, P. (2023, May 22). AI writing tools . Center for the Advancement of Teaching Excellence, University of Illinois Chicago. https://teaching.uic.edu/ai-writing-tools/

Sweetland Center for Writing. (n.d.). Integrating low-stakes writing in large college classrooms – Supplement 2: Twitter assignments . University of Michigan. https://lsa.umich.edu/content/dam/sweetland-assets/sweetland-documents/teachingresources/IntegratingLowStakesWritingIntoLargeClasses/Supplement2_TwitterAssignments.pdf

WAC Clearinghouse. (n.d.). What is writing to learn? Colorado State University. https://wac.colostate.edu/repository/teaching/intro/wtl/

Writing to Engage

Marvin Diogenes, Director of the Stanford Program in Writing and Rhetoric, explains how low-stakes writing assignments can help students engage with the course materials.

Reading as active meaning-making

We assign readings with the hope that students will find the readings as engaging as we do. We can work toward this outcome by putting active reading in the foreground, inviting students to think explicitly about reading as a creative, meaning-making activity central to their academic work.  

Low-stakes, ungraded, and creative writing prompts and activities can improve students’ engagement with and understanding of course readings and other materials, such as videos or podcasts. Such assignments aim to make students more active, purposeful readers, encouraging them to draw on personal experience and past reading experience to engage with new texts (especially unfamiliar or challenging texts).

Writing activities focused on reading move students into a dynamic relationship with the text, helping them engage with texts over time and in relation to each other. Such activities highlight that readings aren’t simply content containers and readers aren’t empty vessels; students create meaning through their active engagement and conversations with others.

Readings aren’t simply content containers and readers aren’t empty vessels; students create meaning through their active engagement and conversations with others.

Start with a reading inventory

When assigning readings, you might begin by asking students about their past reading experiences and current reading strategies. You can also ask students how often their previous teachers asked them to use writing to engage with readings or other course materials.

Gathering reading inventories from your students provides insight into their past reading habits and strategies. A reading inventory activity gets students to consciously reflect on their reading as well and can help you design reading assignments and classroom activities.

You can then take what they share into account when providing specific strategies guiding how you want students to engage with the readings you assign. In particular, use what you learn about them as readers to design writing activities aimed at helping students engage with readings and, as a byproduct, think differently about how they read. Also, keep in mind your learning objectives as you design these activities.

Designing writing-to-engage prompts

Writing-to-engage (also called writing-to-learn) assignments and activities emphasize writing as a key means of learning rather than primarily as a way in which a writer demonstrates mastery of content or knowledge.

This kind of assignment or activity can serve as part of the process of completing a more formal assignment. Often they take the form of freewriting in response to readings, keeping a reading journal for the course, or responding to questions as part of preparing for class discussion of readings.

We can define such writing opportunities as low-stakes (generally not graded other than to note that the student completed the work), creative, and often informed by the writer’s life experience. Writing-to-learn activities move students into a dynamic relationship with course readings and other materials, often through the reading journal, which encourages students to engage with texts over time and in relation to each other. Below you can find examples of various kinds of prompts and activities that you can use or adapt for your classes.

Develop questions to support student engagement

Ask students to respond to questions you prepare to highlight key ideas, concepts, and contexts to guide their reading and help them prepare for class discussion. Develop questions that reflect what you find compelling or engaging about the text. Consider including questions that you don’t have answers for yet.

Ask students to prepare questions about the reading to ask in full class discussion, discuss with a peer or small group, or contribute to a Google document with the rest of the class, generating a list of questions from the full class. You can use the questions in various ways for class activities, such as small group work or clustering questions to highlight key concepts or challenging aspects of the reading.

Ask students to highlight sentences, paragraphs, and sections

Students approaching reading as a process of extraction generally put aside as irrelevant their experience of reading the text. The following prompts emphasize that reading is first of all a human experience (we don’t read as machines). Readers’ prior knowledge, interests, and personal experience shape their engagement with the text and can set the stage for more insightful analytical reading valued in academic settings.

• Write about a favorite sentence or passage (“This for me was the heart of the reading”).
• Write about a sentence or passage that illuminated a new concept, theory, or question (“This taught me something I didn’t know before”).
• Write about a challenging sentence or passage (“Why did this have to be so complicated? Why did this have to be so boring?  Why did this have to be so long?”).
• Write about an opaque sentence or passage (“I didn’t understand this at all”).

Ask students to write back to the writer or add to or revise the reading 

Students generally don’t think of the writer of their school texts as people trying to engage readers in a relationship through language; thus, they might not think about responding to the invitation of the text with questions or collaboration. The following prompts emphasize that reading provides an avenue to respond directly to the writer and become a collaborator in creating the text as an opportunity for learning.

• Respond directly to the writer of the reading (“This is what I want to ask you/tell you/share with you about what you wrote”).
• Add a sentence, paragraph, or section that the writer left out that you believe would make the text more accessible to readers.
• Revise a sentence, paragraph, or section to make it better/clearer/friendlier/more accessible to readers.
• Develop connections to other texts (“This made me think/think again about what we read earlier in the course”; “This made me think about this other thing I read”) to engage in conversation with the writer.
• Find a personal way into the reading (“This made me think of this in relation to my own experience”) that might expand the writer’s sense of audience and perspective on the topic of the reading.

Ask students to create visualizations and translations

Students generally think of readings as words on a page or screen, perhaps with charts and graphs and works cited listing sources. Asking them to turn prose into visual texts can lead to deeper engagement.  Having them create their own versions in visual form or another genre can foster dynamic interactions with readings.

The following prompts offer students opportunities to create visualizations and translate the text in playful, creative ways that might illuminate the meaning and heighten the student’s sense of agency.

• Create a visualization or mapping of the reading.  Students might create a map or constellation visualizing the reading in relation to other readings or to their personal experience.  .
• Write a review of the reading (this can be creative in terms of the venue for the review, e.g. writing a Yelp review of an academic article).
• Revise the reading for another genre (what if this were the lyrics to a song, a short story, a poem, or a sermon?).

Hume Center for Writing and Speaking resources

• Individual Tutoring Sessions for students
• Class Workshops: Write to PWR Director Marvin Diogenes at [email protected] or Hume Director Zandra Jordan at [email protected]

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by [email protected] | Nov 13, 2023

Writing Studies

• Drew Seminar Writing Resources
• Resources for Writing Intensive Courses
• Why Use Writing Workshops and How to Use Them Well
• Types of Workshops – Structures that Work
• Workshops That Work – Write-to-Learn
• Workshops That Work – Drafts & Revision

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What is Write-Learn Pedagogy?

Write-to-Learn pedagogy builds on the fact that writing promotes active learning. Writing-to-Learn assignments invite students to explore ideas raised in class discussion or reading, rephrase course content in their own words, make tentative connections, hypothesize, inventory what they know at this point in the class, and try out interpretations. WTL assignments also invite students to develop questions and take risks in content and style.WTL assignments can be a few sentences or paragraphs long, as they are in College Seminars. In other contexts, such as writing intensive courses, they may be papers. What marks them as WTL assignments is their purpose and the way they are integrated into the content of the class and help accomplish the learning goals of the class.

When Should I Assign WTL in Class and How Do I Engage Students?

Below are some sample Writing-to-Learn assignments, most collected from Drew classes (with a few additions) and some notes about how to build them into a class. Try assigning one of these at the beginning of class, during class, at the end of class, or as part of a homework assignment. Remember that we learn best through repetition, so these will be most effective if you assign one kind of WTL strategy on several different occasions; however, it is important to incorporate them into the class so the work does not seem like “busy work” and so that the objectives of the assignments meet the learning goals of the course.

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10 Activities for Writing to Learn

In Language Arts, students learn to write —narratives, explanatory essays, arguments, reports, and literary analyses. In other classes, they  write to learn —notes, summaries, lab reports, emails, and reflections. Writing helps students gain knowledge, wrestle with it, and reflect on it.

You can use 10 simple writing-to-learn activities to supercharge learning in any class throughout the day.

1. Entrance and Exit Slips

When students file into your class, greet them with a quick writing prompt:

• What's the most surprising thing you learned yesterday?
• If you could be anywhere right now, where would you go?
• What would you ask Abraham Lincoln?
• What's your favorite planet, and why?

Tailor the prompt to your situation. You might provide a warm-up for today's lesson, or a reflection on something you are studying, or just a check-in on how students are feeling. They can write their answers on little strips of paper you have in a basket by the door, allowing you to gather them and read a select few. Or students can write their answers in their notebooks and volunteer to read their own ideas aloud.

Repeat the activity at the end of class, writing a new prompt. Let some students share their exit-slip answers before you dismiss them, or gather answers to read at the beginning of the next class.

Entrance and exit slips help students tune in to the learning environment of your class and take what they learn with them.

2. Stop 'n' Write

At any point in a lesson, you can have students stop and write to reflect on what they are learning. Once again, you provide them a prompt, either written on the board or spoken aloud:

• Who do you know who is most like the Great Gilly Hopkins? Why?
• What's the most important job of the president of the United States?
• What's the coolest thing about trees?
• In the Revolutionary War, what side would you be on?

After students write their responses, have volunteers share their observations. Writing deepens learning within a student, and sharing broadens learning across the classroom. Stop 'n' Write also shifts gears, engaging students who have begun to drift. Try this stop-'n'-write minilesson .

3. Nutshelling

Students enjoy the challenge of creating quick summaries. Discussing these summaries helps everyone review key concepts. Try this nutshelling minilesson .

4. Graph It!

• Cluster: In the middle of a page, students write a topic and circle it. They write related ideas around it and connect these ideas in a cluster or mind map. (For example, "Create a cluster about the Boston Tea Party.")
• Time line: Have students organize events in chronological order using a time line. Try this time-line minilesson .
• Pro-Con Chart: Students make a T-chart and write the "pros" of a topic in the left-hand column and the "cons" in the right-hand column. (For example, what are the pros and cons of solar power?) Try this pro-con chart minilesson .
• Cause-Effect Chart: Students make a T-chart and write the causes of a phenomenon in the left-hand column and the effects in the right-hand column. Or students can try this advanced cause-effect chart . (For example, what are the causes and effects of the Civil Rights Movement.)
• Venn Diagram: Students draw two overlapping circles and label each side with a topic. They write similarities in the shared space and differences in the outside spaces. (For example, what are the similarities and differences between hobbits and dwarves?)

5. Sense It!

Ask students to write sensations connected to a topic: sights, sounds, smells, textures, tastes, and touch sensations. The subject can be anything students have experienced or read about, or anything they could imagine. Thanksgiving Senses

• Sounds: Laughter in the kitchen, football on TV, boiling potatoes
• Smells: Roasted turkey, fresh-baked bread, green-bean casserole
• Tastes: Melted butter, savory gravy, sage dressing
• Touch sensations: Hot rolls, soft napkins, straining bellies

Sense details can enliven any writing. Try this minilesson to help students write paragraphs that show instead of tell.

6. Journalistic Questions

When writing a news story, journalists seek to answer the 5 W's and H about their topic: Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How?

Second Continental Congress

• What? Signed the Declaration of Independence
• When? July 4, 1776
• Where? The Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall)
• Why? To declare their freedom from England
• How? Those present signed, and the document was taken for others to sign.

Use this 5 W's and H minilesson . Ask your students to answer the same questions about any topic you are studying, helping them to get the "whole story."

7. Ask "What If?"

Instead of asking students what did happen, ask them what didn't. Counterfactual reasoning lets students explore possibilities and thereby better understand what actually did take place:

• What if Rosa Parks had given up her seat?
• What if we had a king instead of a president?
• What if money really did grow on trees?
• What if human beings set up a colony on Mars?

These sorts of questions invite students to use their imaginations to understand a topic in a whole new way. Also, some of the greatest inventions in history have come from answering "what if" questions. (For example, "What if books could be printed by a machine instead of being copied by hand?")

Try this "what if" minilesson.

8. Life Maps

9. Freewrite

Have students write without stopping for five minutes about any topic. Tell them to just keep going. If they can't think of what to write, they should write about that fact until they come up with a new idea:

Try this freewriting minilesson with your students.

10. Dialogues

Writing is communication, so why not have your students write dialogues back and forth with each other? Here are a few options:

• Back-and-forth stories: Have one student write a paragraph to start a story and then hand the work to another student. That person writes the next paragraph and passes the story back, and so on. Use this back-and-forth stories minilesson .
• Historical dialogue: Have students write a conversation between them and a historical figure. Students use their imaginations and what they know about the person to bring history to life. Try this historical-dialogue minilesson .

Writing to Learn

Writing helps students process what they are learning, creating deeper connections with what they already know.

For more help teaching writing, check out these handbook programs from Thoughtful Learning:

• Kindergarten: The Writing Spot
• Grade 1: Write One
• Grade 2: Write Away
• Grade 3: Write on Track
• Grades 4-5: Writers Express
• Grades 6-8: Write on Course 20-20
• Grades 9-10: Write Ahead
• Grades 11-12: Write for College

Teacher Support:

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Standards Correlations:

The State Standards provide a way to evaluate your students' performance.

Writing to Learn: Activities that Foster Engagement and Understanding

Posted on January 22, 2019 by John Paul Kanwit

Do your students struggle to learn difficult concepts in your courses? Do they often fail to meet your expectations on final writing products? Do they seem to dislike writing in general? Writing-to-learn assignments are short, informal tasks that help students understand course concepts and generate their own ideas for future exploration. Students complete these assignments in a few minutes of class time or in a brief amount of time outside of class. Writing-to-learn activities enable instructors to get to know their students better, quickly diagnose learning problems, create higher levels of class participation, and encourage students to read for meaning. These activities include freewrites, online discussion forums, minute papers, and writing or reading journals. Instructors can quickly grade these assignments using such techniques as a simple point scale, by spot-checking students’ work, or by including them as part of a larger writing portfolio. For more information about writing to learn, including a list of activities, see the resources available at the WAC Clearinghouse .

Would you like to learn more? Please join us on Thursday, January 24 from 11:00-12:30 for Writing to Learn across the Disciplines , a workshop on writing-to-learn activities. This hands-on workshop will provide a variety of models and strategies for informal writing assignments that can help your students meet course outcomes and get more excited about writing in general. Participants are encouraged to come to the workshop with questions, ideas for brief writing assignments, and difficult course concepts that could be explored through informal writing.

If you would like help designing or assessing writing-to-learn activities, please contact the Campus Writing Program .

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• Designing Effective Writing Assignments

One of the best ways for students to determine what they know, think, and believe about a given subject is to write about it. To support students in their writing, it is important to provide them with a meaningful writing task, one that has an authentic purpose, clear guidelines, and engages students in their learning. In this section, you can read about key principles of assignment design, review examples of effective writing assignments, and use a checklist to guide your own designs. You can also consult with a Writing Across the Curriculum Program team member . We’re happy to think with you about your writing assignment, whether it is in the inkling stage or undergoing a few minor tweaks.

What makes an assignment effective?

A good deal of educational research points to the benefits of writing assignments that exhibit the following features:

Meaningful tasks. A task is given meaning by its relevance to and alignment with the learning aims in the course. What counts as meaningful in one course context might not be meaningful in another. As Eodice, Geller, and Lerner (2016) have shown, meaningful writing assignments do occur across all disciplines and they are typically ones that “offer students opportunities to engage with instructors, peers, and texts and are relevant to past experiences and passions as well as to future aspirations and identities.”

Maximized learning time. As Linda Suskie argues, effectiveness is determined by the “learning payoff,” not by size of the assignment. Will students learn four times as much on an assignment that takes 20 hours outside of class than one that takes 5? Longer research-based assignments and elaborate class activities (mock conferences, debates, poster sessions, etc.) can greatly maximize learning, but there must be an appropriate level of writing and learning time built into the task. Term papers are much more effective when students have time to draft and revise stages of the assignment, rather than turning in one final product at the end.

Logical sequencing. A writing task that includes discrete stages (research, drafting, review, revising, etc.) is more likely to be an effective learning experience than one that only specifies the final product. Furthermore, these stages are more effective when they are scaffolded so simpler tasks precede more complex tasks. For example, a well-sequenced 10-12 page essay assignment might involve discrete segments where students generate a central inquiry question, draft and workshop a thesis statement, produce a first draft of the essay, give and receive feedback on drafts, and submit a revision. Read more about sequencing assignments . 

Clear criteria will help students connect an assignment’s relevance to larger scale course outcomes. The literature on assignment design strongly encourages instructors to make the grading criteria explicit to students before the assignment is collected and assessed. A grading scheme or rubric that is handed out along with the assignment can provide students with a clear understanding of the weighted expectations and, thus help them decide what to focus on in the assignment. It becomes a teaching tool, not just an assessment tool.

Forward-thinking activities more than backward-thinking activities. Forward-thinking activities and assignments ask students to apply their learning rather than simply repeat it. The orientation of many writing prompts is often backward, asking students to show they learned X, Y, and Z. As L. Dee Fink (2013) points out, forward-thinking assignments and activities look ahead to what students will be able to do in the future having learned about X, Y, and Z. Such assignments often utilize real-world and scenario-based problems, requiring students to apply their learning to a new situation. For Grant Wiggins (1998) , questions, problems, tests, and assignments that are forward-thinking often:

• Require judgment and innovation. Students have to use knowledge and skills to solve unstructured problems, not just plug in a routine.
• Ask students to do the subject. Beyond recitation and replication, these tasks require students to carry out explorations, inquiry, and work within specific disciplines.
• Replicate workplace and civic contexts. These tasks provide specific constraints, purposes, and audiences that students will face in work and societal contexts.
• Involve a repertoire of skills and abilities rather than the isolation of individual skills. 

Feel free to use this assignment checklist , which draws on the principles and research described on this page.

• African American & African Studies
• Agronomy and Plant Genetics
• Animal Science
• Anthropology
• Applied Economics
• Art History
• Carlson School of Management
• Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
• Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering
• College of Biological Sciences
• Communication Studies
• Computer Science & Engineering
• Construction Management
• Curriculum and Instruction
• Dental Hygiene
• Apparel Design
• Graphic Design
• Product Design
• Retail Merchandising
• Earth Sciences
• Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management
• Family Social Science
• Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology
• Food Science and Nutrition
• Geography, Environment and Society
• German, Nordic, Slavic & Dutch
• Health Services Management
• Horticultural Science
• Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication
• Industrial and Systems Engineering
• Information Technology Infrastructure
• Mathematics
• Mechanical Engineering
• Medical Laboratory Sciences
• Mortuary Science
• Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development
• Political Science
• School of Architecture
• School of Kinesiology
• School of Public Health
• Spanish and Portuguese Studies
• Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences
• Theatre Arts & Dance
• Youth Studies
• New Enrollments for Departments and Programs
• Legacy Program for Continuing Units
• Writing in Your Course Context
• Syllabus Matters
• Mid-Semester Feedback Strategies
• Writing Assignment Checklist
• Scaffolding and Sequencing Writing Assignments
• Informal, Exploratory Writing Activities
• 5-Minute Revision Workshops
• Reflective Memos
• Conducting In-Class Writing Activities: Notes on Procedures
• Now what? Responding to Informal Writing
• Teaching Writing with Quantitative Data
• Commenting on Student Writing
• Supporting Multilingual Learners
• Teaching with Effective Models of Writing
• Peer Response Protocols and Procedures
• Using Reflective Writing to Deepen Student Learning
• Conferencing with Student Writers
• Designing Inclusive Writing Assigments
• Addressing a Range of Writing Abilities in Your Courses
• Effective Grading Strategies
• Designing and Using Rubrics
• Running a Grade-Norming Session
• Working with Teaching Assistants
• Managing the Paper Load
• Teaching Writing with Sources
• Preventing Plagiarism
• Grammar Matters
• What is ChatGPT and how does it work?
• Incorporating ChatGPT into Classes with Writing Assignments: Policies, Syllabus Statements, and Recommendations
• Restricting ChatGPT Use in Classes with Writing Assignments: Policies, Syllabus Statements, and Recommendations
• What do we mean by "writing"?
• How can I teach writing effectively in an online course?
• What are the attributes of a "writing-intensive" course at the University of Minnesota?
• How can I talk with students about the use of artificial intelligence tools in their writing?
• How can I support inclusive participation on team-based writing projects?
• How can I design and assess reflective writing assignments?
• How can I use prewritten comments to give timely and thorough feedback on student writing?
• How can I use online discussion forums to support and engage students?
• How can I use and integrate the university libraries and academic librarians to support writing in my courses?
• How can I support students during the writing process?
• How can I use writing to help students develop self-regulated learning habits?
• Submit your own question
• Short Course: Teaching with Writing Online
• Five-Day Faculty Seminar
• Past Summer Hunker Participants
• Resources for Scholarly Writers
• Consultation Request
• Faculty Writing Groups
• Further Writing Resources

The Center for Teaching Writing

At the university of oregon.

Ideas for Writing that Work

Most of these assignments are informal writing to learn assignments. This is by no means an exhaustive list of possible assignments. You can assign any of these tasks to individual students or to students as groups or pairs. These writing to learn assignments can be used on their own or as part of more formal assignments such as term papers that argue a position, research papers, or course projects. Many of these can be combined in a sequence as part of a formal, graded assignment.

Reading Journal: A reading journal can be either a student-structure or teacherstructured assignment. Students can use journals to reflect on course readings, lectures, and discussions or to respond to prescribed questions on the reading and course material. Another possibility is to create double-entry notebooks in which students respond to content questions on the left side of the page and reflect on the information on the right side. Reading journals allow students to be more conscious of connections between reading and course material and to articulate questions in direct response to the reading. Lower-level students will probably work best with structural questions while higher-level students can move quickly to evaluative statements about the material.

Reading Summary: This assignment asks students to show their understanding of course readings. You can have students give a generic summary of the reading or guide them in their summaries by asking them to identify the thesis, main points, and important terms expressed in the readings.

Rhetorical Analysis: This assignment is a variation of the reading response that asks students to analyze the reading in terms of the rhetorical aspects. Students should note the thesis of the argument being made about an issue, whether the author deals with opposing viewpoints, what appeals the writer uses, how the argument is structured, and what evidence is provided.

Synthesis Papers: This variation on the reading response asks students to work with two or more readings and discuss the commonalities and differences between them. This assignment combines summary and response and helps students understand that writing in the field is part of an ongoing dialogue that works to construct knowledge in the discipline.

Journal of Terms: Another variation of the reading journal, the journal of terms gives students a place to define and clarify course concepts in their own words. This process not only helps them remember important material, but also gives them a resource in addition to course texts and lecture notes.

Discussion Starters: Quick five to ten minute writing in class either in response to a particular question or to material read for class can often help students formulate ideas and articulate questions to bring up in class discussion. Students often have trouble processing concepts and ideas in order to present them verbally. Giving them the opportunity to write them down helps them prepare to participate actively in the class. Asking students to write down any questions they may have about lectures or readings can also be helpful for the teacher because it points out what material should be reiterated.

Position papers: This assignment is a longer and more focused version of the discussion starters. Students should write a paragraph for page before class on a question assigned at the end of the previous class to prepare for discussion. Their writing should address a particular aspect of an issue, problem, or question.

Microthemes: A microtheme is a brief essay arguing a position on a problem or issue. Length is limited to one side of an index card. Microtheme assignments can combine summary with thesis-support by asking students to respond to reading or to discussion and take a position on the issue based on that reading or discussion. Students must be able both to summarize material concisely and to organize their own ideas carefully to make a complete argument as briefly as possible.

Solving Problems: Ask students to analyze a disciplinary problem. Students must describe the problem and then discuss a plausible solution, being specific about how and why such a solution could work. Problems can be real or fictional. Choosing a real problem gleaned from industry reports, journals, or personal experience allows students to connect this writing assignment with field issues being debated outside the academy.

Using Cases: Case scenarios provide students with a complete writing context from which to analyze problems or issues and are therefore useful and engaging assignments. A simple use of the case if to set up a single scenario which notes audience, purpose, and focus of a brief writing task. A more elaborate case can include more details as well as several roles for students to adopt as writers. Case histories involve discusses the aspects of a case after the fact, allowing students to analyze what could have or possibly should have happened.

Letters: You can assign students to write letters to explain concepts, argue a position, ask questions, or solve problems. Letter writing assignments provide students with a context and an implied audience to help guide their ideas. Assignments asking students to write letters to professionals in the field, field journals, or politicians help students practice the language of particular discourse communities and field protocol. Other possibilities include letters asking for funding or project approval.

Dialogues: In this assignment, one or more students write a dialogue in which they express different points-of-view involved in an issue or problem. One possibility with this assignment is to have students play the “believing and doubting game” in which they first write in support of an idea, concept, methodology, or thesis and then write in opposition to it. Basing this assignment on course readings or a controversy in the field allows them to understand the complexity of issues and arguments.

Popular article: The popular article assignment asks students to explain difficult course concepts to a general audience with little specialized knowledge. This writing task is an excellent way to be sure students understand the material well enough to explain it clearly is non-technical language.

Pre-Test Warm-ups: An extension of the problem statement activity is to ask students to generate problems for an upcoming test. Students might work either to generate problems or to draft solutions. Students will cover the course material more fully than they might otherwise do in studying if they are asked to come up with the problems themselves. Another possibility is to give out sample test questions and have students compose answers to them. If students know that some of the problems they have come up with or already worked with will be on the test, they are likely to take the assignment seriously.

Process Analysis: A useful approach to scientific or mathematic processes is to have students trace in writing the steps of a process either during or after they complete each step. Such an approach allows students to understand why certain steps are made, and asks them to explain in their own words how a process works.

Project notebooks: Project notebooks can combine many of these assignments as part of a sequence. Students use these notebooks to record their work on class projects. Such an assignment can include process analysis, problem-solving, definitions of terms, reading responses, and questions about material. This assignment helps students understand their work for the class as a learning process.

Annotations: Annotations ask students to briefly summarize the reading, articulating key points and also to evaluate strengths and weaknesses in an article. In particular, annotations call for students to note the purpose and scope of a reading in relation to a particular course project. Single annotation assignments can be part of the larger assignment of putting together an annotated bibliography in the field in general or on a particular issue. You might also consider limiting the length of the annotations so that students must think carefully about what is most important to express about the reading.

Abstract: This assignment can be used as part of a sequence of assignments. The abstract asks students to describe their work for the class, whether it be a term paper or class project, noting the context to which they respond, the position they are taking, the ideas they will cover, and the terms they will use.

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100 Writing Practice Lessons & Exercises

by Joe Bunting | 50 comments

Start Your Story TODAY! We’re teaching a new LIVE workshop this week to help you start your next book. Learn more and sign up here.

Want to become a better writer? How much time do you spend on your writing practice? Perhaps you want to write novels, or maybe you just want to get better grades in your essay writing assignments , or maybe you'd like to start a popular blog .

If you want to write better, you need practice. But what does a writing practice actually look like? In this post, I'm going to give you everything you need to kick off your writing practice and become a better writer faster.

What Is Writing Practice?

Writing practice is a method of becoming a better writer that usually involves reading lessons about the writing process, using writing prompts, doing creative writing exercises , or finishing writing pieces, like essays, short stories , novels , or books . The best writing practice is deliberate, timed, and involves feedback.

How Do You Practice Writing?

This was the question I had when I first started The Write Practice in 2011. I knew how to practice a sport and how to practice playing an instrument. But for some reason, even after studying it in college, I wasn't sure how to practice writing.

I set out to create the best writing practice I could. The Write Practice is the result.

I found that the best writing practice has three aspects:

Deliberate . Writing whatever you feel like may be cathartic, but it's not an effective way to become a better writer or build your writing skills. You'll get better faster by practicing a specific technique or aspect of the writing process each time you sit down to write.

This is why we have a new lesson about the writing process each day on The Write Practice, followed by a practice prompt at the end so you can put what you learned to use immediately.

Timed . It's no secret writers struggle with focus. There are just too many interesting distractions—Facebook, email, Kim Kardashian's Instagram feed (just kidding about that last one, sort of)—and writing is just too hard sometimes.

Setting a timer, even for just fifteen minutes, is an easy and effective way to stay focused on what's important.

This is why in our writing practice prompt at the end of each post we have a time limit, usually with a link to an online tool egg timer , so you can focus on deliberate practice without getting distracted.

Feedback . Getting feedback is one of the requirements to deliberately practice writing or any other craft. Feedback can look like listening to the reactions of your readers or asking for constructive criticism from editors and other writers.

This is why we ask you to post your writing practice after each lesson, so that you can get feedback from other writers in The Write Practice community. It's also why we set up The Write Practice Pro community , to provide critique groups for writers to get feedback on each finished piece of writing.

Our 100+ Best Creative Writing Practice Exercises and Lessons

Now that you know how we practice writing at The Write Practice, here are our best writing practice lessons to jumpstart your writing skills with some daily writing exercises, for beginner writers to even the most expert writers:

All-Time, Top 10 Writing Lessons and Exercises

These ten posts are our most viewed articles to boost your writing practice:

1. What is Plot? The 6 Elements of Plot and How to Use Them . Great stories use similar elements in wildly different ways to build page-turning stories. Click here to read what they are and learn how to start using them !

2. Top 100 Short Story Ideas . Here are over a hundred writing prompts in a variety of genres. If you need ideas for your next story, check this out!

3. How To Use Neither, Nor, Or, and Nor Correctly . Even good writers struggle figuring out when to use neither/nor and either/or. In this post, our copy-queen Liz Bureman settles the confusion once and for all. Click to continue to the writing exercise

4. Ten Secrets To Write Better Stories . How does Pixar manage to create such great stories, year after year? And how do you write a good story? In this post, I distill everything I've learned about how to write a good story into ten tips. Click to continue to the writing exercise

5. 35 Questions To Ask Your Characters From Marcel Proust . To get to know my characters better, I use a list of questions known as the Proust Questionnaire, made famous by French author, Marcel Proust. Click to continue to the writing exercise

6. How a Scene List Can Change Your Novel-Writing Life . Creating a scene list changed my novel-writing life, and doing the same will change yours too. Includes examples of the scene lists from famous authors. Click to continue to the writing exercise

7. Why You Need to be Using the Oxford Comma . Most people I've met have no idea what the Oxford comma is, but it's probably something that you have used frequently in your writing. Click to continue to the writing exercise

8. Six Surprising Ways to Write Better Interview Questions.  The interview is the most-used tool in a journalist's bag. But that doesn't mean novelists, bloggers, and even students can't and don't interview people. Here's how to conduct a great interview. Click to continue to the writing exercise

9. Why You Should Try Writing in Second Person . You've probably used first person and third person point-of-view already. But what about second person? This post explains three reasons why you should try writing from this point-of-view. Click to continue to the writing exercise

10. The Secret to Show, Don't Tell . You've heard the classic writing rule, “Show. Don't Tell.” Every writing blog ever has talked about it, and for good reason. Showing, for some reason, is really difficult. Click to continue to the writing exercise.

12 Exercises and Lessons To Become a Better Writer

How do you become a better writer? These posts share our best advice:

• Want to Be a Better Writer? Cut These 7 Words
• What I Mean When I Say I Am A Writer
• How to Become a Writer: 3 Simple Steps
• 72% of Writers Struggle With THIS
• 7 Lies About Becoming a Writer That You Probably Believe
• 10 Questions to Find Your Unique Writing Voice
• The Best Writing Book I’ve Ever Read
• The Best Way to Become a Better Writer
• The Creative Writer’s Toolkit: 6 Tools You Can’t Write Without
• Should You Write More or Write Better: Quantity vs Quality
• How to Become a Better Writer in One, Simple Step
• 11 Writing Tips That Will Change Your Life

6 Lessons and Exercises from Great Writers

If you want to be a writer, learn from the great writers who have gone before you:

• 23 Essential Quotes from Ernest Hemingway About Writing
• 29 Quotes that Explain How to Become a Better Writer
• 10 Lessons Dr. Seuss Can Teach Writers
• 10 Writing Tips from Ursula Le Guin
• Once Upon a Time: Pixar Prompt
• All the Pretty Words: Writing In the Style of Cormac McCarthy

12 Genre and Format Specific Writing Lessons and Exercises

Here are our best writing lessons for specific types of writing, including essays, screenplays, memoir, short stories, children's books, and humor writing:

• Writing an Essay? Here Are 10 Effective Tips
• How To Write a Screenplay: The 5 Step Process
• How to Write a Great Memoir: a Complete Guide
• How to Write a Short Story from Start to Finish
• How to Write a Thriller Novel
• How to Write a Children's Book
• How to Write a Love Story
• How to Write a Coming of Age Story or Book
• How to Write an Adventure Book
• 5 Key Elements for Successful Short Stories
• 4 Tips to Write a Novel That Will Be Adapted Into a Movie
• Humor Writing for People Who Aren’t Funny

14 Characterization Lessons and Exercises

Good characters are the foundation of good fiction. Here are our best lessons to create better characters:

• Character Development: How to Create Characters Audiences Will Love
• Writing Villains: 9 Evil Examples of the Villain Archetype
• How NOT to Introduce a New Character
• The Strongest Form of Characterization
• The Most Important Character Archetype
• How Do You Build A Strong Character In Your Writing?
• 75+ Antihero Examples and How to Use Them
• How to Explore Your Characters’ Motivations
• 8 Tips for Naming Characters
• The Protagonist: How to Center Your Story
• Heroes vs. Anti-Heroes: Which Is Right For Your Story?
• The Weakest Form of Characterization
• How to Write With an Accent
• How To Create a Character Sketch Using Scrivener

15 Grammar Lessons and Exercises

I talk to so many writers, some of whom are published authors, who struggle with grammar. Here are our best writing lessons on grammar:

• Is It Okay To End A Sentence With A Preposition?
• Contractions List: When To Use and When To Avoid
• Good vs. Well
• Connotation vs. Denotation
• Per Se vs. Per Say
• When You SHOULD Use Passive Voice
• When Do You Use “Quotation Marks”
• Polysyndeton and Asyndeton: Definition and Examples
• The Case Against Twilight
• Affect Versus Effect
• Stop Saying “Literally”
• What Is a Comma Splice? And Why Do Editors Hate Them?
• Intra vs. Inter: Why No One Plays Intermural Sports
• Alright and Alot: Words That Are Not Words
• The Poor, Misunderstood Semicolon

5 Journalism Lessons and Exercises

Want to be a journalist? Or even use techniques from journalism to improve your novel, essay, or screenplay? Here are our best writing lessons on journalism:

• Six Ways to Ask Better Questions In Interviews
• How to Conduct an Author Interview
• Interview In Person or Via Email?  
• What If They Don’t Want to Talk to You?
• Eleven Habits of a Highly Effective Interviewers

16 Plot and Structure Lessons and Exercises

Want to write a good story? Our top plot and structure lessons will help:

• The Nine Types of Story and How to Master Them
• Points of a Story: 6 Plot Points Every Story Needs
• How to Shape a Story: The 6 Arcs
• 7 Keys To Write the Perfect First Line of a Novel
• The Secret to Creating Conflict
• 4 Tips to Avoid Having Your Short Story Rejected by a Literary Magazine
• 7 Steps to Creating Suspense
• 5 Elements of Storytelling
• 3 Important Rules for Writing Endings
• A Writer’s Cheatsheet to Plot and Structure
• Overcoming the Monster
• How to Satisfy Your Reader With a Great Ending
• Pow! Boom! Ka-Pow! 5 Tips to Write Fight Scenes
• The Dramatic Question and Suspense in Fiction
• How to Write a Memorable Beginning and Ending
• How to Write the Perfect First Page

6 Lessons and Exercises to Beat Writer's Block

Writer's block is real, and it can completely derail your writing. Here are six lessons to get writing again:

• How To Write Whether You Feel Like it Or Not
• This Fun Creative Writing Exercise Will Change Your Life
• When You Should Be Writing But Can't…
• What to do When Your Word Count is Too Low
• 7 Tricks to Write More with Less Willpower
• When You Don’t Know What to Write, Write About Your Insecurities

7 Literary Technique Lessons and Exercises

These writing and storytelling techniques will teach you a few tricks of the trade you may not have discovered before:

• 3 Tips to “Show, Don’t Tell” Emotions and Moods
• 3 Reasons to Write Stream of Consciousness Narrative
• 16 Observations About Real Dialogue
• Intertextuality As A Literary Device
• Why You Should Use Symbolism In Your Writing
• 6 Ways to Evoke Emotion in Poetry and Prose
• 3 Tips To Write Modern Allegorical Novels
• Symbol vs. Motif: What’s the Difference

3 Inspirational Writing Lessons and Exercises

Need some inspiration? Here are three of our most inspiring posts:

• Why We Write: Four Reasons
• You Must Remember Every Scar
• 17 Reasons to Write Something NOW

3 Publishing Blogging Lessons and Exercises

If you want to get published, these three lessons will help:

• The Secret to Writing On Your Blog Every Day
• How to Publish Your Book and Sell Your First 1,000 Copies
• How to Submit a Short Story for Publication

11 Writing Prompts

Need inspiration or just a kick in the pants to write. Try one of our top writing prompts :

• Grandfathers [writing prompt]
• Out of Place [writing prompt]
• Sleepless [writing prompt]
• Longing [writing prompt]
• Write About Yourself [writing prompt]
• 3 Reasons You Should Write Ghost Stories
• Road Trip [writing prompt]
• Morning [writing prompt]
• The Beach [writing prompt]
• Fall Writing Prompts
• How to Use Six-Word Stories As Writing Prompts

Is It Time To Begin Your Writing Practice?

It's clear that if you want to become a writer, you need to practice writing. We've created a proven process to practice your writing at The Write Practice, but even if you don't join our community, I hope you'll start practicing in some way today.

Personally, I waited  far  too long to start practicing and it set my writing back years.

How about you? Do you think practicing writing is important?  Let me know in the comments section .

Choose one of the writing practice posts above. Then, read the lesson and participate in the writing exercise, posting your work in the Pro Practice Workshop . And if you post, please give feedback to your fellow writers who also posted their practices.

Have fun and happy practicing!

Joe Bunting

Joe Bunting is an author and the leader of The Write Practice community. He is also the author of the new book Crowdsourcing Paris , a real life adventure story set in France. It was a #1 New Release on Amazon. Follow him on Instagram (@jhbunting).

Want best-seller coaching? Book Joe here.

Work with Joe Bunting?

WSJ Bestselling author, founder of The Write Practice, and book coach with 14+ years experience. Joe Bunting specializes in working with Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, How To, Literary Fiction, Memoir, Mystery, Nonfiction, Science Fiction, and Self Help books. Sound like a good fit for you?

50 Comments

You have THE BEST content for writing on this blog!!

Thank you, Kristen. This made my morning. 🙂

Thanks Mitch. 🙂

I can’t remember when I started following this website. I have to look in my notebooks because that’s where I did these practices. I didn’t have access to a computer when I did them, so I wrote them out, setting the time limit. But even when I do get to a computer, I have my reservations about putting my practices on the page. even though it’s practice, I want them to be the best, almost perfect. But I know it won’t be. I’ve gotten feedback before that says so. It still gets to me that I didn’t put something together that not everyone liked. I need to get over it. After all, that is what these practices are about: to learn and improve on our craft.

I don’t know either, George, but it’s been several years. Perfectionism is something so many of us face, and it’s made worse when you don’t have a critique community as warm and encouraging as ours is. I hope you and everyone here are always willing to try something new, even if it comes out a little messed up, because you know we’ll support you and try to make you better.

What a great share! Thanks so much!

You’re so welcome, Elizabeth. Thank you for commenting.

when I ran writing classes I wrote. when I am “a member of writing classes” the teacher/leader/facilitator is NOT MY AUDIENCE and so I don’t write as well/as much. I don’t get the feedback I need from fellow students because most of them have never run their own writing projects/workshops. So many people expect you to write their story for them. I’ve actually got quite a few stories of me own. I have finally decided I like owning them. 😉

It sounds like you need a new critique group, Patience! Hope you can find a place where you get the feedback you need.

Wow! Terrific round-up of resources. 🙂

Thanks Stephanie. 🙂

Practice is necessary, period. It doesn’t matter what you want to learn. If you want to improve, practice is vital.

It’s odd. I’ve known and applied that principle for years on a variety of things. Painting. Drawing. Blogging. Gardening. Laundry.

But never writing.

Like you, I had the notion that just writing every day was all it took to improve. Why not the same level of dedication to writing?

Perhaps it’s time to change that!

I can relate, Carrie. It’s easy to confuse the craft of writing with journaling, thinking that you can just write whatever you feel like and you’ll get better, write something worth reading. The truth is that writing interesting things to read is a skill, but the good news is that you can get better at it with practice. Thanks for practicing with us! 🙂

I love these suggestions , and have set Writing Practice as my homepage so the first 15 minutes of my day is spent writing, whether its a practice or exercise here or another that is sprinkled through out this site, Thank you for all you do everyone here at The Write Practice

This is great Debra. I want to write the first 15 minutes of my day too!

I agree with Joe, Do it. Could be your to do list… ( that could lead to something else story wse later)

I love that, Debra. Such a good way to start your day.

Thanks Joe!

The best! Thank you so much for this.

You’re very welcome!

I simply LOVE all the tips and suggestions given on this blog. They are super helpful!

THANK you. We love sharing them with you. 🙂

Hi! You forgot the link to How to Write a Story a Week: A Day-by-Day Guide.

Thanks a lot for your work! This post is amazing.

It’s a great post Thiago. Definitely one of our most shared. Thanks for mentioning it! BTW here’s the link:

https://thewritepractice.com/a-story-a-week/

Wow!! There are so many exercises…. I just love it..! I am gonna really enjoy it..!

Awesome! Thank you for reading and practicing with us. 🙂

I only read halfway , My tootie is jumping all over me, and typing this is a struggle when a 3yr old wants his Toy Story movie on Youtube in this computer. Thank you for this article, will come back later to finish reading.

I know the feeling! Good luck!

Can’t wait to get stuck in with this! 🙂

Very helpful! Thank you!

I’ve just bookmarked this page. Thanks for this wonderful list.

This is awesome! So many helpful tips. I will be coming back to this often. Thanks for posting this!

Wow, so many goodies! Thank you for always providing such amazing content!!

I have enjoyed all these articles. Thank you for the help an inspiration to get my writing on its way. My creativity is boosting with confidence. Tootle loo.

Amazing contents for beginners like me Joe. I am highly inspired by your commitment. Thank you.

Hey, thanks!

Although I have only read half of thisc article, the practice exercises are excellent. Some of them are exactly what a beginning writer like myself needs. I am committing to at least try ALL of them. Thanks Joe!!

very helpful! thank you..

Amazing articles! Thanks so much for sharing!

My god this article made me love this site . You know it’s kinda hard for a beginner writer, who don’t know where to start and fixing goals, even samll ones give us a direction . A place to go , an aim for our creativity so thanks you , this community and this site. Love you all . At your pens ! 😉

Wow. This is great. I find all your posts informative, but this one is the best for me to use as a guide to get my self starting to write….Thank you.

I’m an old lady who wants to publish one more book before I die — have published several, all non-fiction, and done two under contract to a major publisher (reference books). So help me, the BIGGEST problem I have all along, is keeping track of the damned paper work and research that goes into a book!!! Yet I never ever see articles on something as simple as “How to file” — Oh I know, there’s wonderful software these days so probably I will never find a way to get paper organized — everybody will use software and do it on the computer. I’m too old for that — just one look at the learning curve for software, even putting the damned stuff into computer files is even MORE frustrating than paper!! Oh well, somehow I managed in the past to get books published, I may be able to do it one more time.

you enjoy writing more than anything else and you do indeed care to help others write. I love writing but translation from Arabic into English and English into Arabic is taking all of my time from the early hours of the morning till the evening. I will soon get all of your books in order to read them as soon as possible. One thing I am sure of. You know what you are doing very well. Hamzah

Excellent! Many useful tips. Many thanks!

Liz and Joe, I have only looked at a few exercises. Already, I am convinced that your site is one of the best sites out there. Thank your for sharing your wisdom.

Wow, these are the best lessons and exercises for writing. Actually i’m participating in a compitition this wendsday. so, i’m quite nervous and exited. this helped me a lot

Magnificent post ever I have read. This article will help me a lot to write a right way. Thank you.

i need your help to improve to become a better writer please. i think i usually commit moist of these errors and i don;t pay attention to many advices too.

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Writing Program at New College

Writing to learn: assignments, writer’s inventory assignment.

When it comes to writing, we recognize from the onset that everyone has strengths as well as weaknesses. Your instructors, for instance, could readily rattle off a list of things they wish they did better as writers and researchers – punctuate more carefully, spend more time pre-writing, use transitions more effectively, find the courage to invite more outside readers to review their work, and so on.

We also recognize that being aware of one’s strengths and weaknesses as a writer can alleviate some of the anxiety that often accompanies the act because the recognition allows us to map out a plan of action. For instance, if we know that we're not going to spend much time pre-writing, it is best to “own” this issue from the beginning to plan time later to focus on the particular goals for writing. So too must we make plans for checking my punctuation, use of transitions, and finding someone to serve as an outside reader.

These might seem like simple steps and observations, but they are exactly the kinds of steps with which experienced writers, no less than beginning writers, must contend. Likewise, knowing such issues exist in the first place will make planning for overcoming them easier once a problem occurs.

Thus, the  Writer’s Inventory  exercise is designed to help you identify some of these more general experiences with writing. Just as important, however, this inventory can also bolster your confidence as you also begin to recognize strengths and, we hope, aspects of your writing that you truly enjoy. Please follow the following three steps to complete the assignment.

1. Writer’s Inventory Questions

Respond thoroughly and honestly to these questions. Try to write at least one hundred words in each response:

• What are your general attitudes about writing?
• What kind of writing do you most enjoy? Explain why.
• What kind of writing do you least enjoy? Explain why.
• Briefly describe your best experience as a writer.
• Briefly describe your worst experience as a writer.
• How would you define “good writing”?
• What are your strengths as a writer?
• What are your weaknesses as a writer?
• Discuss a book, article, poem, or some other text you have read from which you learned something about writing.
• If English is not your home language, or if you write in more than one language, discuss what speaking and reading in different languages teaches you about writing. Explain also how working across languages has helped or hindered you in school and in general.

2. Writer’s Inventory Reflection (approx. 250-500 words)

Now choose three of your answers from above and expand on them. This writing should indicate reflection and thought. Your goal here is to show how you came to these initial conclusions. Provide background information, description, and/or explanation to give readers a deeper and richer account of your experiences and attitudes as a writer.

3. Writer’s Inventory Goals

Based on your answers to the  Writer’s Inventory  and Reflection, write down three to five statements that indicate the kinds of growth and development you will pursue as a writer this semester.

Writing Program

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20 Creative Writing Activities for Elementary Students

By andy minshew.

• November 23, 2021

Did you know that November is National Novel Writing Month? While your young learners are probably not ready to write an entire book, this month is a great time to practice creative writing skills with your students. Not only can creative writing be helpful for teaching vocabulary and sentence structure, but it can also encourage students to use imaginative thinkin g —and even find a genuine love of writing!

All of these 20 creative writing activities can be used with elementary school students to practice reading and writing skills. We’ve included options for both early elementary students, who may still be learning to write, and elementary students in upper grades who are ready to work on projects of their choosing.

1. Join the NaNoWriMo organization’s Young Writers Program (YWP) ! Together, your students can work on all sorts of age-appropriate writing challenges and activities throughout the year—including a project of their choice in November!

2. To practice pre-writing skills and collaborating on a project, try these shared writing project activities .

3. If you have any budding cartoonists in your class, this Finish the Comic activity from author Jarrett Lerner can be a great way for younger students to practice writing dialogue.

4. Teach your students about adjectives and writing descriptions with this Popcorn Adjectives activity .

5. Students can learn about creative writing by studying imagery and poetry by established authors. Using this writing worksheet , kids can write out their thoughts about a poem and draw images that stand out to them.

6. To teach creative thinking skills with kindergarteners and early elementary students, try this Mystery Seed writing activity .

7. Get families involved, too! Share these fun home writing activities with your student’s families to help them practice at home.

8. Print out and put together a Writing Jar with tons of creative writing prompts to inspire your students.

9. Check out this resource for even more writing prompts focused on imaginative thinking.

10. Try blackout poetry , an activity that encourages students to make their own beautiful art from a work that already exists.

11. Creative writing isn’t limited to fiction. This narrative writing activity can teach students to write events clearly and in sequence from their real life.

12. For a creative writing project that’s just plain fun, try this Roll a Story activity.

13. This nonfiction project helps children learn to write a letter as they write to a loved one of their choice.

14. If you want to give your students some freedom in choosing a writing assignment, hang up this Writing Prompt Choice Board in your classroom and let them answer whichever prompt they’d like!

15. Encourage students to keep their own journal throughout the year. You could even give them time each morning to respond to a journal prompt .

16. Use this journal page template to help students structure and compile journal entries.

17. These printable Mad Libs can teach children different parts of a sentence while they use their imaginations to create a story.

18. Use this What? So What? Now What? exercise (#6 at the link) to help students structure their creative writing projects.

19. To teach children how to create descriptive sentences, play this Show, Don’t Tell writing activity .

20. If you’d like to hold a month-long creative writing activity, try this 30-Day Writing Challenge for kids .

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Home » Literacy Lines » Planning Effective Writing Assignments

Planning Effective Writing Assignments

When you ask students to complete a writing assignment, how often do you receive something back that does not match what you were expecting from your students? Part of the problem is that students may not have enough information about your expectations. Often the directions for a writing task lack specificity, such as the following examples:

• Write a composition that compares and contrasts…
• Write a short research report about…
• Use information from these three sources to write an answer to this question…

With broad assignments like these, students are understandably not sure about the purpose for writing the piece, how long it should be, how much and what kind of content they should include, and what supports might be available. They also may be unsure of how the writing will be graded.

One of the recommendations from the Writing next research report (Graham & Perin, 2007) is for teachers to provide specific product goals:

“Setting product goals involves assigning students specific, reachable goals for the writing they are to complete. It includes identifying the purpose of the assignment (e.g., to persuade) as well as characteristics of the final product. Specific goals in the studies reviewed included (a) adding more ideas to a paper when revising, or establishing a goal to write a specific kind of paper and (b) assigning goals for specific structural elements in a composition. Compared with instances in which students were simply given a general overall goal, these relatively simple procedures resulted in a positive effect size, and the average effect was strong. Overall, assigning students goals for their written product had a strong impact on writing quality.” (p. 17)

To help students successfully complete content writing tasks, follow these steps when planning a writing assignment:

• Determine the writing objective. For example, is the objective to have students process their content knowledge, or perhaps to deepen their understanding and reflect on what they have learned? Do you want to use the writing task to assess students’ content learning?
• Generate an appropriate writing task, choosing the best type of writing for the task – informational, opinion/argument, or narrative.
• Set clear goals. Identify the TAP (task audience, purpose). Clearly state your expectations for the length of the piece, the form, and any other requirements.
• Provide scaffolds. For instance, can you show models or examples? What other scaffolds can you provide to help some students or all students?
• Plan for feedback and revision. Is this part of the writing process necessary and reasonable, given the writing objective and task? If so, what tools can be used to provide feedback?

Writing Assignment Guide (WAG)

One of the instructional suggestions in the Keys to Content Writing professional development course is for teachers to use a WAG to plan writing assignments and communicate expectations to students. The information in a WAG should be shared with students so they know the requirements and the support that will be provided. A blank copy of a WAG planning template is shown below, followed by a description of each part of the WAG.

• Writing Task: The teacher describes the writing task, including the type of writing (informational, opinion/argument, narrative, or a combination).
• Audience: The teacher identifies the audience for the writing piece. This might be the teacher, peer students, or an authentic audience.
• Purpose: The teacher identifies the purpose for writing the piece, such as to reinforce content learning, to develop writing skills, or a specific purpose related to an authentic audience.
• Length: The teacher shares requirements for the length of the writing piece by identifying a range in number of words, sentences, paragraphs, or pages.
• Directions & Requirements: The teacher presents directions for the writing task and shares specific requirements for the content or text structure. If there are requirements for use and citation of sources, these are included, as well as information about grading. 
• Writing Supports: The teacher identifies scaffolds and supports that are provided for some or all of the students.

The WAG example below includes questions (in red) for teachers to assist them as they complete a WAG. Several classroom examples follow.

Sharing a WAG with Students

Teachers should share the information with students so they understand the requirements for a writing assignment and the support teachers will provide. Teachers should base the format used to share the WAG details on the age and skills of the students. They can share a copy of the WAG, or they can modify the information in a more student-friendly layout. Two examples are provided below.

Using a WAG As a Guide for Grading

One of the questions students ask is, “How will my writing piece be graded?” The Length and Directions and Requirements parts of the WAG can be used to communicate to students what they should check for when they are reviewing and revising their writing. Did they meet requirements for length, text structure and formatting, use of vocabulary? Did they include all the required content? When assessing and grading a writing piece, the teacher can include requirement details in a scoring rubric, enabling them to make grading decisions based on a set criteria rather than a more general reaction to the quality of the student’s writing.

References:

• Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). Writing next: Effective strategies to improve the writing of adolescents in middle and high schools – A report to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington, DC: Alliance for  Excellent Education.
• Sedita, J. (2024). Keys to content writing, 3rd Edition. Rowley, MA: Keys to Literacy.
• Joan Sedita

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• Implementing Writing in Your Course

How to Design Successful Writing Assignments

As writing instructors ourselves, we are all too familiar with the many difficulties that come with assigning writing. It’s difficult to create meaningful assignments that help students learn what you want them to learn. And despite all the labor we put into it, students can still express frustration and confusion over writing assignments. It is tempting to ask, “Why bother?”

However, while thoughtful writing instruction tied to learning outcomes takes time to implement, that initial effort can lead to a huge time savings over the long run. Some writing you do not even need to grade! Once you know some of the key components of writing assignment design, you will be able to create a collection of high-value teaching materials that you can adapt for years to come. Also, your students will learn more, and will be better equipped to handle complexity. With regular writing practice and targeted feedback, over time they will become more authoritative participants and contributors in your field.

Designing successful writing assignments involves some or all of the following six strategies:

• Explicitly State Assignment Goals
• Tie Assignment Goals to Course Goals
• Create Antiracist Writing Assignments
• Offer Clear Instructions for Completion
• Clarify Expectations About Genre, Audience, and Formatting
• Provide Examples of the Kinds of Writing You Assign
• Asses Your Own Work

1. Explicitly State Assignment Goals

Are students “writing to learn” key course concepts from course materials or “learning to write” a new and specific form of communication in the class, such as a lab report or business memo? Or do you want your assignment to do some of both? Try to be as specific as possible when thinking about the assignment’s purpose. We encourage you to even jot down some of your desired outcomes. Being detailed about what you want students to gain from completing the assignment will help you create clear instructions for the assignment.

The example below is a strong example of a “writing to learn” assignment. In this assignment the instructor uses words such as "read," “explore,” “shape,” and “reflect” to clearly indicate that the act of composing in this assignment is more about attaining knowledge than it is about the creation of a final product. 

From a prompt for a personal narrative in a science writing course: 

All scientists have intellectual, cultural, and linguistic histories. For the sake of “neutrality” and “objectivity,” apprentices are often trained to separate themselves from these histories, especially when it comes to conducting and communicating research. This assignment asks you to read examples of scientists’ memoirs in various genres and then you will compose your own narrative in the mode of your choice, exploring how your identities, investments, and intellectual interests have shaped your science training and your trajectory as a scientist. This assignment serves as a form of reflection, orientation to/within a scientific field, and even as a professional credential (if desirable).

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2. Tie Assignment Goals to Course Goals

While you know why you are assigning a particular writing assignment, your students may not. Being clear about how completing the writing assignment will help your students learn can help create expectations and motivation for students. Without a clear understanding of how a writing assignment will help them learn, students may feel that they are being assigned useless "busywork."

Example 1 :

The example below is drawn from the final paper assignment for a course called “Imagining and Dreaming: Indigenous Futures,” taught by Lydia Heberling. In this assignment, the instructor not only clearly shows students how the assignment aligns with the course content, but it also reminds students how the third section of the course builds upon content learned in earlier units.

Throughout the quarter we have examined various writing practices that affirm the ongoing existence of American Indian peoples in spite of settler colonial attempts to remove, erase, and eradicate them. In our first sequence, we reflected on the relationship between place and identity and learned from Momaday that the land possesses stories from the past that can be accessed through interaction with and memories of those places.

In our second sequence, we examined a contemporary activist moment to deepen our understanding of the ongoing relational formations between Indigenous peoples and how those relations revitalize cultures from the brink of extinction. In learning about how various tribes worked together to protect a valuable natural resource by employing media and storytelling practices to garner support and attention, we learned that regardless of the outcome, activist moments like Standing Rock demonstrate a strong trans-Indigenous community that continues to survive in spite of ongoing settler colonial tactics of dispossession and erasure.

In this third, and last sequence, we are focusing on imagining, or dreaming about, vibrant Indigenous futures. Athabascan poet and scholar (and UW professor) Dian Million defines dreaming the following way [. . .]

Your task i n this next assignment is to return to the place you described in Paper 1, imagine what that place looks like 100 years from now. . .

Example 2 :

Here’s a second example of a writing assignment, created by Jen Malone for a course on writing in environmental science, which clearly demonstrates to students how the writing assignment both builds on previous course content and how it will help students cultivate research skills that they will be able to use in future writing assignments.

Thus far in this class, we’ve written an Op-Ed about ecotourism, and we will be moving into writing a short research paper on the topic of your choice later on in the quarter. But first, we’re going to do something a bit different.

Learning to research well is largely about practice—both in terms of growing accustomed to search engines (particularly scholarly ones) and library databases, and in terms of learning to plug different versions of your research terms into these search engines/databases until you find useful sources. Using research well is largely about figuring out how to analyze your sources--particularly in combination with one another, as a body of research. In order to practice both of these skills (which will totally help us to prepare for Paper #3, later on in the quarter), for Paper #2 we will. . .

3. Create Antiracist Writing Assignments

Antiracist writing instruction is usually discussed in relation to assessment, but it should be considered earlier than that, during assignment creation (just as it should be considered as key elements of curriculum and class culture). Antiracist writing assignment design can be pursued in two ways: through the subject matter, or content, of the writing assignments; and through your values around language use. Some brief suggestions for each follow.

Promoting antiracist subject matter in writing assignments:

Take a step back and discuss knowledge frameworks in your course and in your field. Every discipline has knowledge traditions and methods that can be problematic. How did these traditions come to be? Who do they serve, and who do they harm?

Avoid reductionist binaries when discussing complex questions. For example, framing a question like "What are the pros and cons of conducting medical research without subjects' knowledge or consent?" may lead students to consider both sides as having equal moral weight. A more specific (so a particular context can be considered) and open-ended (so students are not led to one or the other answer) question might work better. For example, "What are some of the ethical considerations of conducting flu vaccine clinical trials without participants' consent?"

Give students opportunities to explore their own identities in relation to the course content. Drawing personal connections not only helps foster deeper learning, but it can also cultivate a student’s sense of belonging in the field. It may also help you see how your field might serve some but not others. 

Encourage students to engage academic and non-academic source material. Have discussions about what “counts” as authoritative information in your field, and why.

Promoting linguistic justice in writing assignments: 

As this site from Wesleyan College recommends, “Centralize rhetorical situations and writing contexts rather than language standards in your writing classroom.” If you show that all language use (content, structure, syntax, vocabulary, style) is based on authorial choices made in particular contexts and for particular audiences, then you can help bust the myth of the universal standard of “academic English.”

Encourage students to use their own linguistic traditions whenever possible. For example, let students freewrite in a native language or dialect. Encourage them to draw connections between their own language backgrounds and the disciplinary discourse you are teaching. This is called translanguaging, and it can be a powerful tool for learning.

Avoid penalizing language use. If there is a certain style or vocabulary you want students to use, be explicit about why discourse is used that way, and how it conveys discipline-specific knowledge.

Further reading: 10 Ways to Tackle Linguistic Bias in Our Classrooms (Inside HigherEd)

4. Offer Clear Instructions for Completion

Investigative or writing techniques that seem obvious to you—such as making an argument, analyzing, evaluating—might mean something different to students from outside your specific discipline. Being clear about what you mean when you use certain terms can help students navigate an assignment more successfully. While it might feel clunky or obvious, including this information in an assignment will help steer your students in the right direction and minimize miscommunication.

In the following excerpt from a prompt for a writing-in-history course taught by Sumyat Thu, the instructor asks students to use research in their papers, and then clearly describes, and supports with examples from the class and library resources, what counts as appropriate source material.

This essay is based on research. Students are expected to use primary sources and secondary works in developing their essays. We do not frown on the use of on-line resources ; indeed, some very good reference works ( identified on the history librarian Ms. Mudrock's research guide) are available as on-line books, and the library has e-book versions of Paul Spickard's  Almost All Aliens . Nonetheless, we strongly urge students to utilize the very rich materials available in the UW Libraries, particularly scholarly books and articles. The UW Libraries' on-line catalog can be explored with keyword searches, and such indexes as America: History and Life (again, see Ms. Mudrock’s website) are very helpful as well.

In this second example, again by Jen Malone, we see how the instructor not only indicates what chronological steps students must take to complete the assignment, but also how she includes thorough and clear instructions for how students can complete each step.

So, the first step you’ll need to take will be to choose a topic . You may wish to choose the same topic you’ll be using for your research paper in ENVIR 100 (if you’ve chosen that option—if so, please follow any instructions they’ve given you for choosing a topic for that), or something related to environmental science that simply interests you, or a topic from the following list of suggestions:

• GMOs (particularly with regards to the ecosystem and/or biodiversity),
• The environmental impact of meat production
• Bees and Colony Collapse Disorder

The second step you’ll need to take will be to do the research —you’ll need to find some sources (via library search engines, Google scholar, etc.). Keep some notes or a log of this process, since you’ll have to talk about how this went for you in your final report. Then you’ll need to read/skim the sources you’ve selected, and then you’ll need to create an annotated bibliography in which you list and briefly summarize those sources. An annotated bibliography is a particularly handy step when performing research, or when writing a paper that involves research. Basically, it is a list of the sources you intend to use for your paper (like a Works Cited page, you may use either MLA or APA format), but with the addition of a substantial paragraph (or two, if you wish) beneath each entry in which you summarize, and often evaluate, the source. This will help you to consider the sources you find as a body of research, and this makes using sources easier because you’ll have these initial notes handy as you write your report.

After you find and skim through your sources, the third step you’ll need to take will be to write the report .

• In the first section of the report, you’ll want to talk about your research process (What was this like? What was easy for you and what was difficult? What did you learn? What search terms did you use? How did those terms change?).
• In the second section of the report, you’ll want to talk about the body of research as a whole (How would you describe the issues/terms/debates surrounding the topic? What did you find? What do these sources indicate—both in terms of conclusions drawn and questions raised? How do these sources fit together and/or differ? What did you find most interesting?)
• In the third section of the report, you’ll want to take a moment to consider how this body of research fits it with what you’re learning in ENVIR 100 and where you might take the topic in a future paper (How do you see what you found regarding this topic as relating to what has been discussed in class thus far? What are the stakes of this topic and for whom? What aspects of this topic do we seem to know little about? What are the questions you still have about this topic? And, finally, now that you’ve read through this body of research, if you were going to write a paper on this topic, what might your basic argument be?). We’ll discuss this all in more detail next week, after you’ve compiled your sources.

Note: the second example may be a lot longer of a writing prompt than many of us are used to. This is not a bad thing. In fact, students tend to really appreciate such clear instruction and it reduces the amount of time you will spend clarifying confusion about what is expected. Also, instructions like these can be easily re-purposed for other, similar assignments in the future so you will not have to reinvent the wheel each time.

5. Clarify Expectations About Genre, Audience, and Formatting

Students will approach your writing assignment with varying knowledge and experience. Unless you have already instructed students explicitly in class about the knowledge and skills needed to complete a writing assignment, you cannot assume that students will already possess that knowledge. While clear, explicit prompts are essential, we also strongly urge you to discuss in class the genre you are assigning as well. Offer examples, both from professionals in the field, and from former students. The more exposure students have to the kinds of writing you want to see, the the more inclusive and accessible your assignments will be. We know of a history TA who said that one of her students, an engineering major, wasn't clear on the nature of a historiography, so he turned in his paper formatted like a technical report! This is an understandable mistake for a student to make, and providing examples can prevent mistakes like this from happening in your own classroom.

Below are two examples of how instructors communicate their expectations about genre, audience, and formatting to students. The first example is less helpful for students because it leaves key parts of the instructor’s expectations vague. (What is the writing assignment’s audience? What citation style does the instructor prefer? Is the works cited page part of the assignment or not?) The second example provides more detail for students.

Example 1: Paper must be 4-5 pages double spaced and must include a works cited page.

Example 2 : T he business memo should be fo rmatted according to the parameters we have discussed: no more than two pages long , typed, single-spaced with one space between paragraphs , with standard margins, in Times New Roman font (12 point), written for an audience of industry professionals.

6. Provide Examples of the Kinds of Writing You Assign

Studies have shown that examples can be a powerful learning tool in writing instruction. We recommend that instructors distribute examples of both successful and unsuccessful student writing to their students and explain why the examples are successful or unsuccessful.

Ask students who have submitted successful assignments if you can borrow their work as examples for future classes. Be sure to remove students’ identifying information from the assignments before they are given to future students.

If you do not have examples of unsuccessful writing (remember, sharing even anonymized student writing without the author's consent would be unethical), you can alternatively create a list of common pitfalls and mistakes to avoid when completing the writing assignment. Distribute the list to your students. Be sure to ground these pitfalls in terms of higher order issues specific to this genre, rather than just distributing a one-size-fits-all personal list of writing pet peeves.

Ask students which examples help them learn the genre, and which do not. Over time your students will help you curate a really great collection of samples.

Create occasional reading assignments where you ask students to find and analyze examples of writing by professionals in the field. What makes them effective or ineffective examples of the genre? What are some of the text's defining characteristics? These kinds of analyses can really help students improve their own writing.

7. Assess Your Own Work

Assessment is not just for student writing: it’s also important to assess the efficacy of the assignments you create. If student work is disappointing or students have struggled with an assignment, it most likely a result of ineffective assignment design. Please remember: everyone , even seasoned writing instructors, has assignments that do not go well initially. That is normal and ok!

We recommend that you engage in self-reflection as to why your assignment did not turn out well, and make tweaks to the assignment and/or grading criteria as needed. Here are some questions to ask yourself to reflect on your writing assignments.

Did many students turn in work which did not meet your expectations? In what specific ways did they fall short?

Did many students struggle with the assignment or a particular piece of the assignment? Where, exactly, did they struggle and how do you know?

Were many students surprised or dissatisfied by their grades on the assignment? Why do you think this happened?

Strategies for understanding what went wrong

Ask your students, either in class, on Canvas, or in a survey like a Google Form, to debrief the assignment. What was easy for them about the assignment? What did they learn from it? What was challenging? What was unclear?

Take writing assignments to writing centers such as OWRC or CLUE to get student feedback on updated or streamlined assignments. Student writing tutors can be a great resource-- they've seen hundreds of writing assignments!

Next guide: Supporting Academic Integrity