Emily Spitler-Lawson Assignments & Activities Archive Assignment Description When I was a younger, less experienced writing instructor, I told a classroom full of first year composition students, “Write about whatever you want!” when introducing a major research-based assignment. As you can probably imagine, I very quickly learned that some student-generated topics and questions were more […]
Developing Fruitful Research Questions Read More »
Mario A. D’Agostino Assignments & Activities Archive Activity Description Objects matter. As material rhetoricians (Barnett & Boyle; Gries & Brooke), cultural materialists (Bennett), and compositionists (Rule) have recently noted, objects play an important role in our lives and composing processes. An excellent example of the cultural significance of objects and what they mean to their
“I Didn’t Know I Could Research That”: Using Objects for Research Topic Invention Read More »
Amanda Rachelle Warren Assignments & Activities Archive Activity Description The argumentative essay is a relied upon element of the composition classroom. These essay assignments help students develop thoughtful, well-considered arguments on debatable topics. As many teachers know, those “debatable topics” tend towards predictable subject matter that is often too broad for an essay-length argument, is
Exploring Community and Personal Connection as Idea Generation for Argumentative Writing Read More »
David Blakesley Volume 5 Chapter Description This essay presents a working definition of rhetoric, then explores its key terms to help you understand rhetoric’s nature as both an applied art of performance and a heuristic art of invention and creation.1 The definition also situates rhetoric in the social processes of identification and division. The definition
Elaborate Rhetorics Read More »
James P. Purdy Volume 1 Chapter Description This chapter seeks to show how and why students might use Wikipedia to help them complete research-based writing tasks. It offers suggestions for two ways to use—and not to use—Wikipedia. The first is as a source. The second is as a process guide. The chapter explores how Wikipedia
Wikipedia Is Good for You!? Read More »
Susan E. Antlitz Volume 1 Chapter Description One of the toughest challenges students face is figuring out what to write about. Connecting personal identity and purpose to more public contexts and subjects can play a significant role in helping students to write confidently. “Taking Flight” acknowledges the anxiety writers can feel when faced with the
Taking Flight: Connecting Inner and Outer Realities during Invention Read More »
Colin Charlton Volume 2 Chapter Description Students struggle with getting started on writing projects. In this chapter, you will find innovative invention strategies explained and modeled, based on student experiences. By including questions to prompt thinking as well as writing, and student examples, this chapter can help you show students how to transform their uncertainty
The Complexity of Simplicity: Invention Potentials for Writing Students Read More »
E. Shelley Reid Volume 2 Chapter Description Writing is hard. It’s harder if your students think of it as a collection of arbitrary rules than if they think of it as a human communication process they already understand a lot about. Using comparisons to familiar events (doing laundry, making fruit Jell-O, writing thank-you notes, and
Ten Ways to Think about Writing: Metaphoric Musings for College Writing Students Read More »
