Argumentative Writing Workshop Presented by Deirdre Nicholas Writing in general Discussion about different approaches to writing an argumentative essay Collaborative writing task – Demonstration of an argumentative essay writing lesson Feedback/analysis of activity Round-up

Why teach writing? Writing for learning, where writing is used as a practice tool to work with language being studied e.g. write 5 sentences using the past continuous. Writing for writing, where writing is directed at developing the student’s skills as writers e.g. to write s, letters, reports, essays. ( J.Harmer, How to teach English,2007)

What do your students need to write? E.g. Your students need to know how to write formal letters (e.g. application, complaint) informal letters stories articles (e.g. newspaper and magazine) reports Discursive/argumentative essays

Discuss How do you teach essay writing in class? Do you use different approaches to writing? What are the main differences between the product and process approaches? When do you use them?

A product approach is more traditional, focusing on form imitates a model text, through analysing, copying and transforming models of particular text types highlights features and includes controlled practice of those features involves the student working individually allows for one draft only emphasises the end product

A Process approach focuses on the writer views writing as creative rather than formulaic sees ideas rather than models as the starting point includes planning, drafting, re-drafting and evaluating is NOT linear – the writer can re-visit stages to change, amend, develop the text involves students working collaboratively

How to deliver a process essay writing activity.

Which model best summarises a process approach? Why?

PROCESS WRITING STAGES GENERATING IDEAS Focussing Ideas Organising Ideas Writing Peer evaluation Review Becoming more collaborative Individual

ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY WRITING DEMONSTRATION CLASS

“Some people think mobile phones should be banned in public places as they are annoying. Others feel that a ban would be an infringement of their rights”. Discuss both points of view and give your opinion. Task Analysis of an argumentative essay

Generating ideas for an argument essay In groups, write down as many ideas as possible about the two opinions. Do not write sentences, just words/ short phrases. You have 5 minutes for this.

a)Generating ideas - to stimulate creativity and the flow of ideas. It involves producing as many ideas as possible about the task, the purpose, content language and what the reader needs to know.

b) Focusing – involves narrowing the ideas generated to clarify the focal idea, with the objective of achieving the task and answering the reader’s question: ‘What are you trying to tell me?’

c) Structuring – involves selecting factual and linguistic information, and arranging it so the message is conveyed and received. This is a vital stage for the final product, but must NOT be considered as finite as learners may generate new ideas, needing to re-organise and re-visit to update.

d) Drafting – is the transition from writer-based to reader- based writing, where organising information and ideas into a final product takes precedence. The desire for a product as good as they can make it leads possible re-drafting and a cycle of write-revise-write. Learners should be made aware of ways of beginning, adding and ending a text to attract and satisfy the reader.

e) Evaluating – involves self-evaluation, where learners work individually or together to decide if their writing fulfils the requirements of the task. The rationale is learners are more likely to remember a problem area if they have assessed the draft and noticed their mistakes.

f) Re-viewing – involves checking the text, AT ANY STAGE, with a new pair of eyes, considering the context i.e. purpose, audience, form.

Conclusions drawn The process writing model encourages and supports learners from the pre-writing stages to the final version. It is recursive. We can loop backwards and move forwards between the various stages, reviewing when and where necessary. It can be adapted to work with any text, especially beneficial those who need to write various text types. It helps learners understand the importance of the skills involved in writing i.e. it looks at how to arrive at the final product rather than the final product itself.