3. Q. What kind of writing instruction do you
remember getting in your last school?
A. “In high school, grades were based on
quantity not quality. I would rarely receive
feedback.”
Q. What do you like about some of your
writings?
A. “I like how persuasive I am in my writings,
and don’t like expos because we are graded
more on structure than true quality.”
4. Do you remember any specific writing
experiences that left you feeling like a
success or a failure?
“I felt like a success on my 1st expos paper
and got a “B,” but my 2nd paper I felt like I
failed until I came to the writing center and
was told it was good.”
6. “They have heard for so many years that
writing is about making a point, making an
argument, being clear, making yourself
understood.”
– Richard E. Miller
There are two ways to look
at this picture! -------------
9. STANDARD 3.2 (WRITING) ALL
STUDENTS WILL WRITE IN CLEAR,
CONCISE, ORGANIZED LANGUAGE
THAT VARIES IN CONTENT AND FORM
FOR DIFFERENT AUDIENCES AND
PURPOSES.
NJ Core Curriculum Standards
10. Confront confusion
Deal with ignorance
Confront lack of understanding
“The more I learn the more I realize that I
don’t really know anything.”
11. Content: a persuasive, insightful
presentation of your own ideas that
analyzes the topic thoroughly.
This skill set is more problem-solving
oriented and less didactic.
14. Time to discuss divergent points of view
Work on reading comprehension
Free writing
Reverse outlines
Revision Exercises
Making Connections
Reading Skills
15. Talking about yourself as a writer
Making the most out of one reading
Creating a conversation with more
complex texts
Asking your own questions
Working with quotations
Patterns of error
Annotated bibliography
http://plangere.rutgers.edu/tutoring/student-info/online-student-resources
The transition from 12th grade to first year can be tough. When students come to Rutgers, many of them find themselves wondering what exactly that Expository Writing teacher is looking for. Many times students feel like their writing makes a valid point. The issue is that in Expository Writing 101, we want them to do something more…
Had one of my students fill this out. Some of the responses.
Being a tutor, you deal with students whose ideas are emerging. You deal a lot with ambiguity, and it is always a challenge to break through long-standing writing habits
“They have… understood” but “There are… picture!”
- Richard E. Miller. Students should deal with complicated projects and write in order to learn something about the project. Writing as an exploration is different from writing to make a clear point. It’s a bit messier. “The road to mediocrity happens when the students start with clarity, work in clarity, and finish in clarity, because they actually haven’t learned anything by moving through that process.”
“The ability to write logical arguments based on substantive claims, sound reasoning, and relevant evidence is a cornerstone of the writing standards, with opinion writing—a basic form of argument—extending down into the earliest grades.” are all important! These standards make students be able to be clear, but it PUTS THEM IN THE HABIT OF APPROACHING a problem from a position of knowing what they aim to claim – “a priori,” so to speak.
Good idea to go over some of the aims and compare… Liberal Arts education includes critical thinking in philosophy, literature, sociology, etc. K-12 education has no reason to train students in dealing with these subjects. And when students go to get a liberal arts education, they are entering a certain realm of thought. Richard E. Miller again explains his philosophy behind the new humanities reader’s non fiction articles - “…The real problems of society don’t have solutions. What they have is ways of being understood... and what we want to do is say, to get you to do the work of the university, we have to force you to confront confusion, ignorance, lack of understanding. And in fact your ability to do that is a sign of your success as a student.” – Richard E. Miller
Evidence: appropriate number of quotations used as evidence to prove thesis. Quotations are "integrated" into the text of the essay (quotations are preceded by an identification of the speaker and a brief explanation of context). Basically the main idea is to… THINK CRITICALLY
This isnt really a clear cut issue. Critical thinking requires an understanding of everything that colors an idea.
At the writing center, one thing I like to see is that “Aha! Moment.” when the student starts to really improve. Sometimes it takes a while, lots of writing and re-writing but when it happens its awesome. They start connecting ideas and furiously editing their papers and discussing divergent viewpoints is no longer a source of anxiety. I think that’s because of the… INDIVIDUAL ATTENTION
You saw some student comments before…. Making the most out of one reading is an exercise geared towards………….., Patterns of error………….., creating a conversation…………….
When students finish the writing process, yes they will have “gotten through” expos and never have to think about it again. They’ve gotten some exploration out of their world and though it was annoying, tough frustrating at times, the exploration has led to new conclusions and that little bit more that we were looking for in the ways the students learn to think and write.
