• Conceptually
• Chronologically
• Methodologically
Generally, you are required to establish the main ideas that have been written on your chosen topic. You may also be expected to identify gaps in the research. A literature review does not summarise and evaluate each resource you find (this is what you would do in an annotated bibliography). You are expected to analyse and synthesise or organise common ideas from multiple texts into key themes which are relevant to your topic (see Figure 20.10 ). Use a table or a spreadsheet, if you know how, to organise the information you find. Record the full reference details of the sources as this will save you time later when compiling your reference list (see Table 20.5 ).
Overall, this chapter has provided an introduction to the types of assignments you can expect to complete at university, as well as outlined some tips and strategies with examples and templates for completing them. First, the chapter investigated essay assignments, including analytical and argumentative essays. It then examined case study assignments, followed by a discussion of the report format. Reflective writing , popular in nursing, education and human services, was also considered. Finally, the chapter briefly addressed annotated bibliographies and literature reviews. The chapter also has a selection of templates and examples throughout to enhance your understanding and improve the efficacy of your assignment writing skills.
Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Further Education Unit, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford.
Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001). Critical reflection in nursing and the helping professions: a user’s guide . Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Ryan, M. & Ryan, M. (2013). Theorising a model for teaching and assessing reflective learning in higher education. Higher Education Research & Development , 32(2), 244-257. doi: 10.1080/07294360.2012.661704
Academic Success Copyright © 2021 by Cristy Bartlett and Kate Derrington is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.
Types of writing assignments, three common types of college writing assignments.
We have been decoding the expectations of the academic writing task so far, and I want to turn now to examine the types of assignments you might receive. From my experience, you are likely to get three kinds of writing assignments based upon the instructor’s degree of direction for the assignment. We’ll take a brief look at each kind of academic writing task.
The Closed Writing Assignment
• Is Creon a character to admire or condemn?
• Does your advertisement employ techniques of propaganda, and if so what kind?
• Was the South justified in seceding from the Union?
• In your opinion, do you believe Hamlet was truly mad?
These kinds of writing assignments present you with two counter claims and ask you to determine from your own analysis the more valid claim. They resemble yes-no questions. These topics define the claim for you, so the major task of the writing assignment then is working out the support for the claim. They resemble a math problem in which the teacher has given you the answer and now wants you to “show your work” in arriving at that answer.
Be careful with these writing assignments, however, because often these topics don’t have a simple yes/no, either/or answer (despite the nature of the essay question). A close analysis of the subject matter often reveals nuances and ambiguities within the question that your eventual claim should reflect. Perhaps a claim such as, “In my opinion, Hamlet was mad” might work, but I urge you to avoid such a simplistic thesis. This thesis would be better: “I believe Hamlet’s unhinged mind borders on insanity but doesn’t quite reach it.”
The Semi-Open Writing Assignment
• Discuss the role of law in Antigone .
• Explain the relationship between character and fate in Hamlet.
• Compare and contrast the use of setting in two short stories.
• Show how the Fugitive Slave Act influenced the Abolitionist Movement.
Although these topics chart out a subject matter for you to write upon, they don’t offer up claims you can easily use in your paper. It would be a misstep to offer up claims such as, “Law plays a role in Antigone ” or “In Hamlet we can see a relationship between character and fate.” Such statements express the obvious and what the topic takes for granted. The question, for example, is not whether law plays a role in Antigone, but rather what sort of role law plays. What is the nature of this role? What influences does it have on the characters or actions or theme? This kind of writing assignment resembles a kind of archeo- logical dig. The teacher cordons off an area, hands you a shovel, and says dig here and see what you find.
Be sure to avoid summary and mere explanation in this kind of assignment. Despite using key words in the assignment such as “ex- plain,” “illustrate,” analyze,” “discuss,” or “show how,” these topics still ask you to make an argument. Implicit in the topic is the expectation that you will analyze the reading and arrive at some insights into pat- terns and relationships about the subject. Your eventual paper, then, needs to present what you found from this analysis—the treasure you found from your digging. Determining your own claim represents the biggest challenge for this type of writing assignment.
The Open Writing Assignment
• Analyze the role of a character in Dante’s The Inferno.
• What does it mean to be an “American” in the 21st Century?
• Analyze the influence of slavery upon one cause of the Civil War.
• Compare and contrast two themes within Pride and Prejudice.
These kinds of writing assignments require you to decide both your writing topic and you claim (or thesis). Which character in the Inferno will I pick to analyze? What two themes in Pride and Prejudice will I choose to write about? Many students struggle with these types of assignments because they have to understand their subject matter well before they can intelligently choose a topic. For instance, you need a good familiarity with the characters in The Inferno before you can pick one. You have to have a solid understanding defining elements of American identity as well as 21st century culture before you can begin to connect them. This kind of writing assignment resembles riding a bike without the training wheels on. It says, “You decide what to write about.” The biggest decision, then, becomes selecting your topic and limiting it to a manageable size.
Picking and Limiting a Writing Topic
Let’s talk about both of these challenges: picking a topic and limit- ing it. Remember how I said these kinds of essay topics expect you to choose what to write about from a solid understanding of your subject? As you read and review your subject matter, look for things that in- terest you. Look for gaps, puzzling items, things that confuse you, or connections you see. Something in this pile of rocks should stand out as a jewel: as being “do-able” and interesting. (You’ll write best when you write from both your head and your heart.) Whatever topic you choose, state it as a clear and interesting question. You may or may not state this essay question explicitly in the introduction of your paper (I actually recommend that you do), but it will provide direction for your paper and a focus for your claim since that claim will be your answer to this essay question. For example, if with the Dante topic you decid ed to write on Virgil, your essay question might be: “What is the role of Virgil toward the character of Dante in The Inferno?” The thesis statement, then, might be this: “Virgil’s predominant role as Dante’s guide through hell is as the voice of reason.” Crafting a solid essay question is well worth your time because it charts the territory of your essay and helps you declare a focused thesis statement.
Many students struggle with defining the right size for their writ- ing project. They chart out an essay question that it would take a book to deal with adequately. You’ll know you have that kind of topic if you have already written over the required page length but only touched one quarter of the topics you planned to discuss. In this case, carve out one of those topics and make your whole paper about it. For instance, with our Dante example, perhaps you planned to discuss four places where Virgil’s role as the voice of reason is evident. Instead of discuss- ing all four, focus your essay on just one place. So your revised thesis statement might be: “Close inspection of Cantos I and II reveal that Virgil serves predominantly as the voice of reason for Dante on his journey through hell.” A writing teacher I had in college said it this way: A well tended garden is better than a large one full of weeds. That means to limit your topic to a size you can handle and support well.
What Is “Academic” Writing? by L. Lennie Irvin
This essay is a chapter in Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 1, a peer-reviewed open textbook series for the writing classroom, and is published through Parlor Press.
The full volume and individual chapter downloads are available for free from the following sites:
• Writing Spaces: http://writingspaces.org/essays
• Parlor Press: http://parlorpress.com/writingspaces
• WAC Clearinghouse: http://wac.colostate.edu/books/
Print versions of the volume are available for purchase directly from Parlor Press and through other booksellers.
This essay is available under a Creative Commons License subject to the Writing Spaces Terms of Use. More information, such as the specific license being used, is available at the bottom of the first page of the chapter.
© 2010 by the respective author(s). For reprint rights and other permissions, contact the original author(s).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Writing spaces : readings on writing. Volume 1 / edited by Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansk p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-60235-184-4 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-60235-185-1
Privacy Policy
selected template will load here
This action is not available.
\( \newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \)
\( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash {#1}}} \)
\( \newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)
( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\)
\( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\)
\( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\)
\( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\)
\( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)
\( \newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\)
\( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\)
\( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\)
\( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\)
\( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\)
\( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\)
\( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\)
\( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\)
\( \newcommand{\vectorA}[1]{\vec{#1}} % arrow\)
\( \newcommand{\vectorAt}[1]{\vec{\text{#1}}} % arrow\)
\( \newcommand{\vectorB}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}} } \)
\( \newcommand{\vectorC}[1]{\textbf{#1}} \)
\( \newcommand{\vectorD}[1]{\overrightarrow{#1}} \)
\( \newcommand{\vectorDt}[1]{\overrightarrow{\text{#1}}} \)
\( \newcommand{\vectE}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash{\mathbf {#1}}}} \)
College writing assignments serve a different purpose than the typical writing assignments you completed in high school. In high school, teachers generally focus on teaching you to write in a variety of modes and formats, including personal writing, expository writing, research papers, creative writing, and writing short answers and essays for exams. Over time, these assignments help you build a foundation of writing skills.
In college, many instructors will expect you to already have that foundation.
Your college composition courses will focus on writing for its own sake, helping you make the transition to college-level writing assignments. However, in most other college courses, writing assignments serve a different purpose. In those courses, you may use writing as one tool among many for learning how to think about a particular academic discipline.
Additionally, certain assignments teach you how to meet the expectations for professional writing in a given field. Depending on the class, you might be asked to write a lab report, a case study, a literary analysis, a business plan, or an account of a personal interview. You will need to learn and follow the standard conventions for those types of written products.
Finally, personal and creative writing assignments are less common in college than in high school. College courses emphasize expository writing, writing that explains or informs. Often expository writing assignments will incorporate outside research, too. Some classes will also require persuasive writing assignments in which you state and support your position on an issue. College instructors will hold you to a higher standard when it comes to supporting your ideas with reasons and evidence.
Table 1.2 “Common Types of College Writing Assignments” lists some of the most common types of college writing assignments. It includes minor, less formal assignments as well as major ones. Which specific assignments you encounter will depend on the courses you take and the learning objectives developed by your instructors.
Assignment Type | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
Personal Response Paper | Expresses and explains your response to a reading assignment, a provocative quote, or a specific issue; may be very brief (sometimes a page or less) or more in-depth | For an environmental science course, students watch and write about President Obama’s June 15, 2010, speech about the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. |
Summary | Restates the main points of a longer passage objectively and in your own words | For a psychology course, students write a one-page summary of an article about a man suffering from short-term memory loss. |
Position Paper | States and defends your position on an issue (often a controversial issue) | For a medical ethics course, students state and support their position on using stem cell research in medicine. |
Problem Solution Paper | Presents a problem, explains its causes, and proposes and explains a solution | For a business administration course, a student presents a plan for implementing an office recycling program without increasing operating costs. |
Literary Analysis | States a thesis about a particular literary work (or works) and develops the thesis with evidence from the work and, sometimes, from additional sources | For a literature course, a student compares two novels by the twentieth-century African American writer Richard Wright. |
Research Review or Survey | Sums up available research findings on a particular topic | For a course in media studies, a student reviews the past twenty years of research on whether violence in television and movies is correlated with violent behavior. |
Case Study or Case Analysis | Investigates a particular person, group, or event in depth for the purpose of drawing a larger conclusion from the analysis | For an education course, a student writes a case study of a developmentally disabled child whose academic performance improved because of a behavioral-modification program. |
Laboratory Report | Presents a laboratory experiment, including the hypothesis, methods of data collection, results, and conclusions | For a psychology course, a group of students presents the results of an experiment in which they explored whether sleep deprivation produced memory deficits in lab rats. |
Research Journal | Records a student’s ideas and findings during the course of a long-term research project | For an education course, a student maintains a journal throughout a semester-long research project at a local elementary school. |
Research Paper | Presents a thesis and supports it with original research and/or other researchers’ findings on the topic; can take several different formats depending on the subject area | For examples of typical research projects, see |
Part of managing your education is communicating well with others at your university. For instance, you might need to e-mail your instructor to request an office appointment or explain why you will need to miss a class. You might need to contact administrators with questions about your tuition or financial aid. Later, you might ask instructors to write recommendations on your behalf.
Treat these documents as professional communications. Address the recipient politely; state your question, problem, or request clearly; and use a formal, respectful tone. Doing so helps you make a positive impression and get a quicker response.
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
literary text. Identify the type of language used in the document given below. journals: informational text. literary text. technical text. technical text. Describe three types of language that shape written Standard English texts. Learn with flashcards, games, and more — for free.
literary texts: biographies, essays, short stories and poems. literary texts. creative and/or imaginative texts that use language to appeal to the senses and serve as much as art forms as vehicles of communication. nonfiction prose. essays, biographies, and autobiographies. prose fiction.
6. Technical. texts frequently use scientific and jargon. Literary. texts are creative or imaginary and use language that appeals to the senses. Informational. tests use a lot of ordinary language. Literary. texts include essays, biographies, short stories, and poetry.
The second sentence was written by April Baker-Bell in her book Linguistic Racism: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy and makes a similar point, but uses conventions of SE and of Black English: "If y'all actually believe using 'standard English' will dismantle white supremacy, then you not paying attention." Both sentences are equally intelligible, unless your own ...
In academic writing and workplace writing, writers and speakers are expected to follow the conventions of Standard Written English. Native writers and speakers tend to have tacit knowledge of Standard Written English and Standard Spoken English. The textual attributes of Standard Written English are constantly evolving. Presently, the small screen space of the iphone calls
The assignment's parts may not appear in exactly this order, and each part may be very long or really short. Nonetheless, being aware of this standard pattern can help you understand what your instructor wants you to do. Interpreting the assignment. Ask yourself a few basic questions as you read and jot down the answers on the assignment sheet:
Learn for free about math, art, computer programming, economics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, finance, history, and more. Khan Academy is a nonprofit with the mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere.
Writing is not a linear process, so writing your essay, researching, rewriting, and adjusting are all part of the process. Below are some tips to keep in mind as you approach and manage your assignment. Figure 4. Writing is a recursive process that begins with examining the topic and prewriting.
Common Writing Assignments. These OWL resources will help you understand and complete specific types of writing assignments, such as annotated bibliographies, book reports, and research papers. This section also includes resources on writing academic proposals for conference presentations, journal articles, and books.
Assignment: Types of Writing. As prewriting for your Summary and Analysis Essay, write notes evaluating your reading selection. Use the purpose statements and descriptions of different kinds of text, found earlier in this section, to guide you. Write 1-2 paragraphs describing what kind of source your chosen reading selection illustrates, and ...
The assignment's parts may not appear in exactly this order, and each part may be very long or really short. Nonetheless, being aware of this standard pattern can help you understand what your instructor wants you to do. Interpreting the assignment Ask yourself a few basic questions as you read and jot down the answers on the assignment sheet. 1.
types of written standard english. 12 terms. literallynatalie. Preview. Terms in this set (7) contniuum. a scale or range between two points or extremes. ordinary language. the kind we use everyday and the kind that comes most natural to us. scientific language.
The basic structure of an essay always consists of an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. But for many students, the most difficult part of structuring an essay is deciding how to organize information within the body. This article provides useful templates and tips to help you outline your essay, make decisions about your structure, and ...
Writing is not a linear process, so writing your essay, researching, rewriting, and adjusting are all part of the process. Below are some tips to keep in mind as you approach and manage your assignment. Figure 4. Writing is a recursive process that begins with examining the topic and prewriting. Brainstorm.
Assignment: Illustration Essay—Prewriting and Draft. Students choose from a list of statements and agree or disagree with it in an essay developed by using multiple and extended examples. This assignment consists of an initial brainstorm and the first draft. Assignment: Illustration Essay—Final Draft.
Essay writing process. The writing process of preparation, writing, and revisions applies to every essay or paper, but the time and effort spent on each stage depends on the type of essay.. For example, if you've been assigned a five-paragraph expository essay for a high school class, you'll probably spend the most time on the writing stage; for a college-level argumentative essay, on the ...
The type of assignment you might get can be divided up into how the assignment will be delivered (submission) and what the assignment is going to achieve (purpose). English at this Advanced Level requires students to be able to deliver: An oral presentation. Paragraphs. Essays. A review of a literature-based text. On-demand paragraphs and essays.
Sometimes writing assignments in Gen Ed directly mirror types of writing that students are likely to encounter in real-world, non-academic settings after they graduate. The following are several examples of such assignments: Example 1: Policy memo In Power and Identity in the Middle East, Professor Melani Cammett assigns students a group policy ...
charcarst1. Technical Texts. 5 terms. gabbiearcangel. TYPES OF WRITTEN STANDARD ENGLISH. 20 terms. Cosmic09. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like continuum, ordinary language, scientific and more.
The Online Writing Lab (the Purdue OWL) at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and we provide these as a free service at Purdue. Students, members of the community, and users worldwide will find information to assist with many writing projects.
Types of Assignments Cristy Bartlett and Kate Derrington. Figure 20.1 By recognising different types of assignments and understanding the purpose of the task, you can direct your writing skills effectively to meet task requirements. Image by Armin Rimoldi used under CC0 licence. Introduction. As discussed in the previous chapter, assignments are a common method of assessment at university.
This thesis would be better: "I believe Hamlet's unhinged mind borders on insanity but doesn't quite reach it.". The Semi-Open Writing Assignment. • Discuss the role of law in Antigone. • Explain the relationship between character and fate in Hamlet. • Compare and contrast the use of setting in two short stories.
Prose. any written or spoken language that is not poetry; literary prose contains some poetic features and is called "poetic prose". Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like ____________ divided language (both spoken and written expression) into three major categories, Scientific Language does not always, Examples of ...
College instructors will hold you to a higher standard when it comes to supporting your ideas with reasons and evidence. Table 1.2 "Common Types of College Writing Assignments" lists some of the most common types of college writing assignments. It includes minor, less formal assignments as well as major ones.