I have not yet assigned a ten page paper and do not ever intend to do that to them. It would be one choice in a range of possible assignments.

One of the things we have studied, touched on really, is multiple intelligences and the resultant learning styles. Some people learn better through kinesthetics, or touch and manipulation. Give them a reading/writing assignment and they will not do as well unless it includes working in three dimensions. Some people are more focused on music (believe it or not) so an assignment for them might want to somehow include music. The theory goes on and on with more and more levels being defined. The hard part, for the teacher, is to incorporate them into a lesson plan for a group of students that might include several different learning styles. If you've ever been bored in a class that should have appealed to you it might have been the teacher's choices made along these lines.