The article I’ve read, written by Traci Gardner, from the NCTE site, was about the effectiveness of issuing writing prompts that are too generic for students. Gardner explains in the article that some teachers don’t realize and don’t intend to give the writing assignments with very generic prompts that causes the students to hand in poorly written generic essays back to the teacher. She compares two very different prompts, one being the default and bland “Write a response to this novel” and the other prompt which is full of detailed information on what the essay should consist of. The difference in the essays were dramatic. The detailed prompt helped the students think more about what they were writing and fully shows why generic prompts shouldn’t be issued so often. I strongly agree with everything in this article.
I find myself writing better with instructions that are detailed because it leaves me with the full understanding of what is expected in that assignment. It may seem that it would be more bothersome to have the teachers write a whole explanation on what they want in the essay but I believe if it was done, then two things will happen: 1.) Students will put the necessary information in the essay that the teacher intended them to write about and 2.) I think it would cut down on the rushed Q and A time at the end of class because the students don’t fully understand the assignment. The teacher could go on with other obligations that they need to complete without having to stop or cut the class short to answer the onslaught of questions about the assignment. This may upset the students that don’t want more class time but if the teachers fall through with making more detailed assignments, that increases the grades for others, then I think it’s a “sacrifice” the teachers need to make.
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Personally, I like when there is a lot of instruction and structure for my writing assignments. I like to know what I can, and cannot do. I would much rather a paper with instruction than a paper in which a teacher says "write 3 pages on what ever you want". That doesn't stimulate my mind at all and it just acts as a road block in my head.
I find myself torn here. I often find myself wishing for more instruction when a teacher has given me a vague assignment. I have a hard time narrowing my topic choices and I wind up frustrated. However, I have also found myself extremely annoyed by assignments that are too specific, leaving me writing about someone I feel no passion for. I personally think the way to avoid this is to give fairly specific assignments, but provide more than one choice of topic, many in fact. I had the pleasure of taking a course last semester with a professor who worked this way with his assignments and I was always satisfied with at least one of the choices provided for me, often more than one choice would entice me. I think it is especially important to practice this method of assigning writing topics, when dealing with in-class essays, or essays on exams. I was absolutely disgusted with the LAST testers when I heard from a friend that she had to write a timed essay on sports funding in schools. That was her only choice and she knew nothing of sports. That just seems very unreasonable unfair. So, while I feel that it is nice to be given some direction, I also feel that it is equally nice to be given options.
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