Facebook is getting a Questions app together. What interests me here is the focus on eloquent writing and reference to other sources. It’s nice to have a company like Facebook on record as valuing those elements of writing.
I like that Facebook is asking for someone to be able to write with passion and expertise about something. Asking for a link to a third-party reference is simply another way of asking for a quotation. There’s room for writer choice in selecting the question for the response. All of these represent pieces of nearly any good writing assignment and I need to remember that.
Facebook even provides an annotated sample, describing what each section of the example response does and therefore providing a framework for what you should do, too: “a single sentence that summarizes the answer,” “a thorough response that answers the question in detail,” and “a summary of the major different opinions” (wording from Facebook’s sample response). That could make any sample writing students look at more useful, something I will look at adding to future writing models I provide.
This could be the first writing assignment of the year. Have students submit questions for answering and we create something like Yahoo! Answers for the classroom. Keep them in a binder at the front of the room and/or online somewhere available to all. Each response needs to be… say… one-hundred words?