Writing assignments that merely point to a course-related topic typically lack an audience or purpose. So unless students know enough to create their own context for writing, they may see their role as delivering undigested packets of information to the teacher. You may help your students to produce significant writing by designing assignments that clearly spell out the writing situation. James Kinneavy offers a useful scheme for understanding the writing situation in his application of the familiar communication triangle to the aims of discourse. By emphasizing one or more of the various elements of discourse represented in the triangle, the writer chooses modes of discourse.
Exploratory writing asks questions.
Informative writing answers questions. Scientific writing provides proof for its assertions. Literary writing invites attention to the message itself. Persuasive writing attempts to change the views or behavior of the reader. The purposes of writing offer alternatives to the topic-centered research paper in which the writer is expected only to report on research findings rather than to apply, analyze, synthesize, or evaluate resources.