Describes principles which achieve good writing assignments in the social studies: (1) define the content and skills teachers want students to learn, (2) devise assignments in which level of difficulty of task fits the level of the goal, (3) let students speculate on the topic, and (4) present the topic so that students know how and what to do.…

Suggests methods to help social studies teachers integrate writing into courses along with and in place of verbal activities. Also suggests ways to decrease teacher's time in the evaluation of student writing. One method is to focus on a few primary features of writing as they are defined in the goals of the assignments.