My+Best+Writing+Assignment

Nigera Barden

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My favorite writing assignment was assigned to me last fall in my Shakespeare: Tragedies and Romances course. I had to choose two or three Shakespeare plays and write a ten page paper on the topic of my choice. I was initially intimidated by this assignment, because never before was the task of choosing a topic to write about left in my hands; the topic was always given to me. This assignment allowed me to dig deep within the works of Shakespeare, in order to produce a paper that would be enjoyable for me to write and for the professor to read. I was not forced to explore a topic that I was not interested in and this is what made the assignment my favorite.=====

Keith Kasper

My favorite writing assignment was in a Graduate Creative Non-Fiction Writing class with Professor Nash. Never being a proficient writer, I felt that I needed to take a class that was going to break me out of my writer’s block shell, give me support to begin grading students writing and help build some confidence as a writer. This was definitely the class. Our first assignment was to write about a moment, event or experience that made me the person that I am today. I wrote about a third grade field trip where I was pushed to the top of the Statue of Liberty and was scared out of my mind. I am still very afraid of heights because of the experience. I really enjoyed the assignment because it allowed me, a novice writer to write on a topic that I felt comfortable with. It was my first piece of CNF and just to be able to tell a story about my childhood was very safe.It was like baby steps for me. We shared the pieces with groups of four and I developed a very strong relationship with my writing group members throughout the semester because of their support, honesty and trust. It was bold, fun and scary. I believe that writing something today, I would still share it with those members because I value their opinion so much and trust that they have my works best interest in mind. It was that first piece though that gave me the confidence to share my writing with others and open my work up to creative criticism. Thanks Professor Nash.

Kelli Bond I completed my favorite writing assignment as a sophmore here at MSU. The class was creative nonfiction. I have always loved to read memoirs and real-life stories so i was drawn to the material we were to read and eager to complete the assignments. One particular assignment that semester was to look at the news and current events, and write a memoir from the point of view of someone involved in the events. I struggled to read through numerous articles until i settled on writing a short story from the point of view of a Hurricaine Katrina victim. I read accounts from different New Orleans natives who's lives were devastated by the storm. After learning the facts, I created a character- Jackson Crutchfield, a man in his late 50s- and wrote his tragic story.

Not only did this assignment channel my creative side but it allowed me to express my opinions on the events of Hurricaine Katrina. I had known little about the statistics of the storm's damage and so I ended up learning a lot as well. I love to write creatively, but I also enjoy doing research and developing my own point of view on different topics.

Kalina Carlson My favorite writing assignment…hmmm…well I have many writing assignments over the years. It’s hard to remember many of them, let alone my favorites. I know I have always been partial to any fiction assignment I was given. I remember a particular favorite that I had was in high school. I had to write a descriptive essay about anything that I wanted. I decided to describe a day in my life. I did not realize all the different ways I could describe how my feet hit the pavement while I walked into school. The different smells I encountered, the things I felt and the way I remembered things to look. I never realized how much I rushed through my day without really enjoying all the simple things until I had to break them down with my senses. It was fun to write and I revealed a lot about my day. I liked being descriptive and using language to make something that could have been routine and boring jumps off the page.

Randie Berner I have had to write a number of essays in my life. Although I do not enjoy the idea of writing essays, some are more enjoyable to write than others. I never really thought about any being my favorite, but one does stand out more than the others. It was an assignment that made me think why I wanted to become a teacher, and what in my life had brought me to that decision. We also needed to bring into this assignment, artifacts from different parts of our lives that have led us to this decision. Another writing assignment that enjoyed writing was the assignment for this class, writing our literacy autobiography. At first I dreaded it, I could not remember much about any book I had read or even any papers I had to write. But while I was writing, something opened up for me. I started to remember things that I guess I had forced myself to forget. It opened up doors for me that had been closed for many years. By opening these doors things about my reading and inadvertently my writing started to make sense to me. I think what I liked most about these writings, is it was something that was meaningful to me. When you can write about something that you have feelings for, or if it is something you believe in, the writing is not so strenuous.

Kelliann O'Brien

My favorite writing assignment came from my high school English teacher Mrs. Reggev. It was the end of the year and our specific class had developed a unique teacher-student/student-student relationship. This class grew to be a family; we all shared our ideas with one another and genuinely respected each other. The writing assignment that truly changed my perception not only as a student but also now as a prospective teacher, was a simple writing portfolio. There were four components to this assignment: 1) to write about a life changing moment, 2) write about the person who has influenced you the most, 3) write about who your hero was, and 4) compose a poem describing yourself as an object.

I remember sitting down to write the portfolio and contemplating exactly what I wanted to write about. Mrs. Reggev was one of a kind and I felt absolutely comfortable being truthful and honest with my writing. I ended up writing about very personal experiences in my life and felt confident sharing these moments with Mrs. Reggev. This assignment helped me realize that writing could be a form of self-exploration and did not have to be something you only did in school. Writing this portfolio helped me express myself freely and discover writing as a personal experience, something I still appreciate today.

My favorite writing assignment was from my Teaching Writing course, just last Spring 2007 semester. The professor asked us to write about a personal experience that we would like to tell our fellow classmates, something funny or sad. My brain immediately filled with the many experiences I’d had in my life, a lot of them sad, some triumphant (like enrolling in college) and some quite strange. So after careful consideration, I chose to tell the very strange story about my telepathic encounter with Bono, of the band, U2. I used to work at The Brendan Byrne Arena at The Meadowlands as an usher. It was a very crowded night in the seating section, and one of the patrons in my section refused to take her seat. I let her hang out by the glass for a while. We had a great advantage because we were behind the stage, and our viewpoint was sort of like being //backstage//, in a way. Well, I eventually yelled at the girl, she went into frenzy, and I swear Bono heard the commotion. He walked over to us and mocked me, mocked me with a “nah-nah, nah-nah nahhhh nah”-type look (you know what I mean). He yelled up at the people in my section and told them to “come on down! All of youuuu! Come on down!” And they did. They crushed me against the glass. It was humiliating. He was looking straight at me and smirked all the while. Whew! Maybe I wasn’t supposed to go into all of the details, but I have to admit that writing about this event brings me right back to the moment! It happened twenty years ago, but it still feels like it happened yesterday! In Teaching Writing, professor had us bring in drafts of our paper and read them aloud to our respective groups. We went through a three-draft process, revising all along, but saving each draft and each comment for the professor to see at the end. The advice I received on my writing technique and responses to my story were wonderful gems I’ll remember forever! The grade I got was rewarding, too! I got an A! Ilsa Scholz

Keriann Eklund

What one to choose? It’s probably easier to choose my least favorite writing assignment, as there were many of those for sure. I think my favorites were always in my creative writing class at WPU with Dr. Liu but for formal writing assignments one of my now favorites (I say now because when I was doing it I wasn’t a fan of it at all) would have to be the research proposal I did for an English professor two years ago. I wrote a 30-page proposal on something very close to the topic of writing assignments actually. I wanted to know if there was a direct gender-related relationship between teachers and students when teachers read their students’ essays. Did the teacher respond to the essays written by male students differently from the ones written by female students? Also, did students write differently based on the gender role their teacher portrayed in the classroom? Was the construction of a writing assignment, i.e. the language used to express the assignment, affected by the teacher’s gender role? I thoroughly believe gender roles/behaviors created by society have a huge impact when it comes to responding to students’ writing.

What was so great about this assignment? It was by far the hardest assignment I’ve ever had to tackle and I loved the challenge, and love the final product. I also enjoyed how the assignment was broken up into sections and we had opportunities to focus on the various sections without feeling so overwhelmed by the enormity of the project. We were able to share our various sections with peers for feedback and with the professor. I think it was also well constructed with limitations and boundaries but at the same time we were totally free to choose the research topic we wanted to pursue. There was an overall good balance about this assignment, a give and take between the student and professor, rounds of drafts and a final product to be proud of.

Perhaps I liked this assignment so much not because of the final product that I am pleased with but for the writing process. I am all for the writing process and would like to create assignments that utilize it and teach students how to do it independently as well. That is something I even today, have to remind myself to go through (often times I think I can spit out a paper first try but it’s not always the case at all). With this particular assignment I had to rewrite many sections, I had to cut whole areas and rework others. It was a true eye opener into that area of the writing process that can often times be most difficult for students. We have this internal dialogue to the tune of, “But that sentence sounds so great and makes such a cool point! Yes, but it isn’t relevant to your thesis and you need to either move it or cut it!” (sound familiar?) The dialogue is good to have but it can sometimes be overwhelming too!

Jennifer Thompson

During my senior year of high school, my English teacher required each student in my class to write one college entrance essay every week. Not only did writing these essays help me to practice writing, but they also helped me to learn more about myself in regard to my past experiences, as well as what I looked forward to most in my future. I thoroughly enjoyed writing each essay because they were representative of my hard work and dedication to school. I believe it was also through writing these essays that I decided that I would attend college regardless of harships I might face, especially financial ones. Ultimately, the assignments were successful because they served as the stepping stone to my college career, which I am proud to be completing my undergraduate coursework this May.

Claire Snyder

One of my favorite writing assignments was in my ninth grade history class. We had to complete a project based on the unit we'd been studying, which I guess must have been Tudor England. We had several options to choose from, and I don't remember what the other choices were, but I chose to write a collection of diary entries as if I were Lady Jane Grey, otherwise known as the Nine Days Queen. She probably appealed to me because of her age (around seventeen) and the pathos of her situation - she was forced into becoming queen of England after the death of Edward VI by those members of the British government who wished to continue Protestant reign of the country. Even though she had no political aspirations for herself, she was beheaded nine days later for treason. I don't recall the specifics of her life, but I do remember the assignment well. I had to research the time period, the political world of Tudor England, Lady Jane herself, and the details of everyday life as Lady Jane would have lived it. I believe it was during this project that I learned about the various dangerous substances that women then used for cosmetics - putting drops of poisonous belladonna in their eyes to brighten the whites, etc. I loved reading about the history of the time, the characters, the drama, and I loved writing about it even more. Armed with my research and my imagination, I immersed myself in my idea of what Lady Jane's experience would have been - what my own experience would have been as a scared teenager thrust upon the the throne of England. I think E. L. Doctorow said something about how fiction allows us to understand the world in ways that traditional historical accounts do not, and I agree. By writing a fictional diary of Lady Jane, I was able to put myself smack in the middle of that time in history and understand it more vividly than I would have by just reading about it and writing an essay. In fact, I enjoyed that assignment so much that I chose to use that format again when we studied the Irish potato famine later that year. The interdisciplinary element of the assignment was particularly appealing to me, since I got to use my own affinity for creative writing in the context of a history class.

Nicola Szpila

I’ve written a lot of essays throughout my high school and college career, and now that I’m supposed to pick a favorite one, I’m sort of drawing a blank. However, the first thing that comes to my mind, as an enjoyable writing assignment, was an assignment I was assigned last semester. I was given an assignment in my Teaching for Equity and Diversity class to write an autobiography. The professor didn’t put a page limit on it, or give us a specific time frame in our lives that we needed to talk about. She did, however, give us a list of topics and questions we should discuss in our paper dealing with our experiences with people different from us. When I was first given the assignment I was a little annoyed because I thought it was going to be very time consuming and didn’t really know why it was important to write such a paper. However, when I sat down to write the paper, my mind was flooded with memories and ideas of things I could talk about. It was enjoyable to remember these moments in my life and share them with someone else. I liked how the professor didn’t restrict the writing and I was able to answer the questions and respond to the topics she had mentioned while still talking about lots of different times in my life that we’re important to me. In addition, some of her questions ended up helping me think of times or people in my life that I never would have thought of if I wasn’t provoked with a question. I spent a lot of time on the paper and enjoyed doing so; in fact, I ended up writing about eleven pages about myself. I think the fact that the paper was so unrestricted was the main reason I liked it. I’ve dealt with a lot of teachers and professors that have very specific ways they like their students to write, dealing both with the format and content. I find that to be a bit more stressful and almost hinders the writing process because rather than thinking about ideas and how to get them across on paper, I’m worried about the length, or that I’ve written exactly what the teacher wants.

Jess Katz

My favorite writing assignment was probably the one that infuriated me the most, the one that made me want to give it all up and be a starving artist on the street. I had this class here at MSU and the professor assigned something, which is now somewhat infamous, called an “autoethnography”. I don’t know what that is, nor do I ever think I actually will know what it is. The explanations for the assignment were poor, at best. The explanations of his expectations for us were mediocre, at best. The whole class was frustrating. He wanted us to “dig deep” and look into our souls and figure out why we wrote and why we wanted to be English educators. At first it all seemed very easy to me, “oh I’ll just write about my passion for English yada yada yada yada” and I got a C- for that effort. Hmm. Time to think up new plan. I got mad at him, and his lack of explanations and his random readings from anarchists and theorists and arrogant scholars. I just got mad, finally I started to write to him in letter form. I was mad. And I wrote and wrote and wrote, because I had never had a writing assignment that I just didn’t know how to do, and I resented him for doing this to me. Eventually out of all of that anger came a revelation. I knew why I was mad and I knew why I wanted to write and to teach. I was mad because I felt the system had screwed me, because I had a mental disability, and I was furious, because not one teacher in ALL MY YEARS offered to help me, or offer suggestions for a different way of learning. Not one educator got up out of their high and almighty chairs and took me aside, and said, “yes you have gifts, and we can work with you to achieve them”. They just wondered why I had to run out of their classes, short of breath and pale as paper. They thought I was a freak, or that is how I perceived it. Or they pitied me, “that girl would have so much potential if. . . .” that girl would be such a great student if only. . .. In the end it’s all bullshit. I want to be the teacher who was absent in my life. And I never understood that before I got this frustrating, infuriating assignment from Bob Whitney. I don’t like him, and I don’t think I ever could ,but I ‘m grateful. He made me go beyond my comfort zone and dig into a really deep, buried, ugly place and be uncomfortable. He made me realize why my desire is so strong, and what makes me so passionate about education. I think I knew this all along, but he brought it to the surface with this ludicrous assignment and I feel like somehow I may be a better teacher now that I know it.

Amy Hussein

I remember, during my senior year of high school, being asked to write a poem about myself. The only guidelines she provided us entailed the length of the poem which was to be at least 4 stanzas long, 4 lines per each stanza, and no rhyme scheme was necessary. What made this writing assignment very enjoyable for me was the fact that it was basically a “free writing” assignment. By allowing us to write in a way that had no “poetic structure,” it alleviated my stress level. We had to present this poem to the class, which allowed for enough stress in itself. The unit we were covering dealt with “self identity” and the idea was to be able to look within ourselves and recognize our different roles: personal and societal.

Some people work better with strict guidelines, because it gives them direction. They like the work to be modeled for them to guarantee them a good grade. While I became one of these students in college, I used to like taking risks. It allowed me to write without having to think too much about it, and make unnecessary corrections to my work. This particular assignment, dealing with self-identity, however, really gave us the opportunity to explore different things, and I liked that she left most of the rules entirely up to us. My favorite part about this writing assignment is the fact that it dealt with me, and therefore it took a lot of the weight off my shoulders. Students in secondary schools are, for the most part, very egocentric and jump at the opportunity to incorporate themselves in anything they may talk or write about, so this assignment worked very well for all of us.

Megan-Ann Gramlich

Sadly, I have never had a standout favorite writing assignment. However, there are some writing assignment characteristics which consistently impacted my skills, interest, and learning more than others. I was always drawn to assignments I was passionate about. Typically, these assignments were self-selected and were given only during my years here at Montclair. These //choice topic// papers not only allowed me to become excited about the topic, but they also allowed me to make it my own. It is that element of creativity which also made for some of my best writing assignments. Whenever I was able to fully express myself, without worrying about a teacher’s or scholar’s opinions, I truly felt like I was becoming an independent learner, thinker, and writer. Having the ability to exercise that creative independence always made me take more stock in what I was writing about; it was never just a topic when it was //my// topic, and it was never just a paper when it was //my// paper. Some of my best writing assignments didn’t just allow me to exercise creativity, but they allowed the teacher to do so as well. Too many times, I remember receiving dry, just making sure you are reading paper topics that with good class notes wrote themselves. I loved when my teachers broke away from their manuals and created topics that were not only relevant to our class, but to each one of us personally. Instead of making their lives easier by simply giving the assignment their manual suggested, they created one on their own. The excitement that had gone into creating an interesting topic spilled over into the actual writing of the assignment. These assignments were rarely accompanied by a list of standards and guidelines; their main purpose was to encourage us to explore and share our ideas. Yes, the skills are important, but when teachers are blinded by commas and a few misspellings, they miss the bigger picture. Therefore, some of my best writing assignments allowed me to become a writer, not just a student of writing. Although I never had a //best// writing assignment, I have had //good// ones. One of the good ones that stands out is my final paper for my College Writing I course. My professor gave us a list of provocative topics, but we also had the option to create one of our own. Since this was a paper I would be spending at least two months of my time with, I wanted to select a topic I was passionate about, so I decided to write about the ineffectiveness of standardized testing. Not only was I passionate about this topic and in control of the writing, but there weren’t any guidelines holding me back. My professor simply guided me with helpful hints for creating outlines and researching my topic, but she pushed me creatively with each draft I handed in. I was very proud of this paper because it was wholly mine; it was during this class that I truly became an independent writer who was not dependent on other people’s thoughts—it was the first time I valued my own more.

Ryan McGuirk

There is something incredibly gratifying about being told, for once, in your writing, to take a chance. Sadly, I was only told this once, but the impression it left was indelible. In my sophomore year of college, my Lit. Theory professor—a man of incredible knowledge, as well as wit and humor—offered us a choice of seven or so essay topics (with the provision that we could always devise our own as well), and rather than place a bevy of requirements as to page length, font size, and so on, his instructions simply said, "Impress me." Now, because this man had taught for over twenty years, and because I do not consider myself to be of extraordinary intelligence—especially not in Literary Theory—writing a 'standard' essay was, for me, out of the question. If I was going to fulfill the requirement and impress my professor, risks had to be taken. And, they were.

After an antagonizing writing process in which each word was weighed heavily and each thought scrutinized, I managed to produce an essay that was wholly different from any I had produced until then. It was, in a word, humorous. In addition to discussing whether a computer could create art using the ideas of Tolstoy, Propp, and a few other theorists, I also included a running side commentary using footnotes that created sort of dual narrative to the essay. The side commentary was, of course, completely irrelevant to the information of the essay, but it did add a substantial amount to the tone and style of the paper, as well as its readability. More importantly, though, it enabled me to enjoy the process of writing what was otherwise an essay dealing with topics with which I did not feel entirely comfortable.

Allison McDarby

My favorite writing assignment of all was perhaps the most difficultthat I have had thus far in my college experience. Most of the students who are aware of the professor and the directions may disagree with me because of the challenge that it presented. Dr. Whitney required my Pursuits of English class to write an autoethnography. It was a cathartic experience because it provided me with an opportunity of exploring who I am as a result of my past decisions and experiences. I went in depth of describing a moment in my life when I truly felt changed and when I felt I truly entered the world of who I am. However, I do not feel as though I recognized this until I began writing about it. I enjoyed the struggle of facing who I was and who I am. I not only changed as a person when the particular incident of what I was writing about occured, but I also changed as a writer as a result of the assignment. It was as though I unleashed a part of myself through my words. I always felt I knew exactly who I was but I never put as much thought into it before the assignment. It helped me to be the writer that I am today; one who can confront reality as well as one who is not afraid to be honest. It wasn't until this assignment that I felt I ever truly wrote.

Danielle Murphy When reflecting upon my writing experiences, there is one assignment that stands out the most. While attending a local community college, I took a literary theory class. This class was not exactly the most exciting class. The reading that was assigned was difficult. I remember that I had to read a variety of essays written by top literary critics and through these readings, we were suppose to extract and analyze the theories advocated in the essays. I thought that this class was going to be real cut and dry until we were assigned the final paper topic. We were assigned to write a 10 page paper about ANY text and we had to use at least 3 theories that were covered in the class. I remember when first reading the question, I asked myself, “Can we really pick any text?” There was a lot of commotion in the class after reading the assignment because there was so much freedom that it actually scared many of us. But essentially, we were allowed to pick any text on any medium to write about. I remember that I really had no idea what to write about. A lot of my classmates were picking well known books and I really could not think of any books that I really wanted to write about. I decided to write my paper on the popular cartoon //Family Guy//. I remember thinking if this was appropriate to write about, but my professor did say it could be ANY text. So I went with it. I spent countless hours locked away in my room watching season after season of this highly controversial cartoon. I remember taking extensive notes on each episode and looking for key themes that I could relate back to the theories that we covered in class. I don’t think I had more fun doing a writing assignment. What more could a college student ask for? I was able to write a 10pg research paper using literary theory about my favorite cartoon. Of course there were some rules to follow, there is this little pesky thing called MLA format and we did have to use at least 5 outside sources. But, these rules are small and I really didn’t mind the amount of work that I put into this paper. I actually had fun writing it and I actually learned a great deal about literary theory. All the effort and hard work did pay off, I got an A on the paper and I was able to finally see that school work can be both fun and educational.

Nathalie Santuccio My favorite writing assignment was an essay I did for an Art History course on the Ancient Near East. The assignment itself was nothing spectacular or especially innovative. We had to simply choose an artifact from the Met and write about it. I discovered in the museum the beautiful remains of what was once a female bust. All the was left was the lower section of her face, from right under her nose to her neck. What captivated me most was the shiny, bright yellow material from which the bust was carved (jasper) and the perfect full lips that were now the focal point of the piece. My interest in the subject of my paper led me to my research into the possible identity of the fragmented bust. I ended up discovering some new possibilities that were not accounted for in any of the literature on the sculpture. The hard work that was put into the research and the satisfaction I felt with my work helped make this assignment one of my favorites.

Michelle Kuiphoff My favorite writing assignment was one that I had to do in high school. I had to pick a scene from //Romeo and Juliet// and re-write the scene. The teacher allowed me to be creative. I decided to set my scene in modern times. I chose the last scene in the play and extended it to include a court trial between the two feuding families. I enjoyed this writing assignment because it was both fun and educational. It took a while to decipher Shakespeare's language but ultimately, I gained a better understanding of the play by the time I was finished with my paper.

Ashley Dorian One of the most exciting writing assignments that I have ever had to do in class was when I was in my Teaching Writing Class. I had the opportunity to create a writing assignment for possible use in my own classroom and put all of myself into it. I loved using my own experiences as a writer to create an assignment for students that were close to my own age.

I have always loved working with my peers and journaling. In my assignment I put the two together so that students could understand how important both things were. I remember having to journal for my Honors English class in my senior year of high school. Our teacher would make us journal about things that we had encountered that week that might have related to what we were discussing in class. This project allowed all of us to see that the types of literature that did not seem accessible were.

I always liked assignments that let me be creative and also helped me to learn something more about myself. I think that these introspective assignments allowed me to see that in order to understand and enjoy something you have to have some faint connection to it. I always felt accomplished when I was done with something that made me think about who I was.

Another writing assignment that I LOVED was one in Wendy Nielsen’s class. We had to take a play that we had read and change the ending or make a new one. I remember recreating a part of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. I had Nora and Helen stand on a suffragette line. There they found out more about what being a woman is and what they could do to change it. Alice Paul and Lucy Burns wound up having a conversation with the two other women. It was fun and interesting and I loved the final outcome.

Writing assignments should help the student focus on the task at hand, but should also be interesting and fun. They should also help the student connect to the piece of writing.

Pam Polster In high school I remember having to write about many topics that I did not particularly enjoy. They always seemed monotonous and meaningless in my eyes. Each assignment that was collected was written to the best of my ability yet I never received any pleasure from my finished work. However, in a sea of awful writing assignments there was one that I actually enjoyed and remember fully to this day. We were learning about the Transcendental Writers and their lifestyles. This was extremely interesting because this was a very new approach, something that I had never seen before. The writing assignment that correlated with the unit was very fresh and exciting. We had to go outside and become one with nature, the same way the Transcendentalists did. We went outside one Friday and wrote down all the sounds that we heard on the football field. We wrote down how we felt, the smells, everything that came to our minds. That weekend we had to write a paper using these notes, the same way Thoreau would. I remember I went home that weekend and actually wanted to sit down at the computer to compose my thoughts. I remember the words streaming from my fingers because this assignment was so new and so creative. The paper was finished within a few hours, very different from my other papers that usually took a few days to get motivated and many hours to finish. I think this assignment worked because there was an interesting activity that correlated with the actual paper. This assignment actually had thought behind it and I could clearly see the meaning behind the paper. This all culminated into a very successful writing task. I was able to take on the role of Thoreau or Emerson and produce something that I was proud of. I still remember the grade that I received on the essay, a 93, (don’t ask where that number came from, grading was always a bizarre issue with this educator) a grade that I was very proud of.



~Amy Brooks I'm not sure if it is a good or bad sign that it takes me so long to think of my favorite writing assignment. Really trying to choose one, I've realized it is a bit upsetting that there isn't anything that is so memorable that I want to do it with my own class one day. However, I suppose, for the sake of this short passage, I'll explain something that I did enjoy (even if it is not my favorite).

More than once with several different teachers, we were given a story with an ending that left much to be explained. My teachers allowed us to "finish" the story as we would have liked to see it end. For the assignment we needed to stay true to what the author(s) had already present, so to continue with their work we needed to be understanding of the details. Sometimes we worked in teams and other times it was for individual work; either way, I always found that it helped everyone in the class to think more deeply about the characters and events we read about.

Jennifer Ferreira If I had to choose one of my favorite writing assignments, I think that I would choose an assignment from my junior year in high school. My class had started to read Sandra Cisnero's The House on Mango Street, which is a collection of vignettes. My teacher asked us to write a vignette of our own. I remember my vignette was almost poetic. Cisnero's writing, as I recall, was much more detailed and each memory had its own chapter. My vignette was titled "Hands" and I wrote about my hands and the hands of my parents and brothers. At the time, I didn't think that my writing was so striking, but my teacher absolutely loved it. This teacher and I had a very special bond. She and I were very close for the remainder of that year and the year to follow. From time to time, we still talk to one another. My senior year of high school, I asked this teacher for a college recommendation and in her writing, she wrote about my vignette and how memorable it was to her. This really meant a lot to me, as I didn't really see it as the most magnificent piece of writing. I think that when a teacher recognizes something as special, it means even more to the student. I never had confidence in my writing and when this teacher put her confidence in my writing, I felt that I could take risks.

Another writing assignment that I felt very drawn to was my senior/college essay. This essay was assigned to me the second week of school of my senior year. My teacher had a slogan, which was: "Show, Don't Tell." This essentially meant that when you write, you should be descriptive and show the reader what you're talking about as opposed to just telling them what you thought. I thought that this was a brilliant idea. I had difficulty at first writing this essay because I had to find a new way to write. I had to show my reader and not simply tell them what I thought or what I felt. This was a powerful writing tool for me.

This assignment was meant to help you write a college essay that would be sent to colleges along with your applications. That meant that the essay had to pop; it had to stand out from others. And so, I wrote about the night an officer in my town was murdered and how this incident really changed my life, as my father and uncle are officers in my town. For the first time, I was writing about my feelings and about my reactions to that night. It helped me recognize the events of that night and how these events changed so many people forever. After several revisions, it is one of the essays I am proudest of to this day. 9/18/08

Michael Magdalenski One of the most exciting writing assignments began with much trepidation (as essays and writing tasks often do), but the end result was quite satisfying. This assignment was the first one given to me in freshman Composition class. I had very mixed feelings about being in Composition to begin with. I felt like I should have placed out of it, but at the same time, I knew I needed to develop my writing skills, and writing was a skill or process (at that point, I didn’t even know it was a process) which came with great difficulty. So, it was with some surprise that, on the first day of Composition class, Professor Burgess assigned a 10 page autobiography, due the following class (2 days later). I had written lengthy essays before, but they were mostly research-oriented, and we were given substantial time to do them. How was I going to write 10 pages in two days? Of course, the reasoning behind this assignment was that it should have been relatively easy to write about something we knew – ourselves. The professor also told us that although we should surely proofread the essay, it didn’t have to be perfect. I remembering sitting down and wondering how I could possibly fill 10 pages with what, I believed, had been a pretty ordinary life. It helped that some of the pressure was taken off, given the professor’s instructions that it didn’t have to be a perfect product. Once I actually began writing, I found I had plenty to say. The first 4 pages or so only covered until perhaps early elementary school. Details about certain incidents –vacations, family holidays, school friends – seemed to bring the essay alive. I found that it was refreshing to just get the ideas out first, without panicking about a polished end product. This was probably the first time that I realized that writing is indeed a process; that you can’t just sit down and expect to turn out a finished product on the first try. Looking back, I think my high school teachers never, or very rarely, had us turn in successive drafts. They would assign an essay and expect the student to come in with a minimum 5-paragraph final essay. With Professor Burgess’ assignment, it was liberating to me that you could actually make mistakes, try new ideas, and develop thoughts as a process instead of trying to arrive at an end product with the first attempt.

Tanya Smith It's difficult to sort through all the papers and essays I have written in order to pinpoint an assignment that I consider "the best." The most memorable writing assignments that have been assigned to me throughout my high school and college career were those of a more creative nature. Assignments that offered more flexibility in what I was expected to write and allowed me to tap into my imagination a bit more than most analytic literature-based assignments were ones that I tackled with more enthusiasm. I can remember teachers at the high school level giving us writing tasks that asked us to write from the perspective of a character in a book we were reading, but asked us to write an alternate ending, for example. Although I had to take the character’s characteristics into consideration, the plot was essentially in my control. One particular assignment that springs to mind is one assigned to me during my first semester of college in a women writers class. I was asked to write about a particular character's feelings if she were to be placed in modern day society (the text took place in the late 1800s if memory serves). This assignment gave me the flexibility to be creative and consider the text from a new perspective. I have to also say that writing assignments, however excited I was to tackle them, meant nothing if the assessment was not clear. Teacher comments on my assignments were essential to my development as a writer. Some English teachers I had wrote little to nothing, and even when the grade was an “A,” I never knew what I did that was “right” or what could have been done to improve my writing. The teachers who spent the time and responded to almost every section of my writing and offered insight into how to expand my thinking were much more helpful.

Bobby Sacher My best writing assignment… Well, a few years back at Montclair I took a course on Creative Nonfiction. Memoir writing and the like. One assignment was to recall something meaningful from our past, which sounds straightforward enough. But part of the assignment was to wrestle with the problem of memory itself. How much of what we remember is truly what happened? What is the relationship between “memory” and “truth.” These kinds of metaphysical questions really do it for me, and it also freed me up to be more honest in my “recalling.” I was able to both tell a compelling childhood story, and simultaneously comment on it, confronting the holes in my memory of the story, and wondering aloud to the reader just how much of what I recalled had actually happened in the way I remembered it. This added dimension to the assignment turned what could have been merely an interesting “sharing” exercise into a much deeper, more profound commentary on the relationship between memory, reality, and our emotional response to childhood itself, now glimpsed only from a distance. This assignment resulted in an essay that remains one of the favorite pieces of writing I have ever produced.

Since this is a free write and for free writing, one is supposed to just start writing and not stop even if you are stuck, I have started writing and am continuing to write, despite not really knowing what my most memorable writing assignment is. I suppose, in the broadest possible terms, the ones I remember are those I particularly enjoyed, and those I did well on; ie, knowing that I'd done a good job was very satisfying (but also, I wouldn't necessarily do a good job, were the paper on something I didn't have any interest in.)
 * Ben Brown**

I recall a couple of assignments during my last year of University in London which fitted both criteria; one was an essay concerning ghosts (literal and figurative) in Thomas Hardy's poetry, another, a comparison between two poems. Which, I suppose, makes me realise that the writing assignments I look back upon most fondly throughout my school career were the 'commentary & analysis'/'critical commentary' style of assignment. Essentially (I am never sure whether the terms I am familiar with from the UK apply over here), this type of task involves close reading and analysis of sections of text, or complete poems, and/or comparisons between two different texts. I liked it, I was good at it, so I guess- generally speaking- it was my favourite kind of assignment.

Now that we've been made aware that this freewrite was supposed to help other people plan their own writing tasks for Thursday, I am fully cognisant of how little applicability this entry possesses. I hope that your students are not like me.

Amanda Tomaro I guess if I wanted to be a total English dork about it I would say my favorite writing assignment was my final Shakespeare paper in Doctor Liebler’s class. It wasn’t the writing assignment itself, which made it so great it was more that I respected her critique of my writing. I felt that because she was so knowledgeable in good writing skills that when I received a decent grade on the essay I felt so accomplished. I was so proud of myself that I kept the essay posted up in my room for years. The assignment itself was great because she gave us the freedom to write anything we wanted about the works read in class as long as it was insightful, cohesive and ten pages long. This really gave us a chance to be independent and work out our own thoughts and insights on the texts read in class. In high school a writing assignment which I found to be particularly intriguing was we were given a chance to re-write Chineua Achabee’s Things Fall Apart from the missionaries point of view. I wrote about why I did not understand why the natives would rather live their savage way of life over the civilized ways of the missionaries. It was almost a parody mocking the close mindedness of the missionaries to the native’s culture. It was a creative way to open up on a particular theme within the novel. This clearly helped us as students identify a theme in the novel and demonstrate an understanding of it. Which helped the teacher measure reading comprehension as well as writing skills.

Lisa Heytink My favorite writing assignment had to be the poetry collection I completed for my contemporary poetry class (senior year, Rutgers University). We had to take each school of poetry and create our own works based on its style and technique. Some of the works that I am currently trying to publish came out of that collection. However, the best part of the assignment was the way that I presented it. I took a copy of The New York Times and inserted each poem into the section that it reflected. For example, one of the poems described works of art by Frida Kahlo and subsequently went into the Arts section of the Times. The assignment was inventive, engaging, and actually made me want to do homework!

Stephanie Fisher One of the most exciting writing assignments I was ever assigned was in my Art of Fiction class. Throughout the course of the semester we were assigned various short stories of multiple genres and themes. For a final writing assignment at the end of the course we were asked to think of the various themes that were discussed throughout the semester. We were then given the opportunity to create our own anthology, picking the short stories we wanted to include. The catch was we needed to find a linking theme between this set of stories and prove that they were all somehow connected through this theme. It was fun to sit back and think of everything we read and discussed over the course of the semester. As a class we talked about different themes that connected many stories, but that seemed to be too easy. I wanted to find a theme we did not really discuss in class, so I could essentially bring out a different part of these stories that may not have necessarily been thought of. I really enjoyed this writing assignment because it was not something that could be done last minute, it had to be thought through and developed. It forced me to use a lot of creativity and I had a lot of fun tying all these stories together.

Another writing assignment I really enjoyed was in my Teaching Writing class. Our final project was to use all that we learned throughout the semester about the process of writing and pick a different technique that could be used in the classroom to possibly enhance and benefit our students’ writing. I chose to write about the use of journal writing. I feel very strongly that journal writing can easily get students involved in the writing process. It was interesting to be able to research something I just had a strong opinion about and find others who felt similarly.

Salvatore Montanti The assignments that I enjoyed working on were the ones that asked for my opinions. The other assignments that come to mind are the ones that worked more as a command and compliance to the teacher's directions. In other words, I had to write that dreaded five paragraph essay that all high school students love to do. Still, I'm not saying that all assignments should be free from any restrictions and formalities... that can be chaotic. There should be a happy medium that needs to be explored. So, what is my most memorable writing assignment? Well, I would have to start by thinking about all the assignments that hindered my engagement and creativity in the classroom. Those assignments were something that went like, “write an essay about global warming.” I’m not going to lie. That assignment did help me define what global warming is, but definitely did not help my creativity within the classroom. The assignments that did have a lasting affect were the ones that gave me the freedom to explore my thoughts within the classroom. In the simplest form the best assignments were seen in journal writing. Here I was able to say what I wanted to say. In certain classes this was not the case. The reason why I wasn’t able to fully explore my thoughts in private was because the teacher would read it at the end. So, the assignment and the idea of journal writing is a great writing assignment, but can also act as a double edge sword. The best way to describe what I think is a great writing assignment is by looking into the course work that allows the student to explore his or her abilities. I personally feel that within this exploration the student will be able to find out their strengths as well as their weakness. This can also be heightened by collaborative work with other members of the class.

Basically what I'm trying to say is that I would like assignments that would engage me and incorporate me into the writing piece... this link might be helpful. media type="youtube" key="xHROUIdhpFw&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&fs=1" height="344" width="425"

Laura Whitman As it seems everyone would agree, it is hard to pick out just one assignment as a favorite. My personal favorite is feature writing, I guess the reason for that is because in feature writing, the writer can give their opinion on a topic that is not personal, therefore not giving away too much about themselves, but allowing others to see how they view the world. I like any other writing assignment that is challenging... My most recent favorite writing assignment would have to be the research project in my Methods of Research class last semester. My topic was on homeschooled students, and although it took the entire semester to finish, I enjoyed completing all the research, conducting surveys, and putting all the information together to create my final project. Maybe this was my favorite because it has been a long time since I had to do a research project, but there was also a definite sense of accomplishment after the project was completed. Not so recent, one of my favorite writing assignements was in high school where my teacher asked us to rewrite a Shakespeare play in "modern times." We had to change the language, create costumes, and make a soundtrack. We also had to come up with a full cast, and create a playbill for our production. This assignment was one of my favorites because it pretty much allowed us to do with the play what we wanted and show how we saw it.

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Laura Gabriel Pita

It is difficult to pinpoint my favorite writing assignment, probably because when first receiving them, they all seem like so much work and nearly impossible to accomplish. Upon beginning them however, I always tend to like the end result.

One of the reasons why they seem to be so much work at once is probably because I don’t write as I go along with the reading. I usually read the work and any resources, mark them up, and only when I know or have a good idea of what I wish to say, do I sit down on the computer and start typing. Depending on the length of the assignment and sometimes when the subject matter was of my interest or knowledge, I tended to write the paper in one sitting. Of course I go back to reread, revise, check, add and delete, tweak a sentence here, and a paragraph there. I am not one to start with one paragraph or two and then leave the work for a couple of days to go back to it. I like to write as much as possible at one sitting, so that I don’t lose my train of thought.

I like assignments were I can compare and contrast theories, opinions or even works by the same author or same genre. Last semester we had to write a paper about something that was meaning to us, an event or something that touched or changed our lives, along with a reaction to the paper, to the event, our feelings at the time and then an analysis or comparison of what they were like as we wrote it. That was something very different for me, as I rarely write about anything that happened to me, in fact most classes asked for research or theoretical papers, so this was definitely a change. It was also the first time in years that I was asked to keep a journal of anything that happened in the class, in the school, in my life in general. Looking back on those journals, I could pinpoint occurrences, my moods, feelings, and worries, it also made me focus more easily since I was stopping for a few minutes before each class to simply write.