Seven or eight times over the course of the semester I'll give informal writing assignments that will ask you to kick around some ideas about critical issues/problems/puzzles currently under discussion in class (and usually related to the assigned reading for the next class session).  These assignments must be completed using some sort of word-processing software, saved as a .doc or .rtf file (not .odt or .pages, please!), and uploaded to Moodle (HSU’s electronic “Learning Management System”).  I will grade them on a CR/NC basis.  I am not expecting these to be formal essays; rather, you should approach them in the spirit of a math "problem set"—a place where you think on paper (er, in pixels).  Don't worry about being "right" or "wrong"; you mostly just need to read the assigned text(s) carefully and tackle the questions I pose thoughtfully and honestly. (All I ask is that your train of thought be reasonably coherent; vague and incomprehensible mumbling and/or glib or superficial thinking probably won't be awarded credit, and neither will perfunctory efforts.) 

These assignments should help you a) to stay up to date on the readings and b) think about them enough to come to class ready for conversation. They're also a way for me to reward students who are disciplined and businesslike about keeping up with their day-to-day academic work (especially those students who tend to freeze on major assignments). Some of these assignments will be more ambitious than others, but if you've been keeping up in class, then you should usually be able to write an acceptable response in thirty to sixty minutes.

Here are some general guidelines, for those who like such things:

• I can't imagine anyone remotely doing justice to the questions I'll pose in fewer than 300 or 400 words (roughly the equivalent of one double-spaced typed page).
• Still: because life is short and art is long, you should normally say what you have to say in no more than 700-800 words (roughly the equivalent of two double-spaced typed pages). In other words, pointless rambling will not impress me. You certainly won't lose credit because of excessive length, but I reserve the right to stop reading after 800 words!
• It's understood, however, that you may sometimes exhaust your 800 words without quite managing to cover every single prompt. That's not a problem--depth of thought may occasionally substitute for breadth--but do try not to make a habit of it.
• As an English major, you should express yourself in complete grammatical sentences, and even, God help us, in paragraphs--not bulleted lists, disconnected fragments, etc. You needn't worry about following MLA format in these informal assignments, however.
• Again: please upload your assignment in one of the following format: .doc, .docx, .rtf, or .pdf. I likely won't be able to open other file formats such as .odt or .pages. Use the "save as" function in your software to save your file in the appropriate format.
• You should address the question(s) posed, please. If you have other observations to make about the assigned text(s), you have a standing invitation to share them during class discussion.

Under no circumstances will I accept these informal assignments late. Moodle's cutoff will normally be about 10 minutes before class. (Moodle can be temperamental, though, so best not to wait till the last minute.) Hard copies e-mailed to me later, printed out and left in my mailbox, or thumb-tacked to my office door? They'll remain unread. This is true even if you must miss a class when an assignment is due; this is true even for illness. As you all know by now, life is unfair. In part, this is just a matter of logistics: if I have to gather up papers coming in from a dozen different sources at a dozen different times, I will inevitably lose them. But it's also a question of timeliness--we'll be discussing in class the issues that you have ruminated on in your assignment ahead of time.

So plan ahead and don't wait until the morning of class to tackle an assignment. Also: as I imply below, you will have some discretion with regard how many of these you choose to submit. But there will be no opportunities to make up for missed assignments (or uncredited work) later in the semester. Don't be this guy:

The overall grade for these assignments will be based strictly on the number you submit (and that are awarded credit, of course): if you receive credit for every informal writing assignment--or even all but one, you'll earn an "A"; all but two: a "B"; all but 3: a "C"; and all but 4: a "D."

If you're still not sure what these should look like, here's an example. This mock informal writing assignment responds to one of the questions I asked about the quiz I gave on the first day of class ("How conscious were you of the criteria that you used to judge 'literariness,' and can you articulate your criteria?").