What are Writing-to-Learn prompts?
Writing-to-Learn prompts are prompts that gives students a low-stakes opportunity to think through their ideas in writing. While when we are writing to communicate, we are writing for others, writing-to-learn writing is meant only for ourselves as the writer and thinker. Writing-to-learn gives students focused time to apply new information, develop research questions, identify different perspectives, and generally work through and develop their thinking about a topic.
Why are Writing-to-Learn prompts important for writing pedagogy?
Writing-to-learn activities can provide students with a low-stakes writing opportunity that, unlike the polished writing we might expect in a final paper, is looser, messier, and used solely as a tool for thinking. This thinking — done with pen to paper or fingers to keyboards — helps students do the thinking and knowledge work that is necessary for their more polished final papers. Writing-to-learn can help students throughout the writing process. In the brainstorming and topic-generation process, writing-to-learn can help students develop research questions and narrow the focus of their project. Also, during the drafting stages, students might benefit from writing-to-learn prompts that ask students to think through analysis and synthesis, practice summary, and explaining and interpreting data.
How can you incorporate more Writing-to-Learn prompts into your class?
As you are developing your writing-to-learn activities and prompts, be sure that your expectations are clear. In-class writing-to-learn activities work best with time constraints and prompts completed outside of class do well with wordcount recommendations. Be sure to define the response time students will have in your prompt. Try and provide some aspect of response for students, either from you as the instructor reading their work, or from their peers right after the activity. Generally, since writing-to-learn prompts are low-stakes opportunities, grades should be assessed as complete/incomplete to keep stakes low and creativity high.
Below are some sample writing-to-learn prompts that could be adapted for your writing classroom:
Annotations
The below is a student-facing prompt is for an annotated bibliography that students are asked to compile either throughout the course with class readings or while they are researching a final paper and evaluating sources. Depending on the assignment and course, you might not need to include every element listed below. Writing annotations can help students think through the purpose of a text and begin to make connections about its relevance to their own research.
- Full annotations should aim to include the following (use your judgment to determine the order) and should be about 150 words:
- MLA citation of the source
- Account of the author/speaker/rhetor
- This might include, but does not necessarily have to include the author’s profession, focus of study, or what the author is known for. Why should we listen to this rhetoric?
- A statement of the rhetorical purpose of the text. What is the text’s purpose? Is this a primary or secondary text?
- A description of the text’s kairotic moment. Who is the intended audience? What is the “discourse community”? When was that audience meant to read/hear the text? What is the historical context of the text?
- A statement about the text’s genre and why it helps achieve the rhetor’s rhetorical purpose.
- Briefly explain how the author achieves their rhetorical goal
- This might include, but does not necessarily have to include:
- Description of key pieces of evidence the author uses
- A summary of the author’s logical argument
- A description of any counterarguments or obstacles to the author’s argument
- Rhetorical devices
- Modalities used
- This might include, but does not necessarily have to include:
- Why do you think this text matters? In other words, so what? Why do we want to read this?
Response Prompts
Try using 1-2 of the below questions to prompt a <10 minute in-class writing-to-learn exercise. These work great as a discussion primer.
- What surprised you most about the reading for today? Why?
- What evidence did you find most compelling?
- If you were going to add an additional piece of evidence to the author’s argument, what would it be?
- How does X reading relate to Y reading?
- What aspect of the reading was most compelling and interesting to you? Which passages do you think you will go back to when you write your final research paper? Why?
Idea Generation
1-2 of these prompts could be used to frame a short 10-15 minute in-class writing exercise or an ~150 word assignment outside of class at a point in the term where students are drafting a major assignment. It can be helpful to have students write by hand here.
- Draw a diagram of the scholarly conversation surrounding your paper topic. Be sure to include relevant fields/subfields, key terms, and individual scholars that will be relevant to your research. (Drawing-to-learn can be helpful too!)
- Transform your paper into an Instagram post. Your images might reflect relevant evidence, the moment you are speaking in, visually portray your argument, and/or picture your intended audience. Think carefully about your caption. Try and capture the main argument and essence of your paper in 2-4 sentences. Feel free to throw in some emojis! (This activity can be especially helpful when paired with a lesson on thesis statements since it forces students to think about articulating their argument concisely)
- Write a letter to your friend summarizing (or perhaps comparing/contrasting) two different readings. (This activity can be helpful when students are in the middle of the research phase)