from The Center for Teaching Excellence at Wilmington University This is a short presentation that gives a overview of how to design writing assignments, including what criteria to asses and how to incorporate graduate competencies and course objectives.

1. Pathways to Instructional Excellence
CTE Learning Unit Overview:
Designing Writing Assignments

2. A: YES!
Q: Am I a writing instructor?

3. Start by asking: Why are we writing?
Typically we might have two purposes:
Learning to write focus on development of student writing
skills
Writing to learn uses writing as a tool for helping students
develop course content learning
Our goal as instructors is to match our purpose with our
grading criteria

4. Next ask: What style of writing fits my
learning objective or the focus of my course?
Persuasive
Narrative
Descriptive
Compare and Contrast
Research
Others

5. Next, choose the writing criteria you will assess
Mechanics, usage, grammar (MUGs)
Thesis Statement
Structure
Supporting Detail
Unity and coherence
Conclusion
Language
Academic Integrity
Formatting
Content
Others

6. Writing assignments are done right when…
As faculty we start by identifying the purpose of our
writing assignment
Perhaps start by determining the learning
objectives associated with the assignment
We design our assignment to meet this purpose
Instructions to Students
Grading Criteria and Rubric Design

7. Pathways to Instructional Excellence:
Proficient Level- Application
This unit is designated as a Proficient Level CTE
course.
Competency check- Writing application
Please login to the WilmU Learning Center to
submit your writing assignment and to earn
course completion for this Pathways course.