learning to write essays and assignments

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Essay and report writing skills

Course description

Course content, course reviews.

Writing reports and assignments can be a daunting prospect. Learn how to interpret questions and how to plan, structure and write your assignment or report. This free course, Essay and report writing skills, is designed to help you develop the skills you need to write effectively for academic purposes.

Course learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

• understand what writing an assignment involves
• identify strengths and weaknesses
• understand the functions of essays and reports
• demonstrate writing skills.

First Published: 10/08/2012

Updated: 26/04/2019

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• Academic writing
• A step-by-step guide to the writing process

The Writing Process | 5 Steps with Examples & Tips

Published on April 24, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on December 8, 2023.

Good academic writing requires effective planning, drafting, and revision.

The writing process looks different for everyone, but there are five basic steps that will help you structure your time when writing any kind of text.

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Table of contents

Step 1: prewriting, step 2: planning and outlining, step 3: writing a first draft, step 4: redrafting and revising, step 5: editing and proofreading, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about the writing process.

Before you start writing, you need to decide exactly what you’ll write about and do the necessary research.

Coming up with a topic

If you have to come up with your own topic for an assignment, think of what you’ve covered in class— is there a particular area that intrigued, interested, or even confused you? Topics that left you with additional questions are perfect, as these are questions you can explore in your writing.

The scope depends on what type of text you’re writing—for example, an essay or a research paper will be less in-depth than a dissertation topic . Don’t pick anything too ambitious to cover within the word count, or too limited for you to find much to say.

Narrow down your idea to a specific argument or question. For example, an appropriate topic for an essay might be narrowed down like this:

Doing the research

Once you know your topic, it’s time to search for relevant sources and gather the information you need. This process varies according to your field of study and the scope of the assignment. It might involve:

• Searching for primary and secondary sources .
• Reading the relevant texts closely (e.g. for literary analysis ).
• Collecting data using relevant research methods (e.g. experiments , interviews or surveys )

From a writing perspective, the important thing is to take plenty of notes while you do the research. Keep track of the titles, authors, publication dates, and relevant quotations from your sources; the data you gathered; and your initial analysis or interpretation of the questions you’re addressing.

Especially in academic writing , it’s important to use a logical structure to convey information effectively. It’s far better to plan this out in advance than to try to work out your structure once you’ve already begun writing.

Creating an essay outline is a useful way to plan out your structure before you start writing. This should help you work out the main ideas you want to focus on and how you’ll organize them. The outline doesn’t have to be final—it’s okay if your structure changes throughout the writing process.

Use bullet points or numbering to make your structure clear at a glance. Even for a short text that won’t use headings, it’s useful to summarize what you’ll discuss in each paragraph.

An outline for a literary analysis essay might look something like this:

• Describe the theatricality of Austen’s works
• Outline the role theater plays in Mansfield Park
• Introduce the research question: How does Austen use theater to express the characters’ morality in Mansfield Park ?
• Discuss Austen’s depiction of the performance at the end of the first volume
• Discuss how Sir Bertram reacts to the acting scheme
• Introduce Austen’s use of stage direction–like details during dialogue
• Explore how these are deployed to show the characters’ self-absorption
• Discuss Austen’s description of Maria and Julia’s relationship as polite but affectionless
• Compare Mrs. Norris’s self-conceit as charitable despite her idleness
• Summarize the three themes: The acting scheme, stage directions, and the performance of morals
• Answer the research question
• Indicate areas for further study

Once you have a clear idea of your structure, it’s time to produce a full first draft.

This process can be quite non-linear. For example, it’s reasonable to begin writing with the main body of the text, saving the introduction for later once you have a clearer idea of the text you’re introducing.

To give structure to your writing, use your outline as a framework. Make sure that each paragraph has a clear central focus that relates to your overall argument.

Hover over the parts of the example, from a literary analysis essay on Mansfield Park , to see how a paragraph is constructed.

The character of Mrs. Norris provides another example of the performance of morals in Mansfield Park . Early in the novel, she is described in scathing terms as one who knows “how to dictate liberality to others: but her love of money was equal to her love of directing” (p. 7). This hypocrisy does not interfere with her self-conceit as “the most liberal-minded sister and aunt in the world” (p. 7). Mrs. Norris is strongly concerned with appearing charitable, but unwilling to make any personal sacrifices to accomplish this. Instead, she stage-manages the charitable actions of others, never acknowledging that her schemes do not put her own time or money on the line. In this way, Austen again shows us a character whose morally upright behavior is fundamentally a performance—for whom the goal of doing good is less important than the goal of seeming good.

When you move onto a different topic, start a new paragraph. Use appropriate transition words and phrases to show the connections between your ideas.

The goal at this stage is to get a draft completed, not to make everything perfect as you go along. Once you have a full draft in front of you, you’ll have a clearer idea of where improvement is needed.

Give yourself a first draft deadline that leaves you a reasonable length of time to revise, edit, and proofread before the final deadline. For a longer text like a dissertation, you and your supervisor might agree on deadlines for individual chapters.

Now it’s time to look critically at your first draft and find potential areas for improvement. Redrafting means substantially adding or removing content, while revising involves making changes to structure and reformulating arguments.

Evaluating the first draft

It can be difficult to look objectively at your own writing. Your perspective might be positively or negatively biased—especially if you try to assess your work shortly after finishing it.

It’s best to leave your work alone for at least a day or two after completing the first draft. Come back after a break to evaluate it with fresh eyes; you’ll spot things you wouldn’t have otherwise.

When evaluating your writing at this stage, you’re mainly looking for larger issues such as changes to your arguments or structure. Starting with bigger concerns saves you time—there’s no point perfecting the grammar of something you end up cutting out anyway.

Right now, you’re looking for:

• Arguments that are unclear or illogical.
• Areas where information would be better presented in a different order.
• Passages where additional information or explanation is needed.
• Passages that are irrelevant to your overall argument.

For example, in our paper on Mansfield Park , we might realize the argument would be stronger with more direct consideration of the protagonist Fanny Price, and decide to try to find space for this in paragraph IV.

For some assignments, you’ll receive feedback on your first draft from a supervisor or peer. Be sure to pay close attention to what they tell you, as their advice will usually give you a clearer sense of which aspects of your text need improvement.

Redrafting and revising

Once you’ve decided where changes are needed, make the big changes first, as these are likely to have knock-on effects on the rest. Depending on what your text needs, this step might involve:

• Making changes to your overall argument.
• Reordering the text.
• Cutting parts of the text.
• Adding new text.

You can go back and forth between writing, redrafting and revising several times until you have a final draft that you’re happy with.

Think about what changes you can realistically accomplish in the time you have. If you are running low on time, you don’t want to leave your text in a messy state halfway through redrafting, so make sure to prioritize the most important changes.

Here's why students love Scribbr's proofreading services

Discover proofreading & editing

Editing focuses on local concerns like clarity and sentence structure. Proofreading involves reading the text closely to remove typos and ensure stylistic consistency. You can check all your drafts and texts in minutes with an AI proofreader .

Editing for grammar and clarity

When editing, you want to ensure your text is clear, concise, and grammatically correct. You’re looking out for:

• Grammatical errors.
• Ambiguous phrasings.
• Redundancy and repetition .

In your initial draft, it’s common to end up with a lot of sentences that are poorly formulated. Look critically at where your meaning could be conveyed in a more effective way or in fewer words, and watch out for common sentence structure mistakes like run-on sentences and sentence fragments:

• Austen’s style is frequently humorous, her characters are often described as “witty.” Although this is less true of Mansfield Park .
• Austen’s style is frequently humorous. Her characters are often described as “witty,” although this is less true of Mansfield Park .

To make your sentences run smoothly, you can always use a paraphrasing tool to rewrite them in a clearer way.

Proofreading for small mistakes and typos

When proofreading, first look out for typos in your text:

• Spelling errors.
• Missing words.
• Confused word choices .
• Punctuation errors .
• Missing or excess spaces.

Use a grammar checker , but be sure to do another manual check after. Read through your text line by line, watching out for problem areas highlighted by the software but also for any other issues it might have missed.

For example, in the following phrase we notice several errors:

• Mary Crawfords character is a complicate one and her relationships with Fanny and Edmund undergoes several transformations through out the novel.
• Mary Crawford’s character is a complicated one, and her relationships with both Fanny and Edmund undergo several transformations throughout the novel.

Proofreading for stylistic consistency

There are several issues in academic writing where you can choose between multiple different standards. For example:

• Whether you use the serial comma .
• Whether you use American or British spellings and punctuation (you can use a punctuation checker for this).
• Where you use numerals vs. words for numbers.
• How you capitalize your titles and headings.

Unless you’re given specific guidance on these issues, it’s your choice which standards you follow. The important thing is to consistently follow one standard for each issue. For example, don’t use a mixture of American and British spellings in your paper.

Additionally, you will probably be provided with specific guidelines for issues related to format (how your text is presented on the page) and citations (how you acknowledge your sources). Always follow these instructions carefully.

If you want to know more about AI for academic writing, AI tools, or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
• Post hoc fallacy
• Appeal to authority fallacy
• False cause fallacy
• Sunk cost fallacy
• Deep learning
• Generative AI
• Machine learning
• Reinforcement learning
• Supervised vs. unsupervised learning

 (AI) Tools

• Grammar Checker
• Paraphrasing Tool
• Text Summarizer
• AI Detector
• Plagiarism Checker
• Citation Generator

Revising, proofreading, and editing are different stages of the writing process .

• Revising is making structural and logical changes to your text—reformulating arguments and reordering information.
• Editing refers to making more local changes to things like sentence structure and phrasing to make sure your meaning is conveyed clearly and concisely.
• Proofreading involves looking at the text closely, line by line, to spot any typos and issues with consistency and correct them.

Whether you’re publishing a blog, submitting a research paper , or even just writing an important email, there are a few techniques you can use to make sure it’s error-free:

• Take a break : Set your work aside for at least a few hours so that you can look at it with fresh eyes.
• Proofread a printout : Staring at a screen for too long can cause fatigue – sit down with a pen and paper to check the final version.
• Use digital shortcuts : Take note of any recurring mistakes (for example, misspelling a particular word, switching between US and UK English , or inconsistently capitalizing a term), and use Find and Replace to fix it throughout the document.

If you want to be confident that an important text is error-free, it might be worth choosing a professional proofreading service instead.

If you’ve gone over the word limit set for your assignment, shorten your sentences and cut repetition and redundancy during the editing process. If you use a lot of long quotes , consider shortening them to just the essentials.

If you need to remove a lot of words, you may have to cut certain passages. Remember that everything in the text should be there to support your argument; look for any information that’s not essential to your point and remove it.

To make this process easier and faster, you can use a paraphrasing tool . With this tool, you can rewrite your text to make it simpler and shorter. If that’s not enough, you can copy-paste your paraphrased text into the summarizer . This tool will distill your text to its core message.

Cite this Scribbr article

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Caulfield, J. (2023, December 08). The Writing Process | 5 Steps with Examples & Tips. Scribbr. Retrieved August 26, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-writing/writing-process/

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• Designing Essay Assignments

by Gordon Harvey

Students often do their best and hardest thinking, and feel the greatest sense of mastery and growth, in their writing. Courses and assignments should be planned with this in mind. Three principles are paramount:

1. Name what you want and imagine students doing it

However free students are to range and explore in a paper, the general kind of paper you’re inviting has common components, operations, and criteria of success, and you should make these explicit. Having satisfied yourself, as you should, that what you’re asking is doable, with dignity, by writers just learning the material, try to anticipate in your prompt or discussions of the assignment the following queries:

• What is the purpose of this? How am I going beyond what we have done, or applying it in a new area, or practicing a key academic skill or kind of work?
• To what audience should I imagine myself writing?
• What is the main task or tasks, in a nutshell? What does that key word (e.g., analyze, significance of, critique, explore, interesting, support) really mean in this context or this field?
• What will be most challenging in this and what qualities will most distinguish a good paper? Where should I put my energy? (Lists of possible questions for students to answer in a paper are often not sufficiently prioritized to be helpful.)
• What misconceptions might I have about what I’m to do? (How is this like or unlike other papers I may have written?) Are there too-easy approaches I might take or likely pitfalls? An ambitious goal or standard that I might think I’m expected to meet but am not?
• What form will evidence take in my paper (e.g., block quotations? paraphrase? graphs or charts?) How should I cite it? Should I use/cite material from lecture or section?
• Are there some broad options for structure, emphasis, or approach that I’ll likely be choosing among?
• How should I get started on this? What would be a helpful (or unhelpful) way to take notes, gather data, discover a question or idea? Should I do research? 

2. Take time in class to prepare students to succeed at the paper

Resist the impulse to think of class meetings as time for “content” and of writing as work done outside class. Your students won’t have mastered the art of paper writing (if such a mastery is possible) and won’t know the particular disciplinary expectations or moves relevant to the material at hand. Take time in class to show them: 

• discuss the assignment in class when you give it, so students can see that you take it seriously, so they can ask questions about it, so they can have it in mind during subsequent class discussions;
• introduce the analytic vocabulary of your assignment into class discussions, and take opportunities to note relevant moves made in discussion or good paper topics that arise;
• have students practice key tasks in class discussions, or in informal writing they do in before or after discussions;
• show examples of writing that illustrates components and criteria of the assignment and that inspires (class readings can sometimes serve as illustrations of a writing principle; so can short excerpts of writing—e.g., a sampling of introductions; and so can bad writing—e.g., a list of problematic thesis statements);
• the topics of originality and plagiarism (what the temptations might be, how to avoid risks) should at some point be addressed directly. 

3. Build in process

Ideas develop over time, in a process of posing and revising and getting feedback and revising some more. Assignments should allow for this process in the following ways:

• smaller assignments should prepare for larger ones later;
• students should do some thinking and writing before they write a draft and get a response to it (even if only a response to a proposal or thesis statement sent by email, or described in class);
• for larger papers, students should write and get response (using the skills vocabulary of the assignment) to a draft—at least an “oral draft” (condensed for delivery to the class);
• if possible, meet with students individually about their writing: nothing inspires them more than feeling that you care about their work and development;
• let students reflect on their own writing, in brief cover letters attached to drafts and revisions (these may also ask students to perform certain checks on what they have written, before submitting);
• have clear and firm policies about late work that nonetheless allow for exception if students talk to you in advance.

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Essay and Assignment Writing Guide

The following resources can provide you with strategies to help you with your essay and assignment writing.

The basics of essay writing

A general outline of the steps to writing essays at university.

• Essay and assignment planning

Some helpful advice and strategies about getting started and constructive planning of your essay or assignment.

• Answering assignment questions

This guide will help you to better answer and understand your essay questions. It also provides a list of common terms used in assignment questions and their definitions.

• Editing checklist

This checklist outlines questions to ask yourself as you are writing your final draft or editing your assignment.

• Writing a critical review

Need to write a critical review? Not sure what it is? See our guide for tips on writing a critical review.

Writing an annotated bibliography

This is an assignment that allows you to get acquainted with the material available on a particular topic. This guide to writing an annotated bibliography offers some general advice on getting started.

• Reflective writing

Many uni assignments feature reflective components. Although they can vary considerably in terms of their style and scope, here are some common elements and tips to get you started with reflective writing.

Essay and assignment writing guide

• Essay writing basics
• Annotated bibliography
• ^ More support

Hexamester 5: Library 101 Webinar 28 Aug 2024

• Tips for Reading an Assignment Prompt
• Asking Analytical Questions
• Introductions
• What Do Introductions Across the Disciplines Have in Common?
• Anatomy of a Body Paragraph
• Transitions
• Tips for Organizing Your Essay
• Counterargument
• Conclusions
• Strategies for Essay Writing: Downloadable PDFs
• Brief Guides to Writing in the Disciplines

Essay Writing Tips: 10 Steps to Writing a Great Essay (And Have Fun Doing It!)

by Joe Bunting | 118 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.

Do you dread essay writing? Are you looking for some essay tips that will help you write an amazing essay—and have fun doing it?

Lots of students, young and old, dread essay writing. It's a daunting assignment, one that takes research, time, and concentration.

It's also an assignment that you can break up into simple steps that make writing an essay manageable and, yes, even enjoyable.

These ten essay tips completely changed my writing process—and I hope that they can do the same for you.

Essay Writing Can Be Fun

Honestly, throughout most of high school and college, I was a mediocre essay writer.

Every once in a while, I would write a really good essay, but mostly I skated by with B's and A-minuses.

I know personally how boring writing an essay can be, and also, how hard it can be to write a good one.

However, toward the end of my time as a student, I made a breakthrough. I figured out how to not only write a great essay, I learned how to have fun while doing it . 

And since then, I've become a professional writer and have written more than a dozen books. I'm not saying that these essay writing tips are going to magically turn you into a writer, but at least they can help you enjoy the process more.

I'm excited to share these ten essay writing tips with you today! But first, we need to talk about why writing an essay is so hard.

Why Writing an Essay Is So Hard

When it comes to essay writing, a lot of students find a reason to put it off. And when they tackle it, they find it difficult to string sentences together that sound like a decent stance on the assigned subject.

Here are a few reasons why essay writing is hard:

• You'd rather be scrolling through Facebook
• You're trying to write something your teacher or professor will like
• You're trying to get an A instead of writing something that's actually good
• You want to do the least amount of work possible

The biggest reason writing an essay is so hard is because we mostly focus on those external  rewards like getting a passing grade, winning our teacher's approval, or just avoiding accusations of plagiarism.

The problem is that when you focus on external approval it not only makes writing much less fun, it also makes it significantly harder.

Because when you focus on external approval, you shut down your subconscious, and the subconscious is the source of your creativity.

The subconscious is the source of your creativity.

What this means practically is that when you're trying to write that perfect, A-plus-worthy sentence, you're turning off most of your best resources and writing skills.

So stop. Stop trying to write a good essay (or even a “good-enough” essay). Instead, write an interesting  essay, write an essay you think is fascinating. And when you're finished, go back and edit it until it's “good” according to your teacher's standards.

Yes, you need to follow the guidelines in your assignment. If your teacher tells you to write a five-paragraph essay, then write a five-paragraph essay! If your teacher asks for a specific type of essay, like an analysis, argument, or research essay, then make sure you write that type of essay!

However, within those guidelines, find room to express something that is uniquely you .

I can't guarantee you'll get a higher grade (although, you almost certainly will), but I can absolutely promise you'll have a lot more fun writing.

The Step-by-Step Process to Writing a Great Essay: Your 10 Essay Writing Tips

Ready to get writing? You can read my ten best tips for having fun while writing an essay that earns you the top grade, or check out this presentation designed by our friends at Canva Presentations .

1. Remember your essay is just a story.

Every story is about conflict and change, and the truth is that essays are about conflict and change, too! The difference is that in an essay, the conflict is between different ideas , and the change is in the way we should perceive those ideas.

That means that the best essays are about surprise: “You probably think it's one way, but in reality, you should think of it this other way.” See tip #3 for more on this.

How do you know what story you're telling? The prompt should tell you.

Any list of essay prompts includes various topics and tasks associated with them. Within those topics are characters (historical, fictional, or topical) faced with difficult choices. Your job is to work with those choices, usually by analyzing them, arguing about them, researching them, or describing them in detail.

2. Before you start writing, ask yourself, “How can I have the most fun writing this?”

It's normal to feel unmotivated when writing an academic essay. I'm a writer, and honestly, I feel unmotivated to write all the time. But I have a super-ninja, judo-mind trick I like to use to help motivate myself.

Here's the secret trick: One of the interesting things about your subconscious is that it will answer any question you ask yourself. So whenever you feel unmotivated to write your essay, ask yourself the following question:

“How much fun can I have writing this?”

Your subconscious will immediately start thinking of strategies to make the writing process more fun.

The best time to have your fun is the first draft. Since you're just brainstorming within the topic, and exploring the possible ways of approaching it, the first draft is the perfect place to get creative and even a little scandalous. Here are some wild suggestions to make your next essay a load of fun:

• Research the most surprising or outrageous fact about the topic and use it as your hook.
• Use a thesaurus to research the topic's key words. Get crazy with your vocabulary as you write, working in each key word synonym as much as possible.
• Play devil's advocate and take the opposing or immoral side of the issue. See where the discussion takes you as you write.

3. As you research, ask yourself, “What surprises me about this subject?”

The temptation, when you're writing an essay, is to write what you think your teacher or professor wants to read.

Don't do this .

Instead, ask yourself, “What do I find interesting about this subject? What surprises me?”

If you can't think of anything that surprises you, anything you find interesting, then you're not searching well enough, because history, science, and literature are all brimming   over with surprises. When you look at how great ideas actually happen, the story is always, “We used  to think the world was this way. We found out we were completely wrong, and that the world is actually quite different from what we thought.”

These pieces of surprising information often make for the best topic sentences as well. Use them to outline your essay and build your body paragraphs off of each unique fact or idea. These will function as excellent hooks for your reader as you transition from one topic to the next.

(By the way, what sources should you use for research? Check out tip #10 below.)

4. Overwhelmed? Write five original sentences.

The standard three-point essay is really made up of just five original sentences surrounded by supporting paragraphs that back up those five sentences. If you're feeling overwhelmed, just write five sentences covering your most basic main points.

Here's what they might look like for this article:

• Introductory Paragraph:  While most students consider writing an essay a boring task, with the right mindset, it can actually be an enjoyable experience.
• Body #1: Most students think writing an essay is tedious because they focus on external rewards.
• Body #2: Students should instead focus on internal fulfillment when writing an essay.
• Body #3: Not only will focusing on internal fulfillment allow students to have more fun, it will also result in better essays.
• Conclusion: Writing an essay doesn't have to be simply a way to earn a good grade. Instead, it can be a means of finding fulfillment.

After you write your five sentences, it's easy to fill in the paragraphs for each one.

Now, you give it a shot!

5. Be “source heavy.”

In college, I discovered a trick that helped me go from a B-average student to an A-student, but before I explain how it works, let me warn you. This technique is powerful , but it might not work for all teachers or professors. Use with caution.

As I was writing a paper for a literature class, I realized that the articles and books I was reading said what I was trying to say much better than I ever could. So what did I do? I quoted them liberally throughout my paper. When I wasn't quoting, I re-phrased what they said in my own words, giving proper credit, of course. I found that not only did this formula create a well-written essay, it took about half the time to write.

It's good to keep in mind that using anyone else's words, even when morphed into your own phrasing, requires citation. While the definition of plagiarism is shifting with the rise of online collaboration and cooperative learning environments, always  err on the side of excessive citation to be safe.

When I used this technique, my professors sometimes mentioned that my papers were very “source” heavy. However, at the same time, they always gave me A's.

To keep yourself safe, I recommend using a 60/40 approach with your body paragraphs: Make sure 60% of the words are your own analysis and argumentation, while 40% can be quoted (or text you paraphrase) from your sources.

Like the five sentence trick, this technique makes the writing process simpler. Instead of putting the main focus on writing well, it instead forces you to research  well, which some students find easier.

6. Write the body first, the introduction second, and the conclusion last.

Introductions are often the hardest part to write because you're trying to summarize your entire essay before you've even written it yet. Instead, try writing your introduction last, giving yourself the body of the paper to figure out the main point of your essay.

This is especially important with an essay topic you are not personally interested in. I definitely recommend this in classes you either don't excel in or care much for. Take plenty of time to draft and revise your body paragraphs before  attempting to craft a meaningful introductory paragraph.

Otherwise your opening may sound awkward, wooden, and bland.

7. Most essays answer the question, “What?” Good essays answer the “Why?” The best essays answer the “How?”

If you get stuck trying to make your argument, or you're struggling to reach the required word count, try focusing on the question, “How?”

For example:

• How did J.D. Salinger convey the theme of inauthenticity in  The Catcher In the Rye ?
• How did Napoleon restore stability in France after the French Revolution?
• How does the research prove girls really do rule and boys really do drool?

If you focus on how, you'll always have enough to write about.

8. Don't be afraid to jump around.

Essay writing can be a dance. You don't have to stay in one place and write from beginning to end.

For the same reasons listed in point #6, give yourself the freedom to write as if you're circling around your topic rather than making a single, straightforward argument. Then, when you edit and proofread, you can make sure everything lines up correctly.

In fact, now is the perfect time to mention that proofreading your essay isn't just about spelling and commas.

It's about making sure your analysis or argument flows smoothly from one idea to another. (Okay, technically this comprises editing, but most students writing a high school or college essay don't take the time to complete every step of the writing process. Let's be honest.)

So as you clean up your mechanics and sentence structure, make sure your ideas flow smoothly, logically, and naturally from one to the next as you finish proofreading.

9. Here are some words and phrases you don't want to use.

• You  (You'll notice I use a lot of you's, which is great for a blog post. However, in an academic essay, it's better to omit the second-person.)
• To Be verbs (is, are, was, were, am)

Don't have time to edit? Here's a lightning-quick editing technique .

A note about “I”: Some teachers say you shouldn't use “I” statements in your writing, but the truth is that professional, academic papers often use phrases like “I believe” and “in my opinion,” especially in their introductions.

10. It's okay to use Wikipedia, if…

Wikipedia is one of the top five websites in the world for a reason: it can be a great tool for research. However, most teachers and professors don't consider Wikipedia a valid source for use in essays.

Don't totally discount it, though! Here are two ways you can use Wikipedia in your essay writing:

• Background research. If you don't know enough about your topic, Wikipedia can be a great resource to quickly learn everything you need to know to get started.
• Find sources . Check the reference section of Wikipedia's articles on your topic. While you may not be able to cite Wikipedia itself, you can often find those original sources and cite them . You can locate the links to primary and secondary sources at the bottom of any Wikipedia page under the headings “Further Reading” and “References.”

You Can Enjoy Essay Writing

The thing I regret most about high school and college is that I treated it like something I had  to do rather than something I wanted  to do.

The truth is, education is an opportunity many people in the world don't have access to.

It's a gift, not just something that makes your life more difficult. I don't want you to make the mistake of just “getting by” through school, waiting desperately for summer breaks and, eventually, graduation.

How would your life be better if you actively enjoyed writing an essay? What would school look like if you wanted to suck it dry of all the gifts it has to give you?

All I'm saying is, don't miss out!

Looking for More Essay Writing Tips?

Looking for more essay tips to strengthen your essay writing? Try some of these resources:

• 7 Tips on Writing an Effective Essay
• Tips for Writing Your Thesis Statement

How about you? Do you have any tips for writing an essay?  Let us know in the  comments .

Need more grammar help?  My favorite tool that helps find grammar problems and even generates reports to help improve my writing is ProWritingAid . Works with Word, Scrivener, Google Docs, and web browsers. Also, be sure to use my coupon code to get 20 percent off: WritePractice20

Coupon Code:WritePractice20 »

Ready to try out these ten essay tips to make your essay assignment fun? Spend fifteen minutes using tip #4 and write five original sentences that could be turned into an essay.

When you're finished, share your five sentences in the comments section. And don't forget to give feedback to your fellow writers!

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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.

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10 Tips for Writing Assignments

Writing assignments are a cornerstone of your academic journey, and honing your assignment writing skills is paramount for your success. Whether you're embarking on your first year or a seasoned academic, the art of effective assignment writing can wield significant influence over your grades and overall educational voyage. In this comprehensive guide, we'll offer you ten invaluable tips to elevate your assignment writing prowess. These strategies, along with expert guidance from our specialized assignment help website writemyessays.com/do-my-assignment.html , will empower you to enhance your writing skills and chart a course towards academic triumph.

Tip 1: Start Early

The first rule of successful assignment writing is to start early. Procrastination is the enemy of quality work. By initiating your assignments as soon as you receive them, you'll have ample time for essential steps such as research, planning, drafting, and revisions. Starting early allows you to manage your time effectively and produce well-crafted assignments.

Tip 2: Understand the Assignment

Before you begin writing, it's essential to thoroughly understand the assignment instructions. Take the time to read and analyze what is expected of you. If any aspects are unclear, don't hesitate to seek clarification from your instructor. Understanding the assignment's requirements is fundamental to meeting them successfully.

Tip 3: Plan Your Work

Effective planning is a cornerstone of assignment writing. Develop a structured plan that includes creating a timeline for your assignment. Break down the work into smaller tasks, allocate sufficient time for research, outlining, drafting, and proofreading. A well-organized plan will keep you on track and reduce stress.

Tip 4: Utilize Campus Resources

Your university offers a wealth of resources to support your writing endeavors. Take advantage of writing centers, libraries, and academic advisors who can provide guidance and feedback on your assignments. These resources are valuable assets that can significantly improve the quality of your work.

Tip 5: Research Thoroughly

High-quality assignments require thorough research. Dive deeply into your chosen topic, utilizing a variety of credible sources such as academic journals, books, and reputable websites. Ensure that you cite your sources correctly to provide evidence for your arguments and maintain academic integrity.

Tip 6: Maintain a Good Writing Style

Developing and maintaining a clear and concise writing style is essential for effective communication in your assignments. Avoid overly complex language and prioritize clarity. Ensure that your assignments have a logical structure with a clear flow of ideas. Your goal is to make your writing accessible and easy for your reader to understand.

Tip 7: Seek Writing Assistance

If you ever find yourself struggling with assignment writing, don't hesitate to seek writing assistance. Many universities offer writing assistance programs staffed by experienced tutors who can provide guidance and feedback on your work. These services are designed to help you refine your writing skills and produce higher-quality assignments.

Tip 8: Proofread and Edit

The importance of proofreading and editing cannot be overstated. After completing your initial draft, take the time to review and edit your work. Check for grammar and punctuation errors, ensure proper formatting, and verify that your assignment aligns with the assignment guidelines. Effective editing will polish your work and enhance its overall quality.

Tip 9: Stay Safe Online

When conducting online research for your assignments, it's essential to prioritize online safety. Use reliable sources and be cautious of plagiarism. Properly cite all your references to maintain academic integrity and avoid unintentional academic misconduct.

Tip 10: Celebrate Your Achievements

Lastly, don't forget to celebrate your achievements in assignment writing. Completing assignments is a significant accomplishment on your academic journey. Reward yourself for your hard work and dedication, and acknowledge your successes. Recognizing your achievements can motivate you to excel in future assignments.

Dos and Don'ts

To summarize, here are some dos and don'ts for successful assignment writing:

• Start early and plan your work effectively.
• Thoroughly understand the assignment instructions.
• Utilize available campus resources for support and guidance.
• Conduct in-depth research using credible sources.
• Maintain a clear and concise writing style for accessibility.
• Seek writing assistance when facing challenges.
• Commit to thorough proofreading and editing.
• Stay safe and ethical when conducting online research.
• Celebrate your achievements and milestones.
• Procrastinate on your assignments; start early instead.
• Overlook or misinterpret assignment instructions.
• Miss out on utilizing valuable campus resources.
• Skimp on research quality or rely on unreliable sources.
• Engage in overly complex writing that hinders clarity.
• Hesitate to seek assistance when facing challenges.
• Neglect the critical steps of proofreading and editing.
• Plagiarize or compromise on academic integrity.
• Forget to acknowledge and celebrate your accomplishments.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some common questions related to assignment writing:

1. How can I improve my writing style?

Improving your writing style is a gradual process. Consider taking writing courses, seeking feedback from professors or writing tutors, and practicing regularly to refine your skills.

2. Is it okay to use online sources for research?

Yes, it's acceptable to use online sources for research, but ensure that they are reliable and properly cited in your assignments to maintain academic credibility.

Final Thoughts

Writing assignments may seem challenging at times, but with the right approach and these ten tips, you can excel in your academic journey. Remember that assignment writing is a skill that improves with practice and dedication. By following these guidelines and continuously honing your writing skills, you'll be well-equipped to tackle assignments successfully and achieve academic excellence. Go to website

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A – Broad statement(s) consisting of general information relating to the topic. B – Narrower, specific statement(s), closing in on the main focus of the topic (includes thesis). C – Even narrower, statement(s), identifying key issues.

Learn more about writing essay introductions in the Essay writing resource website. The body paragraphs address each of the main points (or sub-topics) of your essay in the same order they were mentioned in your essay introduction. Each paragraph will be related to your essay’s central focus and thesis.

• Before you start to write, draw a map of your ideas for the different paragraphs which support the thesis statement.
• After you have made your map, write each body paragraph with a clear structure to describe, discuss and develop your topic.

Learn more about writing good essay body paragraphs from the Essay writing resource website. The conclusion paragraph is your last chance to impress your reader. You can either:

• Start your conclusion with a phrase such as “In conclusion” or “To sum up” as this will indicate to your reader that you are finishing your essay.
• Immediately begin with a summary of the main points, and then write an end statement. In this statement you can restate the thesis, make final comments that could be evaluative, or refer to the larger issues related to the larger context or background.

Learn more about writing good essay conclusions from the Essay writing resource website. You will need to provide a full list of references at the end of your essay. These will demonstrate that the opinions you expressed in your essay were informed from your reading. Make sure you acknowledge your sources using the correct referencing style.

What are common essay types?

At university you have to demonstrate the ability to write different types of essays. While all academic essays have the same basic structure (introduction, body paragraphs, conclusion), the purpose, style of delivery, and organisation of the ideas may vary.

Examples of common essay types

“A discussion essay discusses a range of evidence, views, theories, findings or approaches on a topic to develop a position through the essay. The conclusion usually states this position”  Academic Writing at Auckland (AWA) .

See the discussion essay examples on the AWA site.

“An Analysis Essay critically analyses an object of study (a book extract, artwork, film, article, cultural artefact, event, example, situation…) through the lens of broader concepts (theories, themes, values, systems, processes…). It builds and supports a position and argument through this critical analysis and demonstrates understanding of both the object and the broader concepts” Academic Writing at Auckland  (AWA) .

See the analysis essay examples on the AWA site.

Additional resources

The following resources provide you further information about essay writing and examples of essays in different disciplines:

• write@uni: Examples of student writing
• Academic Writing at Auckland

Related topics

• Critical thinking
• Finding information
• Understanding assessments
• Note-taking
• Time management
• Paraphrasing and quoting
• Referencing and avoiding plagiarism

See all available workshops .

Short on time? Watch a video on:

• Essay writing – 6:28
• Paraphrasing and quoting – 22:22
• Using active and passive voice – 9:58
• Editing your work – 5:12

Have any questions? 

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Understanding Writing Assignments

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How to Decipher the Paper Assignment

Many instructors write their assignment prompts differently. By following a few steps, you can better understand the requirements for the assignment. The best way, as always, is to ask the instructor about anything confusing.

• Read the prompt the entire way through once. This gives you an overall view of what is going on.
• Underline or circle the portions that you absolutely must know. This information may include due date, research (source) requirements, page length, and format (MLA, APA, CMS).
• Underline or circle important phrases. You should know your instructor at least a little by now - what phrases do they use in class? Does he repeatedly say a specific word? If these are in the prompt, you know the instructor wants you to use them in the assignment.
• Think about how you will address the prompt. The prompt contains clues on how to write the assignment. Your instructor will often describe the ideas they want discussed either in questions, in bullet points, or in the text of the prompt. Think about each of these sentences and number them so that you can write a paragraph or section of your essay on that portion if necessary.
• Rank ideas in descending order, from most important to least important. Instructors may include more questions or talking points than you can cover in your assignment, so rank them in the order you think is more important. One area of the prompt may be more interesting to you than another.
• Ask your instructor questions if you have any.

After you are finished with these steps, ask yourself the following:

• What is the purpose of this assignment? Is my purpose to provide information without forming an argument, to construct an argument based on research, or analyze a poem and discuss its imagery?
• Who is my audience? Is my instructor my only audience? Who else might read this? Will it be posted online? What are my readers' needs and expectations?
• What resources do I need to begin work? Do I need to conduct literature (hermeneutic or historical) research, or do I need to review important literature on the topic and then conduct empirical research, such as a survey or an observation? How many sources are required?
• Who - beyond my instructor - can I contact to help me if I have questions? Do you have a writing lab or student service center that offers tutorials in writing?

(Notes on prompts made in blue )

Poster or Song Analysis: Poster or Song? Poster!

Goals : To systematically consider the rhetorical choices made in either a poster or a song. She says that all the time.

Things to Consider: ah- talking points

• how the poster addresses its audience and is affected by context I'll do this first - 1.
• general layout, use of color, contours of light and shade, etc.
• use of contrast, alignment, repetition, and proximity C.A.R.P. They say that, too. I'll do this third - 3.
• the point of view the viewer is invited to take, poses of figures in the poster, etc. any text that may be present
• possible cultural ramifications or social issues that have bearing I'll cover this second - 2.
• ethical implications
• how the poster affects us emotionally, or what mood it evokes
• the poster's implicit argument and its effectiveness said that was important in class, so I'll discuss this last - 4.
• how the song addresses its audience
• lyrics: how they rhyme, repeat, what they say
• use of music, tempo, different instruments
• possible cultural ramifications or social issues that have bearing
• emotional effects
• the implicit argument and its effectiveness

These thinking points are not a step-by-step guideline on how to write your paper; instead, they are various means through which you can approach the subject. I do expect to see at least a few of them addressed, and there are other aspects that may be pertinent to your choice that have not been included in these lists. You will want to find a central idea and base your argument around that. Additionally, you must include a copy of the poster or song that you are working with. Really important!

I will be your audience. This is a formal paper, and you should use academic conventions throughout.

Length: 4 pages Format: Typed, double-spaced, 10-12 point Times New Roman, 1 inch margins I need to remember the format stuff. I messed this up last time =(

Academic Argument Essay

5-7 pages, Times New Roman 12 pt. font, 1 inch margins.

Minimum of five cited sources: 3 must be from academic journals or books

• Design Plan due: Thurs. 10/19
• Rough Draft due: Monday 10/30
• Final Draft due: Thurs. 11/9

Remember this! I missed the deadline last time

The design plan is simply a statement of purpose, as described on pages 40-41 of the book, and an outline. The outline may be formal, as we discussed in class, or a printout of an Open Mind project. It must be a minimum of 1 page typed information, plus 1 page outline.

This project is an expansion of your opinion editorial. While you should avoid repeating any of your exact phrases from Project 2, you may reuse some of the same ideas. Your topic should be similar. You must use research to support your position, and you must also demonstrate a fairly thorough knowledge of any opposing position(s). 2 things to do - my position and the opposite.

Your essay should begin with an introduction that encapsulates your topic and indicates 1 the general trajectory of your argument. You need to have a discernable thesis that appears early in your paper. Your conclusion should restate the thesis in different words, 2 and then draw some additional meaningful analysis out of the developments of your argument. Think of this as a "so what" factor. What are some implications for the future, relating to your topic? What does all this (what you have argued) mean for society, or for the section of it to which your argument pertains? A good conclusion moves outside the topic in the paper and deals with a larger issue.

You should spend at least one paragraph acknowledging and describing the opposing position in a manner that is respectful and honestly representative of the opposition’s 3 views. The counterargument does not need to occur in a certain area, but generally begins or ends your argument. Asserting and attempting to prove each aspect of your argument’s structure should comprise the majority of your paper. Ask yourself what your argument assumes and what must be proven in order to validate your claims. Then go step-by-step, paragraph-by-paragraph, addressing each facet of your position. Most important part!

Finally, pay attention to readability . Just because this is a research paper does not mean that it has to be boring. Use examples and allow your opinion to show through word choice and tone. Proofread before you turn in the paper. Your audience is generally the academic community and specifically me, as a representative of that community. Ok, They want this to be easy to read, to contain examples I find, and they want it to be grammatically correct. I can visit the tutoring center if I get stuck, or I can email the OWL Email Tutors short questions if I have any more problems.

Dec. 5, 2019

Better writing assignments start with critical reading praxis.

Laying the Foundation: Graduate Student Projects in Teaching & Learning

In this blog feature, we present the work of Rice graduate students completing coursework in our Certificate in Teaching and Learning .

Today, we’re featuring the project of Mallory Pladus, a PhD Candidate in English at Rice. As part of her coursework in UNIV 501 “Research on Teaching and Learning,” Mallory pursued the research question “What types of reading and writing assignments promote critical literacy?” Based on her findings she compiled an annotated bibliography, wrote a synthesis of the research, and developed a research poster. We asked Mallory to share her findings and analysis through this blog post.

In the spring I conducted a research project with the CTE that began as an effort to learn more about writing assignments in undergraduate courses, specifically for English and writing-focused courses, but with an interest in assignments across disciplines as well. I approached the project from the vantage point of an instructor at a loss, remembering having puzzled over the question of what kind of writing work to assign when I had the chance to experiment with curriculum design as a first-time grad student instructor.

In that teaching experience, I wanted to take seriously the question of how my course could be evidence of a pedagogical cornerstone: to help student writers feel more confident in how their thinking comes through on the page. I thought a lot about the standard essay form, its strengths and weaknesses: it combines lessons on argumentation, literary evidence, and form; it’s (rotely?) institutionalized across disciplines. In the research I did last term, I was still less interested in deposing the essay, and more interested in researching answers to these two questions: What types of assignments help students arrive at a point where they can claim, with a feeling of authenticity, in this paper, I argue that… ? And what are the major principles in composition pedagogy that might help me and other instructors create more interesting and more effective assignments for students?

The findings were elucidating toward those ends. The field of composition pedagogy shows the positive influence of genre studies, which encourages instructors to make explicit the social function , the rhetorical situation , and the discourse community of the genres they’ve assigned.[1] Instructors who opt to not buck the traditional essay assignment, for example, should unpack with students who the essay is for, what conventions readers expect from it, and why the genre exists at all. I especially like the call to encourage students to write to a real or imagined community beyond the instructor. I remember valuing a version of this advice I received as an undergrad writer - to keep front and center the questions of who (is this for?) and why (write this at all?).

Above all, though, the standout lesson from the field - discussed as repetitiously as the content of the advice itself - is that student writers benefit most from writing early and often, through assignments that are sequenced, frequent, and recursive. I think most instructors know this, but could stand to be reminded. Effective assignments encompass opportunities for reflection, metacognition, and revision. They might call for post-script writing, for example; they might sequence an essay in staged parts; they might compel students to submit revisions after dialoguing with peers. In an article from The Chronicle of Higher Education by Doug Hesse, he summarily states the logic subtending all of these principles: “Students learn to write by writing.”[2]

For me, these conventional precepts - though helpful - omit one key term. Don’t students also learn to write by reading? One of my favorite things about teaching English is that part of the disciplinary groundwork is to attend carefully to language - to interpret texts as a series of decisions to a set of ends. For writing instruction, this helps. We impart to students the significance of these decisions, and we get to establish close engagement with language as a course norm. Hesse does acknowledge this aspect of successful writing classrooms too, as he notes that student writing benefits when students feel equipped to read texts as deep examples - not just of how to turn a phrase (though that too), but of carefully plotted rhetorical moves.

From experience, as a graduate fellow at Rice’s CAPC, I’m often reminded that my job to help a student improve a piece of writing comes down to making sure the student has really understood the assigned reading. When I think of common areas for improvement - an essay repeats key claims, doesn’t engage thoughtfully or confidently with source materials, lacks overall heft - they all tend to signal that a student’s first act in revision should be to return to the text. Through this work consulting on student essays, I’ve also learned that students frequently collapse the terms “critical” and “criticize”; when asked to “critique” an author’s argument, for example, students proceed to expose its flaws. These two observations suggest a need for and one potential barrier to implementing critical reading as part of our writing instruction. The pedagogy scholars, Robert Diyanni and Anton Borst, whose work I describe more below, define critical reading well: it is the capacity to “analyze a text, understand its logic, evaluate its evidence, interpret it creatively, and ask searching questions of it” (3).

Toward my first research question, about how to help students write with a greater feeling of authenticity, critical reading offers one answer. Before students can fill in the blanks that follow the template “ In this paper, I argue that …” they need to form a considered response to a source text, and this work begins with meaningful comprehension. Further, the language that Diyanni and Borst use to define critical reading resonates with this goal of authentic argumentation. As they highlight the abilities to “interpret [a text] creatively” and to “ask searching questions of it,” they describe the act of reading from a specific subject position. Course writing assignments (“ I will argue”) then allow students to develop ideas that began with reading.

My second research question pertained to the field of composition studies. In the research I conducted on writing assignments, I was surprised to not find more content on the relationship between critical reading and critical writing. There are, however, two notable exceptions to this point - one old, one new. In a study from 1990, Reading-to-Write: Exploring a Cognitive and Social Process , Linda Flower, et. al. explain that according to research in cognitive learning, the mind distinguishes between reading to do something and reading to learn something (6). When a person reads a set of instructions, for instance, they scan for usable content to extract. Conversely, the act of reading with a bent toward writing, “is guided by the need to produce a text of one’s own” (7).

In Critical Reading Across the Curriculum , DiYanni and Borst make a case for the significance of critical reading, with greater implications for pedagogy. They explain that CR entails two primary parts: to read responsibly (to accurately attend to a text) and to read responsively (to talk back to a text via marginalia and annotation). The contributor Pat C. Hoy argues that “We would do well to clarify for our students this entwining relationship, reminding them...that the most persuasive writing is predicated on acts of clear-headed critical reading” (25). Hoy offers the practical example of one such reading assignment as a precursor to writing: guide students to distill an essay; have them write one cogent sentence in the margin to capture the meaning of each paragraph.

Both Reading to Write and Critical Reading Across the Curriculum stress the importance of meeting a text on its own terms - of understanding its major moves and claims (as opposed to quickly mining it, and before beginning the work of critiquing it). Both provoke the need for instructors to prompt students to read better, with an eye toward writing. In addition to the example Hoy provides of the distillation assignment, instructors could experiment with reading journals, dialectical notebooks (that stage a conversation between the reader and the source text), and descriptive outlining (in which students unpack both what a text says and how it says it).[3] These examples attest to the overlaps between reading and writing assignments. Similarly, as we emphasize the importance of drafting, editing, and revising in the writing classroom, we can also emphasize active reading and active reading assignments as the first stage of the writing work we already know to teach as a process.

[1] From Dan Melzer’s Assignments Across the Curriculum: A National Study of College Writing (2014). For more on genre theory, see Mary Soliday’s Everyday Genres: Writing Assignments Across the Disciplines (2011).

[2] “We Know What Works in Teaching Composition” (2017).

[3] See Susan M. Leist, Writing to Teach; Writing to Learn in Higher Education (University Press of America, 2006), for a more detailed description of these and other assignments.

Posted on December 5, 2019 by Ania Kowalik

Free tools to make your students better writers and readers .

Quill.org, a non-profit, provides free literacy activities that build reading comprehension, writing, and language skills for elementary, middle, and high school students.

Writing Across the Curriculum: Quill's nonprofit mission is to now build both reading and writing skills through free, OER content across the curriculum. Over the coming years, we will be building a library of free ELA, social studies, and science activities that engage students in deeper thinking through writing prompts that provide immediate feedback.

9.3 million students have written 2 billion sentences on Quill.

Quill Reading for Evidence

Provide your students with nonfiction texts paired with AI-powered writing prompts, instead of multiple-choice questions, to enable deeper thinking.

Students read a nonfiction text and build their comprehension through writing prompts, supporting a series of claims with evidence sourced from the text. Quill challenges students to write responses that are precise, logical, and based on textual evidence, with Quill coaching the student through custom, targeted feedback on each revision so that students strengthen their reading comprehension and hone their writing skills.

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Social Studies Topics

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Quill Connect

Help your students advance from fragmented and run-on sentences to complex and well structured ones.

Using the evidence-based strategy of sentence combining, students combine multiple ideas into a single sentence. They then receive instant feedback designed to help them improve their clarity and precision.

Quill Lessons

The Quill Lessons tool enables teachers to lead whole-class and small-group writing instruction.

Teachers control interactive slides that contain writing prompts, and the entire class responds to each prompt. Each Quill Lessons activity provides a lesson plan, writing prompts, discussion topics, and a follow up independent practice activity.

Quill Diagnostic

Quickly determine which skills your students need to work on with our diagnostics.

The diagnostics cover vital sentence construction skills and generate personalized learning plans based on the student’s performance.

Quill Proofreader

Proofreader teaches your students editing skills by having them proofread passages.

Students edit passages and receive personalized exercises based on their results. With over 100 expository passages, Proofreader gives students the practice they need to spot common grammatical errors.

Quill Grammar

Students practice basic grammar skills, from comma placement to parallel structure.

Quill Grammar has over 150 sentence writing activities to help your students. Our activities are designed to be completed in 10 minutes so you have the freedom to use them in the way that works best for your classroom.

How Quill Works

Set up your classroom, without it.

You can quickly and easily set up your classroom in Quill by inputting student names or providing students with a unique code. If you use Google Classroom or Clever, you can automatically set up your classroom with one click.

Choose activities

Decide if you want your students to proofread passages, combine sentences, or complete a diagnostic. Use our ten minute activities as building blocks during your classroom instruction.

Use easy-to-consume reporting

Use our reporting to spot trends and identify growth opportunities. Monitor comprehension on specific writing standards.

Get immediate feedback for your students

Save time grading and watch your students correct their mistakes instantly.

Intervene where students struggle

See exactly where your students need intervention with our comprehensive reports.

Differentiate learning to meet the needs of all students

Assign specific activities for ELLs and students with learning differences.

Engage students with adaptive activities

Challenge students with questions that automatically adapt based on their previous responses.

Align with the Common Core Standards

Easily meet Common Core language standards with our aligned activities.

Easily sign up with Google Classroom

With one click all of your students and classes will be imported.

Over 100 concepts totaling 50 hours of quality curriculum.

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Writing Across the Curriculum

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• Research & Assessment
• Writing Plans
• WEC Liaisons
• Academic Units
• Engage with WEC
• Teaching Resources
• Teaching Consultations
• Faculty Writing Resources

• 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
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• School of Public Health
• Spanish and Portuguese Studies
• Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences
• Theatre Arts & Dance
• Youth Studies
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• Commenting on Student Writing
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12 Writing-to-Learn Activities

No matter what subject you teach, writing can empower learning. And yet, fitting time-intensive writing assignments into your crowded curriculum may not seem feasible. Here's some good news. Research suggests you don’t need to design lengthy writing projects for your students to benefit from writing as a learning tool. Instead, short bursts of low-stakes writing hold the most learning potential.

Students improve retention and comprehension when they write regularly and reflectively about their learning—not only about what they learn but also the difficulties they face, the surprises they encounter, and the strategies they employ along the way.

You can deepen your students’ thinking across the curriculum by making writing a regular part of your classroom. Consider using any of the following writing-to-learn activities, or adapt them to fit the needs of your students. Each activity takes just 10-15 minutes to complete.

1. Learning Logs

A learning log is a journal for schoolwork. Students use learning logs to write their thoughts, feelings, and questions about the subjects they are studying. Writing in this way helps them connect new information to what they already know, reflect on their learning processes, and think through ideas that are unclear.

Note: Learning logs begin this list because students can incorporate almost all the other writing-to-learn activities in them.

View minilesson for Keeping a Learning Log.

2. Admit/Exit Slips

Students submit brief writings on “slips” to you before and after class. The slips can include questions, comments, observations, or reflections about the material being presented in class. Encourage students to write about ideas that they find confusing, interesting, upsetting, and so on.

3. Correspondence

Students write a letter or an email to a person connected to an event or topic they are studying (whether that person can actually receive the message or not). Examples include a letter to a Civil War general or an email to Robert Oppenheimer, father of quantum mechanics.

4. Dialogue Journals

Students write brief notes back and forth with another student or teacher about things they are learning in class.

View minilesson for Creating a Dialogue Journal.

5. Fictional Dialogues

A fictional dialogue is a made-up written conversation between students and another person (or two). For example, students could create an interview script between themselves and Madame Curie.

View minilesson for Writing a Historical Dialogue.

6. First Thoughts

Students write their very first thoughts about a topic. Writing a paragraph about the topic of a new unit will remind them what they already know about the topic. When they finish the unit, they can revisit their first thoughts to consider what they have learned. 

7. Freewrites

With the topic of a lesson or unit in mind, students write quickly about the topic for 5 to 10 minutes without stopping. Use prompts like these to get them started:

• Something I found difficult about [topic area] is . . .
• What I really like about [topic area] is . . .
• Something that helped me understand [topic area] was . . .
• One experience from my own life that connects to [topic area] is . . .
• One thing I still don't understand is . . .

View minilesson for Writing Freely and Rapidly.

8. Nutshells

Students try writing one sentence that captures the importance of something they are studying or reading. This technique gets its name from the idiom “put it in a nutshell” (the smallest possible space).

View minilesson for Summarizing Ideas in a Nutshell.

9. Predictions

Students write what they expect to happen next in a book or lesson. When predicting, they must think carefully about what has already happened. Their expectations will either be met or not, but either way, they will have thought more deeply about the material.

10. Reader-Response Journals

In this type of journal entry, students express their feelings about the things they are reading. Writing about challenging books can help them understand what they are reading.

11. Stop ’n’ Writes

Students pause during their reading or listening to write a reflection about the text or lesson. Use questions like these to prompt student responses:

• What is the most important thing I learned from the reading/lesson?
• What parts didn’t I understand?
• What parts do I want to know more about?
• How does the writing/topic make me feel?
• What else do I know that is like this?

View minilesson for Performing a Stop ’n’ Write.

12. Summaries

A summary of a reading or a lesson requires students to capture the main point and key details in a form briefer than the body of information.

Teacher Support:

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Standards Correlations:

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

• LAFS.3.W.4.10
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• 110.22.b.12
• LAFS.6.W.4.10
• 110.23.b.10
• 110.23.b.11
• LAFS.7.W.4.10
• 110.24.b.10
• 110.24.b.11
• 110.24.b.12
• LAFS.8.W.4.10
• 110.36.c.10
• 110.37.c.10
• LA 10.2.1.g
• 110.38.c.10
• 110.39.c.10
• LAFS.1112.W.4.10
• LA 12.2.1.g

Related Resources

All resources.

• Creating a Dialogue Journal
• Classroom Esprit de Corps: Creating Community Through Peer Support
• A Lesson to Learn
• Of Personal Importance: How Narration Drives Meaningful Writing
• 4 Writing Ideas for Creative Classrooms
• Journaling and Blogging
• Writing Character Analyses
• Writing Literary Analyses
• Writing Résumés and Cover Letters
• Writing Personal Essays
• Write on Course 20-20
• Inquire Middle School Teacher's Guide
• Inquire Middle School
• Inquire Elementary Teacher's Guide
• Inquire Elementary

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Essays & Writing Assignments

Papers and essays are one of those activities that easily cross the line from face to face classes to online courses. At first all that seems to change is how students are turning in their work.

However, papers and essays present new challenges in online courses, where you don’t see your students to clarify expectations or answer questions. For that reason, in online classes, the paper or essay prompt is even more vital.

One good idea in online courses is to break paper components down into milestones (outline, source list, draft, final paper, revision). This ensures you get your eyes on your students’ work prior to the submission of the final paper and can offer corrective guidance if students are off track.

Information and examples below provided by Dr. Meghan Barnes, Assistant Professor in the Department of English at UNC Charlotte.

When to use essay prompts as an assessment tool:

• To assess students’ knowledge of course content.
• To assess students’ ability to solve problems, make inferences, draw conclusions, and/or form judgments.
• When there are a number of possible correct or acceptable answers.

An effective essay prompt should:

• Set a clear and specific context.
• Indicate what students are to explain or describe.
• Point the way to an appropriate response: this should include information about the content of the response, as well as the writing style and/or format.

Sample Essay Prompts

Example #1:

We have been studying the significance of Young Adult Literature (YAL) and its evolution over the past few decades. Based on your understanding of the development of the genre, describe why this evolution is significant and how this changing genre has shaped societal perspectives of adolescence. Be sure to include the following in your response:

• A clear description of how and when YAL developed as a literary genre.
• A clear overview of at least four of the major developmental shifts in the genre.
• A thorough discussion of at least three ways in which the social construct of adolescence has developed in relation to the development of YAL.

Your response should be organized into paragraphs and include references to the texts and topics we have studied in this course.

Breaking down the example:

Example #2:

There are those who contend that global climate change is a naturally occurring phenomenon and others who contend it is caused by the actions of humans. Analyze the evidence we have studied to support each claim. Decide who you think has the stronger argument. Defend your judgment with reasons. In doing so, consider the evidence from geological history, the history and levels of emissions, and the political and economic interests of each side. Your response should be organized into paragraphs and include references to the texts and topics we have studied in this course.

Chappuis, J., & Stiggins, R. (2020). Classroom assessment for student learning: Doing it right–using it well (3rd ed.). Pearson Education.

Module 8: Study Skills

What to do with essay assignments, learning outcomes.

• Identify how to approach common types of college writing assignments

Writing assignments can be as varied as the instructors who assign them. Some assignments are explicit about what exactly you’ll need to do, in what order, and how it will be graded. Some assignments are very open-ended, leaving you to determine the best path toward answering the project. Most fall somewhere in the middle, containing details about some aspects but leaving other assumptions unstated. It’s important to remember that your first resource for getting clarification about an assignment is your instructor—he or she will be very willing to talk out ideas with you to be sure you’re prepared at each step to do well with the writing.

Most writing in college will be a direct response to class materials—an assigned reading, a discussion in class, an experiment in a lab. Generally speaking, these writing tasks can be divided into three broad categories.

Summary Assignments

Being asked to summarize a source is a common task in many types of writing. It can also seem like a straightforward task: simply restate, in shorter form, what the source says. A lot of advanced skills are hidden in this seemingly simple assignment, however.

An effective summary does the following:

• reflects your accurate understanding of a source’s thesis or purpose
• differentiates between major and minor ideas in a source
• demonstrates your ability to identify key phrases to quote
• demonstrates your ability to effectively paraphrase most of the source’s ideas
• captures the tone, style, and distinguishing features of a source
• does not reflect your personal opinion about the source

That last point is often the most challenging: we are opinionated creatures by nature, and it can be very difficult to keep our opinions from creeping into a summary, which is meant to be completely neutral.

In college-level writing, assignments that are only summary are rare. That said, many types of writing tasks contain at least some element of summary, from a biology report that explains what happened during a chemical process, to an analysis essay requiring  you to explain several prominent positions on gun control as a component of comparing them against one another.

Defined-Topic Assignments

Many writing tasks will ask you to address a particular topic or a narrow set of topic options. Even with the topic identified, however, it can sometimes be difficult to determine what aspects of the writing will be most important when it comes to grading.

Defined-topic writing assignments are used primarily to identify your familiarity with the subject matter. You must shape and focus that discussion or analysis so that it supports a claim that you discovered and formulated. Although the topic may be defined, you can’t just grind out four or five pages of discussion, explanation, or analysis. It may seem strange, but even when you’re asked to “show how” or “illustrate,” you’re still being asked to make an argument.

Often, the handout or other written text explaining the assignment—what professors call the writing prompt —will explain the purpose of the assignment, the required parameters (length, number and type of sources, referencing style, etc.), and the criteria for evaluation. Sometimes, though—especially when you are new to a field—you will encounter the baffling situation in which you comprehend every single sentence in the prompt but still have absolutely no idea how to approach the assignment. No one is doing anything wrong in a situation like that. It just means that further discussion of the assignment is required. Below are some tips:

• Focus on the verbs . Look for verbs like compare , explain , justify , reflect, or the all-purpose analyze . You’re not just producing a paper as an artifact; you’re conveying, in written communication, some intellectual work you have done. So the question is, what kind of thinking are you supposed to do to deepen your learning?
• Put the assignment in context . Many professors think in terms of assignment sequences. For example, a social science professor may ask you to write about a controversial issue three times: first, they will ask you to argue for one side of the debate and then they will ask you to argue for another. Finally, you’ll be asked for a more comprehensive and nuanced perspective by incorporating text produced in the first two assignments. A sequence like that is designed to help you think through a complex issue. If the assignment isn’t part of a sequence, think about where it falls in the span of the course (early, midterm, or toward the end), and how it relates to readings and other assignments. For example, if you see that a paper comes at the end of a three-week unit on the role of the Internet in organizational behavior, then your professor likely wants you to synthesize that material in your own way.
• Try a free-write . A free-write is when you just write, without stopping, for a set period of time. The “free” part is what you write—it can be whatever comes to mind. Professional writers use free-writing to get started on a challenging writing task or to overcome writer’s block or a powerful urge to procrastinate. The idea is that if you just make yourself write, you can’t help but produce some kind of useful nugget. Thus, even if the first eight sentences of your free-write are all variations on “I don’t understand this” or “I’d really rather be doing something else,” eventually you’ll write something like “I guess the main point of this is . . . ,” and you’re off and running.
• Ask for clarification . Even the most carefully crafted assignments may need some verbal clarification, especially if you’re new to a course or field. Try to convey to your instructor that you want to learn and you’re ready to work, and not just looking for advice on how to get an A.

Undefined-Topic Assignments

Another writing assignment you’ll potentially encounter is one in which the topic may be only broadly identified (“water conservation” in an ecology course, for instance, or “the Dust Bowl” in a U.S. history course), or even completely open (“compose an argumentative research essay on a subject of your choice”).

Where defined-topic essays demonstrate your knowledge of the content , undefined-topic assignments are used to demonstrate your skills— your ability to perform academic research, to synthesize ideas, and to apply the various stages of the writing process.

The first hurdle with this type of task is to find a focus that interests you. Don’t just pick something you feel will be easy to write about—that almost always turns out to be a false assumption. Instead, you’ll get the most value out of, and find it easier to work on, a topic that intrigues you personally in some way.

The same getting-started ideas described for defined-topic assignments will help with these kinds of projects, too. You can also try talking with your instructor or a writing tutor at your college’s writing center to help brainstorm ideas and make sure you’re on track. You want to feel confident that you’ve got a clear idea of what it means to be successful in the writing and that you’re not wasting time working in a direction that won’t be fruitful.

assignment prompt: instructional material provided by the teacher explaining the purpose of the assignment, required parameters, and criteria for evaluation

summary: a writing task that asks the student to restate in shorter form what the source says

undefined-topic assignment: a writing task based on a broadly identified topic that the student is expected to pull into focus

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• Writing in College: From Competence to Excellence. Authored by : Amy Guptill. Provided by : SUNY Open Textbooks. Located at : http://textbooks.opensuny.org/writing-in-college-from-competence-to-excellence/ . License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

APA Style Tutorials and Webinars

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Seventh edition tutorial

This tutorial was adapted from Academic Writer™, APA’s tool for teaching and learning effective writing. Academic Writer is intended for use by instructors with their students in courses that require papers to be written in APA Style. For information on or questions about Academic Writer, please visit the Academic Writer homepage .

Find more information on seventh edition APA Style in Academic Writer, the Publication Manual (7th ed.), the Concise Guide to APA Style (7th ed.), and the Style and Grammar Guidelines .

Instructional aids

• Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS)
• Paper Format
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• APA Style for beginners

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Academic Writer Tutorial

Basics of Seventh Edition APA Style

This tutorial is designed for writers new to APA Style. Learn the basics of seventh edition APA Style, including paper elements, format, and organization; academic writing style; grammar and usage; bias-free language; mechanics of style; tables and figures; in-text citations, paraphrasing, and quotations; and reference list format and order.

The Basics of Seventh Edition APA Style tutorial will permanently stay on this site for free.

Mastering APA Style Student Workbook webinars

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General seventh edition webinars

APA Style Seventh Edition Refresher for Instructors

A refresher on seventh edition APA Style guidelines for instructors who want to ensure that they are providing up-to-date guidance for students. We discuss basics of seventh edition APA Style guidelines, how the guidelines have changed from earlier editions, how you can help students learn the seventh edition, and which outdated guidelines (zombie guidelines) and APA Style myths (ghost guidelines) to watch out for.

Putting APA Style Into Practice: Tips for Integrating Style Into Your Curriculum

We know that you want your students to follow APA Style, but many students have trouble putting APA Style into practice. This webinar will help you to better understand the foundational principles of APA Style and learn best practices for incorporating APA Style into your curriculum.

An English Educator’s Guide to Introducing APA Style

English teachers at the high school and college level are increasingly asked to prepare students for future academic writing in disciplines using APA Style but may need to supplement their own APA Style knowledge. In this webinar, APA Style experts help set English teachers up for success by sharing the basics of APA Style and practical getting-started tips to increase instructor confidence and to prepare them to begin teaching APA Style right away.

What’s the Point of APA Style? Relevance of a Writing Style to Life After Graduation

The APA Style team explores how librarians can increase students’ buy-in to learning APA Style by demonstrating how learning and using a writing style will help students in any career they pursue. We will share real-life examples of applications of APA Style, showing how the APA Style core principles of writing with clarity, precision, and inclusion support people in tasks such as writing resumes and emails, creating PowerPoint presentations and other visual displays, and, above all, communicating with others to get important stuff done.

So You Need to Write a Literature Review: Understanding the Key Tasks and How to Accomplish Them

Learn how to implement a foundational element of scholarly writing—a literature review for an empirical study—with guidance for undergraduate writers. Join the APA Style experts as they outline key tasks in writing an effective literature review and provide strategies for approaching those tasks.

A Step-By-Step Guide for APA Style Student Papers

Being able to create, format, and organize their papers is essential to student success.

In this webinar, the style experts demonstrate how to set up student papers (font, line spacing, margins, page numbers, etc.), with an emphasis on how default word-processing software settings align with seventh edition style and make papers easier to format. The experts then address needs for formatting in the sections often included in student papers: title page, text, tables and figures, and reference list. The session concludes with steps for organizing papers and improving their quality.

The annotated diagrams from the webinar are available in this handout (PDF, 3.4MB) .

Citing Works in Text Using Seventh Edition APA Style

Consistently citing and accurately paraphrasing and quoting sources are some of the most important parts of scholarly writing.

This webinar provides an in-depth look at the APA Style citation system, including how to create and format in-text citations, integrate source material into a paper, and cite at an appropriate level.

Style experts also answer many of writers’ most common citation questions. Among these are how to paraphrase versus directly quote a work, how to cite long paraphrases from a single source, when to include a page or paragraph number in a citation, and how to cite works without page numbers.

Creating References Using Seventh Edition APA Style

The seventh edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association streamlines and simplifies the process of creating references.

In this webinar, members of the APA Style team provide an in-depth look at the simplified reference system, describing the rationale behind it, how to format references using it, and why references are easier because of it.

The panelists answer one of the most frequent questions: how to cite a work found online. They also use real-life examples to walk through creating references for works with missing information; found via a database; needing DOIs, URLs, and retrieval dates; and more.

Navigating the Transition to Seventh Edition APA Style

The release of the seventh edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association ushers in a new era of APA Style.

In this webinar, members of the APA Style team discuss the seventh edition of the Publication Manual , highlighting key updates in each of the manual’s 12 chapters.

The panelists provide insights into the rationale behind many of the changes and advice for navigating the transition to seventh edition style. They also address how students, faculty, and librarians can incorporate APA Style into the classroom and promote the teaching and mastery of the skills of effective scholarly communication.

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Learning Through Writing in the Age of AI

Introducing students to disciplinary writing in its various forms is essential, yet it can be challenging to balance how much instruction and guidance is needed, and at what scale. At the same time, the introduction of Generative AI has necessitated new approaches to writing assignments. While instructors may feel hesitant about incorporating more writing in their courses at a time when AI-produced text feels ubiquitous, it is important to remember the values of writing as a “pedagogical strategy that promotes cognitive processing and learning” (Bowen & Watson, 2024, p. 200). The following resource looks at why writing activities are beneficial for instructors and students alike, and offers some considerations and strategies for writing activities in the age of AI.

The CTL is here to help!

Looking for personalized support implementing writing activities into your course? Want to talk further about the possible roles that Generative AI could play in these assignments? Reach out to [email protected] to schedule a 1-1 consultation!

On this page:

Writing activities: an overview, writing assignment considerations in the age of ai.

• References & Resources

[W]riting is a way of processing, of understanding, of … growing. … writing is a tool of learning. … Writing is thinking (Norell, 2023).

All people write, regardless of their particular discipline or career. What changes is how or what people are writing, with every discipline having its own unique and contextualized knowledge about what “good” writing looks like. Thus, it is no surprise that incorporating writing activities into a course, regardless of the focus, can enhance student learning and better prepare students for their lives beyond the classroom. At the same time, the introduction and evolution of AI tools have necessitated a rethinking of approaches to writing activities in the classroom.

No matter how short or seemingly simple the prompt, writing activities can help students learn course material, while also “improv[ing] their thinking about ideas in their courses” (WAC Clearinghouse, n.d.). Additionally, certain kinds of writing activities can help prepare students for the variety of communicative tasks they will be asked to complete beyond college, increasing their familiarity with specific disciplinary genre conventions. For instructors, writing activities can be helpful in gauging “how well students grasp information and where they may need elaboration of key concepts” (WAC Clearinghouse, n.d.)  

Regardless of students’ prior experience with writing activities, it is important to include these activities in a course in ways that are contextualized, and that allow students to become familiar with specific disciplinary genres and expectations. Assigned writing activities may vary in their purpose, as well as the level of time they require from both students and instructors. Additionally, the assessment of the activities will differ, with some being lower-stakes than others. Nonetheless, instructors can leverage different types of writing activities to help foster and develop skills.

Low-Stakes Writing Activities

Low-stakes writing activities are a great way to help students learn specific concepts and assess their understanding of course materials. These activities might include minute papers, short response papers or discussion board posts, or annotations on a reading. Because these activities are meant to be low-stakes, they often require little to no feedback, while still presenting great opportunities for students to reflect on course materials. They can also help instructors gauge students’ understanding of concepts.

High-Stakes Writing Activities

Depending on the learning objectives of a particular course, instructors may wish to include higher-stakes writing opportunities for students. These kinds of activities are designed to help students practice their critical thinking skills, as well as potentially offer students an opportunity to practice disciplinary writing and increase their familiarity with disciplinary expectations and genre conventions. These activities may include assignments that ask students to write like a professional in the discipline, academic research papers, or journal articles. When scaffolded throughout a course, these can offer students authentic learning experiences , creating opportunities for them to practice as professionals within their disciplines. High-stakes writing activities should include additional time for students to engage in a writing process, which should include brainstorming, drafting, feedback (both peer and instructor), and revision.

“To preserve the benefits of both learning to write and writing to learn, we need to rethink our assignments and be clearer and more convincing about their benefits, while preparing students for a world in which they will need to use AI to work more quickly” (Bowen & Watson, 2024, p. 201).

Like all classroom decisions, the incorporation of writing activities should be determined by the goals and desired outcomes of the course itself. Instructors should also consider the amount of time they can dedicate to the writing process, as high-stakes writing activities will require more time and scaffolding. Additionally, Generative AI tools pose new considerations for writing activities and assignments. This section offers some considerations and strategies for instructors looking to foster learning through writing in the age of AI.

Identify the learning outcomes to inform what role AI can play.

What are the learning outcomes for your course? What kinds of writing activities will students need to engage in to achieve these outcomes? For example, if you’re teaching a large course, and want a quick way to gauge students’ understanding of material, then low-stakes activities are a great option. Alternatively, if you have an overarching course objective related to developing students’ ability to write within disciplinary genre conventions, you will want to consider how to engage students in larger, high-stakes writing activities.  

Different writing activities will allow for different AI usage. For example, if you are using low-stakes writing to help students learn concepts and assess their understanding, collaboration with AI may not make sense. However, with larger writing tasks, students may benefit from leveraging AI as a thought partner or by getting feedback. Additionally, depending on the disciplinary context, students may need practice with AI prompting and usage to prepare them for their working lives beyond college. You might also want to consider the purpose of the writing task in relation to AI capabilities and those “distinctively human” skills; for ideas on striking this balance, see Oregon State University’s Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy .

Be transparent about AI expectations.

When considering the role of AI in class activities, it is important to think of the different facets and roles AI might play to ensure your expectations are clear: for example, can students leverage AI tools for outlining and brainstorming? Would you accept any percentage of AI-generated text in an assignment? What is your policy around grammar and editing tools, such as Grammarly?  

Once you have determined the role AI can play in course assignments, communicate those expectations to your students, as they may not be familiar with how course-level expectations align with Columbia University’s institutional Generative AI policy . Have conversations with your students about authorship, academic integrity , and expected AI usage, and be transparent about the extent to which usage is welcome. You may even consider co-constructing course AI policies alongside your students for both greater transparency, but also a shared agency and sense of responsibility around expectations.

Rethink assignment design to ensure transparency.

Not only can you establish explicit AI expectations, but your assignment design itself can communicate your expectations around AI collaboration to students. For example, writing assignments that are unique, local, and personal to students can be more engaging for students and more challenging for AI collaboration. Additionally, you might consider leveraging class time for students to brainstorm, create outlines, and begin drafting. For assignments that include AI, you might consider AI-prompt generation assignments, or asking students to produce, analyze, and revise AI-generated writing assignments. (For more examples about designing writing assignments with and without AI, including specific prompts you might adapt for your course context, see Chapter 11: Writing and AI in Bowen and Watson (2024) Teaching with AI .)

One helpful framework to ensure transparency in your assignment design is Bean’s (2011) RAFT dimensions of an assignment (Bean, 2011, p. 98-100). RAFT dimensions refer to the role (specific purpose); audience (who students are writing for); format (genre); and task (specific parameters of what students are being asked to do). In addition to transparency around AI expectations, being explicit about the purpose of writing assignments in your course can help students see the value and benefits of the tasks, especially as they become more complex and challenging; this can further motivate students to participate in the process of learning through writing. It’s also important not to assume that your students will know exactly what you are looking for in their written work; be explicit and transparent about your expectations. Rubrics can be an excellent way to support transparency and make your expectations clear to students; they can also make for great tools in peer review activities.   

Support students in the writing process.

Especially with larger, high-stakes writing activities, writing should be taught as part of a process. This means creating opportunities for students to draft, get feedback from both the instructor and their peers, and revise their drafts. For larger writing assignments, consider scaffolding the prompts, asking students to submit smaller pieces of a larger written product over the course of the semester. This might also include making explicit some of the assumed norms you might have about your discipline (e.g., genre conventions, writing styles), as well as helping students understand the jargon and vocabulary they will need in their writing. Providing students feedback throughout their writing process is a great way to help make some of these disciplinary norms more explicit. While instructor and peer feedback are essential parts of this process, students might also leverage AI as a thought partner for timely, targeted feedback.

Encourage students to provide a writer’s statement.

Writer’s statements are a great metacognitive exercise for students, as they encourage reflection and provide students an opportunity to speak directly about their own writing processes. In the age of AI, writer’s statements are also a great way for students to talk about how and why they leveraged AI tools. For example, if students used AI for brainstorming or feedback, they can reflect upon the output, what they had to revise, and how they made those choices. This practice can make them more thoughtful about their writing process, while also being more critical users of AI.

Writing activities, whether low- or high-stakes in nature, are a valuable learning tool for students. Despite the presence and availability of generative AI, there are a number of ways for instructors to engage their students in meaningful and impactful writing activities that are specific and contextualized to their discipline. What is most important is being transparent and explicit with expectations around not just students’ AI usage, but about the purpose and goals of the assignment itself, as well as assignment expectations. The CTL is here to help with implementing writing activities into your specific course context. Email us at [email protected] to schedule a 1-1 consultation! 

Resources and References

Columbia center for teaching and learning resources.

• Considerations for AI Tools in the Classroom
• Designing Assignments for Learning
• Enhance your Course Discussion Boards for Learning: Three Strategies Using Ed Discussion
• Feedback for Learning
• Incorporating Rubrics Into Your Feedback and Grading Practices
• Leveraging Annotation Activities and Tools to Promote Collaborative Learning
• Metacognition
• Peer Review: Intentional Design for Any Course Context
• Promoting Academic Integrity         

Bean, J. (2011). Engaging ideas: The professor’s guide to integrating writing, critical thinking, and active learning in the classroom, 2nd ed. Jossey-Bass.

Bowen, J.A. & Watson, C. E. (2024). Teaching with AI . Johns Hopkins University Press.  

Columbia Office of the Provost. (2023). Generative AI Policy .

Dobrin, S. (2023). AI and writing . Broadview Press.

Fry, S. W., & Villagomez, A. (2012). Writing to learn: Benefits and limitations. College Teaching , 60(4), 170–175.

Norell, L. (Nov. 2023).   Writing as a tool for teamwork and fellowship . Inside Higher Ed .

Palmquist, M. (2020). A middle way for WAC: Writing to engage . The WAC Journal, 31, 7-22.

WAC Clearinghouse (n.d.). Why include writing in my courses?

Want to learn more about teaching with AI?

See the CTL’s resource “Considerations for AI Tools in the Classroom.”

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Want to Improve Your Chances of Success in Life? Learn to Write This Way, Wharton Research Says

Improving how you write improves how you think, and that leads to greater success in life..

Jeff Bezos famously banned PowerPoints at his meetings and forced executives to write out six-page memos instead. Why? 

"When you have to write in complete sentences with narrative structure, it's really hard to hide sloppy thinking," the Amazon founder once explained . 

He's not the only super-smart business thinker who insists writing hones your thinking . 

"Everyone is full of ideas they're not aware of. They're gut feelings. Intuitions," VC and author Morgan Housel has argued . "Turning gut feelings into tools means understanding their origin, limits, and how they interact with other ideas. Which requires turning them into words. And writing is the best way to do that."

Writing, in other words, is a reflection of your thinking. And you can use your writing to refine your ideas. But can you also use your writing to predict whether you have the kind of mind that will help you succeed in life? 

A fascinating new study out of Wharton and Columbia Business School says yes, and suggests ways every business owner can improve their odds of success by improving their writing . 

'Language is a fingerprint.'

"Language in some sense is a fingerprint. It reveals or reflects something about the people that produce it," Wharton professor and author Jonah Berger said in a recent episode of the Knowledge at Wharton podcast , echoing Bezos and Housel.  

Sometimes it's vocabulary that's revealing. Previous research shows you can guess how extroverted someone is from their word choices , for example.

But sometimes it's the structure of your writing that gives you away. Together with his colleague Olivier Tubia of Columbia Business School, Berger sought to investigate what the organization of a piece of writing -- how one idea connects with the next -- says about how people think, and what that reveals about their chances of success in life. 

They used a clever approach to try and figure this out. First, they analyzed 40,000 college application essays across two measures of writing style . How much intellectual ground did writers cover? Did they talk about a lot of ideas and information or make just a few points? And how did they link those ideas? Did their essays jump all over the place or did they move crisply through a tidy, logical argument? 

Then they looked at their applicants' subsequent GPAs. Did a certain writing style suggest that a particular young person was likely to do better in college? 

College essays were a convenient data set that offered a straightforward way to link writing style to a defined measure of "success" in the form of academic grades. But Berger insists that his team's conclusions apply to basically any kind of writing. 

"Whether it's a cover letter that someone writes, whether it's an online review that someone puts together, whether it's the emails they write at the office, all these things provide insight into who people are and what they're likely to do in the future," he claims. 

The kind of writing that's a sign of future success

So what did the researchers find? There was indeed a style of writing that seemed to strongly predict future success . In brief, the students who did best later on covered a lot of ground in their essays (they had lots of ideas), but they did so in the most efficient way possible (they moved steadily from point to point without a lot of darting around). 

"Covering a broad array of things in the same amount of length was linked to greater success. But importantly, doing so while moving rather slowly was also important," Berger sums up. 

He offers a handy metaphor to illustrate: Think of ideas arrayed around a clock face from 1 to 12. All the essays were roughly the same length, but the applicants who went on to the greatest success covered the most time within the same word count. And they did it methodically by moving steadily around the clock rather than jumping from 1 to 7 to 3 to 11, for example. 

Wait, you might object, maybe this just indicates that students who are taught to write a certain way -- perhaps at fancy private schools or by expensive tutors -- also end up doing better. But no, the researchers controlled for factors like family income and parents' education. No matter their background, efficient, idea-stuffed writing was a sign that students were going to excel academically. 

A practical takeaway for non-students 

All of which is fascinating if you are an admissions officer or a college-bound senior. But what does this matter for folks who are well past the college admissions essay stage of life? Berger claims that by practicing writing in this way, you can actually increase your odds of success. 

"As we gain more knowledge in a given domain, we may talk differently. We may think about ideas differently," he says. "If people are able to cover a lot of ground really efficiently by moving slowly between points, not moving quickly between points, how did they get there? Are they naturally that way? Probably not. Probably they may have gained more knowledge along the way that allows them to represent their ideas differently." 

In short, by practicing writing in this particular style -- idea-rich but efficient -- you can hone not just your prose, but also your thinking. And that will make you more likely to succeed in your chosen endeavors. 

In light of this research, Bezos and Housel look pretty wise to insist that writing more makes you smarter. Remember that the next time you're tempted to push off a piece of writing to ChatGPT or to smash your keyboard and give up. Writing well can be frustrating and difficult. It's also the best mental workout to train your mind for success. 

A refreshed look at leadership from the desk of CEO and chief content officer Stephanie Mehta

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Tiny Memoir Contest for Students: Write a 100-Word Personal Narrative

We invite teenagers to tell a true story about a meaningful life experience in just 100 words. Contest dates: Nov. 6 to Dec. 4, 2024.

By The Learning Network

Illustrations from Modern Love’s Tiny Love Stories , the inspiration for this contest.

Can you tell a meaningful and interesting true story from your life in just 100 words? That’s the challenge we pose to teenagers with our 100-Word Personal Narrative Contest, a storytelling form popularized by Modern Love’s Tiny Love Stories series .

After running this contest for two years, receiving a total of more than 25,000 entries, and honoring dozens of excellent miniature teen-written memoirs, we have discovered the answer is a resounding yes .

So, we challenge you to try it yourself.

We’re not asking you to write to a particular theme or to use a specific structure or style, but we are looking for short, powerful stories about a particular moment or event in your life. We want to hear your story, told in your unique voice, and we hope you’ll experiment with style and form to tell a tale that matters to you, in a way you enjoy telling it.

And, yes, it’s possible to do all that in only 100 words. For proof, just look at last year’s 15 winning entries . We also have a step-by-step guide full of advice that is grounded in 25 excellent 100-word mentor texts, as well as a rehearsal space , published for our first year’s contest, that has over 1,000 student-written mini memoirs. Because that space was so successful, we’re keeping it open for this year’s contest. We hope students will use it to get inspiration, experiment and encourage each other.

Take a look at the full guidelines and related resources below. Please post any questions you have in the comments and we’ll answer you there, or write to us at [email protected]. And, consider hanging this PDF one-page announcement on your class bulletin board.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Resources for Teachers and Students
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Submission Form

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Teach Essay Writing

Why Teach Essay Writing to Students?

Modern students live amidst rapid communication and information overload. They are usually reluctant to write and consider writing skills unnecessary and even old-fashioned. With the rise of social media, texting, and emojis, writing is down to abbreviated forms and casual language. However, the ability to articulate thoughts clearly remains crucial for both academic and professional journeys. According to recent studies, only about 27% of middle and high school students in the US are proficient in writing. It means they have a serious gap in essential literacy skills. That is why we need to teach essay writing to today’s students to encourage them to write more and improve their outcomes.

Why are Writing Skills Important?

Digital communication is convenient and accessible. However, essays, reports, and other forms of written communication develop qualities that you can not acquire through digital interactions.

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Writing power is imminent because:

• Writing helps students understand language mechanics and improves grammar, syntax, and overall text perception.
• Writing forces students to organize their thoughts, analyze information, and present clear arguments.
• Basic writing exercises expand vocabulary, improve sentence construction, and teach correct spelling.
• Strong writing skills are a must-have for academic achievement.
• It allows students to express their thoughts and develop a unique style and voice.

How to Teach Essay Writing?

Teachers often struggle with student’s writing assignments. However, a slightly different approach to essays may completely change the students’ attitudes. Here is how you can make a writing process more appealing to them.

#1. Make sure students know the technical side of writing essays

Students need to know the basics of grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. They also need to know the key components of an essay – introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Take time to explain that essays come in different formats depending on specific requirements. Devote some time to practicing these technical aspects in the classes through exercises and feedback.

Experts from Ivory Research suggest a writing model based on the following questions:

• Who are you writing for?
• What message are you trying to convey?
• What are the main ideas of your message?
• What is the best outline for your essay?

#2. Select topics and activities students love

Let your students choose topics they are interested in. Analyze their age, hobbies, and even modern trends to find ideas. This approach will immediately improve motivation and writing quality. Encourage students to explore and share their passions. Start by offering a range of topics and gradually narrow them down.

The same goes for writing activities and exercises. Check what your students enjoy best—group discussions, blogging, creative writing prompts, and collaborative writing projects. It will make the writing process less monotonous and encourage active participation.

#3. Organize brainstorming sessions

It is an effective way to help students generate ideas and prepare for writing. Involve them in discussions about various writing styles, techniques, and elements. You can use brainstorming methods like mind mapping, listing, and freewriting to guide them. Encourage them to write down all their thoughts, even if they seem rough.

Group brainstorming can also be helpful, as students share their own ideas and learn from others.  It is like creating a draft for a future essay. You may even think of ready-made prompts to help them explore different viewpoints and aspects of their topics.

#4. Experiment with peer conferencing

This strategy aims to teach your students to identify strengths and weaknesses in writing. Let them collaborate and provide feedback on each other’s writing. Provide guidelines or checklists they can use for the evaluation. This exchange of ideas can greatly improve writing quality. Students feel more responsible about their work when they know that their peers will be reviewing it.

Create a structured peer review worksheet with specific questions, such as “Does the introduction clearly state the thesis?” or “Is the essay well-structured?” It helps focus the feedback and makes it more effective.

#5. Discuss writing tools students can use

Technology can help a lot with writing. It is not about using AI-based tools to generate content. Introduce your students to digital tools like word processors or grammar checkers. These tools help students find errors. Platforms like Google Docs are great for collaborative writing and getting real-time feedback. Online resources like Purdue OWL offer detailed guides on writing mechanics and styles.   Do not forget about multimedia elements like images or videos, which can enhance their essays, especially for digital or multimedia projects.

Final Thoughts

The above strategies turn writing into a game. The more unconventional you manage to make it, the more students will like it. Don’t forget about feedback and incentives. Create an environment where students do not feel uncertain about sharing their work. You may even start a class blog where everyone is free to add content. Once you are able to make your students confident, you will no longer have to compel them to write.

Recommended Articles

We hope these strategies help you teach essay writing skills to students. Here are some other resources for teachers that you can view.

• Essay Writing Skills
• Effective Writing Tips
• Top 10 Effective Steps To Flawless Resume Writing Activity
• Improve Your Writing

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