They also help prepare students for long writings without unduly burdening the instructor because shorter assignments can be evaluated with different strategies from those used for more formal papers. Brainstorming is frequently an oral strategy. Adding a written component, such as jotting down ideas that arise through brainstorming, will reinforce the concepts being generated. Peer response affords students opportunities to receive feedback on their work while learning how to give constructive criticism themselves. Informal short writings effectively focus a class on a particular topic, help students summarize class work, or cause students to discover where their reasoning breaks down.
Students respond to a question or to a prompt from the instructor.
Journals or logs provide unique opportunities for students to have a structured way to work with course material. Journal entries may follow a single assignment made at the beginning of the semester or may vary throughout the course by teacher and student preferences. In some fields, journal keeping in the form of research logs, field notebooks, artist notebooks, or laboratory logs provides opportunities for practicing professional management skills. Outlining often creates anxiety for students. However, if they have the opportunity to outline informally in order to focus on outline functions as well as formally with a focus on form, they may come to value the process as both an organizational tool and an important revision check on drafts.