engaging ideas chap 5

8/10/2019 Engaging Ideas Chap 5

1/26

Engaging Ideas

The Professor's Guide

to Integrating Writing,

Critical Thinking,

nd Active Learning

n the Classroolll

: : JO

SSY B

ASS PUB

LISHE

S

S

an

Francisco

-


2/26

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bean, John C

Engaging ldeas: the professor s guide

to

integrating wri ting,

critical thinkmg, and active learning in the classroom

John C

Bean. - 1st ed.

p.

cm.- (The Jossey-Bass higher and adult education

se

ries

Includes bibliographical references and ind x.

ISB

N 0-7879-0203-9

1.

English

language-Metoric-Stud),

and teaching 2. Critical

thinking Stud) and teaching

l l i t l

e n Se ries.

PE1404 B35

1996

808

042

dc20 95-36265

FIRST ED m O N

PB

Prinhng 10 9 8 7
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3/26

CH PTER

5

Forlllal Writing

A

ssignlllen

ts

P

ar

t T

wo

of thi s

book

focuses on th e design of problem -based

assignments to promote critical thinking and active engagemen t

wi th

cour

se subject matter. The presen t chapter concerns the

des.ign of fo

rm

a l

woting

assignmen ts,

whic

h call s for finished

p rose Formdl writing usually requires multiple drafts and is

thus

di

tin

g

uish

ed

from e

qua

lly

important

inf

or

mal,

exploratory

w

nt

ing

ai

med a t genera

ti

ng , de velopin

g

and ex

tendin

g thinking on a

subject

(How to use i

nform

al explora tory vvriting in your courses

is

the subject of

Chap

ter Six )

Formal wr i ting can

rang

e

from

lengthy

research papers

to

short

(on e- or

two-paragraph)

micro themes, The

chapt

er's

initial

focus is

on

th esis-gov

erned

academic wri ting, bu t the cone ud ing

sec tion su rveys

alterna

tive kinds of assignments that let stud ents

wr

ite

in

d more personal voice

in

c varie ty of m

odes

and s ty les

Th

e Tr

ad

itio

na

l et

ho

d of

s

signing

Writi

ng

In Am er ican uni ve rsities, the

traditi

onal way to a ign writing

goes

som

e thing like

thlcc

There w ill be a term paper due at the

end of th e semester, The term paper can be on any aspec t of the

co ur se

tl

l a t

interes

ts yo u , but I

hav

e to

approve

your tOpiC in

ad vance," Abou t lv lfway thro ugh the term, s tud

en t

s subm it pro

po sals for

tl

Tics-us ually stated as a topic area ra ther than as d

Iesearch

ques

tion or tentative thes is. The ins tructor either approves

7


4/26

7

ngaging Ideas

the topic or ad vises that it be narrowed , som

etim

es giving prelimi

nary advice for bibliogr aphic items In

man;'

ca ses,

no

fur ther con

tact be tween teacher a

nd st

uden t occurs . At the end of the term,

the teacher collects

and grades

the peipers Some teachers

mark

the

pap

ers copiously; others make onl y cryptic end comments Much

to teachers d isa

pp

ointment, many

students

never pick up

their

papers from the te

ac

her s offic

e.

lte rnative pproaches

to

ssign ing Writing _

As one of many alte rna tive approaches, consider the method used

by fin anc e professor Dean Drenk (Dren k, 1986; Bean, Drenk, and

Lee ,

19

86), who re

quires

a ser ies of short

essays

, ea ch of w

hich

must

support either the positiv e or the negative side of a thesis on

a controversial question in finan ce. Th e tl,eses , ' ' ' 'hich Dr enk

sequences from easy to d ifficult, ar e co

nstruct

ed to cover var i

ou

s

key issues in the field such as the follovving

Th e mark et is/is not efficient in st rong

-form

, random-walk

terms.

Bonds are / are not more risky inves tme

nt

s than stocks.

Random diversification is/is

not

m ore reliable

than

selective

di versifica bon.

Each thesis support assignmen t re

quires

s tudents to unde

rs t

and

and us e key course conce

pts

while s

imultan

e01Jsiy practicin g

th

e

methods of inquiry, research, and argumentation in fin ance. Stu

de

nts

must use library research skills to find relev

ant

data on their

assigned issues, analyze th e

data

, devel

op

reas oned positio

ns

,

and

p roduce empiricall y supported

argum

ents

Dr

en k requires stu

de

nts to me et minimal s tanda rds on ea ch thes is support essay

before progressing to the next a

nd encourag

es

stud

ent s to r

ew

rite

their essays for higher grades, tllUS stimulating revision. He pro

vides fe edb ack

through an

evaluati\ e chec ksheet fo cusmg on the

q uality of critica l thinkin

g,

the clarity of writing,

an

d the

adequacy

of empirical support

Traditi onal and lte rnative Methods Com pared _

The first of these methods-

th

e trAditional one- can be excelle

nt

for skilled upper-di ision students wllo hav e alr

eady

learned the

conventions of inquiry

an

d argulllentation in a

di

scip llne At some

point

in the ir undE I t;raduate care, ; s, we want to

turn

students


5/26

Forma l Writing ssignments

7

loose

and

say, Okay, now talk

and

w rite like a n w m

em

ber of this

discipline Go find you r ow n top ic a

nd

do something interes ting

with

[Jut for many co

ll

ege wri ters, such freed

om is de

bilita ting. Not

ye t at home wi th academic wri ting or with th e disco urse conven

tions of a new discipline, these students are

ap

t to produce wander-

ing

aU

a

bout

papers ra ther than arg

ument

s or quasi-plagiari

zed

data dum ps with long, pOintless

quotations

and thinly

disguised

pa rap

hrases Even

worse,

s

tud

ents may res

or

t to ou tright plagia

rism . Because

th

e tradition

al

t

erm paper

assignment

does not

g

uid

e students toward f

orm

ula tin g a prob lem and developing a

thesis, it o

ften does not s

timu

la te the complex thin

kin

g (and

hen

ce

the

need

for

multiple

drafts) that teac hers de si

re.

In

additi

on, tra

ditional

t

erm papers

oft

en do

little to

enhance

le

arning

of co

ur

se

con tent. They

supplement

a

cour

se b

ut

d o

not

foc us s tu

de

nts '

mental

ene

rgies on th e

most

important or most difficult cou rse

concepts or

issues.

In

co

ntrast, Drenk's thesis support assignments focus di rec tly

on course concepts and teach thesis-governed argum entation

in

the

discipline. In investigating a series of issues in finance , s

tudents

see

that

knowledge

in this discipline is

not

a co

ll

ec tion of i

ner

t princi

ples and data

but

rather

an

aren

a for

inquiry

and

ar

gu ment. More

over, because Drenk's thesis sup port essays are s

hort (one

to t

wo

pages), s

tudent

s can re work them through

multipl

e re visions and

transfer what they hav e learned from

on

e essay to the nex

t.

Fur

thermore,

D

renk

's

em

p

ha

sis

on

s

tand

a

rd

s,

combined

w

it

h

his

allowi ng of rewr ites, o

ften

leads to a surprisingly high leveJ of stu

dent work.

Although

doubts al

wa

ys accompany teaching, Drcn k

says, I

know that

I am successful as a teacher when student s con

fes

s that they

learned

more through my writing assignm

en

ts than

t

hro

u

gh

any o ther academic activit

y

(Drenk, 1986, p. 55

The ffect of Slig

ht

Va riat

ion

s

in

ss ignment

Desi

gn _

When

de

sig

nin

g formal

wri

ting as sig

nm

en ts,

ins

tructor s sh

oul

d

consider

carefully the kin

d

of

w

ritin

g t

he

y

ho p

e for

and

th

e

pr

oce sses

th

ey wa

nt students

to f

ollow

Sometimes s

ligh

t

var

ia

tions in the wayan ins

tru

ctor d esigns a w riting task can cause sig-

nificant

differences both in

students '

writing

and

think

in g

processes a

nd

in their fina l

produ

cts. Consider my infor mal experi

ment with faculty in wri ting-acros s-the-curr ic

ulum

workshops at

three different insti tutions . Prior to each

wo

rkshop, I wanted par

ticipan ts to rea d

and

react to an article on expressi ve writin g

by

Ran d all Fre isinger

of

Mi ch ig an Techno log ical Uni ve rsi ty (see


6/26

7

Engaging Idea s

Freisinger, 1980 ). I asked facu lty to writ

e,

as

hom

ework, an essay in

re

sp

onse to anyone of

th

e fo llm'v ing fo

ur

opt ions:

pt ion 1 W

rite

a tw o- to three-p

ag

e critica l

rev

iew of th e

Freisin ger article. Here is your c

han

ce to w rite an essay illus

b'atin g wh at professors really want when they ask s

tud

ents

to do an article or book review

ption 2.'

Wri te a two - to three -p age

criti

cal review

of

th e

Freisin

ger

article, but structure it in the follov.ring wa y p a

rt

on e sh ould be a two

-hund

re d- wo rd ab s tract that simply

surrun ari zes Freisinger s essay

with

o

ut

inj

ectm

g a ny of your

own ideas or opinions Part t"vo s

hould

answ er the fo llow

ing gues tion: "What d o you consid er to be the strengths and

we

Glkn

esses of Freising

er

' s \' iews

7

"

p

ti

on

3 . One d ay you receive the following letter:

Dear Professor X:

am in the p rocess o f collecting a nd repr inting major

articles that ha ve influenced the w riting-a cross-the-cur

ric

ulum

mo

vem

e

nt

in

th

e p as t two decad e

s.

Yo

ur nam

e

h

JS

been recommended to

me

because of your pa rticipa

tion in a recent writing-across -th e-cur riculum workshop.

One of the ar ticles that has

be

en nominated for my

co llec tion is Rand all Fre isinger s "Cross -Disciplinary

Writing Workshops: The

or

y

and

Pra ctice. " Since you were

ask ed to rea d this articl e for one of vour workshop s, am

very in teres ted in y

ou

r reaction to i t Did you

think

it was

an

imp

or

tant ar ticle

7

WhGlt imp act did it ha ve

on ), 01l

7

W

ould

yo u recommend th a t o ther pe ople inte res ted in

wri ting across the curriculum read this article

7

Any infor

mati on you could give me on yo ur reactions to

thi

s a rticle

wo

uld be most appr ec

iat

ed .

Sincere

ly,

Snav ely Snodgrass

Write a letter to Snavely resp onding to hi s gu es

ti

ons.

pt

io

4

.

Write a mini-play

in

whicll two or m

or

e facult y mem

bers get in an arg

um

ent over Freisinger 's ar ticle. Choose an y

setting vou w o uld like for yo

ur

p la y, su ch as a faculty

lo un ge or a loc al ta

ve

rn . f yo u \ ant, yo u ca n h a ve

Freisinger himself make a ca

me

o a

pp e

arance in y

our

play.

Yo

ur goal here is to ha ve at least one person who enthusias

ticGl

ll

y suppo

rt

s Fr

ei

s

inger

's vi e\


7/26

.1

ormal Writi ng Assignments

whe reas nearly ha lf chose

option 2.

Pe

rhaps

su

rp

risingly the

more

p re scr

iptive

of the

hrst

tw o

assignments

was

the more

popular.

Appare ntly a large proport ion of faculty as welJ as of stud en ts,

prefer assign ments with some gu iding c

on

straints.

[ he o the r fr

eq

uently chosen op tion-ab ollt 40 percent of facul

ty-

wa

s option

3,

the informal letter. But the difference in process

between writers of option :2 and ootion 3

is

re vealing. Option 2 peo

ple reported spending t

wo

or three hours on the assignment and

w ri ting at least tw o dr afts. Thev also reported a careful rereading of

the Freis inger article in ord er to compose the ab stract. Option 3

people, however, usually repo rted spending less than an ho

ur

on

the assignment. (In fact , many say they chose op tion 3 because it

seemed to require less

wo

rk.) Most option 3 writers composed their

letter in one sitting

fe

w rep orted revising their letters or rereading

the Freisin ge r article pr ior to writing . Despite less time on task,

however, the option 3 people often wrote more lively, provocative,

and interestin g pieces than the option 2 peop le

What is the lesson here? I hypothesize that an option 2 assign

ment encourages ca reful planning (including, in this CdC e, rereading of

the article)

and

formal to

p-d

o

wn

organizing. An option 3 assignment

encourages more personality, voice, ene r

gy,

and spontaneity.

IlL

my

own courses, I hy to give students opportunities for both kinds of wri t-

ing.

My

experiment with option 3 has led to the occasional thought

letters I often require of my students as part of their ex ploratory w rit

in

r

for my CO

UIses

s

ee Chapter

Si;x).

But I use assignments like option

2 to encourage

th

oughtful study of difficult material and to teach struc

tured, analytical reading and response

The las t assi

gnmen

t t e mini-pl ay- was chosen by onl y a

handful of workshop particip an ts, but the ir engagement w

ith

tb e

assignm ent wa s intense . They got into it, often reporting six or

seven hours of wor

k.

In several instances, th

ei

r pla ys evolved into

humorous sa tires of their own institutions. Whereas the other w rit

ers wrote out of dut y, the op tion 4 people' wrote for their own plea

sure

(In the ja rg on of

composition sp e

cialists, th e assi gnment

became self-sp onsored. ) The task become a crea tive project like

writing

the script for a banquet roast. Proud of their work op tion 1:

people wanted to go public, and at one institution they even in sist-

ed on performing their playas a wo rkshop finale .

rvly p o int is

that

instructo rs can influ ence the th in

kin

g

and

w riting processes of th eir students by vary ing

such

aspec ts of th e

ass ignmen t as th e aud ience, the rhetorical context, the w ri ter 's

assum ed role, the purpose

or

the forma

t. When planning

assign

ments

therefor

e, te

achers need to co

nsider

not only the lea

rning

goals the y have set for th eir courses

but ell

so the thinking and writ

ing processes that thev want to invoke in their students as

leJ.

rners


8/26

ngaging

Ideas

8

TIle

remaining

sec tions of this

chapter

focus

on

issues of

plan

ning, designing, and gi\'ing formal w riting assignments

Revi

ew o

Cou rseGoals

as

Prepar

at

ion

or DesigningA

ss

ignments _

_

Des

igning

critical thinking tas ks works

best

if teachers focus their

assignments

on

their main tea chi ng goals for the course. Prior to

des igning ass ignm

en

ts, teachers can

inventory

their

course

goals

conSidering answers to the follow ing questions:

1 What

ar

e the main units

or

modules in my course? (For

exampl

e,

two weeks on

X,

four days on Y, and another

tw

o

weeks on Z )

2. Wha tare m.y main Jearning objecti ves for each of the

se

modules and

for the

whole cour

se?

What

ar

e

the

chief con

cepts and

principles

that I want s

tude

nts to It'am in each

unit or module?

3.

What thinking skills am I trying to develop within each

uni

t or module and througho ut the

whole

cllur se? (Such

skills

includ

e \Nays of observing,

habits

of

mind

,

que

s tion

ing strategies, use of

evidence-wha

tever thinking process

es are important in your cour se or discipline To put

it

another way,

what

wa ys of thinking characterize a histori

an, an accountant, a chemist, a nurse,

an

d so fortll?)

4. Ba sed

on

pr evious students ' exp erience, what are the most

difficult aspects of m y

cour

se for s

tudents

?

5.

Jf

I could ch ange my s

tudents'

stud y habits, what

wo

uld

I

most like to change?

6

\t

Vh at difference do I want m y

course

to make in my stu

dents ' live

in their

sense

of self, their va lu es, their "vays

of thinking?

What

is

my

unique

stamp

on this course? Ten

years later, "",hat do I want th em to remember most about

m v course?

Of course, it is imp

ossi

bl e to d esig n. assignments th at have

an

impact on every

bc

et of a cour se. But

te

achers can

put

together a

combination

of form a I

and

informa

I

vn i

ting ass

ignm

e

nt

s

and

other

kinds of critic


9/26

9

.

,

-c

1/

r

Formal

Wr i

t i l Assignments

ments teachers have numerous options. We

turn first

to shor t

w assignments focusi ng on specific course concepts

or

thinking

skills.

Desig

nin

g Short Writeto

Learn ssig

n

me nt

s

_ _

Although

wr iting

to ie a

rn

is

often associated

w

ith informal

exploratory writing such as journals or lea rning logs (the

su

bject

of

Chapt

er

Six),

teachers can also

design

formal assignme

nts

th

at

help

s tudents leorn imp o rtant concepts

in

a course. In the

following

cases,

consider how

a

physics professor and

a

psychology

prafes-

sur developed assig

nment

s focu sing on key course concepts The

physir S professor

identified

accelera tion

an

d

velocity

as

difficult

concepts

for

beginning physics students w hile the psy ch ology

profl::ssor

identified operant conditioning. Ha

v

ing

identifi

ed

the

se

concepts, the professors then developed the following v

vrit

e

-to

lei1fll assignments (the

physics

a

ssignmen

t is

drawll

largely from

B

ean

Drenk,

and

Lee, 1986, p. 35).

Yo

u are Dr. Science. the

question-and-answer

person for a

popular

mag azi

ne

-

called ractical

Science

Readers of your magazine are invited

to submit

letters

to Dr. Science, who ans wers them

in

Dear Abby style in a special section of

the magJz ine. One day you recei ve the fo

llowing

letter:

Dear Dr. Science:

You've got

to

help me settle this

argument

I am

having

with my

girl

f

ri

end.

We

w ere watching a baseball game several weeks ago when this

guy hit

a

high pop-up

straight

over

the catcher's head. When it finally

came down, the catcher

caught

it

standing

on home plate. Well,

my

gir

l-

friend

told

me

that when

the ball

stopped in midair

Just

before it

started

back

down

, its v

elocity

was

zero

,

but

its acceleration was

not

zero. I said

she was

stupid. If something isn 't mov ing at all ,

how

could it have any

acceleration

7

Ever since then , she has been making a big deal out of this

and

won't le

me kiss her. I love her, but I

don't

think we can

get

back

together unti

l we setle this

argument. We

checked some phYSics

books,

but they

weren't

very clear.

We

agreed that I

would

w rite to you and l

et

you sett le the

argument

. But , Dr. Science,

don't

ju st te ll

us

the anSWN.

You've

got

to

explain

it

so

we

both

understand

because

my

girlfriend

is

really dogmatic.

he

said she

wouldn't

ev

en

trus t Einstein unless he could

explain

himse lf clearly.

Sincerely,

Baseball Blues

Can this

relationship

be saved

7

Your task

is to

w rite an

answer to

Basebal l

Blues. Because space in yo

ur

magazine

is limited

, restr

ic

t your

answer to what

can be

put

on a Single

fi

ve-

by

eight-inch card.

Don't

confuse Baseball and his


10/26

8

Engaging

Ideas

gir l friend

by

using any special physics

terms

unless you explain clearly what

they

mean.

Here's the

psychology

assignment.

-

Consider

the follovving

problem:

.

- -

n

the

morning when

Professor Cat love opens a

new

can

of

cat

food

his

cats run I

nto

the kitchen

purring

and

meowing

and

rubbing

the

ir

backs

against hi s legs . What

examples if

any,

of

classical

conditioning ope

rant

condi tioning

, and soc ial

learning

are at work in

this brie

f scene

7

Note

that

both

the cats

and

the professor

might

be exhibiting cond itioned

behav ior here.

You and some

fellow

classmates have been

discussing

this

problem over

cof-

fee, and you are convinced

that

the

other members of your group

are confused

about the concepts. Write a one

to two-page

essay

that

sets

them straight.

These ass ignments

require

students to apply the target con

cepts to

new

situations

and

to articulate their

thinking

processes

clearly to a new l

earn

er

Assignments like these can prompt intense,

purposeful

rereading of textbooks and class notes while stimulating

out-of-class

discussions

among students. Furthermore , students

report that

the act of

writing

often alerts

them

to

gaps

in their

understanding. In the operant conditioning problem, for example,

studen ts reported in interviews

with

me that it

was

easier

to

ex

plain

how the

professor conditioned

the cats

than

how the cats condi

tioned the professor, yet it was in their contemplation of the latter

c se

that the concept of a le

arned

behavior became most clear.

rom a teacher's perspective,

these

assignments-because

they are short

-have

the

additional

benefit of being easy to g

rade

They use what

we might

call the principle of leverage: a small

amount of writing preceded by a grea t amoun t of thinking. Such

short

assignments, or micro themes,

can

be

very

effective at maxi

mizing learning

while

minimizing

a

teacher's grading

time. For a

discussion of

how

to grade micro themes using models feedback

rather than

writing

comments on the essays, see Chapter Thirteen,

page 236.)

Using Short Write to Learn

Ass

ignments

for Formati

ve Ass essme

nt

_

In designing vvrite-to-learn

assignments,

we obviously hope that

they

will help students

learn the desired concepts. Often-to our

disappo

intment

and

chagrin-this

is

not

the case.

What

many stu

dents' reveal in their microthemes is

the depressing variety

of


11/26

8

.-. \

-

-

:J

orma

l

Wr

i t

ing

s signments

ways that they can misunderstand the very concep

ts Vve hoped

tbev would learn.

N

v

rthele i

i

,

students

errors, mistakes,

and

n:lisunderstand

ings can gi ve us valuable insights into t

beir

thinking pro esses

and

provide d ues about how to redesign

and

sequence instruction. As

recent

work in formative assessment has demonstrated

(Angelo

and Cross,

1993) , teachers vvho regularly

assess

their students

und, rstanding of

concepts as

a course p

rogresses

can

adjust

instruction to improve the quality of learning For assessing stu

dents learn ing, short write-to-learn

assignments

are

particularly

etfective

because

they provide

direct

windows into students

think

ing

processes

Consider

three student

responses to the

physics microtheme

on

acceleration

versu

c

velocity

The

teacher graded

the

micro

themes

on a 1 (lowest) through 6 (highest) scale using the grading

rubric

sho'Vvn in Chapter Fifteen

(page

263). Tbe

following

micro

theme received

a

top

score of 6:

Ask your girlfriend's forgiverless because she is absolul

y

right. An

ever day definition of acceleration means speeding up But the sci

en tific meaning is more precise It .neans the rJte Jt which spc ' or

direcl iOl

changes over a certain period of time two things rea

lly.

Thus

it

is indeed possible for the L J ~ l l

to

still be accelerating even

when it has zero velocity

I i

the baseball

haa

no acceleration when

it

stopped in mid air,

it would

t10at in the air where

it

stopped forever.

A baseball can accelerate in either of two wavs. It CJn change

its speed or it can change its direction of traveL

If

it does either or

both of these things over period of time it has accelerated. As the

baseball

stopped

in midair its speed- or velOCity- became zero. Yet

the acceler,l tion was not zero because, like a stretched

out

spring,


12/26

Engaging Ideas

acceleration soon

became

deceleration (a decrease in sp eed w ith

tim e) as the

downward

pull of the earth became strong enough

to

decrease

upward

acceleration to O This force

is

called

gravity and

by

definition accelerates a free falling

bod

y at 32

ft.

/ sec.'

in

the

down

ward direction. When the ball

paused

at the

peak

of its flight, before

beginning its descent, the upward acceleration and the downward

acceleration

were

equal, even

though

the ball was stationary.

Student s icrotheme

It makes me

sad

to hear that

you

have los t

your

girlfriend ove r such

a trivial

problem have some

good

news

for you,

though.

You are

right. An object cannot have 0 velocity and

have

acceleration too

hope

th

at with

the arguments lay for th in the

next

few

paragraphs

you

two

can reconciliate.

First, ve locity is defined as h

ow

far

an

object

moves during

a

certain tim

e.

If

an

object is

moving

then,

in

any

direction, it

ha s

velocity.

n airplane

is a

good

example of thi

s.

It flies

at

a certain

velocity such as 160 miles

per

hour, which means it covers 160

miles

every

hour

it is in the air. Nex t

we

need a definit ion of acceleration.

This is simply the change

in

velocity over a certain period of time. If

you have an object

that

is moving

at

a

constant

veloci

ty.

and covers

the sa me

amount

of distance during each time period, then it cannot

h ve any change in velocity and thus any acceleration. Going back

to the airplane we see

acceleration when

it speeds up or slows

do wn.

j\ow we can use these two above concepts to give an

answer

to

your question. If

you h ve

an object having no velocity it can

have

no

change

in

that

velocity,

thu

s it

cannot

be accelerating.

If

this is

still not clear

think

of the

airplane

si

tting

in its hangar. It

has no

velocity just sitting there, right? Therefore it

cannot

be accelerating

or it

would run

through the

side

of the building

l

TIle baseball

is

the

same

way.

hope

that

the

explanation above

w ill

help

your

girl

friend

to

see the light.

Student A's

microtheme

reveals a

problem-solving

s

trat

egy

commonly

encountered among

novices

to

any

discipline-what

one of

my

colleagues calls text-parroting .

Unsure

of the answer,

the student uses the textbook as a crutch,

attemptin

g to imitate its

authority by

creating a dense,

academic-sounding

style

complete

with impre

ssive technical

data

( This force is called

gravity

and

by

definition accelerates a free falling

body

at

32

ft / sec.

c

in the

down

ward direction ). To nonspecialist re

aders,

this strategy is often

succe ss ful what students

in

my

part

of

the

countr

y call a

snow

job When sho

wn

student

A's micr

othem

e,

beginning

physics

stud

ents

(and

many faculty

members

ou tside of science)

often give it a

top-ranking

score of 5 or 6. When it is pointed out

that student A never actually answers the question (is the girl

friend right

or

wrong?) , the

weakness

of this microtheme starts to

em

erge.

To h

el

p te xt-parroter s make progress on their

next


13/26

Forma

l W

ri t ing

ssignments

8

micro theme i g n m e n t the inctructor tn urge them to replace

their

current

strategy ( When in

doubt/

so und like the textbook )

\\'ith a

more

productive

one

III

which

they

explain

the

answer

in

their own words.

To

S(: 12 how a history professor helps students

overcome text-parroting, see Walvoord and McCarthy, 1990, pp

97-143.)

In contrast, student B

writes

admirably in his own voice but is

led astray

by

his inability to transfer his own

private

analogy (the

airplane sitting in the hangar)

to

the problem of tbe baseball in

midair. The minot-herne's structure records the student's thinking

process as he proceeds

systematically from

what he

knows

to what

he is trying to learn Despite his misunderstanding

by

the

end

(the

middle

paragraph shows a correct understanding of ve locity and

accele rJtion when ap p lied to the simple examele of the

airplane

in

fligh t), tIle student may be only a few moments away from an

aha

l

experience. A few probing

questions from

the instructor

mi

gh

t make the

concept

snap in to place for the s tudent. By dis

cuss ing microthem es such as this one, the instructor

can

review the

concepts of acceleration and velocity while helping the cl 5S see

where

and

how analogies

can be helpful or break do w n.

My

point

here is that short write-to-Iearn

assignments, though

not guaranteeing student learning, nevertheless provide a window

into students ' thinking that allows the instructor to

monitor

stu

dent progress, to readjust

instruction,

and

to develop teachin g

strategies that

reach diffe

rent kinds

of

learners

. (For a detailed

account

of ho w a

mathematics

professor

analyz

es

and responds

to

learnmg problems revealed in student writing, see Keith, 1989, pp

141-146.)

The Proc

ess

of iving a Formal Wr iting s signment _

Whether

yo u

assign micr

o

themes, two-

to

three-page

essays, or

long research papers, how you present the assignment to the class

can aff 'ct yo ur students' success.

Prepari ng a Student

Handout for

a Formal

Writing

ssignment

Students

appreciate handouts explaining each

writing

assignment.

Although

some teac

her

s give theu w

riting assignments

orally

or

place general explanations in their course syllabi, putting assign

ments on separate hand outs has several

advantages:

1) it meets

the needs of sensing or concrete

learners

(as

Identified

by

person

ality

inventories

such as the i'Ayers-Briggs), who comprise, accord

ing to S

chroeder

(1993, p 22), perhaps 60 percent of our entering


14/26

8

ngaging Ideas

students and who seem paralyzed by vague assi

gn

ments th at do

no

t specify

what

the teacher w

an

ts;

(2)

it gives all s

tudent

s some

thing to refer to late

at

night when their class n otes

no

lo

nger

se

em

so clear; (3 ) if your

institution

has a \ ifi ting ce

nt

er, it he lps writing

consultants

understand

vhat

th

e professor is looking for

prior

to a

tu t

or in g session;

and

(4)

most

imp

ortantly, it

helps

the

professor

identify

potential problems with the assignment an d

thu

s clarify

it s purp os e and focus. Explan a tions of as si

gn

ments for formal

essays s worded for stu den t s should

usuall

y include the fol

lowing elements:

Task

Explain what the student is s upposed to write about.

Th e instructor oft n presents the ta sk as a

problem

or a

question for the student to add ress , a the sis to supp or t,

or

a

rhetorical mode or

form

to follow.

Role and aud ience Generally, ask students to write f

rom

a

position

of power to audiences who know less about the

topic than the writer or w

hos

e views

on

the topic differ from

the wri

ter'

s (for e

xam

ple, A

dd r

ess

your

paper to students

who missed last week 's classes, or, In yo

ur arg

um

ent

on

old-growth forests , ad dress your essay to the group th a t

opposes your position-either the logging industry or Earth

First, or, Address

your

essay to peer-scholars in this disci

pline who are in terested in your proposed question and will

look forwa rd to reading your findin gs an d analy sis) Ask

ing students to address the

teacher

, who ty

pi

u

ly kn ows

more

abo ut the topic than the s tudent, places the writer in

an

unnatural rh

etorical position

Format Specify ex

pe

cted length, manuscript form , and

sim ilar details. Sometimes an ass ig nm en t also s

pe

ciJ ies a

certain organ izational pattern

P

lace

your

the sis statement

prominently near th e end of yo ur in troduction, or, Use

th e s tand

ar

d scientific

report

format.

Expectations about the process to be followed Specify a time

schedul e for comp letion of first

drafts

, peer

rev

iew

work

sho

ps

, revisions, and so forth. Ask s

tud

ents to save all

doo

dles, notes, out lin es, and draf ts and to submit these

along

wi th the final

essay

(This

requirement

e

ncour

ages students

to follow the recomm ended

pro

cess

and

effectively discour

ages plagiarism.)

Criteria for evalua tion Explain hol'v t

he

final product will

be gra ded Will y

ou

gr

ade

essays holistically with a single

letter grad

e?

If so, w

hat

arc the criteria for

an Or

will

you grad e analy tically by weig

hin

g d ifferent fe atures sepa


15/26

1.\ -e i

//

Fo rmal Wri t ing

Assignments

rately

'

1f so

, how

much

w

eig

ht w ill be

gi

v

en

to il

JS '

To

ll

rg lO izJtl( )n and develu

pment?

To sentence

stvlc

and redd-

ab

ili ty? To

mechani

cs,

appea

rance

cHid manuscript f lT

n )

S

ee

Cli J p te r Fit teen for a

discussion ,I

f g ril

ding

)

Here is an example

of

an e

ff

e

ctive

as

signment hand

out for

an

upper

-di vision busine ... co ur se .

The

Situation

You have recen tly been hi red as a resea rch assistant to business consul i"nt

Wilbur Jones, who has j ust taken on a new consu lt ing project for

St

eamboat

Bee

r,

a gro wing reg ional firm that hopes to go na

tr

onal. One morning, Wilbur

sends you th e follow ing memo:

Before my meeting

next

week with the

Steamboat

people, I neeu ' [ 'Iorma

tion on beer companies that have

recently

1001 market share. I W

lnt

you

to ' ind au , wh,H went wrong with Pabst. Plb st Blue Ribbon was d majo r

company

when I was in college .

Now

you

hardly

even hear

about

It. Get

back to me w ith

an

ana lysis ASAP. What happened at Pabst and wh y?

You have he.Fd that Wilbl 'r likes his reports

SUCCinct

and to the point , w it h

mea nings

highlighted

up tront.

He

is a 'scan reader"

who

want s to get the gi st

of

report quickly.

Your Task

After

re

ad ing, studying, and

analyzing

the assigned case m a

ter

ials on the Pabst

Br

ew

ing Company, prepare

your

report for

W

ilbur.

Make sure th at it has two

part

s:

I)

a b l,ef chronolo gical narrative sho w ing w hat happened at Pab st , and

(2) an analysis o f what went

wrong.

Process Stages for

the Assignment

I.

Rea d the c se mat erials on Pabst.

2. Analyze case matenals In small groups (we'l l do this in class).

3. Write r

ough drafts; complete

out-of-class peer re v ie lNs.

4. Sub mit

"e

xecutive summaries

' to instructor.

S. Rewrite drafts after peer review and comm ent s on execut ive sum mar ie s

by IIlstructor.

6. Su

bmit final

product.

Crading Criteria

Quality

of

na rrative (brief

but

clear picture

of

w hat happened at Pabst) : 10

po ints

Qualit

y of causal anal ysis (clearl y stated causes, good support , pla usible

and conVincing argument based on da tLl ): 30 poin ts

Readabili

ty

(top-dow n organization, good use of headings. clear sentences

wit

h no

confusing

passages): 20 points

Gr mmar nd correctness: 10 points


16/26

ngaging Ideas

Having a Colleague Criti que Your ssig nment Hand out

A

good way

to fine-tune an ass ignment is to ask a colleague to read

it and role-playa

student, trying

to predict ho w students would

react. Then discuss with your colleague questions such as the fol

lowing:

1.

Is the assignment clear? Might a student mis

read

the assign

ment and produce som

et

hing

not an tic

ipated

? Is its purpose

clear? Will a s

tuden

t see how it fits into

cour

se goals?

2.

D

oes the

assignmen t seem interesting

and

challenging?

From a student s perspective, how difficult is this assig

n-

ment? How

much

time w ill it require?

3. What

kinds

of students would thi s assignment

particularly

appeal to?

What kinds of students

might

not like this

assignment?

4. Does the

assigmnent sp

ecify

or imply

a suitable audience?

Ar

e the

grading

criteria clear?

5.

Are

the

mechanics

of the assignment clear

d

ue

dates,

expected length,

manuscript

form, other particulars)?

6. Is the process I want students to follow as explicit as possi

ble?

Should

I

build

checkpo

int

s into the assignm

ent

(sub

mi ssion of a

prospectus,

abstract, peer

review

dates, and

so forth)?

7.

How easy

or

difficult will this ass

ignm

en t be to coach and

grade?

Such discussions

with

colleagues

may

help you see "ways to revise

the

assignme

nt to

make

it both stron

ger

and clearer.

Givi ng the ssig nment in ass

When

giving the

assignment

in class, allow

plenty

of time for stu

dent questions N o matter how clearly yo u

think

yo u have

explained the assignment, students will ferret out

ambiguities

If

possible

, show students an A paper

from

a previous class on a

slig

htly

different but related topic.

Even better

, if

you

can afford

the class time,

pa

ss ou t a set of representative essays, stro

ng

a

nd

weak,

and

ask

students

to

grad

e

them

for

themsel

ves in

an

in-class

collaborative session. (See

Chapter

Nine ,

pp.

158-159, for a discus

sion of group

scor

ing

sessio

ns. ) You can then explain how

you

wo

uld gr

ade

the pape rs in o

rder

to clarify

your expe

ctati

ons

.

Be

prepared for a lively discussion


17/26

8

ormal Writing Assignments

Designing Assign me ntsThat Lead

to

Top

-Down Thesis-Governed Writing _

Cha

pter

Two

and part

of

Chapter Three pro

vide a rationale for

top-down, th

es

is-governed

wri

t ing-the prototypical structure of

academic prose. Such wri ting begins with the

pre

sen tation of a

problem to be add ressed; near the

end

of the

introduction, after

the wri ter has presented the problem, the wri ter states his or

her

thesis, ot t

en

accompanied by a purpose s tatem

en

t or a b

lueprint

st

ateme

nt that gi

ves

the reader an overv

iew

of the whole essay.

The b

od

y of the

paper

then

supports

the thesis wi th

appropriate

arguments and evidence Bec ause thesi s-governed writing does

not come naturally to s

tudents,

teache rs need to

encourage

it.

They

Can

do

so

by

s tru

cturing

their assi

gnment

s

in

one of three

ways

.

1.

Pre

se nt a

Propo sition

(Thesis) That

St

udents

re

Supposed

to Defend or Refute

Using this method, the teacher asks students to de fend or attack a

controversial proposition

or

to

defend one

of

two opposing propo

sitions. The teacher

s

task is to develop arguable

propositions

that

cover major concepts in the course. W

hen student

s are

asked

to

sup por t

or

at tack an assigned thesis, their mental energies, from

the start, are

channeled

t

owar

d

analysis

and argument

a tion

and

away from chronological or all ab out writing.

This proposed bridge deSign does/ does

not

meet

th

e cri

ter

ia set forth

by

t

he

city in it s request for proposal.

Ci

v il engineering]

"The path

to

holiness lies

through questioning everything.

" Ag

ree

or

disagree.

(Reli

gio us

studies]

Based

on the attached

ca se,

the

nurse

supervis or should/should not honor the

hus ba

nd

s reque st

that

his

wife

a

str

oke vi

ctim)

be aSSigned a

new

nurse.

[Nurs ing]

Sch

izophrenia

is

a brain disease./Schizop hrenia is learned behavior.

[P

sychology]

Merc

ur

y amalgam

filling

s are/ are

not

sa fe. [Research

project for

a course in sci-

entific

arg ument]

Global

warming

is / is

not

a sign ifi

ca nt environmental

t

hr

eat at this time.

[En

vi-

ronmenta l b io

logy

course]

An

al

ternati

ve is to present a controversial thesis but to ask

stude

nts

to take a position or approa

ch

that you specify.


18/26

Enga ging I

deas

Write a I n er to th e

editor

agai nst the sa le s tax on the grounds of it being a

--4 _-

re

gressive tax . Explicitly use ratio and proportion to explai n to the uninformed

th e meaning of

regressive

t x [Mat hematic s]

Upon arri v ing hom e for Ch ri st mas, you di scove r y

our

father w riting a letter to

his repres entati ve in

Cong

ress

urging

th

e passage

of

legis l

ation

limiting

beef

irn r orts fro m Arge nt i na . He arg ues

th

at such

imports

pu t ran che rs

out

of bu si-

ness, cau e U S. pack ing houses to clos

e, 2.nd

generally make this coun

tr

y poor

er. You , on the basIs of yo

ur brilliant performa

nc e in Economics 105 , engage

yo ur father in a spi rited d iscussion

(In

other words, a heated argument). Write

the ar

gu

ment that y

ou

use to convince him of the error of h

is

position. Your

fa th er does n't

understand economic

ja rgon, so an y Jargon you use must be

expl aine d.

[Ec

onomi c

s]

Thesis-S

llppor

t w riting,

as

exemplifi ed

in

these

assignments,

vorks best \,,'hen st

uden

ts

ar

e

ur

ge d to c

ons

ider

op p

osi

ng

views

,

nd

to sift

and

w

eigh

ev

idence

on all

sides.

Teac

hers

can he

lp

s tu

d '

nt

s con sid er o

pposin

g v iew s by sho ving

th

em

l lOW

to add an

althou

gh

clause

to a

th

esis

s t

at

ement

al

ong with appropria

te

qualifiers:

A

ltho

ugh

there is so

me e\

'id

enc

e to

sug

ges t

that

schi

zo

p hreniJ is a learne d

beha

v io r, the

pr

ep o nderanc e

of

curr e

nt

res earch f

avo

rs the theo ry

that

schizophrenia is a brain disease.

In

addition, teac hers can allow students to revise tIle

pro

vided

th

esis

to

repres

ent

th

eir own arg ument

s m ore

accur

atel y F

or fu

r

ther

exa

mples

of

th

esis s

upport

assign ments, see

Chapt

er Seven,

page

124; see also, in Chap ter J

Tine,

the beli ev ing / doubting strategy,

pcges l Sb- 1 7; and

the ev

id

ence-fi

nding

strategy,

pa ges

2. Give Stu

dents

a Problem or Question

That

D

em

ands a Thesis

Answer

A second way to encou rage thesis-governed vvriting is to gi\ e st u

de

n ts a

que

s tion calling for l th

c

is stateme

nt answer

Often

yo

u

will nee u to give bac kground information

and

prc)\'ide ,1 context

f

or tI

l e problem

The

key to this

kind

of ass

ignment

is to sum

up

the

pro

blem in a one-sentence guestion , teJling

studen

ts

that th

eir

thesis s tatem.ents should be one -se

ntenc

e ans'Vve rs to this question.

H ere

ar

e

so me

ex

anip l

es (in

eCl

ch case, th e ins tructor's focu si

ng

question is ital

ici1:E'd)

Writ e an

es

sa y

of

no mo

re than

two doub

le -spaced pages

answe

rin g th e fol

low

ing auestlon:

Is

a skilled trou t fish

er

m n on a v ri ble il terval or a v n ble

r

tio sc

hedu

le

of reln

forcement

7

Imagine

that y

ou

are

wri

ting to a classmate

wh

o has miss ed the la st week of lectures and f inds tne te xtbook explan il t ions

of ' variable intel'va l and

var

iab le ratio conf u5lng . [Psychology]

Gaus s's

law

relates

i

1e f i

el

d at the sLirface ta the charge 1 side the

su

r face. But


19/26

Form al Writ

ing

Assignment s

9

sure

ly

the field at the surface IS affected by the ch arges out side the surfac e.

ow

o you resolve this

if f

iccilt y [Mull i

n,

1989, p. 20 7] [Physi cs)

Ch

oose a q

ue

stion that Plato a

ns wer

s In one way and A

ri

stotle

an

swer s

in

a di ffer

ent

wa

y (fo r e

xamp

le, How do things ch

nge?

).

Then, in the first part of y

our

paper, explain to you r re ader the di fferences in thes e tw o theorie s. In the sec ond

part of

you

r paper, evalu ate the two pO Sition

s,

arguing th at one pOSition is

stronger thJ. n the other. In this section , specifi cally answer the following questio

n:

Wha t situati on or thing do

es

one theory explain well that the other cannot explain

adequately? [Philos oph yl

N ote tha t some teachers, in an understan dable effor t to guide

stud

en ts' thi nking, prov ide a w hole ser ies of

int

cne la ted ques tions

instead of a single fo

cu

sing question. My experience sugges ts that

this practice confuses s tudents more than it helps

C

onfusing

In th e graveyard scene of H amlet, Sha kespeare alters h is sources by

adding the cl

ow

nish grave di ggp rs. How does th e presen ce of the

gravedi

gg

ers influen ce your in terpre tation of the scen e? Do you

think they

re

fun

ny?

Abs

ur

d?

Bla

sphemou s? How does H

amlet s

Mtitud e t

owa

rd the graved iggers affect the sce

ne

? Do you think it is

app rop ria te to sin g while diggi

ng

a grave? W

hat

about the jokes

they telP Do you think that Yor ic k was mo re like the grave di

gg

ers

or more

li

ke Hamle t? Do you think it is appropriate to ha ve a light

h

ea

rted m

om

ent like this in the m iddle of a

tr

agedy?

Is

the scene

really lighthear ted ?

Although the instructor probably thinks of these questions as help

ful pro bes, students often

fe

el overwhelmed by them. Because the

questions seem parallel rather than hiera rchical, students are apt to

pro

du

ce a se ri es of sh ort answe rs , ad dr essi

ng

each ques tion tn

turn, ra ther than a uni

fi

ed essay

etter

In th e graveya rd sce

ne

of H amlet, Shake

sp

ea re alters his so m e s by

addin g the clow nish graved iggers. H

ow

does the presence of the

gr

Jvediggers influen ce y

ou

r i

nte

rp reta

ti

on of the scene?

Ph ras

ed

as a single question, the assignment n

ow

forces

th

e stu

dent to fram e a single ans w

er

as a thesis statement for the essay.

3. sk Students to Follow an Organizational Structure

That

Req

ui res a Problem-Thesis Pattern

The most open-end t u way of assigning thesis-gove

rned

w riting is

to give s tudents complete choice of top ic but to req uire tha t they

follow a prob lem-t

he

sis s

tru

c tur

e

Such a gen er ic ass

ignm

e

nt

guid es stude

nt

s

with

surprising effectivene ss toward theS is-gov

ern ed writing.


20/26

9

Engaging

Ideas

Write

an

essay of X pages on

any

topic related to this course. se the introduc-

tion

of

your

essay to engage

your

reader s interest in a prob lem

or

ques tion

that

you

would

like

to

address in

yo

ur essay. Show

your

reader

what

makes the

question both significant

and

problematic

The

body

of

your

essay

should

be

your

own

response to thi s question made as persuasive as possible

through

appropriate

analysis and

argumentation

,

including effective

use

of

evidence.

Midway through

the course, you

will submit to

the

instructor

a

prospectus that

describes the

problem or question

that you plan

to

address and shows

why

the

question is (1) problematic and (2)

significant

Using

the

generic

assignment ha s a number of advantages.

First, for teachers who like to give students as much freedom as

possible, the generic

assignment

permits free choice of topics

while

g Uiding students t

ow

ard

thesis-governed prose that

addresses a

real problem. y

requiring

that the

introduction

set forth a prob

lem, the aSSignment implies both an

audience

and a purpose, thus

helping

inexperienced

writers

overcome their tendency toward all

ab o

ut papers

,

a

nd

then narrativ

es, or

unfocused data dumps.

Second, in its focus on qu estion asking, the assignment encourages

teachers to discuss the process of inquiry in their disciplines. By

teaching question asking in a

discipline, teachers

help

students

become active learners. Finally- and this is an advantage not to be

taken

lightly-

lhe

assignment

is easy to coach. We

ll

before the

aSSignment due date, students can be

asked

to submit a prospectus

explaining and focusing the question to be addressed (the prospec

tus later serves as a

rough

draft of the introduction . In r sponding

to the prospectus, the instructor can guide the student tow ard an

appropriately delineated

qu

es tion and thesis.

For shorter assignments, an even

simpl

er m ethod of screening

is

pos

sible teach

ers

can ask

students

to

submit two

sentences

their introductory question

and

their thes is statement, which can

be quickly checked for focus

and

direction. Conceptual problems

noted at this stage can often be

solved through

indi\ 'idual or group

conferences or through referral of the student to a teaching assis

tant or writing center consultant. (See Chapter Thirteen for further

discussion of this screening technique.)

Th e G

en

eric ss ig

nme

nt da pted to Science

an

d Engi

ne

ering

The

Sci

entific Report _

The typical re search report in the

ph

ys ical and social sciences or

engineering

follows the

structure

of the generic assig

nment

in that

the body of the report addresses a ques tion or problem set forth in

the introduction. But the body itself has a

conventional

structure


21/26

J.

Fo rm

al

Wr iting

As signments

9

that students need t learn The following explanation of the scien-

tific report serves as a generic ass ignment for the sciences

The Formal

Sc

ientific Re

se

ar

ch ep

ort

A formal

scientific

researc h

report

is a

piece of

profes s

ional writ ing

addressed to

other

professionals

who are

interested

in the inv

estigation

you

conducted. They

will want

to k

now

wh y you did the inve st igation ,

how

you

did it,

what

you found

out

, and

whether

your

findings were significant

and

usefu l. Research

reports usually

follow a standard

five-part format:

(I ) i

ntro

duction,

(2)

methods,

(

3)

results , (4)

discussion

of

results, and (5)

conclusions

and

recommendations.

IntroductIOn

Here you explain briefl y the purpose of y

our in

vestigation .

What problem did you address? Why did you address

it?

You

will need to prov ide

enough

background

to

enable the reader

to understand

the

problem being

in

vestigated. Sometimes the introduction also includes a literature review sum-

marizing

previous research addressing the same or a related problem.

In many

scientific disciplines, it is also conventional to present a hypothesis-a tentative

answer to the question that y

our in

ves

tigation

will confirm or di sconfirm.

Methods

This is a

cookboo

k section

detailing hovv

you

did your

invest i-

gation. It pro vides enough details so that

other

researchers could replicate y

our

investigation. Usually,

this

s

ection

i

ncludes the

fo l

lowing

s

ubsections: (a

)

rese arch design , (b) apparatus and materials, and (c) procedures followed.

Results

This section, sometimes headed Findings

,

presents the

empiri

cal

results

of your

investigation. Often,

your

findings are displayed in figures ,

tables,

gr

aphs, or charts that are referenced in the text. Even though the data

are displayed in v is

ua

l

s,

the

text

it s

elf

should

al

so describe the

most

si

gnificant

data.

(I

magine that the figures are display

ed

on a view graph and

that

you

are

ex plaining t hem ora l

ly

, us ing a pointer. Your written

te

xt shou ld transcr ibe

what

you

would

say orally .) Your figures and tables must have

sufficient

infor-

mation

to stand alone,

including

accurate titles and clear labels

for

all meaning-

carrying features.

Discussion of results

This

is

the main part of the report , the part that wi ll

be

read

with

the most care by

other

professionals. Here you explain the signifi-

cance

of your

findings by relating what you discovered to the

problem

you

set

out to investigate in your introduction . Did

your

investigation accomplish your

purpose?

Did it a

nswer

your

question

s? Did

it

confirm or

disconfirm

your

hypothe

sis? Are y

our re

sults useful? Why or

why not

7

Did you

disco

ver

informa

tion that

you

hadn't

anticip

ated?

Was

y

our

research des ign

appropriate

? Did

y

our

inv

estigation

raise

new

questions

? Are

there implic

a

tions from your

results

that

need

to

be

explored

? The key

to

success in this section

is

to

lin k

y

our

findings to the questions and

problems

raised

in

the

introduction.

Conclusions and recommendations In

this last section , you focus on the

main

things

you learned from the investigation and,

in

some cases, on the

pr

ac-

tical application s of

your

investigation.

If your

investigation was a pure research

proJect, this section can

be

a s

ummary

of

your most important

findings along

w ith recommendations for

further

research.

If

y

our

Investigation was aimed at

making

a pract ical deci

Sion

(for

example ,

an

engineering design decision), here

you recommend

appropriate

actions. What you say

in

this section depend s on

the context of

your

investigation and the expectations of

your

readers .


22/26

9

Engaging

Id eas

More

Pe

rsonal Fo rm s: Al te rnatives to the

To

p-Down,

Thesis -Governed Essay _

Th e foregoing discussion has em phasized top- do

wn

,

the

sis-gov

erned wri.ting,

whi

ch typifies most academic discou rse in m os t dis

cipline

s. in

Ch

ap t

er

s Two a

nd

Three

,

I

discussed th

e be

nefit

s

of

as sign ing top-

dow

n , th esis-gove rn ed writing

while

also raising

so m

e theore tical and

pedagogical

objection s to it (see especia lly

pages 46-50).

For the

kin

ds of reasons discussed

in

Chapter Three, a teacher

may be

wary

of thesis-governed writing, or weary of it, or simply

mo re attract

ed

to more p ers

on

al forms of w riting that privilege the

su

bjective , creative, personal voice of the writer.

One

al ternative is a

s trong emphasis on journals

an

d other kinds of informal, explorato

ry writing (the subject of Chapter Six). But there are also m any wa ys

to assig n formal , fini shed-pr

od

uct wri ting that is

not

the sis

gov

erned

: expl

ora

tory es

say

s,

reflection

paper

s, p e

rsonal

narrati

ves,

myths, dialogues , letters, po em s

or

short stories, magaz ine-s tyle

articles for

popular

audiences, advertisements, sa tires, parodies, and

so forth. What

foDo,I\ s

are exa

mple

s of alternative aSSig

nments.

Formal E

xp

l

or

at

ory

Essays

An

academically or

iented

al

ternati

ve to th esis-based writing is

an

exploratory essa y,

which ve might

define as a the

sis

seeki

ng

essay

rather th

an

a thesis supporting essay (see Zeige r, 1985; Spellmeyer,

1989) . The

assignment

t

ypi

ca

Lly

asks s

tudent

s to propose a p rob

l

em and

then to vrite a

narrative

of their

own

thou

aht

processes in

trying

to

think

t

hrough

the

problem.

Here

is a

sample

assi

gn

m

en

t

h

an

d

ou

t, easily a

daptable

to

any

discipline.

Write a first-person,

chronologically organized

account of yo ur thinking process

=

-

as

yo u explo re

possible

solutions to a question

or

problem

related

to th i s

course. Begin

by

desc

ribing what

the

question is

and how and

why

yo u became

interested It. Th en as you co

ntemplate

the

problem

and

do

research, narrate

the evolVing process

of

yo ur

thinking.

Y

our

explorator y es say

should

inc lude

both

external det ai

ls

(what yo u read, ho w you found it, who you tal ked to and

internal

mental detai ls (w hat yo u were

thinking about,

ho w you r ideas we

re

evolVing . Fo r thi s

es

say, it doesn t matter wh ether you rea ch a final

position

or

so lve the

problem

; your reader is

interested

in your proce ss not

you

r final

product

.

Show

us,

for

e

xam

ple ,

yo

ur

frustration

w hen a p ro

mi

s

ing

so

urce

turned

out to be u

se

les

s.

Show us how ne w ideas

continua

lly led

yo

u to refor

mulate you r

problem through

expansion, narrowing ,

shifting of

foc us,

or

w hat

ever

. Make y our

ex plo ra t

o ry

essay

an interesting in tellectua l detective

sto y som ethin g yo ur readers wi ll enJoy.

I often a

ssign

a Im'

mal

exp lorat ory ess ay as an in termedia te

st

age

in

a research project lea ding ultimately to a t

hes

i

s-governed


23/26

9ormal

Writing Assi gnments

term paper. To have content for the exploratory essa y, s

tudent

s

need

to rea d w idely,

confronting

the problem's co

mplexit

y by

w

res

tli

ng with

disagreements

among

th e

experts

an

d so

fo

r th.

Because the sub ject matter of the exploratory essay is the student s

th

inking

process the essay encourages and rewards critical thinking

while giving teachers wo nderful insights into the intellectual

li

ves

and s tudy hab its) of the ir s tudents.

Another version of the exploratory paper is

Llsed

by Berling

hoff (1989) in teaching mathematics. Berlinghoff asks each studen t

to w rite a paper focusing on the process

of so lving

a particular prob

lem

(p. 89, em

ph

as

is

in original). He begins the cour se by teaching

students a number of

pr

oblem -solving tactics such as check the

definitions,

r

es tate the

problem, d

raw a diagram, argue by

anal

ogy,

so

lve , similar problem,

an

d reason back

wa rd

from

the desired conclusion.

He

then gives

each

s tudent a challenging

mathematical

pr

oblem to try to so lve

and

asks the st

ud

en t to wr ite

a pap er about his or her process. The student is asked to describe,

Be rlinghoff explains,

how

he or

sh

e used these problem-solving

tac tics to att ack a particular question. Thus, there is alw ays some

thing to write about, regardless of wh ether or not the student can

'solve' the problem. Even a dead end is wo

rthwhile

, provided

th

e

path to it can be described. Moreover, by paying careful attention to

the problem-

so

lving tactics (bec ause they p rovide a g

uar an

teed

source of material for their papers), students often succeed

in

doing

a lot more mathematics than they think the y can (p 90).

efle

ti

on a

pe

rs

A po

pula

r assignment for ma

ny

teachers is a reflecti on

paper

,

somet imes called a

reader-

re

spo

nse pa per

or

a pe rso

nal

reac

tion paper.

Although

this ge

nr

e seems to va ry consi

derably

in its

meaning from teacher to teacher, in mos t cases it evokes w

ritin

g

tha t is

more

exploratory, tentative, and personal than the standard

top-do

wn

academic essay. Its essential

nature is

the exploration of

the connections bet

we

en co

ur

se

material and

a pers

on

's individu al

life

or

ps yche . Reflection papers are

often assigned

to elicit s

tu

dents

' r

esponses

to

complex,

difficul t , or troubling

readings

and

invite the writer to

sp

eak back to the

reading

in a

mu

sing, ques

ti

oni

ng

, and

probing

way. He re is h

ow

one

philosoph

y professor

assigns a reflection paper:

In

a t

wo-

to three-page reflection essay consider the fo llowing state

ment by

Aristotle Ethics

II 2 with

respec t to yo ur own life:

We are

not studying

in order to know

what

excellence is but

to

become

good

for o

therw

se there

wo

uld

be

no

pr

o

fit

in it. . .

[We must

the

re f

ore]

co

nsider the question

of

how we ought to act.


24/26

9

Engaging

Ideas

Are you

studying

in

order

to become

good

Explain

what

you

think Aristotle is

getting at and then explore your own response.

(For further discussion of ways to encourage responses to

readings , s

Chapter

Eight, pages 143-146.)

A Potp

ou rri

of O

th

er

Kinds

of lternative

Formal ss

ignmen

ts

Many other variations remain. What follows, in no particular order,

is a potpourri of ten different kinds of alternative assignments.

1

A

ps

ychology professo r asks his students to

write

a

poem

from the perspective of a schi zo

phr

enic.

he teacher

claims that

students

learn a

great

deal about schizophrenia in

their

attempt to

walk

in

a

schizophrenic's

shoes.

The

bes t

poems are movillg

and

memorable

(Gorman, Gorman, and Young, 1986) .

2 A

religious

studies professor asks

s

tudents

to w

rite

a

dialogue.

Write a

dialogue

between a

believer

in God) and

an unbeliever, In which

the

main issues

that

we have raised in class are debated.

Each participant

will be a

spokesperson

for

a whole range of ideas and arguments, whatever serves to

advance his or

her basic

position.

s you

write

the dialogue,

draw on

the

strongest

ideas and

arguments

for

each side

that

we have seen

in

this course .

Wherever re

levant

, include your own responses or arguments. The point

of

this

dialogue is not to hav e a clear victory for one side

or

the other ; rather, the

point is

to engage the issues in

an

active and critical manner.

(For further examples of dialogue aSSignments, see Chap ter Seven ,

pages 129-130)

3

A

literature teacher

has students

rewrite

the

ending

to a

short

story

or to retell a story from the pe rspective of a different

narrator; a history teacher asks students to rewrite a historical nar-

rative from a different

point

of view.

4

A social psychologist requires students to interview some-

one

who

has a job, lifestyle, or worldview very differe

nt

from the

s tudent's and then to

write

a profile of the person interviewed.

The idea is for the s tudent to encounter an other \ hose sphere of

experience differs extensively from the s tudent 's .

5. A women's

studies

p ro

fessor

asks students to create

myths

or parables to ex

pres

s their

personal

understanding or

\'i s

ion

of

the

role of the feminine.

6 A mathematics profes

sor

asks students to 'write their own

math autobiography in which they reflect on their past math hi s

tory and experiences She

reports getting

vt'rv

useful

inSights into

the mathematical anxieties and

learning

problems of her students

(as well as the

causes

of

many

' of these problems).


25/26

j

V

. -

Formal Wr

iting

ssignments

9

7. A h ii tory of

religions

professor asks students to write

eS:iays from the perspective of different persons- an exercise in

decen tering, seeing the

world

from a different context.

Wr

it

e a bdef letter back to aul , as i f you were a member of the Cori nthian com

munity, respondin g to his letter. You may choose any pOint

of

view you w l

sh

argu ing back from the point

of

view

of

a faction, repenting the error

of

your

ways , or any other option you

can

think of.

(For further examples of role-playing assignments, see

Chapter

Se ve

n

pages 127-128,)

8. A history

and

sociology teacher (Bateman,

1990)

asks stu

dent to do

an ethnographic paper on another

culture. The trick is

to find a local subculture where vievvs and language and beliefs

are

just

different enough to make their study fascinating (p

120).

Bateman 's solution?

To

have students explore subcultures right in

their micist the

subcultures

of paper carriers, kindergartners, Win

nebago grandpas, root beer drive-in carbops, cbeerleaders, formal

wear

distributors, and so on.

9. A mathematics teacher has students write their

own

story

problems

r

elating

mathemi:1tical concepts to real-world concerns.

According to Rose (1989, p 19), When students write their

own

problems, they often choose situations from their own experience

and

thus see

how

mathematics

applies

to their own lives, giving

them more confidence to read and olve word

problems

from the

textbook. In addition, writing

word

problems

demands

clear, spe

cific,

engaging ideas chap 5

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