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Substantive writing assignments offer students unique opportunities to get to know the content of your course more deeply, to refine their thinking, and to get to know how to write like a biologist, anthropologist, historian – whatever your field is.

However, designing and supporting effective writing assignments requires significant time from instructors. Here are some tips for designing assignments manageable for you and helpful for your students’ learning.

What makes an assignment effective?

• Focus on a problem that the student works through by writing
• Include dynamic contexts for problems that are out in the world right now
• Help students build knowledge in their major or for their future profession

Design assignments that solve problems for you

• Assignments that guide students to solve problems also help you find solutions in your teaching (e.g., are students having trouble understanding a key concept? Do students need practice with a certain kind/genre of writing – a lab report, a literature review, etc.?)
• Assignments should help you to answer the question “at the end of this class, what do I want my students to know and to be able to do?” Even better, what difference do you hope that this class makes in the lives of your students, and why? What do you hope students will retain from this class 10 years from now
• Remind yourself why you are assigning this particular project
• Clarify what you want students to learn from doing this project
• Write an assignment that explains how students can fulfill class objectives

Match the assignment, task, and genre with your learning goals

• Remind students of the larger goals for your assignment. What do you want them to learn or take with them? Why is this assignment important, for learning a concept or form of writing? In your class? For their degree? For their future profession?
• Specify the genre and the audience for the project:
  • Move beyond “essays” to genres that matter for students, including standard operating procedures, memos, lab reports, conference papers, or critical literature reviews)
  • In addition to the instructor, have students write to lay audiences, clients, or public officials: those various audiences challenge students to translate jargon or work to persuade resistant folks

Include interactive processes to support your assignment

• Guide students to prepare constructively and over time for substantive writing assignments by drafting and revising shorter pieces of the project: for instance, project proposals, outlines or ideas maps, drafts of introductions or key pieces of projects, full rough drafts, or revision plans.
• Support students throughout their drafting process through a variety of activities and exercises: discussion/sharing of ideas in class, analysis of successful models (or sections of successful models – great thesis statements, introductions, analysis sections, conclusions), quick conversations/conferences with instructors, or peer review feedback.

Offer clear directions and criteria for evaluation

• Make sure, in writing, to clarify the assignment learning goals, the student’s task (persuade, synthesize sources, etc.), and the audience for the assignment
• Lay out logistical details for the assignment (great to include on the bottom of the assignment sheet in a list):
  • Format (length, formatting, resources to be used, citation style, etc.)
  • Expectations and due dates for process (draft dates, peer review workshops, revision dates)
• Provide criteria for evaluation by…
  • Offering a rubric
  • Sharing characteristics of excellent, satisfactory, and unsatisfactory papers or “A,” “B,” “C,” etc. papers

Questions to ask yourself as you design your assignment

• How does this assignment help guide students to Google with key concepts and skills for your course? To what extent does the assignment foster critical thinking?
• Does the assignment specify a clear task, audience, and genre for students?
• Are the evaluation criteria clear?
• If you were a student in this class, what might be confusing? What kind of problems might come up, and how might you prevent them?

Some material in this handout adapted from John Bean’s Engaging Ideas.

Regardless of major, oral presentations are a part of students’ academic careers and serve to prepare them for communicating their ideas in a variety of professional settings. Course-specific speaking assignments can be utilized in various courses across the curriculum and move students beyond the traditional formal public speech to a broader form of presentational speaking–for a variety of audiences and purposes.

Presentational speaking assignment options

Depending on the intended learning outcomes for a particular assignment (related to both disciplinary skills and presentational speaking skills), speaking assignments can vary in both length and complexity.

The review of academic articles

Asking students to review academic articles is a common strategy employed by instructors that allows students to engage with current discipline-specific scholarship. Review of Academic Article presentations often ask students to do one or more of the following:

• Identify the authors’ thesis/hypothesis/research questions
• Explain the methods by which the authors arrived at their conclusion
• Explain the authors’ findings
• Identify the authors’ theoretical perspective, if applicable
• Evaluate the study’s validity, if applicable
• Describe the authors’ sources and evaluate their credibility
• Show how study findings might be applied to other circumstances and makes suggestions about ways in which the study might lead to further research

The team presentation

Team presentations are oral presentations prepared and delivered by a group of three or more students. Team presentations are common in the classroom and workplace, and for success, group members must collaborate, cooperate, and plan together as a group. Encourage students to avoid the “divide and conquer” approach to team presentations, so that their content is comprehensive without redundancies and their delivery is cohesive. Team presentations should follow best practices for developing and delivering an individual presentation and should include:

• A focused introduction that identifies the presentation topic, communicates a clear thesis statement, provides rationale for audience attention, introduces the speakers, and previews the main points
• A body that includes 3-5 main points related to the presentation’s thesis statement; main points should be supported by minor points (information that supports the focus of that particular main point)
• A conclusion that provides listeners with a brief summary of key takeaways and a call to action when appropriate

The poster presentation

Poster presentations include information about a study, an issue, or a concept displayed concisely and visually on a large (typically 4’x6’) poster. Usually, poster presentations follow the structure of scientific journal articles, which includes an abstract, an introduction, a description of methods, a results section, a conclusion, and references. Presenters display and discuss key findings depicted on the poster and often have copies of the complete written report available to viewers. Common recommendations for poster presentations include:

• Select a concise and informative title; make it 84-point font size or larger
• Include an abstract summarizing the report and how it relates to other disciplinary research. Abstract should include the “must know” points to hook viewers
• Use a logical and easy-to-follow flow from one part of the poster to another
• Edit text to a minimum; use clear graphics whenever possible
• Use contrasting colors: muted color background, dark font colors for readability
• Use large font size for readability from a distance of a few feet away
• Design figures and graphs to be viewed from a distance; use clear labels
• Include a concise summary of each figure in a legend below it
• Be prepared to provide brief descriptions of your poster and to answer questions; keep explanations brief

The service learning presentation

In a service learning presentation, students communicate information about service they provided to a community agency or nonprofit organization. Service learning presentations often include discussion of the need or problem the agency or organization is attempting to address. Students presenting about their participation in a service learning project typically include the following in their presentations:

1. Description of the service task
   1. What organization, group, or agency did your project serve?
   2. What is the problem or issue and how did you address it?
2. Description of what the service task taught you about those you served
   1. How were they affected by the problem or issue?
   2. How did your solution help them? What differences did you observe?
3. Explanation of how the service task and outcome related to your service learning course
   1. What course concepts, principles, or theories related to your service project, and how?
   2. What observations gave you evidence that the principles applied to your project?
4. Application of what was learned to future understanding and practice
   1. How was your understanding of the course subject improved or expanded?
   2. How was your interest in or motivation for working in this capacity affected by the project?
   3. What do you most want to tell others about the experience and how it could affect them?

The debate

Debates are a popular presentation format in many college courses because they give students the opportunity to develop their persuasion skills, delivery, and critical thinking. Debate participants are asked to analyze arguments in-depth and to challenge and defend positions. Debates also require students to practice their listening skills by tracking another participant’s position and reasoned use of evidence to support that position.

Adapted from O’Hair, Stewart, & Rubenstein (2015) A Speaker’s Guidebook: Text and Reference. Bedford/St. Martin’s

Dr. Chris Mays, Associate Professor of English
Dr. Lia Schraeder, Senior Instructional Designer, Advancements in Teaching Excellence

What are multimodal assignments and why include them in your teaching?

A multimodal assignment expands beyond a traditional writing assignment to include not just one but several of the five major modes of communication – linguistic, visual, aural, gestural, and spatial. Multimodal assignments ask students to communicate in multiple modes in order to purposefully convey a message and influence an audience.

Using more than one mode of communication is highly beneficial to student learning in a number of ways. Multimodality facilitates more complex forms of communication, increasing student awareness of genre, audience, and developing the information literacy and digital literacy skills students need for success in their major, career, and beyond. Multimodality also deepens learning of content by encouraging higher levels of cognitive challenge (see ), and by using multiple forms of expression and engagement (see ). Students and instructors working on multimodal assignments often report increased enjoyment in the learning process and more creativity evident in the final product.

What are examples of multimodal assignments?

Some examples of multimodal assignments that can be relatively simple include:

Comics, brochures, print advertisements, posters/digital posters, storyboards, digital slide presentations (e.g. PowerPoint), social media, podcasts, blogs, basic videos and websites.

Some more complex examples of multimodal assignments may include: Animations, digital stories/story maps, e-portfolios, graphic novels, documentaries, music videos, live action films, e-books, high quality videos and websites.

Multimodal assignments of any kind can be shared with a smaller group during class (as in the case of a ), as part of a digital showcase on a course discussion board (creating opportunities for peer review), or in a more public-facing environment (as with a website).

How to designmMultimodal assignments?

A few key considerations and sets of questions can help you design effective multimodal assignments.

Students: What level of expertise and understanding are students coming from when completing the assignment? What is their access to and familiarity with various modes of communication and technology tools? What level of challenge is appropriate?

Assignment goals: What is the purpose/objective of the assignment, and of your use of alternate modalities? Which course learning objectives do you want to highlight with this assignment? What skills and content will this assignment engage?

Assignment parameters: What kind of assignment will best match desired learning outcomes (i.e. podcast, video, presentation (live or recorded), visual design, etc.)? Will students focus more on the concepts/content or the modality in the assignment? Should students have a choice of format, or is it best for them to all work on the same kind of project? Will they work individually or as teams?

Student support: Where will students end up and what intermediary steps are needed to get there? How long will each step take? To what extent will in-class activities or instruction be necessary or helpful? What stumbling blocks might students run into, and how will you help them address these? Which preliminary pieces of the assignment will receive feedback, and will that be from the instructor, GTAs, and/or students’ peers?

Considerations for assignments emphasizing concepts/content

If you want to emphasize concept/content while inviting students to use more than one modality, then you can use a variety of tools that require minimal training for students and allow flexibility when designing projects.

• Examples: Audio software that allows students to record “podcasts” or similar audio expressions instead of written assignments
• Basic photo manipulations, e.g. Photoshop or even basic photo editing software, which allows students to engage with the concepts in creative ways, but does not require much training.
• In this type of assignment, grading emphasis should be more on the strategic use of modality — and on student intent, which can be expressed in a “Statement of Goals and Choices” (see example under “Grading”)
• This type of assignment can be useful for intermediate or advanced students, as it lends itself to situations where students have a high degree of specialized content knowledge, and the class has minimal time for modality training.

Considerations for assignments emphasizing modality

If you want to emphasize modality as a component of the assignment, you’ll need to devote more time to training in the modality.

• Examples: beginning English communication students developing their skills at communicating both visually and via written text, who may be assigned to create a persuasive brochure
• Often, these assignments work as group projects, so that students with low levels of pre-existing technical skill can be matched up with students with more intensive training with the technologies used
• Photoshop projects, for example, can be useful here, though the level of familiarity with this technology will vary widely among students.
• Alternatively, technology that requires less expertise (for example, simple photo editing software, slide presentations, social media) can be used so that students will not need to overcome differing levels of expertise in the classroom.

Considerations for technology

In choosing technology tools to support multimodal learning, be sure to consider:

• Your students' access to the tools. A survey can be helpful in identifying student familiarity, access, and preferences.
• Your familiarity with the tools. Expertise in technology is not required to get started, but if you are a novice to teaching with multimodal assignments it can be helpful to begin with a digital tool that is familiar to you.
• Campus support resources for technology tools. Familiarize yourself with campus-based technologies and support resources for students and faculty provided by the Office of Digital Learning, the , and University Libraries (including the ).
• Accessibility of the tools students will be using, and ways you can give students choice regarding which technology tools they use so as to increase student access.

Grading multimodal assignments

In grading multimodal assignments, we offer the following tips.

Emphasize the process of learning by providing students with checklists, checkpoints, and opportunities to get feedback throughout the learning process.

• Checklists can help to guide students in the process of completing the many steps of multimodal work.
• Frequent progress checkpoints with deadlines can help students manage their time.
• Frequent formative feedback from instructors and/or peers can help them improve throughout the process.

Use rubrics to guide the learning process and to guide grading of multimodal assignments.

• Revisit your desired learning outcomes for the assignment to align your rubric with outcomes. You may be able to adjust a rubric you’ve created for a writing assignment by using a more general language (i.e. “argument” instead of “thesis statement,” “supporting claims” instead of “paragraphs”).
• Be sure rubrics reflect standards for rigor, value of elements of the assignment (such as technical proficiency) and overall grade. If you or your students are new to multimodal assignments then lower stakes for the assignment or technical components can help take off the pressure.
• You may also find examples of multimodal rubrics online, ask colleagues to share what they’re using in this area, or invite your students to be part of the rubric creation process.

Include reflective components along with the assignment by asking students to reflect on course concepts, rhetoric, and design decisions. For example, you may ask students to submit a “Statement of Goals and Choices” along with assignments, in which students explain their intent and choices. Jody Shipka shares example questions for such reflection:

• What, specifically, is this piece trying to accomplish — above and beyond satisfying the basic requirements outlined in the project description? In other words, what work does (or might) this piece do? For whom? In what contexts?
• What specific rhetorical, material, methodological, and technological choices did you make in service of accomplishing the goal(s) articulated above? Catalog, as well, choices that you might not have initially been aware of, and those that were made for you when you opted to work with certain genres, materials, and technologies.
• Why did you end up pursuing this plan as opposed to the others you came up with? How did the various choices listed above allow you to accomplish things that other sets or combinations of choices would not have?

Resources

• Aguiar, Christian. “.” Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning, 5 Dec. 2019.
• Rodrigue, Tanya. “.” Journal of Global Literacies, Technologies, and Emerging Pedagogies, Vol. 3, Issues 1, July 2015.
• Shipka, Jody. Toward a Composition Made Whole. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011.
• UCLA Teaching Forum, “,” Fall, 2020.

Low-stakes (ungraded or minimally graded – by giving students points for completion, grading on a 5-point or on a check-minus, check, check-plus scale) writing tasks administered during the course of a class session can be helpful for students and instructors alike.

As an instructor, administering these writing tasks can give you a sense of which concepts your students feel most confident about, and which concepts they are still working to understand. With low-stakes writing, students try out ideas, expand thinking, and develop their writing - without fear of damaging their grades.

Three ways to use low-stakes writing with your students

Low-stakes writing can help students deepen their understanding of class content, and it can provide them with tools that will bolster their engagement with the material and facilitate their writing processes for higher-stakes assignments. For stronger understanding and engagement, ask students to problem-solve, analyze, synthesize and make claims in short written responses.

1. Deepening understanding in content knowledge: examples
   1. Write for three minutes about two problems with the design of the experiment that you read for today.
   2. Based on this data about the effects of caffeine intake, what are two points you might make?
   3. We read John Stuart Mill’s writing on freedom and self-improvement. Write for two minutes on your reaction. What did you like or dislike? Why?
   4. Pick an author with whom you disagree or whom you admire. Write a letter to this person expressing your views.
2. Expanding engagement in class via discussion: examples
   1. Students write and bring discussion questions to class (or via email, Canvas, or course blog)
   2. In class, students may write
      1. Before discussion – collect thoughts (on a prompt, something they want to discuss, etc.)
      2. During discussion – refocus lagging discussion, cool off a heated one, take questions from students
      3. After discussion – sum up lecture or discussion, assess understanding
3. Facilitating writing processes: examples
   1. Using writing as a means of brainstorming and organizing ideas for longer projects
      1. Using class time (even just five or 10 minutes!) for free-writing about paper topics, making idea webs, etc.
      2. Having students bring in pieces of the project: thesis, sections of analysis, intro, evaluation of sources, etc.
   2. Using writing to support students revising and developing their projects
      1. Creating reverse outlines of in-progress drafts (have students create an outline of the main ideas in each paragraph–for their own drafting, or for a peer’s)
      2. Using class time for revision: quick-writes to expand or refine sections or writing revision plans
   3. Using writing as a means of reflecting on their projects and ideas
      1. Having students write brief (half-page or 1-page) memos or cover letters when they submit their final/revised projects
         1. What revisions did you make from the instructor’s feedback? From peer’s feedback? What feedback did you not take, and why? What are the strengths or weakest points of your project? What might you revise if you had two more weeks? What, in particular, would you like to receive feedback on?
         2. Or ask students to address their growth or progress more broadly: How have you developed as a writer or researcher throughout this project? Throughout this course? Reflect on where you have been, where you are now, and what you will work on next in your development as a researcher.
      2. Asking students to write post-paper reflections in-class on the day they submit the project, between units, at the completion of a first project to plan for the semester, or at the end of a course to plan for the future.

Informal speaking activities are opportunities for students to try out new ideas, expand their thinking about a topic, and develop their speaking skills in courses across the curriculum. Informal speaking activities require minimal preparation on the part of faculty and are typically low-stakes, ungraded activities or activities that can count toward participation. These activities can be incorporated into any course, which allow students to improve their speaking abilities throughout their undergraduate programs in every major.

Benefits of informal speaking for students

• Help students learn course content
  • Example informal speaking activities:
    • Students give a (one-to-two) minute summary of an assigned reading, completed lab, or lecture segment
    • Students pose (two) questions about content that is unclear
    • Students respond to a discussion prompt during class
• Increase student engagement
  • Example informal speaking activities:
    • Students engage in a small group discussion about the day’s activities; have them develop a list of the (three) main takeaways from the day
    • Students identify the “muddiest point” by posing a question about material from the day that is unclear; this can be done in small groups with one student reporting the question to the class in real time or submitting online to instructor for a starting point for the next class meeting’s discussion
    • Students participate in instructor-led class discussions and/or have students lead class discussions to increase engagement, increase critical thinking, and encourage synthesis of new material with their previously-held beliefs and knowledge.
    • Students engage in role playing
    • Students deliver a (one-to-two) minute proposal or elevator pitch
• Support other learning activities
  • Example informal speaking activities:
    • Students participate in brainstorming sessions and report on generated ideas for a project/topic/research question/etc.
    • Students deliver (one-to-two) minute “Work in Progress” talks; have students give a brief update about their progress on a current assignment/project; can be structured [where are they at, what’s one thing that is going well, what’s one thing that they are finding challenging] or unstructured [student speak freely about their progress for the allotted time]
    • Students engage in peer-review sessions by offering oral feedback to each other in pairs or small groups
    • Rehearsals of student presentations, either complete or partial
• Creates team-building and helps develop relationships
  • Informal speaking activities can also be used in the classroom to encourage collaboration, problem-solving, and decision-making.
    • Trivia sessions: students participate in small group teams (can be done in-person or facilitated online using breakout rooms for teams); trivia questions can be on random topics or focused on current course content.
    • Idea building session: divide class into teams and present them with a problem related to course material. One team member writes down a solution and passes the sheet of paper to the next team member, who builds upon that idea and then passes it along to the rest of the team. The paper is passed until each team member has added to the original solution. When allotted time is up, a team spokesperson can present the team’s ultimate solution to the team or to the full class. [Adapted from Top Hat “21 Team-Building Activities for Students”]

Benefits of informal speaking for faculty

• Informal speaking activities require minimal preparation
  • Activities can be incorporated into existing lecture materials and lesson plans
  • Activities typically don’t require materials/supplies; students are speaking informally about course content, lecture material, projects or assignments they are working on
• Informal speaking activities create flexibility in instruction to enhance student learning
  • Activities can be included spontaneously to enhance student learning. As an example, if students seem confused or are unresponsive during a lecture, pause delivery of content and incorporate an informal speaking activity (as an example, see “muddiest point” option in “increase student engagement” above)
• Informal speaking activities do not have to be graded activities
  • Activities can be for participation credit or for experience
• Informal speaking activities can be graded quickly if choosing to assign a grade
  • Use a check, check plus, check minus, or grade on a 5-point scale

Peer review for writing assignments, when approached with careful attention, can save you valuable time and help your students to become more critical readers and writers. Effective peer review encourages students to engage more deeply with class material and emphasizes the importance of iterative stages and revisions in the writing process.

What makes peer review effective?

Peer review provides an opportunity to engage students in interactive writing processes (Anderson, Gonyea, Anson, and Paine 2015) – making meaning about their in-progress work with their fellow classmates. However, peer review activities require the following elements to be most successful:

• Preparation (Students need information about what peer review is and why they are being asked to do it).
• Guidance (Students benefit from guiding questions and directions to support their peer review process).
• Practice (Students need to be able to try out peer review more than once to learn how to do it effectively).

Prepare students for peer review

Peer review is most successful when students know why they are doing it. Before you have students review one another’s papers, spend some time explaining some of the reasons that peer review (or the ability to engage with feedback) is important for your students: in your particular course, in your discipline/academic field, or for students’ future professions.

Preparation activities can range from

• Taking five minutes to explain the importance of peer review to your students, to
• Taking 10 minutes to ask students to share their previous positive and negative experiences with peer review – highlighting what worked well and offering salutations to avoid the negative parts, to
• Taking 15 or more minutes to do a practice review together: using a section of or entire paper from a previous student (with their permission, of course). Talk together about what feedback is useful and not in this process. (Adapted from Stephanie White’s “”)

Direct students with focused tasks

• Determine the format of the peer review ahead of time. Will it be in class, or out of class? Partners, or groups? Anonymous? Timed?
• Find a balance between having students identify too few concerns (too vague) in their feedback, and too many concerns (too critical).
• Guide students to respond to questions such as “What is the writer trying to say/argue for in this piece?” and “How can they make the argument more distinct and persuasive?”
• Provide students with explicit instructions about the peer review process.

Communicate expectations for spoken and written feedback

• Encourage students to focus on global (arguments, organization, idea development) versus local concerns (punctuation, style, or grammar)
• Discuss what it means to respond as an interested reader
• Encourage students to identify specific strengths of the paper they are reviewing (not just “good job!” but specific praise – “good intro because it clearly sets up the problem your paper addresses”)
• Ask students to phrase responses using “I” language (“I hear…,” “I’m confused when…,” “I’d like to read more about…”)

Help students to use peer feedback

If you’re taking important time out of your class for peer review, you want to make sure students use this feedback (and determine what feedback they won’t use – and why). Here are a few tools for helping students to use peer feedback:

• Give credit for peer review (collect worksheets they fill out or feedback students offer about one another’s drafts with the final writing project), and assign points for quality completion of these review materials.
• Have students complete a Writer’s Memo or Cover Sheet that they submit with their revised projects. In just a double-spaced page or so, ask students to explain what feedback they received from peers, what revisions to their papers they made based on that feedback – and what feedback they received that they decided not to use, and why they decided not to use it.
  • These memos can save you time on grading as you get a sense of students’ major revisions and they encourage students to take ownership of their own writing and revising.

An example of peer review guidelines

Peer Review Guidelines for Communication 200, Prof. Ashley Hinck, Xavier University

Why do we do peer review?

• To gain feedback on your work
• To talk through challenges and solutions
• To maintain an audience-centered approach to communication
• To prepare ourselves: Peer Review is what professional writers, communicators, and employees do at work

The peer reviewing process

1. Pre-review
   1. The writer tells the reviewer which parts of the draft they would most like feedback on and what they still plan to do. For example, “I had a hard time with xyz, so I’d really like to get feedback on that section” or “I’d like help brainstorming ways to make my call to action stronger.”
2. Reading the writing/project
   1. The reviewer reads the draft. (This step can be done in class – exchanging papers for a set amount of time, say 20 minutes, or outside of class as homework).
   2. The reviewer makes comments on the draft and/or fills out a response form with guiding questions provided by the instructor. Comments should not focus on punctuation or grammar at this point. Instead, reviewers should be sure to speak as readers. For example, say “I was confused here,” “What about using more supporting evidence from source X?” or “I was wondering about X. Can you fill in that information for your audience?”
3. Discussing the writing/project
   1. Reviewers verbalize their comments to the writer. Make sure to note:
      1. What did you like best about the draft?
      2. Were there things that you had a hard time understanding?
      3. Was there any information that could be clarified?
   2. The writer then summarizes the two biggest comments of the reviewers. For example, “It sounds like you were on board with the problem, but had difficulty understanding how the solution solves the problem.”
4. Turn in worksheets/feedback
   1. Turn completed worksheets, feedback, and a paragraph summarizing the biggest concerns from the reviewer and what they plan to revise in to the instructor.

Things to keep in mind

1. Work together
   1. The goal of peer reviewing is to exchange ideas, not just papers.
   2. Don’t be afraid to talk to each other.
2. Focus on the big picture
   1. Pay special attention to the issues that writers say they have questions about or want feedback on.
   2. Spend the majority of time on bigger issues (like the main task of the paper, the strength of the argument, organization, etc.).
   3. Don’t get bogged down in surface details. In fact, please ignore grammar and punctuation right now.
3. Give constructive feedback
   1. Avoid “rubber-stamping” (saying that you like everything about the paper). Every writer can use feedback and benefit from revision.
   2. Speak in the first person, describe your experience as a reader. For example, say, “I had a hard time following what you’re saying in section X” instead of “Don’t do it like this.”

We’re all busy people, but meeting directly with students about writing and speaking projects in progress can be one of the most efficient and effective ways to support students’ learning. Conferences as short as 10, 15, or 20 minutes can prevent hours of frustration and even drawn-out email correspondence. Plus, in courses that require conferences, students frequently rate these conversations as the most useful and enjoyable components.

What conferencing can do for instructors

• Provide a space to clarify feedback and reinforce expectations – before  you’re grading final projects.
• Save you time explaining details and specifics.
• Help you understand your students as writers and learners.
• Motivate your students — making them more comfortable asking you questions and improving your in-class climate.

What conferencing can do for students

• Ensure individualized feedback and support for making specific revisions.
• Provide a real reader’s reaction.
• Reinforce sense of selves as writers with ideas and the ability to make choices.

Determine when to conference (and for how long)

• Early in the semester: to establish rapport, to learn about students’ goals and concerns for the term, and to clarify course expectations (brief, 10-15 minutes)
• Early in a project: to brainstorm or troubleshoot topic selection or a project proposal — especially useful for catching problems or confusion early on in complex projects (15 minutes)
• Late in a project: to discuss feedback on a rough draft (could be before or after peer review; if they have done peer review, you might also discuss the feedback they received from peers and what they plan to revise) (15 – 20 minutes, depending on length of draft)
• Late in a project–before a revision: after students receive your comments and/or a grade, if you are giving them an option to revise, you might also require a brief conference to discuss your feedback. Consider having them draft a revision plan before you meet. (15 minutes)

Tips for preparing for conferences

• Give students a handout or brief writing prompt to complete before your conference – ideally the night before so that you can glance at their comments and questions.

Example handout/prompt

Name:
Appointment day and time:

Class is canceled Monday, October 2, and Wednesday, October 4 in order to make time for one-on-one conferences. Your conference counts as class attendance. Bring your most recent revision of your current assignment with you. In addition, please come with written responses to the following questions.

• What have you been working on so far in your writing?
• What would you like to continue to work on?
• What kinds of topics (regarding writing) would you like to see discussed in class?

Tips for running effective conferences

• Establish rapport. Take a couple of minutes to ask students how their semesters are going, about their major or place in their degree.
• Set a clear agenda with students. Take a minute to establish what you hope to cover in the meeting.
• Focus on global (ideas, arguments, analysis, and major learning goals) before local (style, grammar, and mechanics) concerns.
• Put the student to work: make sure the student is actively coming up with ideas, asking questions, and taking notes.
• Work things out together: Rather than just making a list of what the student needs to change, help them brainstorm ideas and think through strategies to improve their project.
• Keep blank sheets of paper available; as the student talks, jot down the students’ ideas or phrasing. At the end of the conference, give the student your notes to build on.

Strategies for addressing specific concerns (excerpted and adapted from John Bean, Engaging Ideas, p. 307)

In conducting a conference, you may wish to try one or more of the following strategies, tailored to each individual case:

If ideas are thin…

• Make an idea map to brainstorm for more ideas.
• Play devil’s advocate to deepen and complicate the ideas.
• Help the writer add more examples, better details, more supporting data or arguments.

If the reader gets lost…

• Have the student talk through the ideas to clear up confusing spots.
• Help the student sharpen the thesis by seeing it as the writer’s answer to a controversial or problematic question (get the student to articulate the question that the thesis “answers”).
• Make an outline or a tree diagram to help with organization.
• Help the writer clarify the focus by asking questions about purpose:
  • "My purpose in this paper is..."
  • "My purpose in this section/paragraph is..."
  • "Before reading my paper, the reader will have this view of my topic...; after reading my paper, my reader will have this different view of my topic..."
• Show the student where you get confused or "miscued" in reading the draft (“I started getting lost here because I couldn’t see why you were giving me this information,” or, “I thought you were going to say X, but then you said Y”).
• Show the student how to write transitions between major sections or between paragraphs.

If you can understand the sentences but cannot see the point…

Help the writer articulate meaning by asking "so what" questions: "I can understand what you are saying here, but I don’t quite understand why you are saying it. I read all these facts, and I say, ‘So what?’ What do these facts have to do with your thesis?" (This helps the writer bring the point to the surface. You can then help the writer formulate topic sentences for paragraphs).

Throughout the conference, try to make "readerly" rather than "writerly" comments — that is, describe your experience in trying to read the draft rather than telling the writer how to fix it. For example, say, "I had trouble seeing the point of this paragraph," rather than, "Begin with a topic sentence." This approach helps writers see that their purpose in revising is to make the reader’s job easier rather than to follow arbitrary rules.