Date: Fri, 7 Jun 1996 14:51:14 EDT From: "tink...tink...tink..." Organization: Leaky Brainpans, Unclogged Subject: EXERCISE: Teaching Writing (Part 3?) [with all due respect to St. Martin's Guide to Teaching Writing, Second Edition, by Robert Connors and Cheryl Glenn, ISBN: 0-312-06787-9...] Page 63 and forward has an interesting section on "Successful Writing Assignments." In terms of the sequence of assignments, they mention Alexander Bain, a Scottish logician, who divided writing into "modes of discourse: narration, description, exposition, and argumentation." They also point out James Moffett's "highly schematic representation of the whole spectrum of discourse" moving from "interior dialogue" to "conversation," "correspondence,""public narrative," and "public generalization or inference." James Kinneavy provides the notion of increasingly complex communicative acts, moving from expressive discourse to reference/informative, literary, and persuasive discourse. "One way to structure a composition course is around the four sources of information that feed nonfiction writing: memory, observation, interviews, and research. Students first look within themselves for material and progressively cast a wider net...It's [research] not just going to the library and reading books and articles, but rather using a growing grasp of all other sorts of writing and planning skills to build to a new kind of complexity." (p. 65) 1. Pick one "nugget of information" from memory, one from "observation", and one from interviews or research. Three nuggets, please? Write them down... 2. Pick a number from one to seven. You may use dice...you decide how to wrap six sides around seven numbers:-) >From page 66, a list of the most commonly used strategy terms: 1. Analyze: divide an event, idea, or theory into its component elements and examine each in turn. 2. Compare and/or Contrast: demonstrate similarities or dissimilarities between two or more events or topics. 3. Define: identify and state the essential traits or characteristics of something, differentiating them clearly from other things. 4. Describe: tell about an event, person, or process in detail creating a clear and vivid image of it. 5. Evaluate: assess the value or significance of the topic. 6. Explain: make a topic as clear and understandable as possible by offering reasons, examples, etc. 7. Summarize: state the major points concisely and comprehensively. (yes! take your selected strategy, your three nuggets of information, and rock and rol...err, ponder and scribble! You may also consider:) A good assignment has a purpose. It is meaningful within your experience. It asks for writing about specific, immediate situations rather than abstract and theoretical ones. It suggests a single major question to which the thesis of the response is the answer. Single sentence starter... "I'd rather eat cake," he said, and bit into it. [tock, tick, tock, tick, the clock counts down, the keys strike home, press return and there goes the post...] tink