The Material Contexts of Writing Assignment Design

Abstract

Scholarship on assignment design has largely concerned itself with the difficulty of designing effective writing assignments. While this research offers practical advice for instructors, it often overlooks important contextual factors that influence how writing assignments materialize. This research begins the work of contextualizing assignment design by reporting on interviews conducted with thirty-three faculty members who teach writing-intensive courses across the disciplines at George Mason University. Interviews prompted participants to describe the most pressing decisions they made while designing their assignments. Participants reported decisions related to the following five categories: promoting student agency, defining the writing task, scaffolding the process, clarifying communications, and navigating the institution. Findings from this study reveal that faculty decisions are frequently motivated by pedagogical intentions; however, this research also reveals that institutional and personal motivations exercise significant influence on decision-making.