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Experts tend to complete writing tasks more quickly than novices by combining or skipping steps due to years of practice and mastery. Our students often come to us as novices who are still learning what the initial steps themselves are. Complex writing tasks (like bigger projects or discipline-specific writing tasks) should thus be broken into smaller chunks that students learn in segments as they expand their skills over time. 

What is scaffolding? Scaffolding is understood in educational contexts as a teaching method where the instructor gradually removes support as students learn and become more competent in a specific skill. Put another way, the instructor provides guidance and breaks down complicated pieces into smaller, digestible “chunks” that are carefully organized as students progress through an assignment, unit, or course.

In writing assignments, scaffolding often appears as breaking down a larger project into smaller component parts, or learning more set of skills related to writing before asking students to produce writing in a specific genre.

This resource outlines some strategies and recommendations for how to scaffold writing for learning across your assignments and your courses.

Before you begin designing the assignment, ask:

• What overall course learning outcomes does this assignment meet?
• What criteria will you use to evaluate the end product?
• What skills would students need to develop to meet those criteria?
• What steps might experts follow in completing this writing task?

Recommendations for Scaffolding Writing for Learning

1. Break your writing assignment into smaller pieces due throughout the unit or semester. Studies show that students can feel overwhelmed thinking about a large, imposing writing assignment yet find it more manageable to complete parts along the way. Consider breaking up your major writing assignment into separate pieces that are turned in throughout the project, such as a literature review, and then an analysis, etc. Students can work on these throughout the semester and then combine it into a longer, fuller project at the end, after already receiving some feedback and time to work on it.
2. Incorporate both low-stakes and high-stakes writing activities in your course. Not all writing assignments and activities need to be large, extensive projects. To support student learning, build in both writing assignments to encourage students to practice and develop their knowledge and skills as they work towards the larger assignment. Generally, low stakes writing (like free writes, a quick reflective paragraph, peer response, etc.) is not evaluated for grammar, polish, fully developed thoughts, or correctness. In these types of assignments, students can feel free to explore ideas, make mistakes, and focus on their ideas or the task. The goal here is making visible their thoughts and ideas. You can grade this as credit/no credit, check/check plus/check minus, or a few points. It’s not always necessary for you to review this type of writing like you might with more formal, higher-stakes writing.
3. Calculate how long students need to learn a specific writing task when determining deadlines and mid-markers. New writing tasks can take longer for novices to learn as they work to learn all of the component parts (see ). Writing a literature review, for example, includes learning to read academic articles critically, how to take helpful notes, and other component skills. Think through when your students’ final assignments are due and build in check-in points throughout the unit to guide them toward that final outcome. Refer to to think through all the skills and tasks necessary for completing the larger writing assignment.
4. Evaluate where students often get stuck or confused. Research on threshold concepts indicates that determining where students get “stuck” in the learning process can be a helpful indicator of where you can intervene to provide more structured and sequenced support. For example, if students often get stuck when writing a methods section, you can take twenty minutes or so to discuss this with the entire class, perhaps incorporating some low-stakes activities as mentioned above. Ask students if they’ve written a methods section before (and where), and have them describe it. Provide a few samples (3-5) of method sections written previously in your class and ask students to evaluate them, writing out what they are doing (and not doing), given your evaluation criteria.
5. Insert frequent opportunities for students to receive feedback on their writing and ideas. We know from writing research that students learn most effectively when they receive not only ample opportunities to practice, but also multiple opportunities for feedback. Feedback doesn’t have to just be from you as the instructor—students can receive feedback from classmates, consultants at the Howe Writing Center, and even from themselves with thoughtfully-designed written reflections. Consider adding in a space in the beginning of the project for students to conduct a peer response activity, as well as one between the middle and end when students have produced more of a final product (see Engaging Students in Effective Peer Response for more details of how to design this peer response). You can also look over drafts at these points and provide some thoughts, and also refer students to make an appointment online (see our website for instructions on how students can make appointments). 
6. Provide students with the opportunity to revise a final submission (with substantive reflection). Sometimes, students don’t quite hit the mark when submitting a final assignment, but it doesn’t mean they haven’t learned what we wanted them to learn. Consider offering students the opportunity to revise a submission with certain requirements, such as meeting with you first, submitting a one-page reflection documenting revisions, etc, and encourage the student to understand why they are making the changes that they make. Oftentimes, a draft is only ever a “final for now” draft that could always be improved with more time. Think of this as an “R&R” you could offer to your students, perhaps with some parameters (such as not applicable to final exams or no longer than one week after the initial grade is assigned).
7. Build a practice of regular check-ins with students and their writing. Reflection and metacognition is key to growing as a writer, and one way to do that is to cultivate a practice of regularly checking in with students on how a course project or unit is going. An effective way to do so is through a google form that students fill out the first five minutes of class (). You can tailor this to your specific course and writing assignment, and even get creative with the questions you ask. Another simple strategy can be simple “thumbs up / thumbs down” on how students are progressing with an assignment, and then inviting further questions and class time to discuss how students are progressing.

Ideas for Scaffolding Assignments

In-class activities*

• Brainstorming for topic generation
• Freewriting about possible topic
• Review of resources available
• Reading a journal article together
• Creation of project timeline
• Practice of skills needed in assignment
• Integrating sources workshop
• Thesis statement workshop
• Rubric discussion or generation
• Review/analysis of example assignments
• Peer review of outlines
• Oral draft to share in small groups
• Peer review of written draft

Short Assignments

• Audience/stakeholder analysis
• Research Question or Thesis
• Proposal
• Annotated Bibliography
• ¾ Drafts

Instructor Personal Interaction

• Assignment “check ins” with questions for instructor
• One-on-one conferences with instructor
• Review proposals
• Provide feedback on drafts or any scaffolded assignment

*Many of these activities can also be done outside class as homework or through Canvas discussion boards and then briefly followed up on in class.

Example of a Scaffolded Assignment

Course Context: English 313 Technical Writing, which tasks students with investigating the ways technical writing gets work done in their professional contexts.

Instructions Assignment Summary: This project tasks you with one of the important types of technical writing you might be faced with in your life: instruction writing/documentation. The purpose of this assignment is to not only teach you how to write documentation, but to also understand how to consider and get inside the mind of users—your audience when creating this writing. This assignment asks you to:

• Identify a real technical writing problem or issue that instructions/documentation can solve;
• Write out a real, well-defined problem statement situating said problem/issue; 
• Complete a set of instructions/documentations for it, following what we’ve learned about documentation strategies for technical writers; 
• Craft a reflective memo explaining the goals you had in completing your instructions/documentation and the deliberate visual, rhetorical, and methodological choices you made in completing your final product. Think of this reflection memo as a project assessment, where you not only describe the work you did but also why, arguing for the quality of the work you submitted.

Instructions Scaffolding: Based upon a class that has two meetings a week (ex: Tuesday and Thursday)

• Class Meeting 1: Introduce assignment sheet; students read through and discuss with a partner; students complete an in-class activity engaging with the topic of breaking down ideas in steps with helpful formatting; students generate ideas for their project (identifying a technical writing problem that could be solved with documentation); students share aloud with class and ask questions. Homework is reading about segmenting instructions/ideas.
• Class Meeting 2: Students conduct a genre analysis of instruction manuals, with each student uploading an example of instructions they found online and then four groups answering specific questions (see our genre analysis worksheet); each team creates a google slide overviewing their findings as they present to the class; whole group discussion about what “worked” for instructions and how students can utilize those approaches in their own instructions; in-class time to work on project. Homework is reading about effective visuals/design and completing a project check-in where they share their progress thus far.
• Class Meeting 3: Class splits off into three groups that each find 3 “effective” and 3 “ineffective” visual designs; look at and discuss examples as a whole class, tying in principles of effective design read about prior to class; in-class work time with opportunity for instructor check-in. Homework is working on projects, knowing that the first draft will be due a week from today.
• Class Meeting 4: In-class work day where students can work on their instructions, get feedback from the instructor, and check in with classmates. Soft music is playing on the projector and students can choose to put in their own headphones or step out in the hallway to work. Instructor checks in with the whole class twice, after about 25 minutes, and ends class with reminders. 
• Class Meeting 5: Full drafts are due to Google Drive; peer response in class where pairs offer marginal comments on the document and answer specific questions listed for them in the Google folder; instructor comments on each draft as students work, and grades first drafts for completion and will later grade peer response for how thoroughly students answer the questions and leave comments. When finished, students
• Class Meeting 6: Moving on to next project; students can ask questions at the beginning and end of class as instructor provides some reminders. 
• Class Meeting 7: Final draft due. Students will receive grades in a week or two and will have the opportunity for optional revisions. 

Further Reading for Scaffolding Writing

• . In Wardle, E. & Adler-Kassner, L. (2022),
• “” from the University of Minnesota
• National Research Council (2000). Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.