UNDERSTANDING ASSIGNMENT GUIDELINES
One of the most mind-boggling things for me as an EAP teacher is how we never explicitly tell students how they are to interpret assignment guidelines according to the unspoken expectations of the academy.
- Should you write from a personal point of view or as if the thing you're writing about is objective truth?
- Should you simply summarize or analyze/evaluate?
- How does a course progress from responses to particular readings throughout the semester, to synthesis of multiple readings in the final assignment?
- How do you answer an exam question in a paragraph or a page of writing, and how is it similar to/different from a take-home writing assignment?
- How do answers to the above questions, and the nature of typical writing assignments, vary across disciplines?
The PowerPoint "Understanding Assignment Guidelines" aims to shed light on some of these questions, as well as promote discussion and awareness among students early on in the semester.