"If a piece of autobiographical writing is an essay, it has already moved beyond private confession or memoir to some shareable idea, for which the personal experience works as evidence."
-Gordon Harvey, "Presence in the Essay"
This, the shareable idea, is what I think a thesis really is. I've seen a lot of students struggle with thesis (both on the idea level and the word level; it's a terribly intimidating academic word that is simply not fun to say or hear if you have not been warmly introduced to it at some early part of your life), but I think this could clear some of that confusion up.
I switched to using the word purpose during my summer session class, and that helped. I think the phrase shareable idea tacked onto purpose would be even more benefitial because it not only speaks to the thing (the idea) but it has purpose and audience embedded in its language (shareable, as in something intended to be given or taught to other people).
Also, the concept of the shareable idea makes sense to me because that is why Writing classes exist, isn't it? To help people share ideas better? I know argument is an important word, along with debate, but those seem to set up hesaidshesaid or meversusyou situations before students even get into the idea we ask them to birth and nurture and send out into the wide, wide world. The shareable idea could be a response to a poem or a story. It could be a proposal to fix potholes or stop smoking. It could relate lessons learned from prison time or landscaping jobs. It can be anything that formed in one head and grew into something transferrable to another.
Can we simply share ideas intelligently and objectively?
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
I Went to This Conference and All I Got Was a Few Books for My Writing Teacher Friend
Matt just returned from a weekend jaunt to Denver for a conference about Writing. I know, I know, you're wondering why Student Life Coordinator Matt went to a Writing conference: He went to present along with Shawn Hellman, our department chair, about Writing classes collaborating with their Student Life Coordinators (they discussed a project based on the book and movie The Pursuit of Happyness that culminated in hearing a speech by Chris Gardner at the University of Arizona). Matt texted me during the conference to inquire about books I might be interested in because he was being offered book after book after book. I responded that I would be interested in anything a) creative or b) related to tutoring.
Matt returned with a few finds, including Writers Without Borders*: Writing and Teaching Writing in Troubled Times. I've already found it worthwhile**, and I'm not even past the introduction. Here is the second sentence of Lynn Z. Bloom's introduction:
"Creative writers, the writers whose work we read, remember, quote, and read again, set the agenda and determine the arena--the entire world, the universe unbounded to be created ever anew."
That is why I am involved in helping people understand words and language and how to use them. People who can think clearly and put those ideas down on paper, out into cyberspace, on a t-shirt or a poster or a coffee mug or a billboard, those are people who can ask what the world can be. They learn to ask and answer questions, to explore and in that exploring find new answers they did not anticipate and new questions they simply must pursue.
*All the cool kids use this, apparently: Doctors Without Borders, Words Without Borders, Teachers Without Borders, MBAs Without Borders, Mothers, Sociologists, Engineers, Reporters, Geeks, Builders, Clowns, Burners, Grantmakers, Acupunturists, Chemists, Hedgehogs, Alpacas, and on and on and on...
**I knew it! Matt came through!
Matt returned with a few finds, including Writers Without Borders*: Writing and Teaching Writing in Troubled Times. I've already found it worthwhile**, and I'm not even past the introduction. Here is the second sentence of Lynn Z. Bloom's introduction:
"Creative writers, the writers whose work we read, remember, quote, and read again, set the agenda and determine the arena--the entire world, the universe unbounded to be created ever anew."
That is why I am involved in helping people understand words and language and how to use them. People who can think clearly and put those ideas down on paper, out into cyberspace, on a t-shirt or a poster or a coffee mug or a billboard, those are people who can ask what the world can be. They learn to ask and answer questions, to explore and in that exploring find new answers they did not anticipate and new questions they simply must pursue.
*All the cool kids use this, apparently: Doctors Without Borders, Words Without Borders, Teachers Without Borders, MBAs Without Borders, Mothers, Sociologists, Engineers, Reporters, Geeks, Builders, Clowns, Burners, Grantmakers, Acupunturists, Chemists, Hedgehogs, Alpacas, and on and on and on...
**I knew it! Matt came through!
Thursday, July 10, 2008
How to (Completely) Write a Paragraph
I helped a student, Lulu, on a summary paragraph today, which lead to a discussion on paragraphs in general, which lead me to the whiteboard and outlining the pieces of a PIE (Point-Illustration-Explanation) paragraph in orange marker. Here is what I left behind on the board after Lulu departed and I went off to talk to a Student Success class about plagiarism and research:
Point: the idea of the paragraph
Illustration: evidence, details, examples (specifics)
Explanation: what you want your reader to see in those specifics
And here is the addendum I found below these three pieces of a paragraph when I returned from introducing brand new and nearly-brand new Pima students to quotes and paraphrases, a fourth step (not so much a piece of a paragraph, but a progression in controlling the idea of the paragraph):
Destroy: those who do not like your work!!
BWAHAHA!!!
Thank you, Adam. Thank you.
Point: the idea of the paragraph
Illustration: evidence, details, examples (specifics)
Explanation: what you want your reader to see in those specifics
And here is the addendum I found below these three pieces of a paragraph when I returned from introducing brand new and nearly-brand new Pima students to quotes and paraphrases, a fourth step (not so much a piece of a paragraph, but a progression in controlling the idea of the paragraph):
Destroy: those who do not like your work!!
BWAHAHA!!!
Thank you, Adam. Thank you.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Students Say the Most Poignant Things
This week, a student, Luis, came in to polish up a short, two or three paragraph scholarship essay. His first paragraph began with the maxim that "giving is better than receiving." As (honestly) ordinary as this idea is, his second paragraph began with a real original thought:
"Our world is in need of generous people."
I pointed out the profound and original nature of his thought*. I told him that it made me stop and think about the world, about myself, and about my status as a generous person. I told him to lead with that thought instead of the cliched idea of giving>receiving.
Bringing up that giving>receiving idea was simply warmup writing for Luis. He had to slog through the run-of-the-mill thoughts to find his way to his original thoughts. He did. I find that student writers often do this sort of slogging through and have not been told that this kind of writing may be necessary in process, but not in product. They need to know they are free to type it and they are free to delete it once a stronger, fresher, more original and striking thought has floated to the surface.
*Matt, the Student Life Coordinator at Desert Vista, and I so liked Luis' words that we hope to figure out a way to put them on a tee or a poster of some sort. Something simply must be done with words like these. Schools should not allow those words to be tucked away in a scholarship essay which will be read and filed and forgotten. Luis wrote something worth reading. We want to publicize that something, and in doing so, begin to discover ways to shed light on hidden student insights and ideas. Perhaps Luis' little proverb could be the foundation for an essay contest. Perhaps it could be used as the basis for a poster contest for art/design students. We shall see.
"Our world is in need of generous people."
I pointed out the profound and original nature of his thought*. I told him that it made me stop and think about the world, about myself, and about my status as a generous person. I told him to lead with that thought instead of the cliched idea of giving>receiving.
Bringing up that giving>receiving idea was simply warmup writing for Luis. He had to slog through the run-of-the-mill thoughts to find his way to his original thoughts. He did. I find that student writers often do this sort of slogging through and have not been told that this kind of writing may be necessary in process, but not in product. They need to know they are free to type it and they are free to delete it once a stronger, fresher, more original and striking thought has floated to the surface.
*Matt, the Student Life Coordinator at Desert Vista, and I so liked Luis' words that we hope to figure out a way to put them on a tee or a poster of some sort. Something simply must be done with words like these. Schools should not allow those words to be tucked away in a scholarship essay which will be read and filed and forgotten. Luis wrote something worth reading. We want to publicize that something, and in doing so, begin to discover ways to shed light on hidden student insights and ideas. Perhaps Luis' little proverb could be the foundation for an essay contest. Perhaps it could be used as the basis for a poster contest for art/design students. We shall see.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Show Me the Thesis!
I just finished an essay in the Jul/Aug 08 issue of Good called "Poor People Unite!" The title pretty much conveys the thesis of the essay:
"What the world needs is an economic superpower that represents the interests of the world's poor: Call it Pooristan."
The rest of article sticks to that point. I think it was a rare example of a piece of writing in the published world that would translate fairly well into a classroom environment. Not only does the whole essay focus on one idea, it is actually an original idea that requires an essay to explain.
Why do I care that I found an example? Because of this quote from Wes Anderson (from a different article in the very same issue of Good):
Whenever I am getting ready to make a movie I look at other movies I love in order to answer the same recurring question: How is this done, again?
Who is Wes Anderson, you say? He's the director--auteur, really--of my favorite movie, The Royal Tenenbaums and four other highly-regarded indie features. He is meticulous in the details on film. He writes the stories. He chooses the soundtracks. He has a group of actors who continually work with him. He consistently uses the same font throughout a film--for credits, titles, in-film buildings and signs, everything. He is generally considered to be one of the best and most original filmmakers currently making films. And he needs examples to get going.
If someone considered among those at the pinnacle of their field needs a little inspiration at the outset of a project, it makes sense that students learning to put thoughts on paper could use a spark to get them going and show them how this is done.
"What the world needs is an economic superpower that represents the interests of the world's poor: Call it Pooristan."
The rest of article sticks to that point. I think it was a rare example of a piece of writing in the published world that would translate fairly well into a classroom environment. Not only does the whole essay focus on one idea, it is actually an original idea that requires an essay to explain.
Why do I care that I found an example? Because of this quote from Wes Anderson (from a different article in the very same issue of Good):
Whenever I am getting ready to make a movie I look at other movies I love in order to answer the same recurring question: How is this done, again?
Who is Wes Anderson, you say? He's the director--auteur, really--of my favorite movie, The Royal Tenenbaums and four other highly-regarded indie features. He is meticulous in the details on film. He writes the stories. He chooses the soundtracks. He has a group of actors who continually work with him. He consistently uses the same font throughout a film--for credits, titles, in-film buildings and signs, everything. He is generally considered to be one of the best and most original filmmakers currently making films. And he needs examples to get going.
If someone considered among those at the pinnacle of their field needs a little inspiration at the outset of a project, it makes sense that students learning to put thoughts on paper could use a spark to get them going and show them how this is done.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
We Hope You Grapple More
Here is a piece of instructor feedback that I lifted from the pages of an article in College Composition and Communication (Volume 58, Number 2 December 2006 if you're interested; it's from the series of articles on responding to student writing).
"Lousia, a technique that can work well for opening a paper is to begin with an intriguing detail, especially one you find difficult to account for. Beginning in this manner not only draws in your reader, but also forces you as a writer to grapple with a troubling aspect of the text, which can often be a key aspect that you had previously set aside. This, in turn, can focus your thesis and argument."
This instructor, who is anonymously quoted in the article, gives:
1. Useful strategy. Look for a strange detail, something that sticks out, is unique, an anomaly or an outlier. Start there. You, the writer will be interested; your reader will be curious, as well.
2. Permission to grapple*. There is not enough grappling done by readers. More grappling, really, would be quite helpful to education in general.
*grapple, verb: "to engage in a struggle or close encounter (usually followed by the word 'with')"
"Lousia, a technique that can work well for opening a paper is to begin with an intriguing detail, especially one you find difficult to account for. Beginning in this manner not only draws in your reader, but also forces you as a writer to grapple with a troubling aspect of the text, which can often be a key aspect that you had previously set aside. This, in turn, can focus your thesis and argument."
This instructor, who is anonymously quoted in the article, gives:
1. Useful strategy. Look for a strange detail, something that sticks out, is unique, an anomaly or an outlier. Start there. You, the writer will be interested; your reader will be curious, as well.
2. Permission to grapple*. There is not enough grappling done by readers. More grappling, really, would be quite helpful to education in general.
*grapple, verb: "to engage in a struggle or close encounter (usually followed by the word 'with')"
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