Journals have become a popular format in recent years for courses that require some writing. In-class journal entries can spark discussions and reveal gaps in students' understanding of the material.

In February Howe Writing Across the Curriculum partnered with Howe Writing Center consultants to present a workshop series on Assignment Design, focusing on clarity, audience, and accessibility. Led ...

Effective course design begins with understanding the process of thinking and learning. These processes are commonly termed "metacognition." Metacognition includes a critical awareness of one’s ...

Assignments: Make Them Effective, Engaging, and Equitable. At their best, assignments are one of the most important learning experiences for students in a course. Students grapple with course content, ...

Travis Grandy is a PhD student in Composition and Rhetoric at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Find him on Twitter @travisgrandy or at his website. I work with a lot of instructors who use ...

The students’ assignment: Write an op-ed about lead poisoning in Lewiston-Auburn. Or write a caption for a photo, or text about a campus tree. Write about how strange quantum theory is, or write a ...

The Writing Center's consultants strive to help students understand and engage with writing assignments in productive ways. Unfortunately, we sometimes encounter assignment sheets that are difficult ...

Higher-order thinking skills and the ability to integrate technical knowledge with practical applications are vital for employees, especially in today's challenging job market. Can reflective writing ...

There is no doubt that writing is an absolutely essential skill to successfully pass through the college and perhaps through our entire lives. Nevertheless, a recent National Assessment of Educational ...

Raise your hand if you’ve ever felt the dread of an upcoming assignment and wished for a clone to take on the task. Hey, we’ve all been there! But the truth is, even without a partner, you can ...