Thinking Rhetorically warm-up scenarios activity
Thinking about a writing assignment: Rhetorical analysis presentation
Author’s Purpose guide (handout from reading session)
Patterns of Organization guide (handout from reading session)
Student Brush-up Notes Guide handout
Process
Thinking Rhetorically: Focus on Author’s Purpose and Patterns of Organization
Connect with prior knowledge: Thinking Rhetorically warm-up scenarios activity has the objective of engaging in rhetorical analysis of a common communication task in order to recognize what you already know about how to judge purpose, content, and organization for communicating effectively.
Thinking about a writing assignment: Rhetorical analysis presentation Academic writing is another communication scenario, or context, and consideration before and during writing of purpose, content, and organization is important. Refer back to the Author’s Purpose guide and Patterns of Organization guide from today’s academic reading sessions to recognize how these are considered when one is the writer.
NOTE: Emphasis is on conveying to students that formal academic writing is a process that occurs over time. Because of the condensed time-frame of the Brush-up, not all assignments will be taken to fully revised and edited final draft during the Brush-up class time. On the last day of the Brush-up, as part of the assessment, students will have the opportunity to take one of these writing assignments to the final draft stage. If students want to have feedback on a final draft [strongly recommended] before being assessed on last day, they should complete the final drafts as homework and submit to instructor by next Brush-up meeting. Writing Scoring Rubric
Academic Writing: Choosing pattern(s) to fit purpose (handout or Google Doc chart for use in pre-writing/drafting)
What Is a Paragraph? Presentation
Run-on sentences - practice fixing (interactive/online)
Sentence fragment and run-ons practice
Student Brush-up Notes Guide handout
Process
Thinking Rhetorically: Focus on Author’s Purpose and Patterns of Organization
Sometimes an assignment calls for an five-paragraph essay, a multiple-page process description, or a full-length research report. In college, students may have to write each of these, among other academic writing formats. As has been discussed in the previous session, rhetorical analysis of an assignment’s requirements helps students figure out the purpose, content, and organization needed. One thing all academic writing assignments share is the goal of effective communication of ideas. This includes the shorter, paragraph-long writing assignments for this Brush-up. The same considerations of purpose, content, and organization used in this Brush-up will apply to longer assignments in college courses. While there is no one-size-fits-all formula for academic writing assignments, the take-away from the Brush-up is that the process of determining purpose for writing, generating relevant content, and logically organizing = clarity and effectiveness in writing. A goal of a college education is learning how to think effectively--how to develop your own ideas and concepts--and clear, effective writing is one major way you convey your thinking. The process of composing also helps you organize your thoughts.
Academic Writing: Choosing pattern(s) to fit purpose organizer
Discuss some scenarios (a few types of academic writing assignments) with different purposes and consider how various patterns of organization may support those purposes. Use this organizer, or some version of it, during pre-writing or drafting to choose patterns of organization that fit logically with your purpose and content.
Since the Brush-up focus is on paragraphs, it’s time to pause to refresh about what a paragraph is: What Is a Paragraph? Presentation
Practice what you’ve learned so far about academic writing as you engage with the writing process. In workshop fashion, pre-write, draft, revise, edit.
Writing Assignment: Can a person have a successful career without a college education? Write a one-paragraph exemplification response answering the question and providing two or three logical and relevant examples as evidence to support your main point. Write in the third person. Consider your purpose for writing and engage in the full writing process. (You may refer to today’s academic readings for models of exemplification texts. You may use the Academic Writing: Choosing pattern(s) to fit purpose as you pre-write and draft.)
When there are about 20 minutes left, the group will take a pause in the process, and focus on a lesson related to the editing step -- how to recognize and fix the common error of run-on sentences.
Run-on sentences - practice fixing (interactive/online) as a whole class.
Sentence fragment and run-ons practice, finding and fixing errors
Look into your drafts to see if you find any run-on sentences, and edit them, if so.
(NOTE: For all Brush-up writing assignments: Emphasis is on conveying to students that formal academic writing is a process that occurs over time. Because of the condensed time-frame of the Brush-up, it is possible that not all assignments will be taken to a fully revised and edited final draft within the Brush-up class time. On the last day of the Brush-up, as part of the assessment, students will have the opportunity to take one of these writing assignments to the final draft stage. If students want to have feedback on a final draft [recommended] before being assessed on last day, they should complete the final drafts as homework and submit to instructor by next Brush-up meeting. Writing Scoring Rubric)