Designing Writing Assignments [TEACHING E-GUIDE]
Writing Studio – Colorado State University
http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/teaching/wassign

A teaching guide from the acclaimed Colorado State University Writing Studio on how to design writing assignments. The guide first presents five principles for creating effective assignments: 1) Tie the writing task to specific pedagogical goals, 2) Note rhetorical aspects of the task, i.e., audience, purpose, writing situation, 3) Make all elements of the task clear, 4) Include grading criteria on the assignment sheet, and 5) Break down the task into manageable steps. Then the guide addresses these goals through explanations, checksheets, sample assignments, and teacher commentary.

Creating Writing Assignments [E-HANDOUT]
MIT Online Writing and Communication Center – MIT
http://web.mit.edu/writing/Faculty/createeffective.html

Taking a recipe approach, this e-handout goes through the ingredients needed to produce an effective writing assignment: assignment goals, defined writing task, audience, criteria for evaluation, and writer’s role. The handout also includes a checklist, a discussion of sequencing writing assignments, and a list of assignment formats.

Designing Writing Assignments [E-HANDOUT]
Manoa Writing Program – University of Hawaii at Manoa
http://www.mwp.hawaii.edu/resources/wm1.htm

The University of Hawaii’s writing program uses its work with instructors teaching and students taking writing-intensive courses to produce instructor resources such as this one. This e-handout presents a table that addresses how students read or interpret writing assignments and how that may or may not match what instructors expect.

What Students Ask about Writing Assignments [E-HANDOUT]
Center for Writing – University of Minnesota
http://writing.umn.edu/tww/assignments/ask.htm

Condensing the material the University of Hawaii at Manoa gathered from interviewing 200 plus students, this e-handout divides key student questions about writing assignments into four queries that form the foundation of this handout: 1) How will the assignment help me learn the course material? 2) How would the instructor go about doing this assignment? 3) How does the assignment relate to the discipline? and 4) what criteria are you going to use to grade the paper?

Designing Writing Assignments [TEACHING E-GUIDE]
Writing Across the Curriculum – University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts
http://www.utexas.edu/cola/progs/wac/assignments/

This teaching guide looks at three types of assignments used in writing-intensive courses: short assignments (these are often ungraded and activities that promote writing as a way of learning, or writing-to-learn for short), longer assignments (these assignments build critical thinking skills and are developed through a series of drafting and revision), and collaborative writing (this involves students working in groups to produce writing).

Resources for Students

Understanding Assignments [E-HANDOUT]
The Writing Center – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/readassign.html

A nice design feature of e-handouts from the UNC Writing Center is the opening abstract of what the handout is about. This e-handout states “The first step in any successful college writing venture is reading the assignment. While this sounds like a simple task, it can be a tough one. This handout will help you unravel your assignment directions and help you begin to craft an effective response. Much of the following advice will involve translating typical assignment terms and practices into meaningful clues to the type of writing your instructor expects.”

Creating a Thesis Statement [E-HANDOUT]
Purdue OWL
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/545/01/

This e-handout comes from the goal standard of online writing resource center’s, Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab). The e-handout begins with four tips for writing a thesis and then provides examples with commentary of well composed thesis statements.

How to Write a Thesis Statement [E-HANDOUT]
Writing Tutorial Services – Indiana University Bloomington
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/thesis_statement.shtml

Taking a more Q&A approach to thesis statement development, this e-handout addresses the questions What is a thesis statement? Why should an essay contain one? And How can you write a good thesis statement? 

Thesis Statements [E-HANDOUT]
The Writing Center - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/thesis.html

This e-handout not only explains what a thesis statement is, but it addresses how to determine if the thesis is strong and provides several good examples with commentary.

This e-handout comes from the much-admired and used Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab). This e-handout explores how to evaluate sources used in the research process.  Particular attention is given to evaluating bibliographic citations, evaluating the credibility of sources while reading, and evaluating the credibility of print versus Internet sources.
 

Critical Evaluation of Information Sources [E-HANOUT]
UO Libraries – University of Oregon
http://libweb.uoregon.edu/guides/findarticles/credibility.html

Using a table format, this e-handout addresses the features of  authority, objectivity, quality, coverage, currency, and relevance to evaluate the credibility of a source. This primary focuses on print sources.

Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply & Questions to Ask [E-HANOUT]
UC Berkeley Library
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html

Using a question and answer approach, this e-handout gives the user strategies to assess the credibility of a web page from dissecting a URL to looking at determining the quality of the information on the site.

The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly or Why It’s a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources [E-GUIDE]
Susan Beck, Collection Development Coordinator
New Mexico State University Library
http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/eval.html

This web guide demonstrates the need to evaluate web sources by giving examples rather than explanations of authority, accuracy, objectivity, currency and coverage.  Includes an extensive bibliography on evaluating sources, many of the sources are linked; unfortunately, many of the sources are pre-2000.

Conducting Primary Research [E-HANDOUT]
Purdue OWL
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/559/01/

This e-handout comes from the much-admired and used Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab). The e-handout begins defining primary research and then presents the types of primary research most often conducted in the undergraduate writing classroom: Interviewing,   Surveying, Observing,  and 
  Analysis.

Primary and Secondary Sources [E-HANDOUT]
Ithaca College Library
http://www.ithaca.edu/library/course/primary.html

Defines both primary and secondary sources and shows the difference between research and review articles.  The handout concludes with a paragraph on how students can get confused on the between primary and secondary sources.

Conducting Research [E-GUIDE]
Writing Studio – Colorado State University
http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/index.cfm?guides_active=conducting&category1=22

A writing guide from the acclaimed Colorado State University Writing Studio on conducting research. In stead of focusing on primary and second sources, the guide focuses on how to conduct library research,  electronic research,   and field research.

Primary and Secondary Sources [E-HANDOUT]
Ithaca College Library
http://www.ithaca.edu/library/course/primary.html

Defines both primary and secondary sources and shows the difference between research and review articles.  The handout concludes with a paragraph on how students can get confused.

General Resources

Writing Abstracts [e-guide]
Writing Studio – Colorado State University
http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/documents/abstract/

A writing guide from the Colorado State University Writing Studio on writing abstracts.  The guide includes information on purposes of abstracts, types of abstracts, how to cite abstracts, key issues in preparing abstracts, and even provides examples of abstracts writing in specific disciplines:  Civil Engineering, English, Neurobiology, and Geology. 

Writing Report Abstracts [e-handout]
Purdue OWL
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/656/01/

This e-handout comes from the acclaimed Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) and presents the key features of informational and descriptive abstracts as well as steps for writing abstracts.

Abstracts [e-handout]
The Writing Center -University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/abstracts.html

This e-handout gives an overview of abstract writing by addressing the following questions:  What is an abstract?  Why and when write an abstract? The types of abstacts? And finally how to write an abstract?  This e-handout also includes sample abstracts from the sciences and the humanities.

Discipline Specific Resources

Engineering

How to Write an Abstract [e-handout]
Philip Koopman – Carnegie Mellon University
http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/essays/abstract.html

This one page handout defines how and why abstracts are used in Engineering and includes a checklist of the essential parts of an abstract

Writing Scientific Abstracts Presentation  [PowerPoint presentation]
Purdue University OWL
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/706/01/

This short PowerPoint presentation comes from the acclaimed Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) and acquaints the novice writer in Engineering on how to compile a scientific abstract