Moving from Narrative to Argument Essay Basics While Workshopping the Process of Writing Dr. L. Lennie Irvin San Antonio College San 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 argument Moffett’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) L. Lennie Irvin, San Antonio College

The Spectrum of Discourse Recording-- 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 L. Lennie Irvin, San Antonio College Description Narration Exposition Argument

Sequence of assignments  building toward the higher level analysis and argumentation of college writing Narration/Description—The Family StoryThe Family Story Illustration—The Illustrative Essay Analysis Argumentation L. Lennie Irvin, San Antonio College

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 L. Lennie Irvin, San Antonio College

Sequence of assignments  building toward the higher level analysis and argumentation of college writing Narration/Description—The Family Story Illustration—The Illustrative EssayThe Illustrative Essay Analysis Argumentation L. Lennie Irvin, San Antonio College

Teaching the Basics of Essay Form  Introduction  Body—dividing up the proof  Conclusion  Essay Form Essay Form  Organization—put only one primary support per Body paragraph (in this case, one story/example per body paragraph)  Introductions L. Lennie Irvin, San Antonio College

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? L. Lennie Irvin, San Antonio College

Images of the Writing Situation L. Lennie Irvin, San Antonio College James Kinneavy’s Communication Triangle, A Theory of Discourse

Images of the Writing Situation L. Lennie Irvin, San Antonio College Mike Palmquist’s “Social Model of Writing” | Model of Writing” |

L. Lennie Irvin, San Antonio College Encountering the Writing Process: The Writing Feedback Loop

L. Lennie Irvin, San Antonio College Looping Through the Writing Cycle  Invention exercise(s)  Draft 1  Peer Response 1  Writer’s Review  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) L. Lennie Irvin, San Antonio College

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)

L. Lennie Irvin, San Antonio College 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

L. Lennie Irvin, San Antonio College 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.

L. Lennie Irvin, San Antonio College Writing Activity: Illustrative Essay Invention

L. Lennie Irvin, San Antonio College Viewing Student Examples

L. Lennie Irvin, San Antonio College How Might You Use This Writing Activity in With Your Own Classes?