Sample Writing Assignments
In many of the writing prompts below, students are asked to use writing to interrogate something familiar to them, be it a literacy skill (reading or writing), a meaningful place, or their relationship with an influential person. Additionally, many of the prompts ask students to create multi-genre and/or multimodal texts.
Writing Myths
For this essay in a writing course, students are asked to pick one of the myths of writing mentioned by L. Lennie Irvin in their article "What is Academic Writing?" and write a reflective essay on their experience dealing with this myth.
Definition of Place Padlet essay
This prompt asks students to use Dorothy Allison's essay "Place" as a frame to consider how they define a meaningful place in their own unique way. Students are also asked to "publish" their essay on an interactive, multimodal Padlet, and include an audio recording of their essay on the Padlet post.
Global Warming, Local impact
For this multimodal, multi-genre research project, you will identify a climate change topic, similar to the ones Hope Jahren writes about in The Story of More, and research how it is impacting Ventura County. You will use this research to produce an essay and research brochure that will report on your topic and offer personal insights into how local people are being impacted.
Reflective Literacy Narrative
This reflective literacy narrative is a culminating assignment in a writing course that asks students to consider what they learned about writing from the course. Students are asked to situate their experiences alongside course readings about writing.