Thinking Strategies and Writing Patterns: Kinds of Assignments You Will Write

Kinds of Assignments You Will Write

When assigning a paper, your professor has a goal. Broadly speaking, this goal is critical thinking (and in turn, writing) about the subject you are studying. To help, your professors will create assignments with specific learning objectives.

Your assignments will go beyond knowledge about your topic to correspond with critical thinking skills, such as analyzing and synthesizing. These skills can be applied to any topic.

Learning Objectives and How to Spot Them

Identifying an assignment’s learning objective can help you successfully complete the assignment. Below, click on the accordion items and you will find the meaning behind each learning objective, along with assignment activities and text commonly associated with each objective.

Assignment uses the following directive wording:

When your teacher expects you to do the following:

Cognitive objective

Define, label, list, name, repeat, order, arrange, memorize

Memorize, recall, or present information

Knowledge recall

Describe, indicate, restate, explain, review, summarize, classify

Interpret information in your own words

Comprehension

Apply, illustrate, prepare, solve, use, sketch, operate, practice, calculate

Apply knowledge to new situations

Application

Analyze, categorize, compare, test, distinguish, examine, contrast

Break down knowledge into parts and show relationships among them

Analysis

Arrange, compose, formulate, organize, plan, assemble, construct

Bring together parts of knowledge to form a whole; build relationships for new situations

Synthesis

Appraise, evaluate, conclude, judge, predict, compare, score

Make judgments based on criteria; support or confirm preferences; be persuasive

Evaluation

Use supporting examples, cite passages from the text, paraphrase, summarize

Quote or paraphrase to support what you have written; be persuasive

Support by allusion/example

Provide corroborating evidence, reference other works, research, cite examples from case studies

Use outside research to support your thesis or hypothesis; be persuasive

Support by research

Assignment uses the following directive wording:	When your teacher expects you to do the following:	Cognitive objective
Define, label, list, name, repeat, order, arrange, memorize	Memorize, recall, or present information	Knowledge recall
Describe, indicate, restate, explain, review, summarize, classify	Interpret information in your own words	Comprehension
Apply, illustrate, prepare, solve, use, sketch, operate, practice, calculate	Apply knowledge to new situations	Application
Analyze, categorize, compare, test, distinguish, examine, contrast	Break down knowledge into parts and show relationships among them	Analysis
Arrange, compose, formulate, organize, plan, assemble, construct	Bring together parts of knowledge to form a whole; build relationships for new situations	Synthesis
Appraise, evaluate, conclude, judge, predict, compare, score	Make judgments based on criteria; support or confirm preferences; be persuasive	Evaluation
Use supporting examples, cite passages from the text, paraphrase, summarize	Quote or paraphrase to support what you have written; be persuasive	Support by allusion/example
Provide corroborating evidence, reference other works, research, cite examples from case studies	Use outside research to support your thesis or hypothesis; be persuasive	Support by research

Please Note: Keep in mind that assignments often will have more than one objective. For example, an assignment may require you to apply knowledge, but in the course of applying knowledge, you will also have to demonstrate that you can recall that knowledge. In this way, the learning objectives above build on each other. For this reason, the list of objectives above moves from the simplest to the most complex.

Learning Objectives & Skills of Argumentation

When writing for a college class, you will certainly need to remember, comprehend, and apply. These skills are important for acquiring and retaining knowledge. However, college professors want you to go further. As academics, professors argue for a living. In their arguments, they use formal strategies to convince readers and listeners. As part of their teaching, professors want to teach you these strategies of argumentation, and so professors tend to be most interested in the final four objectives listed below.