Applying best practices in writing assignment design—A semester-long policy project for intermediate microeconomics

The author of this article describes a semester-long writing project created for an intermediate microeconomics course. The project is grounded in a real-world policy context. Students assume the role of a new staff economist for a consulting firm and are asked to evaluate a current policy proposal based on economic theory and the academic literature. Their final paper takes the form of a two- to five-page single-spaced paper targeted to a group of policymakers. The project includes several scaffolded components and uses both informal and formal writing tasks to facilitate writing to learn and learning to write. It incorporates three key features of effective writing assignment design, best practices that have been shown to deepen student engagement and help foster an inclusive learning experience.