Idea and text unabashedly ripped-off from the brilliant and talented Mrs. Reifeis.

With our tightly packed curriculum and our focus on academic writing, most of us long for opportunities to simply write.  The Occasional Paper (OP) is a chance to write--without many constraints--our thoughts, reactions, and ideas.

In Bill Martin’s article “A Writing Assignment/ A Way of Life”, he states that “An OP is written on an occasion…..  They [the papers] are intended to reflect responses to life as it happens; the idea is to take advantage of an occasion for thought, to explore the occurrences of a moment that would usually be dismissed as unimportant” (52). In other words, select an event/occasion and reflect upon it.

How are you graded on this assignment?  There are a few guidelines.

1. You will complete one OP during the grading period.  You decide when.  Ideally, two or three students would share each week. I hope that students would not wait until the last week of the grading period to share.  If  I see that few have shared and we are two weeks away from grades being due, I will assign due dates.  Please do not put me in this position.
2. You must read your paper to the class.
3. Although not required, I would like advance notice of when you would like to share your paper.
4. You will receive 10 points if you have at least one full page of writing, you complete the OP well within the grading period, and you read it to the class. (Please do not play games with the page length.  Stick with a basic 12 point serif font and just to be safe, I would write more than a page.)  

I don’t want this to become a “but what do I have to do for the grade” assignment or “what do you consider to be a page of writing”.  This is an assignment for the writer, thinker, communicator, poet, debater, inside you.  Questions can be asked and answered (or remain unanswered) in your papers. OPs are opportunities for you to think and to write. 

Martin, Bill. “A Writing Assignment/ A Way of Life.” English Journal  July 2003: 52-56.