In Characteristics of Developmental Students and Instructional Accommodations (1999), one of the characteristics of Developmental students pointed out is they “tend to lack the discipline or focus to...complete assignments….” (For those of us teaching in the CAP program, we understand this is true.) As a result, in a Developmental writing course some resort to plagiarism; others simply turn in nothing; still others turn in something that appears to have been haphazardly done.
To make my CAP A students write their original paragraphs and essays and write well and long enough (that is, 5 paragraphs for each essay) and stay focused, I give them writing assignments in the form of writing prompts, which have “real purposes and audiences”—two features that make writing assignments succeed, according to Lynn Diane Beene in Assignment Making (1984).
Below are three examples of writing prompts I use.
Notice that in each of the writing prompts, I gave the context of the writing assignment. That is, aside from specifying a) the purpose and b) the target audience, I also provided c) the topic (of course), d) the role (or persona) the class needs to take when writing, and e) the criteria for grading their work.
How can identifying the purpose make a writing assignment successful? By explicitly or implicitly stating the purpose for writing (e.g., to narrate, to explain, to entertain, etc.) students will know more clearly a) how to develop their paragraph/essay (or which pattern/s of development to use) and b) what information/supporting details to write. For example, the purpose for writing, based on prompt C above, is to describe one’s academic skills and/or values, which will make him/her successful in the transfer school. If during the pre-writing stage, a student describes a negative value, such as love for nightly hang-outs with friends, I then comment, “How can this help you achieve your purpose for writing?” I subsequently remind the class to write only those supporting details that will help them achieve their purpose, details concerning only the respective academic skills and/or values that will make them successful in their chosen transfer school.
Why do I need to specify the target audience in each prompt? So that when the students write their essays, not only will they employ words and terms to create a tone appropriate for their readers, but they will also write appropriate introductions and conclusions. Thus, I tell my students to refrain from, among other things, using abbreviations that may be unfamiliar to the target audience. If a student starts an essay (in response to writing prompt C above) by defining the term “academic skills,” I write feedback such as, “Do you think your target audience needs your definition?” If a student ends an essay by asking, “What about you—what are your academic skills?”, I then remind them, “Your target reader is the Admission Officer—not a classmate or a schoolmate.”
Why identify a role for students to take in each writing assignment? Donovan (1978, cited in Beene, 1984) in his article Seeing Students as Writers explains, “Such specification helps students gain a sense of self that, in turn, gives students a perspective from which they can successfully finish any writing project in any class.”
Moreover, indicating in the prompt the criteria for grading reminds the students of how their work is graded; therefore, they use the criteria to check their work before submitting it to me. (Besides doing this, I usually give my students a self- and peer evaluation checklist to use for the same purpose and to emphasize the need for editing/proofreading).
While giving a writing prompt can obviously limit my students’ freedom to choose a topic to write about, it helps them achieve focus in their written work. After working on 3-4 writing prompts, they usually exhibit the ability to go through the prewriting and writing stages on their own. Thus, creating writing prompts can also be an antidote to a writing teacher’s frustration. In addition, these writing prompts can also successfully solve the problem of plagiarism, as the students will have to draw out details of their essays from their own personal experience and/or observations.
References
“Characteristics of Developmental Students and Instructional Accommodations.” In Instructor Resources. US: Addison Wesley Longman, 1999 Online at http://occawonline.pearsoned.com/ bookbind/pubbbook/mcwhorter_awl/chapter98/medialib/character.html 28 Jun. 2003.
A.You are joining a college-wide writing competition about the successes and/or difficulties you have had in life. You are told to write a 5-paragraph essay on this topic, using chronology as a method of development. You are also informed that you must address your essay to the Board of Judges, who will evaluate your composition based on the following criteria: content, unity, coherence, grammar, and mechanics (i.e. capitalization, punctuation, spelling). Now write your essay.
B.You are applying for employment at the College and part of the hiring process involves writing an essay on the question: What are your impressions of this college as a learning institution? Your work will be read by a Hiring Committee, who will judge your composition based on the following criteria: content, unity, coherence, grammar, and mechanics (i.e. capitalization, punctuation, spelling). Now write your essay.
C.You are applying to transfer to ______________ (University/College) and take up a bachelor’s degree in __________________ (your major/field of discipline). Included in the application procedure is an essay writing exam which requires you to describe your strengths as a student. Thus, your composition should be able to convince the Admission Officer that you have the necessary skills and/or values that will enable you to manage successfully your academic life in the transfer school. The Admission Officer will grade your essay using the following criteria: content, unity, coherence, grammar, and mechanics (i.e. capitalization, punctuation, spelling). Now write your essay.
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