In a First-Year Seminar or a writing-intensive course, it is best to have several writing assignments and a variety of types of writing, usually integrated with course readings, rather than one long assignment at the end of the course. On this page we will emphasize the difference between informal writing, or writing to learn, and formal writing, or writing to communicate.
Think of informal writing as short and often impromptu, written primarily for the benefit of the writer as an aid to clarifying purpose and not requiring extensive instructor response. A variety of informal writing activities can help develop students' critical thinking skills by providing them with a space for asking questions, raising critique, and playing with ideas.
Formal writing is more reader-based, with specific considerations for audience and convention. Each type of writing is integral to the students' literacy development.
A literacy narrative is a personalized story of your relationship with language. Not only do literacy narratives discuss memories, but they also walk through a person's discovery, trials and triumphs with reading, writing and speaking a language.
The literacy narrative is often one of the very first assignments students encounter in a typical class. Your instructor also may refer to this personal narrative assignment as a memoir or an autobiography, but regardless, what is at stake in this assignment is that students address all the standard elements of this type of writing. A sample literacy narrative assignment may be found
The Annotated Bibliography:
As noted in Guide to First-Year Writing Chapter 6 “Research and Documentation,” the annotated bibliography often serves as a useful tool for organizing notes (see pp.211-214). More than this, it can be a crucial tool for evaluating and responding to research sources. It can even help determine which sources fit within the scope of a research project and which do not. First-year writing students may be introduced to annotated bibliographies in ENGL 1101, and are almost certain to encounter them
A Range of Real World Writing!
A press release about an upcoming concert
Photographs and captions
Speeches to trade organizations
Computer coding
Diagrams
Client/patient progress reports
Emails including discussions of manufacturing specifications and quotes for customers
Email conversations with supervisors
A contest essay
Scientific reports
Field notes
A redacted police report
Charts
A graph about soil samples made by a geologist.
marketing plan and justifi cation for a new pharmaceutical product
A memo on the new health plan benefi ts so employees can make informed decisions
Write-ups of medical case history to assist specialist doctors and the family in judging treatment options
An employee manual to ensure everyone knows their rights and responsibilities• A eulogy for a mother’s funeral
Blog entries on the political campaign
A letter to a credit card company, with docu-mentation, on why a charge to an account was inaccurate