I don’t expect all my graduates to go on to Twitter-based careers, butlearning how to write concisely, to express one key detail succinctlyand eloquently, is an incredibly useful skill, and more in tune withmost students’ daily chatter, as well as the world’s conversation. Thephoto caption has never been more vital.

So a few years ago, I started slipping my classes short writingassignments alongside the required papers. Once, I asked them, “Come upwith two lines of copy to sell something you’re wearing now on eBay.”The mix of commerce and fashion stirred interest, and despite having 30students in each class, I could give everyone serious individualattention. For another project, I asked them to describe the essence ofthe chalkboard in one or two sentences. One student wrote, “A chalkboardis a lot like memory: often jumbled, unorganized and sloppy. Even afterit’s erased, there are traces of everything that’s been written on it.”

This was great, but I want to go shorter. Like many who teach, I keepthinking the perfect syllabus is a semester away — with just a fewtweaks, and maybe a total pedagogical overhaul. My ideal compositionclass would include assignments like “Write coherent and originalcomments for five YouTube videos, quickly telling us why surprisedkittens or unconventional wedding dances resonate with millions,” and“Write Amazon reviews, including a bit of summary, insight and analysis,for three canonical works we read this semester (points off forgratuitous modern argot and emoticons).”

The longest assignment could be a cover letter, and even that might bestreamlined to a networking e-mail. I’d rather my students master skillslike these than proper style for citations.

A lot can be said with a little — the mundane and the extraordinary.Philosophers like Confucius (“Learning without thought is labor lost.Thought without learning is perilous.”) and Nietzsche were kings of theaphorism.

And short isn’t necessarily a shortcut. When you have only a sentence ortwo, there’s nowhere to hide. I’m not suggesting that collegeseliminate long writing projects from English courses, but maybe weshould save them for the second semester. Rewarding concision first willencourage students to be economical and innovative with language. Whoknows, we might even start to leave behind text messages and commentthreads that our civilization can be proud of.