Mark Schaub, Writing Department

Before students can write in response to an assignment, they must imagine some sort of rhetorical situation or "problem." A rhetorical situation is how a writer interacts with her subject and her audience - the audience and purpose behind writing about a particular topic.

All writing assignments should account for these variables:

• The students' interest in and understanding of the subject
• The purpose or aim of the paper/essay/report
• The audience (may or may not be the teacher!)
• The student's role or relationship in terms of the readers and subject
• The form/genre of discourse (an Essay? An essay exam? A journal?)

Tips for writing and distributing writing assignments

• Write the assignment out on a separate sheet or web document
• Talk, in class, about drafting and revising the paper
• Supply examples of successful responses to the assignment
• Talk about the assignment in class, and encourage questions about the assignment (e.g., documentation requirements, genre, audiences, etc.)
• Discuss evaluation of responses - how it will be graded