The result of the Writing across the Curriculum Project at Minneapolis Community College, this handbook provides teachers with effective, efficient, and practical suggestions for crafting good writing assignments in content area classrooms. In general, the book encourages teachers to ask good questions and to experiment with writing. Respectively, chapters discuss (1) ways in which teachers can save time and energy as they assign and grade writing, along with some examples of writing assignments in which the activity of writing in itself promotes learning; (2) principles to help teachers ask questions that demand thinking, such as deciding the purpose of a particular assignment for students and relating this purpose to them; (3) several nontraditional writing assignments that provide an alternative to term paper assignments; (4) the steps necessary to prepare students to succeed as writers and tips on what kinds of classroom discussion can promote this goal; and (5) ways in which teachers can save time when marking papers, suggesting that teachers consider writing an activity and process of learning rather than a product to be graded. Several extended examples and sample assignments are included, as is an annotated bibliography. (JD)