moving from narrative to argument essay basics while workshopping the process of writing dr. l....

Moving from Narrative to ArgumentEssay Basics While Workshopping the Process of Writing

Dr. L. Lennie IrvinSan Antonio CollegeSan Antonio Writing Project

Theoretical Underpinnings and Goals of this Assignment

Building on students’ natural capacity for making meaning with language (Berthoff)

Writing assignments that mesh with cognitive development and a growing ability for abstraction (Moffett)

Teaching writing as a process and activity

Increasing students awareness of audience and rhetorical stance

L. Lennie Irvin, San Antonio College

From narrative to argumentMoffett’s curriculum ascending the ladder of

abstraction

“my idea would be to have a curriculum recapitulate, in successive assignments, the abstractive stages across which all of us all the time symbolize raw phenomena and manipulate these symbolizations” (25)


The Spectrum of DiscourseRecording--the drama of what is happening

Reporting—the narrative of what happened

Generalizing—the exposition of what happens

Theorizing—the argumentation of what will, may happen


Description

Narration

Exposition

Argument

Sequence of assignments

building toward the higher level analysis and argumentation of college writing

Narration/Description—The Family Story Illustration—The Illustrative Essay

Analysis Argumentation


From narration to argument Story

close observation, detail, showing and not telling, sequence, narrative form

Illustration makes point (thesis-driven); essay form (point-support) builds concept of “showing” through exemplification using stories to illustrate (show, prove, exemplify, support) added layers of purpose and audience (purpose driven) argumentation (theorizing) that builds on generalizing and reporting


Sequence of assignments

building toward the higher level analysis and argumentation of college writing

Narration/Description—The Family Story Illustration—The Illustrative Essay

Analysis Argumentation


Teaching the Basics of Essay Form Introduction Body—dividing up the proof Conclusion

Essay Form Organization—put only one primary support per Body

paragraph (in this case, one story/example per body paragraph)

Introductions


Encountering the Writing Situation What do I want to say? (message)

–Who do I want to say it to? (audience)

–Why do I want to say it to them? (purpose) What do I want them to see, think, feel, or do when or after they read

my text?


Images of the Writing Situation


James Kinneavy’s Communication Triangle, A Theory of Discourse

Images of the Writing Situation


Mike Palmquist’s “Social Model of Writing” | Writing@CSU


Encountering the Writing Process: The Writing Feedback Loop


Looping Through the Writing Cycle Invention exercise(s) Draft 1 Peer Response 1 Writer’s Review 1

--- Draft 2 Peer Response 2 Writer’s Review 2

Draft 3 Peer Response 3

(celebrate writing) Writer’s Review

--modeling/lessons at various places along the way

The Power of Heuristics A heuristic is any form or procedure that

leads to knowledge prompting thinking!

A sequence of questions that lead a student along a path of consideration (they might not otherwise have gone down)



Kenneth Bruffee and Peer Response“Collaborative Learning and the ‘Conversation of Mankind’”

Social construction of knowledge

“…our task [as writing teachers] must involve engaging students in conversation among themselves at as many points in both the writing and the reading process as possible, and that we should contrive to ensure that students’ conversation about what they read and write is similar in as many ways as possible to the way we would like them eventually to read and write. The way they will talk to each other determines the way they will think and the way they will write” (400)


Peer Groups/Writing Workshop Beat Not the Poor Desk, Marie Ponsot and

Rosemary Dean Making observations and separating them from

inferences Peter Elbow and Pat Belanoff

Sharing and Responding my guide on peer response


Writer’s Reviews A chance for writers "between the drafts" to think and strategize on paper

about where they are in working on a piece of writing and where they plan to take it.

These writing pieces ask writers to consider feedback they have received, stand back and look at their writing, and gain some perspective. These self-evaluations prompt students to consider their draft in light of what they conceive to be the goal or success on this essay assignment.

From this consideration and evaluation, writers generate plans and strategies for productively revising their essay to better reach the goals of the particular assignment.


Writing Activity:Illustrative Essay Invention


Viewing Student Examples


How Might You Use This Writing Activity in With Your Own Classes?

moving from narrative to argument essay basics while workshopping the process of writing dr. l....

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