I Increasing the Relevance of Class Assignments by Responding to Real Needs

Abstract

Today's pragmatic college students expect to see the relevance of the out-of-class writing assignments. I have discovered that students are more motivated and write business letters more conscientiously when the letter meet legitimate needs and will be mailed to the recipient. THE LETTER ASSIGNMENT At least once a semester, I assign students a business letter that I will mail. Sometimes I approach university administrators, faculty committees, and others who have a serious need for student evaluations or opinions. I select a different topic each semester and ask a relevant person to write a letter to my class seeking their opinions on a topic in which students are the experts. The class assignment is to answer that letter. My students have answered letters written by the following people: * The chair of the school curriculum committee who sought student comments during a major curriculum review * The University Registrar asking for student reactions to proposed registration enhancements * The Director of Financial Aid who wanted to know about student satisfaction with the financial aid delivery system * The author of our textbook who was working on the next edition of the text. The ideas for people to correspond with are limitless - the director of the advising center, the bookstore manager, the student government president, the dean of the school may all have topics on which they would like some thoughtful student opinions. Here are some suggestions for a successful assignment: 1. Use people who really need student opinions. Students sense if the assignment is not a sincere one. When you approach the individual, determine his or her interest in actually using the student responses. 2. Ask the individual to write a letter to the class requesting the needed information. Offer to help write the letter so that the assignment provides the writing experience you need for your class. A clear, well-written letter will allow students to organize their responses more easily. 3. If students are asked to evaluate a particular service or product, be sure that the original letter is written in an open and non-defensive manner that encourages both positive and negative responses. Students need practice in offering both positive and negative criticism in a professional and tactful manner. 4. Help students prepare to write the assignment. As part of an audience analysis, lead students to understand the specific kind of information that will be most useful to the reader. Emphasize appropriate tone, particularly noting the need for tact if some students hold strong negative views about the topic. You may need to remind students of their relationship to the reader and appropriate protocol for addressing the individual. If you use this assignment early in the term, you may want to devote most of a class period to the audience analysis. Later in the term when students are more skilled in analysis, the assignment may require little discussion. …