Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences.
Digital annotation is particularly suited to this type of everyday writing practice.
In a sense, it's more like posting to Facebook or Twitter than writing an essay. But because it is grounded in text, it encourages more thoughtfulness.
At the same time, if students are regularly annotating using an application like hypothes.is, then they will surely exceed the word count usually required in a five page essay. Annotation projects might be seen as pre-writing--a collaborative drafting space for ideas and language to be developed later in formal papers--or it might be seen as an end in itself.



