Time to Write

Now that you have seen how the student in the video approached her assignment, it’s your turn to examine your own writing assignment. As you do, it’s a good idea to write some ideas or notes in a writing journal. In your writing, you should to the following questions about your assignment:

What is the purpose of my assignment, or what is my professor asking me to do with this assignment?
Who is my audience for this assignment? Did my professor specify an audience? If not, who can I assume is my intended audience?
What ideas do I have for a topic that might work for this assignment? Do I have freedom with my topic, or do I have to choose from a specific list?
How can I apply a strong writing process to my approach for this assignment? What is my plan here?

Before you begin to gather ideas during the prewriting process, it’s important to make sure you understand what you are being asked to do by your professor’s assignment. You should share your responses to these questions with your classmates to see if they have the same or similar responses. What questions might you have for your professor?

Check out other great resources:

For more information on analyzing your writing assignments and figuring out the best way to approach them, review Understanding Assignments from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.