An Assignment Inspired by our Basic Writing Discussion

The basic writing pedagogy seems to be loosely held together by scholars who theorize why it is difficult for some people to write. Some think it is a lack of, or underuse, of cognitive abilities while others think it has more to do with a lack of attention to grammatical rules. After learning about a few more theories in our class meeting last Tuesday, I believe our discussion merely confirmed the fact that writing is a difficult, complicated process that requires students to perform multiple skills and achieve multiple goals at once.

While we discussed the qualities of a basic writer, I had a mini-epiphany about my AP composition students. Thus far, I have treated these students as the “cream of the crop” of high school writers rather than as basic writers in a college course. While this realization may seem minor, I believe it is a paradigmatic shift in the way I’ve thought about teaching writing to these students.

The next day, I was going to give back my students’ 1984 essay tests, in which the majority of them did not exactly excel on. Most of the students did not develop their ideas enough to sufficiently answer the question, some still veered off into plot-summary land where they feel comfortable reporting what happened in the novel rather than arguing a point/position, and only a handful of students organized their responses sufficiently. Rather than talk about what they needed to do next time on their tests (since that rarely seems to be effective in changing their writing habits), I decided to give them class time to go through their essay and make an outline that describes what the essay does (rather than what the essay says). For example:

Body Paragraph 3
1. stated relation to development of argument, made a claim of progression [Orwell develops this uncertainty and disorientation of the reader by interrupting the main narrative through the motif of dreams and memories]
2. stated CAUSE of cause-and-effect relationship of motif in relation to structure of plot and MADE DISTINCTION btw. dreams and memories[Orwell uses the memories to send the reader back in time to Winston’s childhood and pre-BB days, but his dreams are enigmatic when reading the novel for the first time. The reader must guess whether the dream is about the past, the future, a figment of Winston’s imagination, or part of his psyche]
3. stated EFFECT on reader[reader’s sense of time and reality is as uncertain as Winston’s]
4. provide evidence [discuss issue of the reality of Winston’s “false” memory]
5. stated EFFECT on plot structure [Motif yields a cyclical plot structure rather than a conventional linear structure]

After the students finished their outlines, they received an outline of my response to the same essay question. For my outline, students were instructed to take a pink highlighter to color in the steps taken that help keep the paper cohesive, unified, and organized. Then, students were to take a yellow highlighter to color in the steps taken that help prove the point of the paper (evidence). Next, students used a pen to draw a line from the ideas that “spill over” from one paragraph into the next. Most students were able to see a pattern develop as to where the organization sentences are in a paragraph and where the evidence typically lies. After they finish this process, they then examined their own essays, and again used the pink highlighter, yellow highlighter, and pen to perform the same exercise. Students were then asked to write a paragraph in which they compare and contrast the frequency and placement of “organizational sentences” and “evidence sentences” in their outlines and my outline. The last step of this process was to have students set three writing goals: one primary and two secondary. These writing goals will be used to assess their next writing assignment (which they handed in today).

As the students performed this exercise in class, I was delightfully surprised to not hear any groans. Students seemed to appreciate having the time to “figure out” what their current writing habits are so that they can keep the good habits and get rid of the weak habits. Students were instructed to be honest with themselves and report what they actually did rather than what they hoped they would’ve done. I told students if they found themselves rambling for three sentences, then they should include it in their outline, so they can see when in an essay they tend to ramble.

While I initially designed this exercise thinking of my students as basic writers who need some direct instruction in organizing and writing papers (in a non-five paragraph essay kind of way), I found that this exercise requires students to perform analysis, synthesis, evaluation, and meta-cognition, all tasks that are considered high-end critical-thinking skills. If students perform these tasks well, would this suggest that perhaps basic writing is not a cognitive problem, but rather something else?

I was torn about the idea of using their own writing goals as the start of their personal rubric for grading their writing. This method will probably make grading much more difficult and possibly more susceptible to parental criticism. However, I hope to find that by letting students set their own goals for writing, it will help them break down the complicated process of writing into smaller, more manageable goals and help them see themselves as writers.

I’ll let you guys know how it goes after I’m done grading this next set of essays!