Where Did I Put That Assignment Sheet?

            I cannot emphasize enough the importance of the assignment sheet.  Everyone knows what happens when the teacher passes out the assignment sheet: it is usually a month before the essay is due and so we put it in the back of our binders, make a little note in our assignment books, and presently forget about it.  It remains there, out of sight, and out of mind, so that when we look to write our essay, we often start without reading the sheet, relying on mere memory or guessing.

            Not only is this tragic, but we seem to be shooting ourselves in the foot here: the assignment sheet is the easiest part of the assignment, as it tells us exactly what to do.  I must ask: why do we often neglect it?  It still confuses me, as I begin essays and then ask myself “Wait—what am I even trying to answer?”

            Anna Kendall writes in “The Assignment Sheet Mystery” that students often ignore the assignment and write their own versions “because they ‘like it better that way’. And it is often these same students who explain that ‘the teacher doesn’t get’ their writing” (Kendall, 5).  This statement infuriates me; yes, I am an advocate of originality, but it is often never the case in this situation.  These students that stress their “originality” often are simply lazy, unwilling to cooperate with the teacher or follow the rules.

            I have had an experience with this just last month when helping a child on his essay.  I made the mistake of letting him write three body paragraphs without looking at the assignment sheet.  When I read through the three body paragraphs and found that none of them connected and did not reach any sort of point, I asked him for the essay question.  After a hesitation, we spent ten minutes in search for the missing assignment sheet.  Stuck in the back of a binder, I found that in no way did the boy answer the question that was asked.  We sat down and he began to outline a new essay, working what he already had into a new form.

            That simple ten minutes we spent looking for the essay question was incredibly worth it; without the question, his teacher would have no doubt scored him much lower.  And even more so, because of the assignment sheet, we were able to work together to create a clearer thesis and a clearer body.  The assignment sheet was able to answer many of our questions and hopefully earn him a better grade.