Instructions for In-Class Essay

This course will not meet on Monday, September 7 (Labor Day). When we meet on Wednesday, September 9, the entire class session will be devoted to an in-class handwritten essay.

In-class Essay Rules

• This assignment will be written entirely in class. It is not a take-home, and the assignment will be submitted at the end of the class session.
• No electronic devices (phone, computer, etc.) will be permitted. Turn them off. This is a handwritten assignment, not an assignment you will write with your computer.
• You will supply your own paper and pen or pencil. Do not assume you can borrow what you need from your classmates or your teacher.
• You will receive the topic assignment on the day of the essay. It will be something you can do without research. You will not need to Google the information for this one.
• I am not grading your handwriting skills (but do try to be legible), nor am I giving a lot of weight to spelling.
• This assignment is worth 25 points.

The reason behind this assignment

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become common enough and the quality good enough recently that it is very difficult to look at a piece of writing and discern whether the student wrote it or a machine did the work. Vendors offer a lot of AI-detection software, but none of it really works. (I will not be using that kind of software in this course.) Because of this uncertainty, I want a piece of writing which can serve as a base-line to help me grade your papers.

There is a positive side to this assignment as well. In this age of AI, teachers often become cynical about students’ writing ability. Recently, I gave my classes an assignment similar to this one, walked the aisles to ensure that they were being honest, and when the papers came in, I was very pleasantly surprised to see how good my students were. If you watch the news reports, there are often stories about students accused of using AI to write their papers when, in fact, they did all the work themselves. A writing sample such as this one can protect you from unjust accusations.

Hints for success

With all in-class writing assignments (and you will have several of them this semester, both in this class and in others), your main enemy is time. You only have fifty (50) minutes to get through this, so…

• Do not show up late. If you walk in ten minutes after the hour and spend another five trying to find your pen, you have already sacrificed 30% of your writing time.
• Read the assignment carefully. If you panic and simply fasten on the first big word that catches your attention, you will probably go wrong. All of these assignments will ask you to do a specific task. Try to understand that task very quickly.
• Make a quick list. You do not have time to make a full formal outline, but you would be wise to note down on a scrap of paper the two or three main things you want to say.
• KISS—“Keep it simple, student.” You will not have time or space to deal with an elaborate back story. Go for the meat. Answer the teacher’s question.
• Don’t plan on recopying. That’s a time-waster. If you write a sentence you hate, just cross it out and write a better one. This isn’t about neatness; it’s about finding how you think under pressure.
• Keep track of your time. Few students have wristwatches any more, so I will display the time on the front board. (Please do not use your phone to get the time.)
• Allow five minutes at the end for a last look. You don’t have time to do heavy editing, but you should allow a few minutes for a very quick re-read to catch any really big, foolish errors. And yes, it’s OK to cross things out or to insert a word or two between lines.

The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author.
The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by Ashland University.
Revised 8/4/26 • Page author: Curtis Allen • e-mail: callen@ashland.edu.