Thinking about assignments

In our discussion about assignments, we examined the importance of breaking down a large assignment (e.g. to ask a student to write a 20 page paper) into smaller parts. For example, we could ask the student to write first an abstract of the paper (and we'll give comments on that), then ask the student to turn in a first draft of the paper, covering one central issue. After receiving our comments, the student will then turn in a second and a third draft, which will also be commented on -- each draft addressing an additional issue in the paper. In this way, the process of writing such a long paper won't become dauting for the student, and we can follow the student along throughout the writing process.