Writing Workshop – Part 2

 

This is where students were asked to construct a rough version of their ARGUMENT section of their paper, the bulk of their paper in fact.

 

Students are provided again a general conception via an outline of the layout:

Here, the application of “8-14 paragraphs [roughly]” is simply a stand-in to give students a way of somewhat measuring the process they are engaged in, based on the size of paragraphs.

 

The outline elements of this section focus in on the primary focus of asserting the position of one’s thesis while using evidence to support that.

 

Before class met one day, students were given a number of links to look over to help them further expound upon what they need to contemplate in this section, to establish their arguments:

 

1. Using Research and Evidence

 

This followed a discussion of advice concerning types of research to look for and determining credibility of material

 

2. Organizing Your Argument

 

This specifically made use of the Tomlin Method of presenting your Research, but as I am having students make use of the Classical Method, I made sure to encourage them to use the advice that applied and using it to help them expand upon the overall paper Outline given to them concerning their research paper.

 

An additional “Classical Model” handout was included among this information.

 

3. Using Rhetorical Strategies for Persuasion

 

This page highlighted the rhetorical appeals of Logos, Ethos, and Pathos. In particular it presented students with refreshers in Deductive (as illustrated in Application Approach 3.0 with invested triangle) and Inductive Reasoning, Logical Fallacies to avoid, as well discussions about appropriate use of Ethos and Pathos in Research papers.

 

4. Body Paragraphs

 

This page discussed a close examination of the paragraph form, mainly if students find themselves in any way struggling with that.

 

However, based on writing samples seen so far, that does not appear to be a problem.

 

All of these elements comprised direct links to OWL at Purdue pages. All of this material was discussed in class and gone over during a class meeting.

 

Students were set to task to begin working on creating their argument sections. They were provided with a version of the following diagram to help visually communicate some of the needed elements and expectations.

 

 

In addition to the formatting of their arguments, students are engaged in compiling and “sifting” through sources as part of creation of an annotated bibliography. This was timed to help students in making sure that the sources they were choosing to use in their arguments were up to the kind of credibility (ethos) they wanted to convey.

 

Sadly, one of my students in this course was forced to drop out due to family issues, however, it was immensely gratifying to have her communicate to me that the course allowed here to gain knowledge and insights that would help her later on. It also, in particular, opened her eyes to the potential of comic books and graphic novels. That to me is a small victory and I’ll take it.