Assigning Writing: Give your students a "RAFT" and a "TIP"

In an assignment handout, explain:

• Helps student understand the purpose for writing (inform? analyze? persuade?)
• Helps student understand the impact the piece of writing is supposed to have on the audience (change the audience's view of something? teach the audience something?)

• Helps student ask rhetorical questions about intended readers
  • How much does my audience already know or care about my subject?
  • What constitutes old information and new information for this audience?
  • What is my audience's starting view of my subject? What alternative views must I address?
  • Am I addressing an insider or outsider audience? Are my readers more or less expert than me?
• Helps students learn to write effective titles and introductions

• Helps students know what the document is supposed to look like (length, font, margins, spacing, documentation style)
• Helps students learn concept of genre (scholarly article, experimental report, op-ed piece, proposal)
• Helps students see format and style as features of genres rather than quirks of individual teachers.

• Models the thinking processes of experienced academic writers
• Leads to greater transference of writing skills from discipline to discipline
• Teaches disciplinary thinking—requires high level of critical thought
• Helps students understand the problem-thesis structure of academic introductions

Questions for Peer-Reviewing an Assignment Handout

• Is the assignment clear? How might a student misread the assignment and do something not anticipated?
• Does the assignment specify an audience and a role or purpose for the writer?
• Are my grading criteria clear? Have I adequately explained them to students?
• If you were a student, would you find the assignment interesting and challenging?
• If you were a student, how difficult would this assignment be? How long do you think it would take?
• If the assignment is quite difficult, could it be preceded by a simpler "skill-building assignment" that would serve as scaffolding?
• To what extent does this assignment stimulate critical thinking? Does it cause students to wrestle with key concepts or key thinking skills in the course?
• Is the purpose of the assignment clear? Does it seem to tie into my course goals? Would it seem like busy work to some students?
• Are the mechanics of the assignment clear (due dates, expected length, single versus double spacing, typed versus handwritten, manuscript form, etc.?)
• Is the process students should go through as explicit as possible?
• Should I build any checkpoints built into the assignment to verify that students are on track? (e.g., submission of a thesis, title, and introduction? Mandatory conference? Annotated bibliography?)