Assignments as controversies tells a multifaceted story about academic assignments and how they are completed in the classroom. It looks at the complex task of assignment writing from a perspective of the different practices the task entails and the actors that enact them. Acknowledging the social aspect of literacy, informed by Literacy Studies theory, the author explores the impact of ‘the social’ on meaning making, the disconnect between personal and curricular literacies and ponders how the practices of assignment writing should contribute to the improvement of assignments as assessment tools.