Rethinking Writing Assignments for Advocacy, Discovery, and Democracy

• In Event: New Perspectives and Practices on Student Writing

Abstract

Writing assignments do not need to be a chore in our classrooms. We can create engaging assignments that encourage our students to think about problems in their communities, states, and nation and work towards advocating for change in our democracy. By moving away from the typical research paper assignment for classes, this work considers teaching students how to advocate for solutions to problems that they identify in their community, and, at the same time, discover what issues they care about and who they are politically. Four assignments will be discussed and constructive ways for faculty to incorporate these into their courses will be discussed. Rethinking how we teach writing assignments in our classes is necessary because we are teaching our students to be engaged citizens and active participants in their democracy in continuous times.

Author

• Bobbi Gentry, Bridgewater College