how to make assignment creative

9 Creative Writing Assignment Ideas for Any Student

It’s one thing to think about the amazing ideas, and it’s totally another thing to put them into action. The same situation may occur in writing either a novel or an assignment. Let’s face it, almost every famous writer can be found in a situation when he/she is supposed to write something creative, but the mind goes blank. What to speak about a student who is assigned to many different tasks?

Irrespective of whether you are in middle or high school, or in a university, once in a while, you can be required to engage in creative writing activities. What is creative writing? It is just a form of writing that uses the creativity of mind to express emotions, thoughts, or feelings. Whereas the other pieces of writing focus more on giving facts and analyzing issues, the creative writing pieces are all about entertaining, spreading, or expressing thoughts.

Creative Writing Assignments for College Students

If you think you are done with creative writing after graduating high school and will never catch yourself thinking, “Who can do my assignment for me ?” , think twice. Even at the college level, some examiners tend to stimulate the creativity of students. For example, the professors at the College of Charleston managed to set up some exciting projects that made students forget the stress of exams at the end of the semester. The examples of creative assignments at college may include:

• Writing a short story or poem that incorporates a specific theme or word
• Creating a script for a short film or play
• Developing a character and writing a series of journal entries from their perspective
• Analyzing and reimagining a classic piece of literature or art
• Collaborating with classmates to write and perform a spoken word piece or any other assignment example

Whether you need inspiration for a college assignment or want to improve your creative writing skills, these sample assignments can help you get started. Don’t hesitate to contact your professors or an assignment writing service for additional support and guidance.

Archaeological Dig for History/Culture/Art and Design Courses

This activity allows students to imagine being active archaeologists. They have to write about something they come across when excavating. They need to describe in detail what they excavate and state its significance in modern world history or culture.

Questionnaire-Based Survey Taker for Social Sciences

Students studying Psychology or Sociology must deal with statistical data. As a rule, they are asked to create a questionnaire for different purposes – collect measurable data from a specific group of people. There is no specific format for a questionnaire/survey, and students have to use their own creativity.

Poems for a Literature Course

If you are taking a literature course at a college, you are likely to be asked to write a poem as an assignment . To score high marks for your poetry assignment, you have to be extra creative and consider all the aspects of the poem evaluation .

High School Creative Writing Assignments

A good teacher should also encourage your creativity at the high-school level. So, how can you be tested for creative assignments in a high school?

To be tested on your creative writing skills in high school, you may be asked to participate in various activities and assignments, such as writing prompts, group brainstorming sessions, and peer reviews. These assignments can help you develop your writing skills, express your ideas and thoughts, and explore different genres and styles. Don’t hesitate to ask your teacher or seek assistance from a writing tutor or assignment writing service for additional support and guidance. Both a competent professor and trusted assignment writing services are there to facilitate your academic journey.

One-Sentence Story

Have you ever heard from your educator, “Speak quickly as I’m in a hurry now”? As a rule, you must formulate your ideas as briefly as possible. The same task is in the given creative activity – you are only given one sentence and are required to use all your creativity to come up with a complete story. Read 15 amazing 1-line stories to have an idea what you’re required.

Writing a Spontaneous Speech

At Stanford Graduate School of Business , you’ll find the article by a lecturer on the essentials of strategic communication, Matt Abrahams, who states that spontaneous public speaking is much more prevalent than planned speaking, especially in the business area. A speech should address a particular audience, meaning you must select your vocabulary carefully. Besides, you also have to be creative and make your speech enjoyable to listen. In the estimation of most tutors, it is better to be still ready for these off-the-cuff conversations by writing a speech, then producing it in real-life conditions.

Creative Imaginary Story Writing

In many creative writing workshops, you’ll find the task of crafting creative compositions. You may ask, “Every day I write my compositions, and my creativity scope is limited to strict academic requirements”. In fact, things are different when writing a creative story. Students are given a topic and required to create an imaginary story. In the first instance, you can be asked to finish a story. Then, you’ll need to come up with a story based on some pictures, melodies, etc. Every piece of writing has to correspond to the topic as you imagine it, at the same time, be informative and interesting to read.

Creative Writing Assignments for Middle School Students

Students’ creativity is an important ability in middle school. There, students are taught to use their imagination to produce new ideas. What assignments can test your creativity in middle school?

Students can benefit from assignments encouraging them to write in different genres or styles, such as science fiction, mystery, or historical fiction. Students can also practice their descriptive writing skills by creating vivid settings or characters or experimenting with different points of view. Collaborative assignments, such as creating a class anthology or magazine, can help students develop teamwork and communication skills. Remember, these assignments aim to test your creativity, help you develop your writing skills, and express yourself in new and exciting ways.

Creative Essay Writing

Students are required to be creative when addressing a specific topic. For example, the topic of the essay can be “What does it mean to be a feminist?” This particular essay addresses a specific niche and requires students to use their creativity to come up with fresh ideas on what to include and what not to include in the essay.

Open-Ended Imaginative Screenplays

This form of creative writing allows students to express their thought freely and creatively without sticking to particular assignment ideas . There are no requirements to follow, no specific issues to solve, and no pressure to produce a finished version. you can write on an open-ended topic. It is a great starting point for you if you dream of being a famous scriptwriter or simply a creative person at work. Learn to be a step ahead, and this step you should take in your middle school. If you feel stuck, consult the best assignment writing service to guide you.

5 Ways of How to Improve Your Creative Writing Skills

If you feel uncertainties about whether your creative writing skills correspond to high standards, it is better to improve them by taking into consideration several effective tips:

1) Read a Lot

If you want to improve your writing creativity and find out more about the existing modes of creative writing , you have to read a lot. You can read English storybooks, find various stories online or even read works from your more creative friend. Today, many creative people have the possibility to keep a blog from which they can take some creative ideas for their assignments. When reading, pay attention to the plot of the story to grasp the author’s thoughts and feelings. If you come across any word that you are not familiar with, write it on a piece of paper and find its meaning in a dictionary, for example, in the Oxford Dictionary or any other that is reliable enough.

2) Rewrite a Story

Rewriting is one of the most effective ways to improve your creative writing skills and handle all the assignment writing for students like a pro . Don’t get surprised that rewriting can help you become creative as rewriting involves using your own words or paraphrasing. Don’t act in such a way. If you find a good story/article interesting, rewrite it according to your preferences or vision. Use different characters and words and different views of the plot.

3) Keep a Personal Journal

You don’t know how creative you can be until you keep a personal journal. If something interesting, heartbreaking, or boring happens, write it down in your personal journal , even if it’s something like, “I need to write my assignment, and that’s trouble.” There is no restriction on what you can write in your personal diary, which gives an avenue for creativity. For more effectiveness, ensure that each and every day, you write something in the journal. You will be surprised at how creative you are when you actually read your own journal one month later.

4) Play Imaginative Games

Don’t think that playing games is a great excuse for you to get lazy just because you can improve your creativity only by playing imaginative games, not computer ones.  But sometimes, these games can also help you with creative writing assignments . What are these imaginative games? For example, ‘What Happens Next?’, ‘Renaming’, ‘Opposites’ or a game of I S-A . Other than going out to a party or chatting on social media, use this precious time to play a game that will help enhance and improve your creativity. This will be like killing one bird with two stones. It’s a nice way to refresh your mind while, at the same time, you will be working on your creativity.

5) Use Creative Writing Prompts

The best way to do so is through constant practice, not only when you’re thinking “I need to find new creative assignment ideas.” Don’t wait for the moment when you will be in an exam room. Try out the following 10 examples of prompt ideas no matter where you are studying – in a college, high or middle school.

You’ve already know what contributes to your creative writing. Our assignment writing service ideas for creative writing are open to you. Don’t hesitate to practice them! With our expert guidance and support, you can enhance your writing skills and achieve academic success. So why wait? Contact us today for assistance with your writing assignments.

How to assignment ideas? 

To find assignment ideas, carefully review the course materials and syllabus in order to understand the topics that were covered and all the objectives of the assignments. Look for inspiration from sources like academic journals, textbooks, tru sted sites, and online articles. Join discussions with fellow students and check out real-world applications and current events that align with the course content to create captivating and relevant assignments that prove your critical thinking abilities and understanding.

How to make your assignment creative?

To make any paper creative, explore innovative approaches and unique angles to the assigned topic in order to be able to present it in an engaging and fresh way. Include multimedia stuff like infographics, images, illustrations, video, and audio files to boost the visual appeal and explain complex issues in simple terms. Do not shy away from including your personal experiences, creative writing styles, impressive facts, and stats, as well as anecdotes.

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How Do I Create Meaningful and Effective Assignments?

Prepared by allison boye, ph.d. teaching, learning, and professional development center.

Assessment is a necessary part of the teaching and learning process, helping us measure whether our students have really learned what we want them to learn. While exams and quizzes are certainly favorite and useful methods of assessment, out of class assignments (written or otherwise) can offer similar insights into our students' learning.  And just as creating a reliable test takes thoughtfulness and skill, so does creating meaningful and effective assignments. Undoubtedly, many instructors have been on the receiving end of disappointing student work, left wondering what went wrong… and often, those problems can be remedied in the future by some simple fine-tuning of the original assignment.  This paper will take a look at some important elements to consider when developing assignments, and offer some easy approaches to creating a valuable assessment experience for all involved.

First Things First…

Before assigning any major tasks to students, it is imperative that you first define a few things for yourself as the instructor:

• Your goals for the assignment . Why are you assigning this project, and what do you hope your students will gain from completing it? What knowledge, skills, and abilities do you aim to measure with this assignment?  Creating assignments is a major part of overall course design, and every project you assign should clearly align with your goals for the course in general.  For instance, if you want your students to demonstrate critical thinking, perhaps asking them to simply summarize an article is not the best match for that goal; a more appropriate option might be to ask for an analysis of a controversial issue in the discipline. Ultimately, the connection between the assignment and its purpose should be clear to both you and your students to ensure that it is fulfilling the desired goals and doesn't seem like “busy work.” For some ideas about what kinds of assignments match certain learning goals, take a look at this page from DePaul University's Teaching Commons.
• Have they experienced “socialization” in the culture of your discipline (Flaxman, 2005)? Are they familiar with any conventions you might want them to know? In other words, do they know the “language” of your discipline, generally accepted style guidelines, or research protocols?
• Do they know how to conduct research?  Do they know the proper style format, documentation style, acceptable resources, etc.? Do they know how to use the library (Fitzpatrick, 1989) or evaluate resources?
• What kinds of writing or work have they previously engaged in?  For instance, have they completed long, formal writing assignments or research projects before? Have they ever engaged in analysis, reflection, or argumentation? Have they completed group assignments before?  Do they know how to write a literature review or scientific report?

In his book Engaging Ideas (1996), John Bean provides a great list of questions to help instructors focus on their main teaching goals when creating an assignment (p.78):

1. What are the main units/modules in my course?

2. What are my main learning objectives for each module and for the course?

3. What thinking skills am I trying to develop within each unit and throughout the course?

4. What are the most difficult aspects of my course for students?

5. If I could change my students' study habits, what would I most like to change?

6. What difference do I want my course to make in my students' lives?

What your students need to know

Once you have determined your own goals for the assignment and the levels of your students, you can begin creating your assignment.  However, when introducing your assignment to your students, there are several things you will need to clearly outline for them in order to ensure the most successful assignments possible.

• First, you will need to articulate the purpose of the assignment . Even though you know why the assignment is important and what it is meant to accomplish, you cannot assume that your students will intuit that purpose. Your students will appreciate an understanding of how the assignment fits into the larger goals of the course and what they will learn from the process (Hass & Osborn, 2007). Being transparent with your students and explaining why you are asking them to complete a given assignment can ultimately help motivate them to complete the assignment more thoughtfully.
• If you are asking your students to complete a writing assignment, you should define for them the “rhetorical or cognitive mode/s” you want them to employ in their writing (Flaxman, 2005). In other words, use precise verbs that communicate whether you are asking them to analyze, argue, describe, inform, etc.  (Verbs like “explore” or “comment on” can be too vague and cause confusion.) Provide them with a specific task to complete, such as a problem to solve, a question to answer, or an argument to support.  For those who want assignments to lead to top-down, thesis-driven writing, John Bean (1996) suggests presenting a proposition that students must defend or refute, or a problem that demands a thesis answer.
• It is also a good idea to define the audience you want your students to address with their assignment, if possible – especially with writing assignments.  Otherwise, students will address only the instructor, often assuming little requires explanation or development (Hedengren, 2004; MIT, 1999). Further, asking students to address the instructor, who typically knows more about the topic than the student, places the student in an unnatural rhetorical position.  Instead, you might consider asking your students to prepare their assignments for alternative audiences such as other students who missed last week's classes, a group that opposes their position, or people reading a popular magazine or newspaper.  In fact, a study by Bean (1996) indicated the students often appreciate and enjoy assignments that vary elements such as audience or rhetorical context, so don't be afraid to get creative!
• Obviously, you will also need to articulate clearly the logistics or “business aspects” of the assignment . In other words, be explicit with your students about required elements such as the format, length, documentation style, writing style (formal or informal?), and deadlines.  One caveat, however: do not allow the logistics of the paper take precedence over the content in your assignment description; if you spend all of your time describing these things, students might suspect that is all you care about in their execution of the assignment.
• Finally, you should clarify your evaluation criteria for the assignment. What elements of content are most important? Will you grade holistically or weight features separately? How much weight will be given to individual elements, etc?  Another precaution to take when defining requirements for your students is to take care that your instructions and rubric also do not overshadow the content; prescribing too rigidly each element of an assignment can limit students' freedom to explore and discover. According to Beth Finch Hedengren, “A good assignment provides the purpose and guidelines… without dictating exactly what to say” (2004, p. 27).  If you decide to utilize a grading rubric, be sure to provide that to the students along with the assignment description, prior to their completion of the assignment.

A great way to get students engaged with an assignment and build buy-in is to encourage their collaboration on its design and/or on the grading criteria (Hudd, 2003). In his article “Conducting Writing Assignments,” Richard Leahy (2002) offers a few ideas for building in said collaboration:

• Ask the students to develop the grading scale themselves from scratch, starting with choosing the categories.

• Set the grading categories yourself, but ask the students to help write the descriptions.

• Draft the complete grading scale yourself, then give it to your students for review and suggestions.

A Few Do's and Don'ts…

Determining your goals for the assignment and its essential logistics is a good start to creating an effective assignment. However, there are a few more simple factors to consider in your final design. First, here are a few things you should do :

• Do provide detail in your assignment description . Research has shown that students frequently prefer some guiding constraints when completing assignments (Bean, 1996), and that more detail (within reason) can lead to more successful student responses.  One idea is to provide students with physical assignment handouts , in addition to or instead of a simple description in a syllabus.  This can meet the needs of concrete learners and give them something tangible to refer to.  Likewise, it is often beneficial to make explicit for students the process or steps necessary to complete an assignment, given that students – especially younger ones – might need guidance in planning and time management (MIT, 1999).
• Do use open-ended questions.  The most effective and challenging assignments focus on questions that lead students to thinking and explaining, rather than simple yes or no answers, whether explicitly part of the assignment description or in the  brainstorming heuristics (Gardner, 2005).
• Do direct students to appropriate available resources . Giving students pointers about other venues for assistance can help them get started on the right track independently. These kinds of suggestions might include information about campus resources such as the University Writing Center or discipline-specific librarians, suggesting specific journals or books, or even sections of their textbook, or providing them with lists of research ideas or links to acceptable websites.
• Do consider providing models – both successful and unsuccessful models (Miller, 2007). These models could be provided by past students, or models you have created yourself.  You could even ask students to evaluate the models themselves using the determined evaluation criteria, helping them to visualize the final product, think critically about how to complete the assignment, and ideally, recognize success in their own work.
• Do consider including a way for students to make the assignment their own. In their study, Hass and Osborn (2007) confirmed the importance of personal engagement for students when completing an assignment.  Indeed, students will be more engaged in an assignment if it is personally meaningful, practical, or purposeful beyond the classroom.  You might think of ways to encourage students to tap into their own experiences or curiosities, to solve or explore a real problem, or connect to the larger community.  Offering variety in assignment selection can also help students feel more individualized, creative, and in control.
• If your assignment is substantial or long, do consider sequencing it. Far too often, assignments are given as one-shot final products that receive grades at the end of the semester, eternally abandoned by the student.  By sequencing a large assignment, or essentially breaking it down into a systematic approach consisting of interconnected smaller elements (such as a project proposal, an annotated bibliography, or a rough draft, or a series of mini-assignments related to the longer assignment), you can encourage thoughtfulness, complexity, and thoroughness in your students, as well as emphasize process over final product.

Next are a few elements to avoid in your assignments:

• Do not ask too many questions in your assignment.  In an effort to challenge students, instructors often err in the other direction, asking more questions than students can reasonably address in a single assignment without losing focus. Offering an overly specific “checklist” prompt often leads to externally organized papers, in which inexperienced students “slavishly follow the checklist instead of integrating their ideas into more organically-discovered structure” (Flaxman, 2005).
• Do not expect or suggest that there is an “ideal” response to the assignment. A common error for instructors is to dictate content of an assignment too rigidly, or to imply that there is a single correct response or a specific conclusion to reach, either explicitly or implicitly (Flaxman, 2005). Undoubtedly, students do not appreciate feeling as if they must read an instructor's mind to complete an assignment successfully, or that their own ideas have nowhere to go, and can lose motivation as a result. Similarly, avoid assignments that simply ask for regurgitation (Miller, 2007). Again, the best assignments invite students to engage in critical thinking, not just reproduce lectures or readings.
• Do not provide vague or confusing commands . Do students know what you mean when they are asked to “examine” or “discuss” a topic? Return to what you determined about your students' experiences and levels to help you decide what directions will make the most sense to them and what will require more explanation or guidance, and avoid verbiage that might confound them.
• Do not impose impossible time restraints or require the use of insufficient resources for completion of the assignment.  For instance, if you are asking all of your students to use the same resource, ensure that there are enough copies available for all students to access – or at least put one copy on reserve in the library. Likewise, make sure that you are providing your students with ample time to locate resources and effectively complete the assignment (Fitzpatrick, 1989).

The assignments we give to students don't simply have to be research papers or reports. There are many options for effective yet creative ways to assess your students' learning! Here are just a few:

Journals, Posters, Portfolios, Letters, Brochures, Management plans, Editorials, Instruction Manuals, Imitations of a text, Case studies, Debates, News release, Dialogues, Videos, Collages, Plays, Power Point presentations

Ultimately, the success of student responses to an assignment often rests on the instructor's deliberate design of the assignment. By being purposeful and thoughtful from the beginning, you can ensure that your assignments will not only serve as effective assessment methods, but also engage and delight your students. If you would like further help in constructing or revising an assignment, the Teaching, Learning, and Professional Development Center is glad to offer individual consultations. In addition, look into some of the resources provided below.

Online Resources

“Creating Effective Assignments” http://www.unh.edu/teaching-excellence/resources/Assignments.htm This site, from the University of New Hampshire's Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning,  provides a brief overview of effective assignment design, with a focus on determining and communicating goals and expectations.

Gardner, T.  (2005, June 12). Ten Tips for Designing Writing Assignments. Traci's Lists of Ten. http://www.tengrrl.com/tens/034.shtml This is a brief yet useful list of tips for assignment design, prepared by a writing teacher and curriculum developer for the National Council of Teachers of English .  The website will also link you to several other lists of “ten tips” related to literacy pedagogy.

“How to Create Effective Assignments for College Students.”  http:// tilt.colostate.edu/retreat/2011/zimmerman.pdf     This PDF is a simplified bulleted list, prepared by Dr. Toni Zimmerman from Colorado State University, offering some helpful ideas for coming up with creative assignments.

“Learner-Centered Assessment” http://cte.uwaterloo.ca/teaching_resources/tips/learner_centered_assessment.html From the Centre for Teaching Excellence at the University of Waterloo, this is a short list of suggestions for the process of designing an assessment with your students' interests in mind. “Matching Learning Goals to Assignment Types.” http://teachingcommons.depaul.edu/How_to/design_assignments/assignments_learning_goals.html This is a great page from DePaul University's Teaching Commons, providing a chart that helps instructors match assignments with learning goals.

Additional References Bean, J.C. (1996). Engaging ideas: The professor's guide to integrating writing, critical thinking, and active learning in the classroom . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Fitzpatrick, R. (1989). Research and writing assignments that reduce fear lead to better papers and more confident students. Writing Across the Curriculum , 3.2, pp. 15 – 24.

Flaxman, R. (2005). Creating meaningful writing assignments. The Teaching Exchange .  Retrieved Jan. 9, 2008 from http://www.brown.edu/Administration/Sheridan_Center/pubs/teachingExchange/jan2005/01_flaxman.pdf

Hass, M. & Osborn, J. (2007, August 13). An emic view of student writing and the writing process. Across the Disciplines, 4. 

Hedengren, B.F. (2004). A TA's guide to teaching writing in all disciplines . Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's.

Hudd, S. S. (2003, April). Syllabus under construction: Involving students in the creation of class assignments.  Teaching Sociology , 31, pp. 195 – 202.

Leahy, R. (2002). Conducting writing assignments. College Teaching , 50.2, pp. 50 – 54.

Miller, H. (2007). Designing effective writing assignments.  Teaching with writing .  University of Minnesota Center for Writing. Retrieved Jan. 9, 2008, from http://writing.umn.edu/tww/assignments/designing.html

MIT Online Writing and Communication Center (1999). Creating Writing Assignments. Retrieved January 9, 2008 from http://web.mit.edu/writing/Faculty/createeffective.html .

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Getting Started with Creative Assignments

Creative teaching and learning can be cultivated in any course context to increase student engagement and motivation, and promote thinking skills that are critical to problem-solving and innovation. This resource features examples of Columbia faculty who teach creatively and have reimagined their course assessments to allow students to demonstrate their learning in creative ways. Drawing on these examples, this resource provides suggestions for creating a classroom environment that supports student engagement in creative activities and assignments.  

On this page:

• The What and Why of Creative Assignments

Examples of Creative Teaching and Learning at Columbia

• How To Get Started

Cite this resource: Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning (2022). Getting Started with Creative Assignments. Columbia University. Retrieved [today’s date] from https://ctl.columbia.edu/resources-and-technology/resources/creative-assignments/

The What and Why of Creative Assignments  

Creative assignments encourage students to think in innovative ways as they demonstrate their learning. Thinking creatively involves combining or synthesizing information or course materials in new ways and is characterized by “a high degree of innovation, divergent thinking, and risk-taking” (AAC&U). It is associated with imagination and originality, and additional characteristics include: being open to new ideas and perspectives, believing alternatives exist, withholding judgment, generating multiple approaches to problems, and trying new ways to generate ideas  (DiYanni, 2015: 41). Creative thinking is considered an important skill alongside critical thinking in tackling contemporary problems. Critical thinking allows students to evaluate the information presented to them while creative thinking is a process that allows students to generate new ideas and innovate.

Creative assignments can be integrated into any course regardless of discipline. Examples include the use of infographic assignments in Nursing (Chicca and Chunta, 2020) and Chemistry (Kothari, Castañeda, and McNeil, 2019); podcasting assignments in Social Work (Hitchcock, Sage & Sage, 2021); digital storytelling assignments in Psychology (Sheafer, 2017) and Sociology (Vaughn and Leon, 2021); and incorporating creative writing in the economics classroom (Davis, 2019) or reflective writing into Calculus assignment ( Gerstle, 2017) just to name a few. In a 2014 study, organic chemistry students who elected to begin their lab reports with a creative narrative were more excited to learn and earned better grades (Henry, Owens, and Tawney, 2015). In a public policy course, students who engaged in additional creative problem-solving exercises that included imaginative scenarios and alternative solution-finding showed greater interest in government reform and attentiveness to civic issues (Wukich and Siciliano, 2014).

The benefits of creative assignments include increased student engagement, motivation, and satisfaction (Snyder et al., 2013: 165); and furthered student learning of course content (Reynolds, Stevens, and West, 2013). These types of assignments promote innovation, academic integrity, student self-awareness/ metacognition (e.g., when students engage in reflection through journal assignments), and can be made authentic as students develop and apply skills to real-world situations.  

When instructors give students open-ended assignments, they provide opportunities for students to think creatively as they work on a deliverable. They “unlock potential” (Ranjan & Gabora and Beghetto in Gregerson et al., 2013) for students to synthesize their knowledge and propose novel solutions. This promotes higher-level thinking as outlined in the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy’s “create” cognitive process category: “putting elements together to form a novel coherent whole or make an original product,” this involves generating ideas, planning, and producing something new. 

The examples that follow highlight creative assignments in the Columbia University classroom. The featured Columbia faculty taught creatively – they tried new strategies, purposefully varied classroom activities and assessment modalities, and encouraged their students to take control of what and how they were learning (James & Brookfield, 2014: 66).

Dr. Cruz changed her course assessment by “moving away from high stakes assessments like a final paper or a final exam, to more open-ended and creative models of assessments.”  Students were given the opportunity to synthesize their course learning, with options on topic and format of how to demonstrate their learning and to do so individually or in groups. They explored topics that were meaningful to them and related to the course material. Dr. Cruz noted that “This emphasis on playfulness and creativity led to fantastic final projects including a graphic novel interpretation, a video essay that applied critical theory to multiple texts, and an interactive virtual museum.” Students “took the opportunity to use their creative skills, or the skills they were interested in exploring because some of them had to develop new skills to produce these projects.” (Dr. Cruz; Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning , Season 3, Episode 6). Along with their projects, students submitted an artist’s statement, where they had to explain and justify their choices. 

Dr. Cruz noted that grading creative assignments require advanced planning. In her case, she worked closely with her TAs to develop a rubric that was shared with students in advance for full transparency and emphasized the importance of students connecting ideas to analytical arguments discussed in the class. 

Watch Dr. Cruz’s 2021 Symposium presentation. Listen to Dr. Cruz talk about The Power of Blended Classrooms in Season 3, Episode 6 of the Dead Ideas in Teaching and Learning podcast. Get a glimpse into Dr. Cruz’s online classroom and her creative teaching and the design of learning experiences that enhanced critical thinking, creativity, curiosity, and community by viewing her Voices of Hybrid and Online Teaching and Learning submission.

As part of his standard practice, Dr. Yesilevskiy scaffolds assignments – from less complex to more complex – to ensure students integrate the concepts they learn in the class into their projects or new experiments. For example, in Laboratory 1, Dr. Yesilevskiy slowly increases the amount of independence in each experiment over the semester: students are given a full procedure in the first experiment and by course end, students are submitting new experiment proposals to Dr. Yesilevskiy for approval. This is creative thinking in action. Students not only learned how to “replicate existing experiments, but also to formulate and conduct new ones.”

Watch Dr. Yesilevskiy’s 2021 Symposium presentation. 

How Do I Get Started?: Strategies to Support Creative Assignments

The previous section showcases examples of creative assignments in action at Columbia. To help you support such creative assignments in your classroom, this section details three strategies to support creative assignments and creative thinking. Firstly, re-consider the design of your assignments to optimize students’ creative output. Secondly, scaffold creative assignments using low-stakes classroom activities that build creative capacity. Finally, cultivate a classroom environment that supports creative thinking.     

Design Considerations for Creative Assignments 

Thoughtfully designed open-ended assignments and evaluation plans encourage students to demonstrate their learning in authentic ways. When designing creative assignments, consider the following suggestions for structuring and communicating to your students about the assignment. 

Set clear expectations . Students may feel lost in the ambiguity and complexity of an open-ended assignment that requires them to create something new. Communicate the creative outcomes and learning objectives for the assignments (Ranjan & Gabora, 2013), and how students will be expected to draw on their learning in the course. Articulare how much flexibility and choice students have in determining what they work on and how they work on it. Share the criteria or a rubric that will be used to evaluate student deliverables. See the CTL’s resource Incorporating Rubrics Into Your Feedback and Grading Practices . If planning to evaluate creative thinking, consider adapting the American Association of Colleges and Universities’ creative thinking VALUE rubric . 

Structure the project to sustain engagement and promote integrity. Consider how the project might be broken into smaller assignments that build upon each other and culminate in a synthesis project. The example presented above from Dr. Yesilevskiy’s teaching highlights how he scaffolded lab complexity, progressing from structured to student-driven. See the section below “Activities to Prepare Students for Creative Assignments” for sample activities to scaffold this work. 

Create opportunities for ongoing feedback . Provide feedback at all phases of the assignment from idea inception through milestones to completion. Leverage office hours for individual or group conversations and feedback on project proposals, progress, and issues. See the CTL’s resource on Feedback for Learning . Consider creating opportunities for structured peer review for students to give each other feedback on their work. Students benefit from learning about their peers’ projects, and seeing different perspectives and approaches to accomplishing the open-ended assignment. See the CTL’s resource Peer Review: Intentional Design for Any Course Context . 

Share resources to support students in their work. Ensure all students have access to the resources they will need to be successful on the assigned project. Connect students with campus resources that can help them accomplish the project’s objectives. For instance, if students are working on a research project – connect them to the Library instruction modules “ From Books to Bytes: Navigating the Research Ecosystem ,” encourage them to schedule a consultation with a specialist for research support through Columbia Libraries , or seek out writing support. If students will need equipment to complete their project, remind them of campus resources such as makerspaces (e.g., The Makerspace @ Columbia in Room 254 Engineering Terrace/Mudd; Design Center at Barnard College); borrowing equipment (e.g., Instructional Media and Technology Services (IMATS) at Barnard; Gabe M. Wiener Music & Arts Library ). 

Ask students to submit a self-reflection with their project. Encourage students to reflect on their process and the decisions they made in order to complete the project. Provide guiding questions that have students reflect on their learning, make meaning, and engage their metacognitive thinking skills (see the CTL’s resource of Metacognition ). Students can be asked to apply the rubric to their work or to submit a creative statement along with their work that describes their intent and ownership of the project.

Collect feedback from students and iterate. Invite students to give feedback on the assigned creative project, as well as the classroom environment and creative activities used. Tell students how you will use their suggestions to make improvements to activities and assignments, and make adjustments to the classroom environment. See the CTL’s resource on Early and Mid-Semester Student Feedback . 

Low-Stakes Activities to Prepare Students for Creative Assignments

The activities described below are meant to be scaffolded opportunities leading to a larger creative project. They are low-stakes, non-graded activities that make time in the classroom for students to think, brainstorm, and create (Desrochers and Zell, 2012) and prepare them to do the creative thinking needed to complete course assignments. The activities can be adapted for any course context, with or without the use of technology, and can be done individually or collaboratively (see the CTL’s resource on Collaborative Learning to explore digital tools that are available for group work). 

Brainstorming 

Brainstorming is a process that students can engage in to generate as many ideas as possible related to a topic of study or an assignment topic (Sweet et al., 2013: 87). As they engage in this messy and jugement-free work, students explore a range of possibilities. Brainstorming reveals students’ prior knowledge (Ambrose et al., 2010: 29). Brainstorm activities are useful early on to help create a classroom culture rooted in creativity while also serving as a potential icebreaker activity that helps instructors learn more about what prior knowledge and experiences students are bringing to the course or unit of study. This activity can be done individually or in groups, and in class or asynchronously. Components may include:

• Prompt students to list off (individually or collaboratively) their ideas on a whiteboard, free write in a Google Doc or some other digital space. 
• Provide formative feedback to assist students to further develop their ideas.
• Invite students to reflect on the brainstorm process, look over their ideas and determine which idea to explore further.

Mind mapping

A mind map, also known as a cognitive or concept map, allows students to visually display their thinking and knowledge organization, through lines connecting concepts, arrows showing relationships, and other visual cues (Sweet et al., 2013: 89; Ambrose et al. 2010: 63). This challenges students to synthesize and be creative as they display words, ideas, tasks or principles (Barkley, 2010: 219-225). A mind mapping activity can be done individually or in groups, and in class or asynchronously. This activity can be an extension of a brainstorming session, whereby students take an idea from their brainstormed list and further develop it. 

Components of a mind mapping activity may include:

• Prompt students to create a map of their thinking on a topic, concept, or question. This can be done on paper, on a whiteboard, or with digital mind mapping or whiteboard tools such as Google Drawing.
• Provide formative feedback on the mind maps.
• Invite students to reflect on their mind map, and determine where to go next.

Digital storytelling

Digital storytelling involves integrating multimedia (images, text, video, audio, etc.) and narrative to produce immersive stories that connect with course content. Student-produced stories can promote engagement and learning in a way that is both personal and universal (McLellan, 2007). Digital storytelling contributes to learning through student voice and creativity in constructing meaning (Rossiter and Garcia, 2010). 

Tools such as the CTL-developed Mediathread as well as EdDiscussion support collaborative annotation of media objects. These annotations can be used in writing and discussions, which can involve creating a story. For freeform formats, digital whiteboards allow students to drop in different text and media and make connections between these elements. Such storytelling can be done collaboratively or simply shared during class. Finally, EdBlogs can be used for a blog format, or Google Slides if a presentation format is better suited for the learning objective.

Asking questions to explore new possibilities

Tap into student imagination, stimulate curiosity, and create memorable learning experiences by asking students to pose “What if?” “why” and “how” questions – how might things be done differently; what will a situation look like if it is viewed from a new perspective?; or what could a new approach to solving a problem look like? (James & Brookfield, 2014: 163). Powerful questions are open-ended ones where the answer is not immediately apparent; such questions encourage students to think about a topic in new ways, and they promote learning as students work to answer them (James & Brookfield, 2014: 163). Setting aside time for students to ask lots of questions in the classroom and bringing in questions posed on CourseWorks Discussions or EdDiscussion sends the message to students that their questions matter and play a role in learning. 

Cultivate Creative Thinking in the Classroom Environment

Create a classroom environment that encourages experimentation and thinking from new and diverse perspectives. This type of environment encourages students to share their ideas without inhibition and personalize the meaning-making process. “Creative environments facilitate intentional acts of divergent (idea generation, collaboration, and design thinking) and convergent (analysis of ideas, products, and content created) thinking processes.” (Sweet et al., 2013: 20)

Encourage risk-taking and learning from mistakes . Taking risks in the classroom can be anxiety inducing so students will benefit from reassurance that their creativity and all ideas are welcome. When students bring up unexpected ideas, rather than redirecting or dismissing, seize it as an opportunity for a conversation in which students can share, challenge, and affirm ideas (Beghetto, 2013). Let students know that they can make mistakes, “think outside of the box” without penalty (Desrochers and Zell, 2012), and embrace failure seeing it as a learning opportunity.

Model creative thinking . Model curiosity and how to ask powerful questions, and encourage students to be curious about everything (Synder et al., 2013, DiYanni, 2015). Give students a glimpse into your own creative thinking process – how you would approach an open-ended question, problem, or assignment? Turn your own mistakes into teachable moments. By modeling creative thinking, you are giving students permission to engage in this type of thinking.

Build a community that supports the creative classroom environment. Have students get to know and interact with each other so that they become comfortable asking questions and taking risks in front of and with their peers. See the CTL’s resource on Community Building in the Classroom . This is especially important if you are planning to have students collaborate on creative activities and assignments and/or engage in peer review of each other’s work. 

Plan for play. Play is integral to learning (Cavanagh, 2021; Eyler, 2018; Tatter, 2019). Play cultivates a low stress, high trust, inclusive environment, as students build relationships with each. This allows students to feel more comfortable in the classroom and motivates them to tackle more difficult content (Forbes, 2021). Set aside time for play (Ranjan & Gabora, 2013; Sinfield, Burns, & Abegglen, 2018). Design for play with purpose grounded in learning goals. Create a structured play session during which students experiment with a new topic, idea, or tool and connect it to curricular content or their learning experience. Play can be facilitated through educational games such as puzzles, video games, trivia competitions, scavenger hunts or role-playing activities in which students actively apply knowledge and skills as they act out their role (Eyler, 2018; Barkley, 2010). For an example of role-playing games explore Reacting to the Past , an active learning pedagogy of role-playing games developed by Mark Carnes at Barnard College. 

The CTL is here to help!

CTL consultants are happy to support instructors as they design activities and assignments that promote creative thinking. Email [email protected] to schedule a consultation.

Ambrose et al. (2010). How Learning Works: 7 Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching. Jossey-Bass.

Barkley, E. F., Major, C. H., and Cross, K. P. (2014). Collaborative Learning Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty . 

Barkley, E. F. (2010) Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty.

Beghetto, R. (2013). Expect the Unexpected: Teaching for Creativity in the Micromoments. In M.B. Gregerson, H.T. Snyder, and J.C. Kaufman (Eds.). Teaching Creatively and Teaching Creativity . Springer. 

Cavanagh, S. R. (2021). How to Play in the College Classroom in a Pandemic, and Why You Should . The Chronicle of Higher Education. February 9, 2021.

Chicca, J. and Chunta, K, (2020). Engaging Students with Visual Stories: Using Infographics in Nursing Education . Teaching and Learning in Nursing. 15(1), 32-36.

Davis, M. E. (2019). Poetry and economics: Creativity, engagement and learning in the economics classroom. International Review of Economics Education. Volume 30. 

Desrochers, C. G. and Zell, D. (2012). Gave projects, tests, or assignments that required original or creative thinking! POD-IDEA Center Notes on Instruction. 

DiYanni, R. (2015). Critical and creative thinking : A brief guide for teachers . John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. 

Eyler, J. R. (2018). How Humans Learn. The Science and Stories Behind Effective College Teaching. West Virginia University Press. 

Forbes, L. K. (2021). The Process of Play in Learning in Higher Education: A Phenomenological Study. Journal of Teaching and Learning. Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 57-73. 

Gerstle, K. (2017). Incorporating Meaningful Reflection into Calculus Assignments. PRIMUS. Problems, Resources, and Issues in Mathematics Undergraduate Studies. 29(1), 71-81.

Gregerson, M. B., Snyder, H. T., and Kaufman, J. C. (2013). Teaching Creatively and Teaching Creativity . Springer. 

Henry, M., Owens, E. A., and Tawney, J. G. (2015). Creative Report Writing in Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Laboratory Inspires Non Majors. Journal of Chemical Education , 92, 90-95.

Hitchcock, L. I., Sage, T., Lynch, M. and Sage, M. (2021). Podcasting as a Pedagogical Tool for Experiential Learning in Social Work Education. Journal of Teaching in Social Work . 41(2). 172-191.

James, A., & Brookfield, S. D. (2014). Engaging imagination : Helping students become creative and reflective thinkers . John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.

Jackson, N. (2008). Tackling the Wicked Problem of Creativity in Higher Education.

Jackson, N. (2006). Creativity in higher education. SCEPTrE Scholarly Paper , 3 , 1-25.

Kleiman, P. (2008). Towards transformation: conceptions of creativity in higher education.

Kothari, D., Hall, A. O., Castañeda, C. A., and McNeil, A. J. (2019). Connecting Organic Chemistry Concepts with Real-World Context by Creating Infographics. Journal of Chemistry Education. 96(11), 2524-2527. 

McLellan, H. (2007). Digital Storytelling in Higher Education. Journal of Computing in Higher Education. 19, 65-79. 

Ranjan, A., & Gabora, L. (2013). Creative Ideas for Actualizing Student Potential. In M.B. Gregerson, H.T. Snyder, and J.C. Kaufman (Eds.). Teaching Creatively and Teaching Creativity . Springer. 

Rossiter, M. and Garcia, P. A. (2010). Digital Storytelling: A New Player on the Narrative Field. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education. No. 126, Summer 2010. 

Sheafer, V. (2017). Using digital storytelling to teach psychology: A preliminary investigation. Psychology Learning & Teaching. 16(1), 133-143. 

Sinfield, S., Burns, B., & Abegglen, S. (2018). Exploration: Becoming Playful – The Power of a Ludic Module. In A. James and C. Nerantzi (Eds.). The Power of Play in Higher Education . Palgrave Macmillan.

Reynolds, C., Stevens, D. D., and West, E. (2013). “I’m in a Professional School! Why Are You Making Me Do This?” A Cross-Disciplinary Study of the Use of Creative Classroom Projects on Student Learning. College Teaching. 61: 51-59.

Sweet, C., Carpenter, R., Blythe, H., and Apostel, S. (2013). Teaching Applied Creative Thinking: A New Pedagogy  for the 21st Century. Stillwater, OK: New Forums Press Inc. 

Tatter, G. (2019). Playing to Learn: How a pedagogy of play can enliven the classroom, for students of all ages . Harvard Graduate School of Education. 

Vaughn, M. P. and Leon, D. (2021). The Personal Is Political Art: Using Digital Storytelling to Teaching Sociology of Sexualities. Teaching Sociology. 49(3), 245-255. 

Wukich, C. and Siciliano, M. D. (2014). Problem Solving and Creativity in Public Policy Courses: Promoting Interest and Civic Engagement. Journal of Political Science Education . 10, 352-368.

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How to Write an Effective Assignment

At their base, all assignment prompts function a bit like a magnifying glass—they allow a student to isolate, focus on, inspect, and interact with some portion of your course material through a fixed lens of your choosing.

The Key Components of an Effective Assignment Prompt

All assignments, from ungraded formative response papers all the way up to a capstone assignment, should include the following components to ensure that students and teachers understand not only the learning objective of the assignment, but also the discrete steps which they will need to follow in order to complete it successfully:

• Preamble.  This situates the assignment within the context of the course, reminding students of what they have been working on in anticipation of the assignment and how that work has prepared them to succeed at it. 
• Justification and Purpose.  This explains why the particular type or genre of assignment you’ve chosen (e.g., lab report, policy memo, problem set, or personal reflection) is the best way for you and your students to measure how well they’ve met the learning objectives associated with this segment of the course.
• Mission.  This explains the assignment in broad brush strokes, giving students a general sense of the project you are setting before them. It often gives students guidance on the evidence or data they should be working with, as well as helping them imagine the audience their work should be aimed at.  
• Tasks.  This outlines what students are supposed to do at a more granular level: for example, how to start, where to look, how to ask for help, etc. If written well, this part of the assignment prompt ought to function as a kind of "process" rubric for students, helping them to decide for themselves whether they are completing the assignment successfully.
• Submission format.  This tells students, in appropriate detail, which stylistic conventions they should observe and how to submit their work. For example, should the assignment be a five-page paper written in APA format and saved as a .docx file? Should it be uploaded to the course website? Is it due by Tuesday at 5:00pm?

For illustrations of these five components in action, visit our gallery of annotated assignment prompts .

For advice about creative assignments (e.g. podcasts, film projects, visual and performing art projects, etc.), visit our  Guidance on Non-Traditional Forms of Assessment .

For specific advice on different genres of assignment, click below:

Response Papers

Problem sets, source analyses, final exams, concept maps, research papers, oral presentations, poster presentations.

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• Generate topic ideas for an essay or paper | Tips & techniques

Generate Topic Ideas For an Essay or Paper | Tips & Techniques

Published on November 17, 2014 by Shane Bryson . Revised on July 23, 2023 by Shona McCombes.

If you haven’t been given a specific topic for your essay or paper , the first step is coming up with ideas and deciding what you want to write about. Generating ideas is the least methodical and most creative step in academic writing .

There are infinite ways to generate ideas, but no sure-fire way to come up with a good one. This article outlines some tips and techniques for choosing a topic – use the ones that work best for you.

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Understanding the assignment, techniques for generating topic ideas, tips for finding a good idea, other interesting articles.

First, you need to determine the scope of what you can write about. Make sure you understand the assignment you’ve been given, and make sure you know the answers to these questions:

• What is the required length of the paper (in words or pages)?
• What is the deadline?
• Should the paper relate to what you’ve studied in class?
• Do you have to do your own research and use sources that haven’t been taught in class?
• Are there any constraints on the subject matter or approach?

The length and deadline of the assignment determine how complex your topic can be. The prompt might tell you write a certain type of essay, or it might give you a broad subject area and hint at the kind of approach you should take.

This prompt gives us a very general subject. It doesn’t ask for a specific type of essay, but the word explain suggests that an expository essay is the most appropriate response.

This prompt takes a different approach to the same subject. It asks a question that requires you to take a strong position. This is an argumentative essay that requires you to use evidence from sources to support your argument.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

Getting started is often the hardest part. Try these 3 simple strategies to help get your mind moving.

Talk it out

Discussing ideas with a teacher, friend or fellow student often helps you find new avenues to approach the ideas you have and helps you uncover ideas you might not have considered.

Write down as many ideas as you can and make point form notes on them as you go. When you feel you’ve written down the obvious things that relate to an idea, move on to a new one, or explore a related idea in more depth.

You can also cluster related ideas together and draw connections between them on the page.

This strategy is similar to brainstorming, but it is faster and less reflective. Give yourself a broad topic to write about. Then, on a pad of paper or a word processor, write continuously for two or three minutes. Don’t stop, not even for a moment.

Write down anything that comes to mind, no matter how nonsensical it seems, as long as it somehow relates to the topic you began with. If you need to, time yourself to make sure you write for a few minutes straight.

When you’ve finished, read through what you’ve written and identify any useful ideas that have come out of the exercise.

Whichever strategy you use, you’ll probably come up with lots of ideas, but follow these tips to help you choose the best one.

Don’t feel you need to work logically

Good ideas often have strange origins. An apple fell on Isaac Newton’s head, and this gave us the idea of gravity. Mary Shelley had a dream, and this gave us her famous literary classic, Frankenstein .

It does not matter how you get your idea; what matters is that you find a good one.

Work from general to specific

Your first good idea won’t take the form of a fully-formed thesis statement . Find a topic before you find an argument.

You’ll need to think about your topic in broad, general terms before you can narrow it down and make it more precise.

Maintain momentum

Don’t be critical of your ideas at this stage – it can hinder your creativity. If you think too much about the flaws in your ideas, you will lose momentum.

Creative momentum is important: the first ten in a string of related ideas might be garbage, but the eleventh could be pure gold. You’ll never reach the eleventh if you shut down your thought process at the second.

Let ideas go

Don’t get too attached to the first appealing topic you think of. It might be a great idea, but it also might turn out to be a dud once you start researching and give it some critical thought .

Thinking about a new topic doesn’t mean abandoning an old one – you can easily come back to your original ideas later and decide which ones work best.

Choose a topic that interests you

A bored writer makes for boring writing. Try to find an idea that you’ll enjoy writing about, or a way to integrate your interests with your topic.

In the worst case scenario, pick the least boring topic of all of the boring topics you’re faced with.

Keep a notepad close

Good ideas will cross your mind when you least expect it. When they do, make sure that you can hold onto them.

Many people come up with their best ideas just before falling asleep; you might find it useful to keep a notepad by your bed.

Once you’ve settled on an idea, you’ll need to start working on your thesis statement and planning your paper’s structure.

If you find yourself struggling to come up with a good thesis on your topic, it might not be the right choice – you can always change your mind and go back to previous ideas.

Write a thesis statement Make an essay outline

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Resources for Teachers: Creating Writing Assignments

This page contains four specific areas:

Creating Effective Assignments

Checking the assignment, sequencing writing assignments, selecting an effective writing assignment format.

Research has shown that the more detailed a writing assignment is, the better the student papers are in response to that assignment. Instructors can often help students write more effective papers by giving students written instructions about that assignment. Explicit descriptions of assignments on the syllabus or on an “assignment sheet” tend to produce the best results. These instructions might make explicit the process or steps necessary to complete the assignment. Assignment sheets should detail:

• the kind of writing expected
• the scope of acceptable subject matter
• the length requirements
• formatting requirements
• documentation format
• the amount and type of research expected (if any)
• the writer’s role
• deadlines for the first draft and its revision

Providing questions or needed data in the assignment helps students get started. For instance, some questions can suggest a mode of organization to the students. Other questions might suggest a procedure to follow. The questions posed should require that students assert a thesis.

The following areas should help you create effective writing assignments.

Examining your goals for the assignment

• How exactly does this assignment fit with the objectives of your course?
• Should this assignment relate only to the class and the texts for the class, or should it also relate to the world beyond the classroom?
• What do you want the students to learn or experience from this writing assignment?
• Should this assignment be an individual or a collaborative effort?
• What do you want students to show you in this assignment? To demonstrate mastery of concepts or texts? To demonstrate logical and critical thinking? To develop an original idea? To learn and demonstrate the procedures, practices, and tools of your field of study?

Defining the writing task

• Is the assignment sequenced so that students: (1) write a draft, (2) receive feedback (from you, fellow students, or staff members at the Writing and Communication Center), and (3) then revise it? Such a procedure has been proven to accomplish at least two goals: it improves the student’s writing and it discourages plagiarism.
• Does the assignment include so many sub-questions that students will be confused about the major issue they should examine? Can you give more guidance about what the paper’s main focus should be? Can you reduce the number of sub-questions?
• What is the purpose of the assignment (e.g., review knowledge already learned, find additional information, synthesize research, examine a new hypothesis)? Making the purpose(s) of the assignment explicit helps students write the kind of paper you want.
• What is the required form (e.g., expository essay, lab report, memo, business report)?
• What mode is required for the assignment (e.g., description, narration, analysis, persuasion, a combination of two or more of these)?

Defining the audience for the paper

• Can you define a hypothetical audience to help students determine which concepts to define and explain? When students write only to the instructor, they may assume that little, if anything, requires explanation. Defining the whole class as the intended audience will clarify this issue for students.
• What is the probable attitude of the intended readers toward the topic itself? Toward the student writer’s thesis? Toward the student writer?
• What is the probable educational and economic background of the intended readers?

Defining the writer’s role

• Can you make explicit what persona you wish the students to assume? For example, a very effective role for student writers is that of a “professional in training” who uses the assumptions, the perspective, and the conceptual tools of the discipline.

Defining your evaluative criteria

1. If possible, explain the relative weight in grading assigned to the quality of writing and the assignment’s content:

• depth of coverage
• organization
• critical thinking
• original thinking
• use of research
• logical demonstration
• appropriate mode of structure and analysis (e.g., comparison, argument)
• correct use of sources
• grammar and mechanics
• professional tone
• correct use of course-specific concepts and terms.

Here’s a checklist for writing assignments:

• Have you used explicit command words in your instructions (e.g., “compare and contrast” and “explain” are more explicit than “explore” or “consider”)? The more explicit the command words, the better chance the students will write the type of paper you wish.
• Does the assignment suggest a topic, thesis, and format? Should it?
• Have you told students the kind of audience they are addressing — the level of knowledge they can assume the readers have and your particular preferences (e.g., “avoid slang, use the first-person sparingly”)?
• If the assignment has several stages of completion, have you made the various deadlines clear? Is your policy on due dates clear?
• Have you presented the assignment in a manageable form? For instance, a 5-page assignment sheet for a 1-page paper may overwhelm students. Similarly, a 1-sentence assignment for a 25-page paper may offer insufficient guidance.

There are several benefits of sequencing writing assignments:

• Sequencing provides a sense of coherence for the course.
• This approach helps students see progress and purpose in their work rather than seeing the writing assignments as separate exercises.
• It encourages complexity through sustained attention, revision, and consideration of multiple perspectives.
• If you have only one large paper due near the end of the course, you might create a sequence of smaller assignments leading up to and providing a foundation for that larger paper (e.g., proposal of the topic, an annotated bibliography, a progress report, a summary of the paper’s key argument, a first draft of the paper itself). This approach allows you to give students guidance and also discourages plagiarism.
• It mirrors the approach to written work in many professions.

The concept of sequencing writing assignments also allows for a wide range of options in creating the assignment. It is often beneficial to have students submit the components suggested below to your course’s STELLAR web site.

Use the writing process itself. In its simplest form, “sequencing an assignment” can mean establishing some sort of “official” check of the prewriting and drafting steps in the writing process. This step guarantees that students will not write the whole paper in one sitting and also gives students more time to let their ideas develop. This check might be something as informal as having students work on their prewriting or draft for a few minutes at the end of class. Or it might be something more formal such as collecting the prewriting and giving a few suggestions and comments.

Have students submit drafts. You might ask students to submit a first draft in order to receive your quick responses to its content, or have them submit written questions about the content and scope of their projects after they have completed their first draft.

Establish small groups. Set up small writing groups of three-five students from the class. Allow them to meet for a few minutes in class or have them arrange a meeting outside of class to comment constructively on each other’s drafts. The students do not need to be writing on the same topic.

Require consultations. Have students consult with someone in the Writing and Communication Center about their prewriting and/or drafts. The Center has yellow forms that we can give to students to inform you that such a visit was made.

Explore a subject in increasingly complex ways. A series of reading and writing assignments may be linked by the same subject matter or topic. Students encounter new perspectives and competing ideas with each new reading, and thus must evaluate and balance various views and adopt a position that considers the various points of view.

Change modes of discourse. In this approach, students’ assignments move from less complex to more complex modes of discourse (e.g., from expressive to analytic to argumentative; or from lab report to position paper to research article).

Change audiences. In this approach, students create drafts for different audiences, moving from personal to public (e.g., from self-reflection to an audience of peers to an audience of specialists). Each change would require different tasks and more extensive knowledge.

Change perspective through time. In this approach, students might write a statement of their understanding of a subject or issue at the beginning of a course and then return at the end of the semester to write an analysis of that original stance in the light of the experiences and knowledge gained in the course.

Use a natural sequence. A different approach to sequencing is to create a series of assignments culminating in a final writing project. In scientific and technical writing, for example, students could write a proposal requesting approval of a particular topic. The next assignment might be a progress report (or a series of progress reports), and the final assignment could be the report or document itself. For humanities and social science courses, students might write a proposal requesting approval of a particular topic, then hand in an annotated bibliography, and then a draft, and then the final version of the paper.

Have students submit sections. A variation of the previous approach is to have students submit various sections of their final document throughout the semester (e.g., their bibliography, review of the literature, methods section).

In addition to the standard essay and report formats, several other formats exist that might give students a different slant on the course material or allow them to use slightly different writing skills. Here are some suggestions:

Journals. Journals have become a popular format in recent years for courses that require some writing. In-class journal entries can spark discussions and reveal gaps in students’ understanding of the material. Having students write an in-class entry summarizing the material covered that day can aid the learning process and also reveal concepts that require more elaboration. Out-of-class entries involve short summaries or analyses of texts, or are a testing ground for ideas for student papers and reports. Although journals may seem to add a huge burden for instructors to correct, in fact many instructors either spot-check journals (looking at a few particular key entries) or grade them based on the number of entries completed. Journals are usually not graded for their prose style. STELLAR forums work well for out-of-class entries.

Letters. Students can define and defend a position on an issue in a letter written to someone in authority. They can also explain a concept or a process to someone in need of that particular information. They can write a letter to a friend explaining their concerns about an upcoming paper assignment or explaining their ideas for an upcoming paper assignment. If you wish to add a creative element to the writing assignment, you might have students adopt the persona of an important person discussed in your course (e.g., an historical figure) and write a letter explaining his/her actions, process, or theory to an interested person (e.g., “pretend that you are John Wilkes Booth and write a letter to the Congress justifying your assassination of Abraham Lincoln,” or “pretend you are Henry VIII writing to Thomas More explaining your break from the Catholic Church”).

Editorials . Students can define and defend a position on a controversial issue in the format of an editorial for the campus or local newspaper or for a national journal.

Cases . Students might create a case study particular to the course’s subject matter.

Position Papers . Students can define and defend a position, perhaps as a preliminary step in the creation of a formal research paper or essay.

Imitation of a Text . Students can create a new document “in the style of” a particular writer (e.g., “Create a government document the way Woody Allen might write it” or “Write your own ‘Modest Proposal’ about a modern issue”).

Instruction Manuals . Students write a step-by-step explanation of a process.

Dialogues . Students create a dialogue between two major figures studied in which they not only reveal those people’s theories or thoughts but also explore areas of possible disagreement (e.g., “Write a dialogue between Claude Monet and Jackson Pollock about the nature and uses of art”).

Collaborative projects . Students work together to create such works as reports, questions, and critiques.

Eberly Center

Teaching excellence & educational innovation, creating assignments.

Here are some general suggestions and questions to consider when creating assignments. There are also many other resources in print and on the web that provide examples of interesting, discipline-specific assignment ideas.

Consider your learning objectives.

What do you want students to learn in your course? What could they do that would show you that they have learned it? To determine assignments that truly serve your course objectives, it is useful to write out your objectives in this form: I want my students to be able to ____. Use active, measurable verbs as you complete that sentence (e.g., compare theories, discuss ramifications, recommend strategies), and your learning objectives will point you towards suitable assignments.

Design assignments that are interesting and challenging.

This is the fun side of assignment design. Consider how to focus students’ thinking in ways that are creative, challenging, and motivating. Think beyond the conventional assignment type! For example, one American historian requires students to write diary entries for a hypothetical Nebraska farmwoman in the 1890s. By specifying that students’ diary entries must demonstrate the breadth of their historical knowledge (e.g., gender, economics, technology, diet, family structure), the instructor gets students to exercise their imaginations while also accomplishing the learning objectives of the course (Walvoord & Anderson, 1989, p. 25).

Double-check alignment.

After creating your assignments, go back to your learning objectives and make sure there is still a good match between what you want students to learn and what you are asking them to do. If you find a mismatch, you will need to adjust either the assignments or the learning objectives. For instance, if your goal is for students to be able to analyze and evaluate texts, but your assignments only ask them to summarize texts, you would need to add an analytical and evaluative dimension to some assignments or rethink your learning objectives.

Name assignments accurately.

Students can be misled by assignments that are named inappropriately. For example, if you want students to analyze a product’s strengths and weaknesses but you call the assignment a “product description,” students may focus all their energies on the descriptive, not the critical, elements of the task. Thus, it is important to ensure that the titles of your assignments communicate their intention accurately to students.

Consider sequencing.

Think about how to order your assignments so that they build skills in a logical sequence. Ideally, assignments that require the most synthesis of skills and knowledge should come later in the semester, preceded by smaller assignments that build these skills incrementally. For example, if an instructor’s final assignment is a research project that requires students to evaluate a technological solution to an environmental problem, earlier assignments should reinforce component skills, including the ability to identify and discuss key environmental issues, apply evaluative criteria, and find appropriate research sources.

Think about scheduling.

Consider your intended assignments in relation to the academic calendar and decide how they can be reasonably spaced throughout the semester, taking into account holidays and key campus events. Consider how long it will take students to complete all parts of the assignment (e.g., planning, library research, reading, coordinating groups, writing, integrating the contributions of team members, developing a presentation), and be sure to allow sufficient time between assignments.

Check feasibility.

Is the workload you have in mind reasonable for your students? Is the grading burden manageable for you? Sometimes there are ways to reduce workload (whether for you or for students) without compromising learning objectives. For example, if a primary objective in assigning a project is for students to identify an interesting engineering problem and do some preliminary research on it, it might be reasonable to require students to submit a project proposal and annotated bibliography rather than a fully developed report. If your learning objectives are clear, you will see where corners can be cut without sacrificing educational quality.

Articulate the task description clearly.

If an assignment is vague, students may interpret it any number of ways – and not necessarily how you intended. Thus, it is critical to clearly and unambiguously identify the task students are to do (e.g., design a website to help high school students locate environmental resources, create an annotated bibliography of readings on apartheid). It can be helpful to differentiate the central task (what students are supposed to produce) from other advice and information you provide in your assignment description.

Establish clear performance criteria.

Different instructors apply different criteria when grading student work, so it’s important that you clearly articulate to students what your criteria are. To do so, think about the best student work you have seen on similar tasks and try to identify the specific characteristics that made it excellent, such as clarity of thought, originality, logical organization, or use of a wide range of sources. Then identify the characteristics of the worst student work you have seen, such as shaky evidence, weak organizational structure, or lack of focus. Identifying these characteristics can help you consciously articulate the criteria you already apply. It is important to communicate these criteria to students, whether in your assignment description or as a separate rubric or scoring guide . Clearly articulated performance criteria can prevent unnecessary confusion about your expectations while also setting a high standard for students to meet.

Specify the intended audience.

Students make assumptions about the audience they are addressing in papers and presentations, which influences how they pitch their message. For example, students may assume that, since the instructor is their primary audience, they do not need to define discipline-specific terms or concepts. These assumptions may not match the instructor’s expectations. Thus, it is important on assignments to specify the intended audience http://wac.colostate.edu/intro/pop10e.cfm (e.g., undergraduates with no biology background, a potential funder who does not know engineering).

Specify the purpose of the assignment.

If students are unclear about the goals or purpose of the assignment, they may make unnecessary mistakes. For example, if students believe an assignment is focused on summarizing research as opposed to evaluating it, they may seriously miscalculate the task and put their energies in the wrong place. The same is true they think the goal of an economics problem set is to find the correct answer, rather than demonstrate a clear chain of economic reasoning. Consequently, it is important to make your objectives for the assignment clear to students.

Specify the parameters.

If you have specific parameters in mind for the assignment (e.g., length, size, formatting, citation conventions) you should be sure to specify them in your assignment description. Otherwise, students may misapply conventions and formats they learned in other courses that are not appropriate for yours.

A Checklist for Designing Assignments

Here is a set of questions you can ask yourself when creating an assignment.

• Provided a written description of the assignment (in the syllabus or in a separate document)?
• Specified the purpose of the assignment?
• Indicated the intended audience?
• Articulated the instructions in precise and unambiguous language?
• Provided information about the appropriate format and presentation (e.g., page length, typed, cover sheet, bibliography)?  
• Indicated special instructions, such as a particular citation style or headings?  
• Specified the due date and the consequences for missing it?
• Articulated performance criteria clearly?
• Indicated the assignment’s point value or percentage of the course grade?
• Provided students (where appropriate) with models or samples?

Adapted from the WAC Clearinghouse at http://wac.colostate.edu/intro/pop10e.cfm .

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How to write the best college assignments.

By Lois Weldon

When it comes to writing assignments, it is difficult to find a conceptualized guide with clear and simple tips that are easy to follow. That’s exactly what this guide will provide: few simple tips on how to write great assignments, right when you need them. Some of these points will probably be familiar to you, but there is no harm in being reminded of the most important things before you start writing the assignments, which are usually determining on your credits.

The most important aspects: Outline and Introduction

Preparation is the key to success, especially when it comes to academic assignments. It is recommended to always write an outline before you start writing the actual assignment. The outline should include the main points of discussion, which will keep you focused throughout the work and will make your key points clearly defined. Outlining the assignment will save you a lot of time because it will organize your thoughts and make your literature searches much easier. The outline will also help you to create different sections and divide up the word count between them, which will make the assignment more organized.

The introduction is the next important part you should focus on. This is the part that defines the quality of your assignment in the eyes of the reader. The introduction must include a brief background on the main points of discussion, the purpose of developing such work and clear indications on how the assignment is being organized. Keep this part brief, within one or two paragraphs.

This is an example of including the above mentioned points into the introduction of an assignment that elaborates the topic of obesity reaching proportions:

Background : The twenty first century is characterized by many public health challenges, among which obesity takes a major part. The increasing prevalence of obesity is creating an alarming situation in both developed and developing regions of the world.

Structure and aim : This assignment will elaborate and discuss the specific pattern of obesity epidemic development, as well as its epidemiology. Debt, trade and globalization will also be analyzed as factors that led to escalation of the problem. Moreover, the assignment will discuss the governmental interventions that make efforts to address this issue.

Practical tips on assignment writing

Here are some practical tips that will keep your work focused and effective:

–         Critical thinking – Academic writing has to be characterized by critical thinking, not only to provide the work with the needed level, but also because it takes part in the final mark.

–         Continuity of ideas – When you get to the middle of assignment, things can get confusing. You have to make sure that the ideas are flowing continuously within and between paragraphs, so the reader will be enabled to follow the argument easily. Dividing the work in different paragraphs is very important for this purpose.

–         Usage of ‘you’ and ‘I’ – According to the academic writing standards, the assignments should be written in an impersonal language, which means that the usage of ‘you’ and ‘I’ should be avoided. The only acceptable way of building your arguments is by using opinions and evidence from authoritative sources.

–         Referencing – this part of the assignment is extremely important and it takes a big part in the final mark. Make sure to use either Vancouver or Harvard referencing systems, and use the same system in the bibliography and while citing work of other sources within the text.  

–         Usage of examples – A clear understanding on your assignment’s topic should be provided by comparing different sources and identifying their strengths and weaknesses in an objective manner. This is the part where you should show how the knowledge can be applied into practice.

–         Numbering and bullets – Instead of using numbering and bullets, the academic writing style prefers the usage of paragraphs.

–         Including figures and tables – The figures and tables are an effective way of conveying information to the reader in a clear manner, without disturbing the word count. Each figure and table should have clear headings and you should make sure to mention their sources in the bibliography.

–         Word count – the word count of your assignment mustn’t be far above or far below the required word count. The outline will provide you with help in this aspect, so make sure to plan the work in order to keep it within the boundaries.

The importance of an effective conclusion

The conclusion of your assignment is your ultimate chance to provide powerful arguments that will impress the reader. The conclusion in academic writing is usually expressed through three main parts:

–         Stating the context and aim of the assignment

–         Summarizing the main points briefly

–         Providing final comments with consideration of the future (discussing clear examples of things that can be done in order to improve the situation concerning your topic of discussion).

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Lois Weldon is writer at  Uk.bestdissertation.com . Lives happily at London with her husband and lovely daughter. Adores writing tips for students. Passionate about Star Wars and yoga.

7 comments on “How To Write The Best College Assignments”

Extremely useful tip for students wanting to score well on their assignments. I concur with the writer that writing an outline before ACTUALLY starting to write assignments is extremely important. I have observed students who start off quite well but they tend to lose focus in between which causes them to lose marks. So an outline helps them to maintain the theme focused.

Hello Great information…. write assignments

Well elabrated

Thanks for the information. This site has amazing articles. Looking forward to continuing on this site.

This article is certainly going to help student . Well written.

Really good, thanks

Practical tips on assignment writing, the’re fantastic. Thank you!

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6 Tools to Create Flawless Presentations and Assignments

No matter how you look at it, presentations are vital to students’ success. It is a great way to showcase your talents, demonstrate understanding of the subject, put a positive light on the assignment, and so on.

However, with limited time and resources, it can be tough for students to prepare impactful assignments and presentations.. Here, we will share with you seven best tools you can use when creating presentations and assignments.

Table of Contents

Tools for Presentation

1.   venngage.

Students are often intimidated by the thought of creating attractive and informative presentations. Venngage is a highly effective presentation tool that helps students create impressive infographics. Users can add text, images, videos, slides, and other essential elements to enhance your presentations. Additionally, users can also edit the content in the presentation at any time and preview it before sharing it.

It’s a user-friendly tool to quickly create quick academic presentations. The drag-and-drop feature to add images from your computer or any other source makes it easier to add illustrations to presentations. Furthermore, the feature of adding text or import documents from Google Drive or Dropbox is an advantage with Venngage.

Keynote is another tool for creating presentations. It’s another easy-to-use tool for students to create presentations without getting into the technical details of designing slides and images.

Here are some noteworthy features of Keynote:

A Wide Range of Templates

You can use professionally designed default templates or create your slides with ease. This saves your precious time in making the right template. Get your hands on the available templates to serve your presentation purposes.

Easy-to-Use Interface

The interface of Keynote is extremely simple, which makes it easy for beginners to use it effortlessly. Even the most novice users can create professional-looking presentations within minutes using this tool without looking around for assistance.

Different Types of Transitions

You can add transitions between slides and animations to your presentations. This helps in keeping things interesting and engaging for your audience. You will also be able to choose different types of transitions, such as cross-dissolve, wipe transitions, and many more.

Free to Use

It’s free to download and use on all platforms, including Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android. It is also accessible with macOS version 10.10 and higher, so you don’t have to install anything else to use it.

Wide Range of Theme Collection

It has a wide range of themes to choose from. It allows theme customization with =with pictures and colors to create unique layouts and designs.

Canva is a free online tool that can be used to create posters, presentations, and other visual content.

If you want a way to create fascinating presentations, Canva is the perfect place to start with. It’s free, easy to use, and has many features to help you create better presentations.

Here are some of the great features available in Canva:

• Layouts are easy on the eyes and make it easier to read the text.
• Multiple pictures can be added on each slide with different sizes, shapes, and colors.
• Different text effects like drop shadows, outlines, and more.
• Stickers that you can use to personalize each slide.
• You can use a fully customizable background to add flair to your slides. Add text boxes, shapes, lines, and arrows by dragging and dropping from the toolbox or clicking the + button in the toolbar.
• Add custom design elements using Canva’s unique blend of fonts and graphics to create eye-catching designs that will get you noticed.

Tools for Assignments

4. enago plagiarism checker.

Enago plagiarism checker is a free online tool that helps students check their assignments and research papers for plagiarism. The tool is compatible with all device types and can be used to check any kind of text, including articles, essays, and even research papers. It also has an option to compare the original source with the copy presented in the assignment.

How does the Enago plagiarism checker work?

Enago works by scanning through the text of your assignment and finding any instances where it looks like someone else’s work has been copied into yours without attribution. The tool is easy to use and requires no technical skills.

The tool compares provided text against over 91 billion current and archived web pages. Furthermore, the advanced scholarly article check compares your text against over 135 million pay walled and open access write-ups. It’s detailed and accurate plagiarism report helps in making your assignment plagiarism-free.

5. Merge PDF

One of the most common problems students face is combining assignments from different sources.

Students may have to combine several assignments or projects they may have created on different platforms. An online PDF merger tool can help them combine your assignments into one document for easy submission.

This tool can help you merge PDF documents within seconds and make your assignments submission-ready in no time. The best thing about this tool is that it does not require any special skills or technical knowledge, which means anyone can use it without facing any issues.

How Does it Work?

You don’t have to follow a difficult process to combine PDF documents using an online PDF merger tool. Simply follow simple steps to get your job done.

• Upload the PDF documents that you want to combine. You can either upload from your device’s internal storage or cloud storage services such as Google Drive and Dropbox.
• Once uploaded, correct the order of the files by dragging and dropping documents in the required sequence.
• Now, you can click the ‘Merge Files’ button to combine files. You can download the consolidated document once it’s ready in a few seconds.

That’s how easily you can merge as many PDFs as you want into a single document. This tool is free to use and does not require registration or sign-up.

6. Trinka AI

Trinka AI is a digital assistant that corrects your grammar and spelling mistakes in real-time. It is the world’s first AI-powered grammar checker with a built-in platform for creating custom checks.

Trinka is exclusively made for academic and technical writing. It corrects over 3000 complex grammar errors to ensure delivering of error-free file. Furthermore, it checks tone, structure, word choice, writing style guides, and more. It goes beyond grammar checks and also flags sentences with informal language.

It helps polish your content with various advanced tools, including grammar checks, word suggestions, and conciseness.  to

These features make Trinka AI an excellent resource for those who want to improve their grammar skills and those who want to learn new ones.

Students have a lot of things to think about while creating presentations or assignments. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the tasks you have due soon. One way to cope with your workload is using the right tools. The above six tools can help you understand how to present your work the best way and how to organize and manage your assignments as they move towards the submission process.

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How to Start an Assignment

Last Updated: January 29, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Michelle Golden, PhD . Michelle Golden is an English teacher in Athens, Georgia. She received her MA in Language Arts Teacher Education in 2008 and received her PhD in English from Georgia State University in 2015. There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 105,246 times.

Getting started on an assignment or homework can often times be the hardest step. Putting off the assignment can make the problem worse, reducing the time you have to complete the task and increasing stress. By learning how to get started and overcome the urge to procrastinate, you can get your assignments done on schedule and with less stress, opening up more free time.

Restructuring Your Assignment

• For example, you might research areas of a report that you find most interesting before moving on to other areas.
• If your math assignment has different types of questions, try doing those that you enjoy the most before moving on to the others.
• You might also try tackling smaller or easier tasks first so you can cross a few items off your list. Seeing that you've already made progress may help you feel motivated to continue.

• Promise yourself that you will meet your goal of working for five minutes on the assignment.
• Once you get started, you may find that you don't want to stop working. Otherwise, you can take a break and come back to the assignment, knowing you're at least five minutes closer to finishing than you were before.

• Try to set reasonable periods of time that you know you can meet. For example, you might set aside two hours on a Friday to dedicate to your assignment. If you don't have that much time all at once, try to carve out a few 20- or 30-minute blocks.
• You may or may not wish to continue working after your time limit has gone by.
• Have a realistic understanding of how fast you can write and plan your schedule accordingly.

• It can help to read the assignment as soon as you get it and then ask any questions you might have.
• If you're not sure if you understand the assignment, try rewriting it in your own words or explaining it to someone else. If you find you can't or have a lot of questions, you may need more information.
• You should have an overview of the assignment, understand the main task, and understand the technical and stylistic requirements.
• Look for important words in the instructions to understand the assignment. These words might include define, explain, compare, relate, or prove.
• Keep your audience in mind and write a paper that would best deliver information to them.

• Goals that are too big or not well defined can be difficult to start working towards.
• Smaller and well defined goals can seem easier to achieve than larger ones.
• For example, you could break a research paper down into several smaller tasks: 1) do preliminary research, 2) write an outline, 3) draft an introduction, 4) draft body paragraphs, 5) write conclusion, 6) revise. Each of these is much more do-able on its own.

Changing Your Focus

• You might want to go for a quick walk after working for a set amount of time.
• Try reading a website or book that you enjoy for a few minutes after working.
• Alternatively, try a quick burst of exercise before setting to work. Exercise releases feel-good chemicals called endorphins and can also help boost your memory. [8] X Research source

• Instead of dreading your work, focus on how good it will feel to make progress. You won't have it hanging over your head. You can actually enjoy the weekend instead of feeling guilty.
• Keeping your eye on long-term rewards can help you stay motivated to finish your assignment.

• Avoid moving your workspace constantly.
• Don't get lost on tangential research.
• Don't take constant breaks to get a snack.

• For every hour you waste procrastinating, you can limit how much television you watch that night.
• If you waste too much time procrastinating, you might deny yourself a favorite snack later on.

Community Q&A

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/solving-unsolvable-problems/201408/4-steps-stop-procrastinating
• ↑ https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/friendship-20/201405/the-surefire-first-step-stop-procrastinating
• ↑ http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/procrastination/
• ↑ https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/homework.html
• ↑ http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/understanding-assignments/
• ↑ https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/ab22ff64-3358-4387-9761-8c58878a6b84/resource/3ee38320-17e4-46f9-b24f-c95f9f345eb9/download/ipp7.pdf
• ↑ http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/07/how-exercise-can-help-us-learn/
• ↑ https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/happy-life.html

About This Article

To start an assignment, try working on the most enjoyable or easiest parts of the assignment first to get the ball rolling. Even if no part of the assignment seems enjoyable or easy, set a timer and try to make yourself work for at least 5 minutes, which is usually enough time to build momentum and overcome procrastination. You can also try breaking your assignment up into smaller, more manageable tasks and scheduling yourself regular breaks so it doesn't seem as overwhelming. To learn how to stay positive and avoid procrastination while working on your homework, scroll down! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How to Make the Most of Boring Creative Writing Assignments

Last Updated: October 11, 2022 References

This article was co-authored by Diya Chaudhuri, PhD . Diya Chaudhuri holds a PhD in Creative Writing (specializing in Poetry) from Georgia State University. She has over 5 years of experience as a writing tutor and instructor for both the University of Florida and Georgia State University. This article has been viewed 12,898 times.

Even if you want to do well in class, being bored with an assignment is a tough obstacle to overcome. Getting invested the class as a whole is the best way to make these assignments more interesting. However, that's a long process, and won't help you in the short term. If you just can't bring yourself to care about your creative writing assignment that's due soon, there are many tricks to try to pique your interest.

Making the Most of a Boring Assignment

• For example, the assignment might ask you to write about a character that’s fighting with his parents. That doesn’t mean you can’t set your story a thousand years in the future, in space.
• A poetry prompt might ask you to describe your mother. What if you wrote from your perspective when she was still carrying you? What do you imagine you might have thought about your mother as an unborn child?

• Be careful not to be too obvious about who you’re writing about. It would be really embarrassing for your crush to find out you liked him before you were ready to tell him!
• You can also hurt people’s feelings if you’re not careful. Use just enough of the people in your life to keep yourself interested, but not enough to make it a story about them.

• In this example, you started with a broad, potentially boring prompt: respond to this park. But you turned it into something meaningful. The park is a place that connected you to memory and family.

• Instead of stealing wholesale from one source, try to "braid" your material. [4] X Research source Braiding means weaving details from different sources together to create a new, stronger fabric.
• Pair a funny story from your best friend with one of your mom's mannerisms. Change some things about the story to make it even better. Don't be limited by reality in creative work!

• Make sure not to insult him when you ask to change the subject, tough. There's a good chance he put a lot of love and care into crafting this assignment.
• Be as diplomatic as possible. Explain that you've tried to write the assignment several times. Describe your failed attempts to him.
• Offer a clear alternative that's still related to the original task. For example, don't try to replace a poem with a short story. Or if a story is supposed to focus on a relationship, don't try to replace it with a murder mystery.

Investing in the Class

Expert Q&A

You might also like.

• ↑ https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_assignment/whats-your-angle/
• ↑ http://hollylisle.com/deeper-people-putting-yourself-into-your-characters/
• ↑ http://writerunboxed.com/2014/07/08/drawing-from-real-life-in-fiction/
• ↑ http://thewritepractice.com/how-to-steal/
• ↑ http://www.uwosh.edu/capp/students/being-a-college-student/how-to-ask-questions-in-class

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How To Make Your Assignment Creative

Regardless that whether you need to do well in class, being exhausted with a assignment is an intense hindrance to survive. Getting contributed the class overall is the most ideal approach to make these assignments seriously intriguing. In any case, that is a long cycle, and will not assistance you temporarily. On the off chance that you can’t force yourself to think often about your exploratory writing assignment that is expected soon, there are numerous stunts to attempt to arouse your curiosity. There are a few steps to make the assignment in a most creative manner. Here are the examples:

Approach the topic from a different angle

The best thing about writing an assignment in a creative way is that you will be innovative! Perhaps the specific phrasing on the assignment sheet doesn’t energize you. That doesn’t mean you can’t figure out how to get amped up for it.

Make use all sources of information

Past guidelines and deadlines, teachers make accessible an expanding number of assets. However, students frequently neglect these. For instance, to see how your assignment will be evaluated, you can analyse the rubric. This is a graph demonstrating what you need to do to acquire a high differentiation, a credit or a pass, just as the course goals – otherwise called “learning results”. Different assets incorporate talk chronicles, understanding records, test assignments and conversation sheets. This data is normally assembled in an online stage called a learning the management systems.

Draw from your own encounters

Another approach to interface with an exhausting assignment is by utilizing it to investigate your significant individual recollections. For instance, your subject instructor may take you on a visit through a recreation centre and get some information about something you see. The sonnet you write may get going discussing a tree you saw, yet use it as an extension to a more significant memory.

  Choose the right words

The written language utilized at college is more formal and specialized than the language you regularly use in online media or while talking with your peers. Academic words will in general be longer and their importance is likewise more exact. To track down the correct words, you can utilize tools, which shows you the words that show up more regularly, with your hunt section classified syntactically.

Continuity of ideas

Coherence of thoughts best defines the hour of composing assignments and things can get befuddling. You need to ensure that the thoughts are constantly running and appropriate for the section. Accordingly, it is basic to share the work in various segments for the reader as they will actually want to follow the rationale without any problem.

Present Information Data and tables

Present the data in the tables to look creative when it is only possible in paragraphs– Statistics and tables are an effective method of offering data to the reader in a practical manner. Every information and table ought to have an unmistakable title and should specify their sources.

Experiment with structure

You ought not keep straightforwardly the construction of standard writing that comprises of a presentation, body sections and end. Truth be told, the vast majority of the students deal with issues with regards to writing the assignment that will get a handle on the consideration of the readers. The powerful structure is to write it eventually, solely after you have composed your body passages. You may likewise feel so motivated by your composition after the exploration that the presentation will be for you as basic as could be expected.

Add funny/engaging subheadings

Focus on the overall look of your assignment. On the off chance that you feel that the assignment should be more coordinated to work on the reader perspective, you may add connecting with or amusing subheadings to your paper. Utilize some facetious inquiries, exclamatory sentence, or a weird mix of words to stand out for the reader.

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Teaching in Higher Ed

How to grade creative assignments

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Bonni Stachowiak shares some ideas for how to grade creative assignments on episode 430 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast.

Quotes from the episode

Alternative assignments can often be messy, but the rewards for students and teachers can be transformative. -Bonni Stachowiak

• How Do You Grade A Creative Assignment, by Bonni Stachowiak for EdSurge
• Episode 36: What the Best College Teachers Do with Ken Bain
• What the Best College Teachers Do, by Ken Bain
• Tweet thread from Corinne Gressang, assistant professor of history at Erskine College about her Holocaust course
• Episode 401: The Problem with Grades, by Josh Eyler
• You Don’t Have to Wait for the Clock to Strike to Start Teaching, by Peter Newbury
• How Humans Learn: The Science and Stories Behind Effective College Teaching, by Josh Eyler
• AAC&U VALUE initiative and rubrics
• Harvard’s Project Zero’s Visible Thinking Project
• CAST’s UDL Action and Expression Guidelines
• Harvard’s Alternative Assignments: Creative and Digital Resource

Affiliate income disclosure: Books that are recommended on the podcast link to the Teaching in Higher Ed bookstore on Bookshop.org (https://bookshop.org/shop/teachinginhighered). All affiliate income gets donated to the LibroMobile Arts Cooperative (LMAC) (https://bookshop.org/shop/LibroMobile), established in 2016 by Sara Rafael Garcia (https://www.cuentosmobile.com/bio).”

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Bonni Stachowiak is the producer and host of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast, which has been airing weekly since June of 2014. Bonni is the Dean of Teaching and Learning at Vanguard University of Southern California. She’s also a full Professor of Business and Management. She’s been teaching in-person, blended, and online courses throughout her entire career in higher education. Bonni and her husband, Dave, are parents to two curious kids, who regularly shape their perspectives on teaching and learning.

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Design a Successful Advertisement Assignment: A Step-by-Step Guide

Define your advertisement objectives, identify your target audience, establish advertising goals, determine your unique selling proposition, create your advertisement concept, brainstorm ideas, choose the right ad format, develop visuals and copy, design your advertisement layout, apply layout principles, select a color scheme, choose typography, create your own advertisement assignment, utilize ad creation tools, test different ad versions, gather feedback, measure your advertisement success, identify key performance indicators, analyze results, optimize your ad campaign.

Designing a successful advertisement assignment doesn't have to be an intimidating task. In this step-by-step guide, we will walk you through the entire process to create your own advertisement assignment that will effectively reach your target audience and achieve your advertising goals. Let's dive in!

Before you start designing your ad, it's important to have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve with your advertisement assignment. This involves identifying your target audience, establishing advertising goals, and determining your unique selling proposition.

Knowing who you want to reach with your ad is essential for creating a successful campaign. Consider the following factors when identifying your target audience:

• Demographics: age, gender, location, income, etc.
• Interests: hobbies, preferences, needs, etc.
• Behavior: online habits, purchasing patterns, etc.

Having a clear idea of who your target audience is will help you tailor your ad to resonate with them and increase its effectiveness.

Setting goals for your advertisement assignment will help you measure its success and guide your design choices. Common advertising goals include:

• Increasing brand awareness
• Driving website traffic
• Generating leads or sales
• Encouraging customer engagement

Choose the goals that align with your overall marketing strategy and ensure they are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).

Your unique selling proposition (USP) is what sets your product or service apart from your competitors. It's the reason why customers should choose you over other options. To determine your USP, consider:

• What makes your product or service unique
• The benefits your customers will receive
• How your product or service solves a problem or fulfills a need

Once you've identified your USP, make sure to emphasize it in your advertisement assignment to effectively communicate your value proposition to your target audience.

Now that you've defined your objectives, it's time to get creative! In this section, we'll explore how to brainstorm ideas, choose the right ad format, and develop engaging visuals and copy to create an advertisement concept that captures your target audience's attention and achieves your goals.

Before diving into ad design, take some time to brainstorm ideas for your advertisement assignment. Here are some tips to help you get started:

• Think about your target audience's interests and preferences. What type of content would they find appealing?
• Consider your unique selling proposition (USP) and how it can be incorporated into the ad concept.
• Try using mind mapping or free-writing techniques to generate a list of ideas.
• Take inspiration from successful ads in your industry, but remember to put your own spin on it and stay true to your brand.

Don't be afraid to think outside the box—sometimes, the most memorable ads are the ones that break the mold!

There are various ad formats available, each with its own strengths and limitations. When choosing the right format for your advertisement assignment, consider the following:

• Print ads: These include newspapers, magazines, and billboards. They're ideal for reaching a local audience or targeting a specific demographic.
• Online ads: From display banners to social media ads, online advertising offers a wide range of options to reach your target audience on various platforms.
• Video ads: With the rise of platforms like YouTube, video ads are an engaging way to tell your story and showcase your product or service.
• Audio ads: Whether it's a traditional radio spot or a podcast ad, audio ads are a great way to reach people who are on the go or multitasking.

Consider the preferences of your target audience and the nature of your product or service when selecting the most suitable ad format for your campaign.

Once you've settled on an ad format, it's time to bring your advertisement concept to life with compelling visuals and copy. Here's what you need to keep in mind:

• Visuals: Choose images or graphics that are eye-catching and relevant to your product or service. Ensure they align with your brand identity and resonate with your target audience. Don't forget to consider the principles of design, such as contrast, balance, and hierarchy, to create a visually appealing ad.
• Copy: Write clear and concise copy that communicates your unique selling proposition and encourages your target audience to take action. Use persuasive language, but avoid over-hyping your product or service. Remember to include a strong call-to-action (CTA) that tells your audience what you want them to do next.

By combining well-designed visuals and engaging copy, you're well on your way to create your own advertisement assignment that stands out and achieves your advertising goals.

With your advertisement concept in place, it's time to focus on designing an attention-grabbing layout that will showcase your visuals and copy effectively. In this section, we'll discuss how to apply layout principles, select a color scheme, and choose typography to create your own advertisement assignment that stands out and engages your target audience.

To create a visually appealing and functional ad layout, you'll need to consider several design principles. These principles will help guide your design choices and ensure your ad effectively communicates your message:

• Balance: Distribute visual elements evenly across your ad to create a sense of harmony and stability. This can be achieved through symmetrical or asymmetrical layouts.
• Contrast: Use contrasting colors, shapes, and sizes to differentiate between elements and draw attention to key sections of your ad.
• Hierarchy: Organize your ad's elements in a way that guides the viewer's eye through the most important information first. This can be done by varying the size, color, or position of elements.
• Whitespace: Don't be afraid to leave some empty space in your layout. Whitespace can help your ad feel less cluttered and make it easier for the viewer to focus on your message.

By applying these layout principles, you'll be able to create a well-organized and visually striking advertisement that effectively communicates your message to your target audience.

Color plays a significant role in creating an eye-catching and memorable advertisement. When selecting a color scheme for your ad, consider the following:

• Brand consistency: Use colors that align with your brand identity to create a cohesive look and establish brand recognition.
• Emotional impact: Different colors can evoke different emotions in viewers. Choose colors that elicit the desired emotional response from your target audience.
• Contrast: As mentioned earlier, contrast is essential for drawing attention to specific elements in your ad. Make sure your color choices provide enough contrast to make your text and visuals stand out.

By carefully selecting a color scheme, you'll be able to create an advertisement assignment that not only looks visually appealing but also resonates with your audience on an emotional level.

Typography is another crucial aspect of your ad's overall design. The right font choices can greatly impact your ad's readability and aesthetic appeal. When selecting typography for your advertisement assignment, keep these tips in mind:

• Legibility: Choose fonts that are easy to read, especially for the most important information in your ad.
• Font pairing: Use a combination of complementary fonts to create a visually interesting and balanced design. Typically, this involves using one font for headlines and another for body copy.
• Consistency with your brand: Select fonts that are consistent with your brand's identity and messaging to maintain a cohesive look across all your marketing materials.

With the right typography choices, your ad will not only look visually appealing but also ensure that your message is easily understood by your audience.

Moving through these steps, you're well on your way to create your own advertisement assignment that stands out and communicates your message effectively. Remember, a well-designed ad is a powerful tool to engage your target audience and achieve your advertising goals.

Now that you've designed your advertisement layout, it's time to bring your concept to life and create your own advertisement assignment. In this section, we'll cover how to utilize ad creation tools, test different ad versions, and gather feedback to ensure that your advertisement is as effective as it can be. Let's dive in!

Creating your advertisement doesn't have to be a daunting task. Many tools are available that can help you bring your design to life, even if you're not a professional designer. Some popular options include:

• Canva: A user-friendly online design platform where you can create eye-catching ads using customizable templates, graphics, and fonts.
• Adobe Spark: Another online design tool that offers a variety of templates and design elements to help you create professional-looking ads.
• Google Web Designer: A free tool from Google that allows you to create HTML5 ads with animations and interactive elements.

By leveraging these tools, you'll be able to create your own advertisement assignment without having to worry about mastering advanced design skills.

Once you have your ad design, it's important to test different versions of your ad to determine which one performs best. This process, known as A/B testing, involves creating two or more variations of your ad and measuring their performance based on key metrics. To conduct an effective A/B test, consider the following tips:

• Test one element at a time, such as headlines, images, or calls to action, to identify which specific changes lead to better results.
• Run your tests for a sufficient amount of time and ensure that you have enough data to make informed decisions.
• Analyze your test results and implement changes based on your findings. Remember, the goal is to continuously improve your ad's performance.

This process of testing different ad versions will help you optimize your advertisement assignment and maximize its effectiveness.

Finally, don't forget to gather feedback from your target audience. It's essential to understand how your ad is being received and if it's resonating with your audience. Here are some ways to gather valuable feedback:

• Focus groups: Organize a group of people from your target audience and show them your ad. Encourage them to share their thoughts and opinions on its effectiveness, design, and messaging.
• Surveys: Distribute surveys to your target audience asking for their opinions on your ad. This can provide you with quantitative data and specific insights to help you make improvements.
• Social media: Share your ad on social media platforms and monitor comments and reactions. This can give you a real-time understanding of how your audience is responding to your ad.

By gathering feedback from your audience, you'll have a better understanding of what works and what doesn't, allowing you to refine your advertisement assignment and make it even more effective.

With these steps, you're well-equipped to create your own advertisement assignment that stands out and captivates your target audience. Remember, the key to a successful ad is continuous improvement, so don't be afraid to test, gather feedback, and make adjustments as needed. Good luck on your advertising journey!

After creating your own advertisement assignment, the next step is to measure its success. Analyzing your ad's performance will help you understand what's working, what's not, and how you can improve your advertising strategy. In this section, we'll discuss how to identify key performance indicators (KPIs), analyze results, and optimize your ad campaign. So, let's get started!

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are measurable values that help you determine whether your advertisement is on track to achieve its goals. To effectively measure your ad's success, you'll need to identify the most relevant KPIs for your advertising objectives. Some common KPIs include:

• Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of people who click on your ad after seeing it. A higher CTR indicates that your ad is resonating with your audience and driving them to take action.
• Conversion rate: The percentage of users who complete a desired action after clicking on your ad, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. This metric helps you understand how effective your ad is at encouraging users to take action.
• Return on ad spend (ROAS): The revenue generated from your ad campaign divided by the amount you've spent on it. This KPI helps you determine whether your advertising investment is paying off.

By focusing on the right KPIs, you'll be able to accurately measure the success of your advertisement assignment and make data-driven decisions to improve its performance.

Once you've identified your KPIs, it's time to analyze the results of your ad campaign. Regularly monitoring your ad's performance will help you spot trends, identify areas for improvement, and make informed decisions about your advertising strategy. Here are a few tips for effective analysis:

• Track your KPIs: Use advertising platforms like Google Ads or Facebook Ads Manager to monitor your KPIs and gather data about your ad's performance.
• Compare results: Look at how your ad is performing compared to previous campaigns or industry benchmarks. This will help you understand whether your ad is meeting or exceeding expectations.
• Identify patterns: Look for trends in your data, such as certain days of the week or times of day when your ad performs better. This information can help you optimize your ad schedule for maximum impact.

By analyzing your ad's results, you'll gain valuable insights into its performance and be better equipped to create your own advertisement assignment that drives success.

Now that you've analyzed the results of your ad campaign, it's time to optimize it for even better performance. Optimization involves making adjustments to your ad based on your findings to improve its effectiveness. Here are some ways to optimize your ad campaign:

• Refine your targeting: If your ad isn't resonating with your target audience, consider adjusting your audience targeting to better reach potential customers who are more likely to be interested in your product or service.
• Test different ad elements: As discussed earlier, A/B testing different versions of your ad can help you identify what works best and improve your ad's performance. Keep testing and iterating to find the most effective combination of visuals, copy, and calls to action.
• Adjust your ad budget: If you find that your ad is performing well, consider increasing your budget to reach more potential customers. Conversely, if your ad is underperforming, you may need to reevaluate your budget and allocate resources more effectively.

Optimizing your ad campaign is an ongoing process that requires regular analysis and adjustments. By doing so, you'll continue to improve your ad's performance and make your advertisement assignment even more successful.

In conclusion, measuring your advertisement's success is a crucial part of the advertising process. By identifying the right KPIs, analyzing your results, and optimizing your ad campaign, you'll be well on your way to creating your own advertisement assignment that achieves your desired goals. Remember, advertising is an iterative process, so keep learning, experimenting, and improving to ensure your ads reach their full potential. Happy advertising!

If you're looking to further enhance your advertising skills after reading our step-by-step guide, don't miss the workshop ' What Makes a Memorable Advertisement? ' by Jessy Moussallem. This workshop will provide you with valuable insights on creating impactful and unforgettable advertisements that will resonate with your target audience.

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Create an assignment in Microsoft Teams

Create assignments for your students in Microsoft Teams. Manage assignment timelines, add instructions, create resources to turn in, and more.

Note:  Assignments is only available in class teams . You can assign assignments to classes of up to 1000 students. Classes larger than 300 can't use a Class Notebook or Makecode.

In this article

Create a new assignment, title and category, instructions and attachments.

Points, rubrics, and grading

Assigning to students or groups

Due dates and scheduling, assign, save, or discard, classwork modules.

Navigating the Grades tab

Navigate to the desired class team, then select Assignments .

Select Create >   New   Assignment .

At a minimum, you must give the assignment a title. This is required. You can optionally add a tag, which will make this assignment easier to search for in the future. 

Assignments only supports the following image file types: .png, .jpeg, and .gif. 

On mobile, Images will resize to the screen. 

On desktop, you can use sizing handles on images to resize them.  

You can also attach existing files, links, or assignment integrations and create and name a new file right from here for students to turn in.

Note:  You can add up to five files for students to edit. The total number of resources you can add to an assignment is 10, whether editable or non-editable. Read-only reference files can be up to 500 MB in size. Files for students to edit can be up to 50 MB in size.

Select Attach  to attach resources to the assignment. Choose a file from your OneDrive, upload a file from your device, or choose one of the other options set by your admin, such as MakeCode.

Note:  If you're assigning a Class Notebook page, check what version of OneNote your students are using to ensure that their assignment pages will lock after the assignment due date passes.

Select +New  to create a blank Word (.docx), Excel (.xlsx), PowerPoint (.pptx), or Whiteboard document, or a new video recording to hand out to your students.

Select  Apps  to attach content from an app to the assignment. Admins can  manage Teams apps in the Microsoft Teams admin center .

Select Learning Accelerators  to add Reading Progress , Search Progress and other Learning Accelerators to the Assignment.

By default, Students can't edit  attached documents, meaning the document is read-only. This is a great option for reference materials.

Note:  If you have older documents with the file extension .doc, .xls, or .ppt, students won't be able to edit them. You can either attach them as read-only reference material or create a new file in Teams, copy in the old content, and save it. All new files you create in Teams or other Microsoft 365 apps will have the correct extension.

The Assign to field is where you choose the class for this assignment. By default, the class team you are in will be selected. 

Multiclass Publish

Multiclass publish allows educators to create an assignment for multiple classes with the same due date. 

Do this by navigating to the Assign to field and check the boxes for classes the assignment will be published to. 

Points and rubrics

You can select which grading scheme,  grading categories , and points the assignment is worth. 

If you have configured the class to use Grading Categories, you need to select a Grading Category for assignment with points.

Select the amount of points this assignment is worth, if any. You can use points on any number-based scale including whole numbers of 100 and set your own denominator. Examples:  88/100 or decimals 3.7/4.0.

Select  Add rubric  to  create a rubric .

Select  Manage grading categories  to create or edit the grading categories for the class.

Setting up Grading Schemes

Letter grading and grading categories must be set as a Grading Scheme in the Grade settings section to display these options.

2. Navigate down to Grade settings .

3. Choose Add Schemes or  Manage schemes .

Note:  If no other grading schemes other than "Points" have been set, this link will read  Add Schemes . Once you have gone through the steps to add a new scheme, the link will change to  Manage schemes. 

5. Set the grading levels. Letter grades will be the normal A, B, C, D, F, scheme. Ensure that there are enough levels to cover the entire 0-100 percent range.

6. Select the Save button when complete. 

Finish by choosing the  Done  button. 

Choose multiple classes, individual students, or groups of students  in one class to assign to.

By default, only students who are in your class now will receive this assignment. Change this by selecting an option from the dropdown menu.

Note:  If you choose a close date, any student who joins will receive this assignment until the close date.

Select a time and date for the assignment to be due. To schedule an assignment, next to  Assignment will post immediately with late turn-ins allowed  select Edit assignment timeline . Here, you can customize when your assignment will be posted to students and when it will close for turn-ins. By default, no close date will be selected, which allows students to turn in assignments late.

Note: If you choose multiple classes to publish the assignment to, you can select Set due date per class to set individual schedule , due and close date for each class

You can choose whether to add this assignment to your calendar on Outlook, students' calendars, and other educators or staff in your class team. Set this preference for all assignments in Assignments Settings .

Next to Add assignment to calendars , select the dropdown and pick one of the following options:

Students only  adds the assignment to just student calendars.

Students and me adds the assignment to both student calendars and your calendar.

Students and team owners to adds the assignment to both student and other educators or staff in the class team calendars.

Choose the channel where you'd like notifications for this assignment to post. This allows you to keep student work and discussion organized by unit, topic, or subject. By default, assignments will be posted in the General channel or your selection in Assignments Settings.

To choose a channel to post in, next to Post assignment notifications to:  select the down arrow for a list of available channels. 

Pick the channel you’d like this assignment notification to post in, your selection will be applied immediately.

To post assignment notifications to a channel, make sure bot posting is enabled. You can check that here  or ask your IT Admin for help.

Assignments will post to channels that are visible to all students. Private channels will not appear during this step.

If you have selected multiple classes, select Set per Class to set which channel to use or just use the General channel. Assignments to individual students do not post to channels.

When you're ready, you can finish the process of creating your new assignment by assigning it to students.

Note:  If your school uses Turnitin, you can sync assignment turn-ins to Turnitin .

Assign  will immediately publish the assignment and your students will be notified of the new assignment on the day you specified and the notification linking to this assignment will post in the channel you selected. They'll also have an entry on their Teams and Outlooks calendars if you've selected that option.

Save  will save a draft of the assignment. Students will not receive any notification, and nothing will be added to any calendar. 

Discard  will delete the draft of the assignment. Students will not receive any notification, and nothing will be added to any calendar. 

Create a New Module

1. Navigate to the desired Class Team, then select Classwork.

2. Select Add module. 

3. Enter a title for the new module.

4. Optionally, enter a description.

5. Select Save to save the module as a draft.

Note: Draft modules are only visible to Team owners (teachers) until published. All new modules are created in draft states. 

Learn more about managing classwork modules in Microsoft Teams.

Navigate the Grades tab

To open the Grades tab, navigate to your desired class team and select Grades .

You'll see that students appear in a column, with their assignments in a row next to their name. Assignments are listed in order by due date with the nearest date at the beginning. 

Learn more about the Grades tab. 

Create a group assignment

Edit an assignment

Save an assignment as a draft

Grade, return, and reassign assignments

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