Worst Writing Assignments Ever

Okay, we've all had really stupid writing assignments in school at sometome or another, right? Post your worst (or top two) here.

Mine is:

Make a list of every way you can improve your school experience. Explain each idea. It must be something YOU can do, not the school putting soda in the drinking fountains, for example. Be POSITIVE!! You must have at least 3 items on your list. (and this was in third grade)

lol, this is a good idea!

hmmm... I'll probably say that all those stupid self-assesment activities are pretty lame, they make absolutely no sense! I actually don't know how they can take students' words of how well they're doing, it's too easy to lie!

Hmm.... I've gotten many terrible assignments. The hardest to write (because I was so board) was this one:
Compare and contrast the story "Was Tarzan a three bandage man" by Bill Cosby and an excerpt from "Into thin Air" by who knows who. We had a day to write it and there wasn't much to compare and contrast. That's probably up there in the 'worst prompt' category.

Um...pretty much every college essay prompt. With the exception of the University of Chicago's. Theirs were cool. I almost applied just so I could write those essays.

And of course there's the perennial favorite on standardized tests: "How do you feel about school uniforms?"

My least favorite ever: "Write about someone who influenced you." I lacked, and still lack, a good answer to this question that is not my mom or Gandhi or someone cheesy like that.

Oh, I completely agree with Niteowl. Scholarship essays are up there! The whole reason I didn't get a Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde scholarship written was because the prompts were so bad. ^^,

Although, the one we had on our MAP (state exam) practice was annoying: persuade a friend that individuality is a positive quality, or that it is not a positive quality.

Haha. Some state-exam we had to take junior year had a prompt that told us to write write a letter to the president/congressman/senator/government about things in the government we wanted to change, or something like that. Because my school was comprised of (supposedly) smart people who were mostly liberal, the test writers got more than they bargained for. There were a lot of rants. I think I went off on a rant about something to do with terrorism. I think we later found out that the prompt was one of those sample/trial questions and didn't count towards/against our score. Hopefully they learned their lesson.

I'm currently dreading the Common Application essay, which I will have to write if I want to go to college. There are six topics, most of them generic and yucky, and #6 is:

Topic of your choice.

>.<

. . . #6 is Topic of Your Choice? How ridiculous!

I think we later found out that the prompt was one of those sample/trial questions and didn't count towards/against our score. Hopefully they learned their lesson.

Perhaps they made it a trial question when they received the answers? ^_~ Too much to handle, wouldn't you say?

Mine was a paper where we were supposed to COPY the writing style of the author of the Twilight series. Seriously.

Are you kidding me Medusa? This was for a class!? Stephenie Meyer isn't that great.

Hmm, I think the worst writing assignments are the ones you get in non-writing classes. One of my worst traumatizing memories: My *band* teacher explaining to us how to write a five-paragraph essay to our congressman/representative and using Core Democratic Values! *headdesk x 100* It's bad enough having to use a CDV and write to a congressman who's neer gonna see these letters, let alone having your band teacher lecture you on "proper writing format" for half of your given timed period. Ugh.

Suzanne wrote:

I think we later found out that the prompt was one of those sample/trial questions and didn't count towards/against our score. Hopefully they learned their lesson.

Perhaps they made it a trial question when they received the answers? ^_~ Too much to handle, wouldn't you say?

Heehee, that could be it. I doubt many of us answered the prompt in the manner they expected. They got way more than they bargained for. XD


As for the Stephenie Meyer thing, that's pretty crazy. I would've ended up parodying the Twilight series and, consequentially, her style.

Mine was probably in English in year 9 where we had to listen to a tape recording of an old guy reading a childrens book, then we had to analyse the "story" and rewrite it.

Shame I fell asleep during the listening period...

yoha_ahoy wrote:Are you kidding me Medusa? This was for a class!? Stephenie Meyer isn't that great.

Hmm, I think the worst writing assignments are the ones you get in non-writing classes. One of my worst traumatizing memories: My *band* teacher explaining to us how to write a five-paragraph essay to our congressman/representative and using Core Democratic Values! *headdesk x 100* It's bad enough having to use a CDV and write to a congressman who's neer gonna see these letters, let alone having your band teacher lecture you on "proper writing format" for half of your given timed period. Ugh.

I know! But apparently he thought our writing sucked compared to hers.

Yo-Yo: OMG, I totally forgot about Core Democratic Values! Those things suck. I hated those stupid MEAP essays where we had to talk about those and a "Social Studies theme" to support our argument. That whole test was stupid.

That just reminded me of one where we had to talk about "How to Use the 4-Way Test". Basically about thinking before you act. At least there was some cash attached to that one. I didn't get it, though.

Cade, I know the Common App topics are generic and yucky, but some variation on those appears in lots of other college apps and scholarships, so it would behoove you to come up with stuff to write for them. I actually had fun with some of mine. For diversity, I talked about "Pop" vs. "Soda". For the book one, I compared my former teacher who got arrested to Dorian Gray.

And Medusa...wow. Stephenie Meyer? Aren't there like any better authors to copy? Even my stupid slacker teacher who doesn't even read our papers came up with asomething better than that. We had to write a final scene to a short story by Stuart Dybek. I actually like how mine turned out.

Actually, you know what my least favorite essays to write are? The ones we have to write for Spanish, where you have to read two things, listen to one, cite all three and synthesize in 40 minutes using proper complex grammar/ rich vocabulary and personal/social/cultural connections. I have enough trouble doing that in English!

Okay, I'm done. For now...

Meh. Last semester my creative writing teacher became obsessed with Stephen King. Lord almighty.