Helping Writers Identify Goals
Resources for Teaching Writing
- Composing Effective Writing Assignments
- Scaffolding Writing to Support Student Learning
- Creating Assignments for Miami Plan Capstone Courses
- Teaching Literature Reviews
- Using Threshold Concepts to Design Assignments and Courses
- Teaching Grammar Rhetorically
- Structuring Purposeful Group & Team Work
- Mentoring Graduate Writers
Helping Writers Identify Goals
When you ask students to submit their assignment for peer response, ask them to include information about the feedback they would like to receive from their peers. This should be done when the assignment is submitted and can help facilitate the kind of conversations student groups might have together when doing peer response in person. We’ve included a sample set of directions and questions below, but these questions can be modified for your own use.
Write out your answers to the following questions at the top of your draft before you submit it for peer response:
- Explain the purpose of this piece of writing and identify your main readers (i.e., your audience). What was your goal in this draft? What feedback would help you determine if you’ve met this goal?
- What specific questions would you like peer response partners to answer as they read your draft? (an example might be, “did you understand the paragraph where I introduced xxx?”).
- What are the 2-3 most important areas of concern for your peers to look at?
- meeting the assignment requirements
- using evidence and secondary sources,
- developing ideas,
- organization and structure,
- meeting genre conventions/audience expectations,
- transitions and flow,
- clarifying arguments,
- word choice,
- sentence-level questions,
- tone & style,
- grammar (e.g. parts of speech),
- mechanics (e.g. punctuation),
- formatting citations (specify which style--MLA/APA/CMS)
Howe Center for Writing Excellence
The mission of the HCWE is to ensure that Miami supports its students in developing as effective writers in college, and fully prepares all of its graduates to excel as clear, concise, and persuasive writers in their careers, communities, and personal lives.